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Elena Popova Gold in Bulgarian Folk Culture of the
Turkish Period
Summary
A strange phenomenon has been often mentioned by the
travellers, crossing lands of the Turkish Empire in 15th
- 18th centuries. Young girls walk out of their primitive
muddy hovels and begin a clumsy dance. They all are barefooted and
poor dressed, but their heads decorated with numerous coins were
shining with the brilliance of gold. After the performance the leading
girl threw a handkerchief on the astounded stranger waiting to be
paid with gold or silver coins. An English traveller exclaims: “There
are children and young women overwhelmed with coins while
their families suffer from lack of food. I’ve never seen the foolishness
of vanity in such an absurd form!”
Is there “the foolishness of vanity” laying in this
phenomenon? This is an original, primitive form of capitalisation
- money has been demonstrated in order to attract more money. In
this way available supplies are constantly increasing. But they
are out of currency and their real value has not any importance
for the owners. The coins are estimated only because of the material
they are made of - because of the magic quality of the gold and
the silver.
The gold is a royal material, associated in all the societies
with the idea of secular authority. But for the Orthodox Balkan
societies existing in the frame of the Turkish empire, poor and
deprived of any own secular power, the gold - as well as the silver
- attains a special magical significance and it is used in the most
important folk rituals. |
