BOŠNJAČKE PREDAJE O VODAMA I ČESMAMA
Bosniak traditions about waters and water fountains

Summary/Abstract: A group of traditions relating to water and fountains is selected from the oral tradition of Bosniaks. Following internationally adopted categories of oral tradition, these sayings about water and fountains may most appropriately be designated as mytho-historical. Sayings about water are characteristic of all the regions populated by Bosniaks, including those outside the present borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That fact leads to the conclusion that water is one of the favourite themes of the Bosniak oral tradition. This attitude to water derives in part from the importance attributed to water in the Islamic tradition. In addition to recognizable elements of Islamic teachings, elements inherited from the distant past may also be observed in the oral traditions relating to water. Sayings aboUt water and fountains recorded in Bosniak milieux take the form of thematic traditions or fables, and very often of memoratives, as well as nonthematic traditions, of informational character. The basic characteristics of sayings relating to water and fountains (belief in the truth of what is said, distinct elements of fantasy, frequent appeal to real persons) fully confirm that they belong to the genre. If there is anything particular to this group of sayings, it is the somewhat more distinct presence of elements deriving from the Islamicoriental influence.

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