and the leader asked the young man who taught him to act so, and he, after some hesitation, told him that it was his grandfather. When they came home the leader invited the old man, recognised his cleverness and ordered that further on the old men should not be killed, but respected, because they knew much more than the young men ('Kazadžić' 1900, Nos. June and July, pp. 129-130)."
It seems to me that both the illustrations I have given of the Serbian tradition are in concord with Sir James Frazer's theory regarding the killing of the divine King.
In large Serbian families (zadruga) the heads of them (domaćin) have even to-day very great power and authority. In the inner affairs of the family they are the masters of all property. They keep all money, they buy and sell, they distribute all work among the members of the family, they punish disobedience and reward the good and industrious. In foreign affairs they are the representatives of their families in all questions. Although to-day they consult the older and cleverer members of the family in all important questions, their will is supreme. Only what they arrange is of value, and what the other members of family arrange has neither value nor importance. Their power is for all their life. Only in case of their grave illness or their obvious incapability another of the family may be elected to the head.[1]
In old times the power of the domaćin was unlimited. He was not only owner of all property of the family, but even the master of the fortune and life of every member of it. His power and high authority were regarded as divine and nobody dared to oppose them. Even to-day we hear among the people the proverb "God is the oldest, and then is the domaćin" (Stariji Bog, pa domaćin). In the domestic religious services he performed the part of a domestic priest. The veneration of the domaćin did not cease even after his death. According to the idea of Serbian scholars the common Serbian custom slava (the literal meaning of this word is "celebration," but it also
- ↑ To give an idea of to-day's authority of the domaćin (head), I include here the Serbian story, "Au Puits," by L. Lararevitch (La Patrie Serbe, 1917, No. 8, pp. 350-361).
