Lampir Meho

Mythological world of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lampir: in Bosnia vampires are called lampir, lapir, lampijer, vukodlak or vukozlačina. It was believed that if a cat crosses over a deceased man that he will become a lampir. Of course the effect would be cancelled out if the cat returns the same way it came. Because people were afraid that this would happen they would place a knife on dead man's chest or they would spike a knife next to his head. There was also a custom where people would place a bowl of wheat or only three grains of wheat where the dead person was lying before he was buried, after the burial the wheat was given to a pauper. There were a lot of lampiers but the most famous ones were Lampir Meho from Glamoč, Pajo Tomić and a certain Korkut from Nevesinje.

 Bosnian witches were able to call forth the deadly power of the vukodlak by going to a graveyard and repeating the formula: "Adali Ada to protect me" and then they would sit next to a grave keeping their eyes closed, and they would grab a handful of dirt and they would take it home. They would hold on to that dirt until one of their enemies would die and they would plant the dirt under the threshold of his house while the deceased is carried out of it. They did this because they wanted someone else dead from that household.

Bosnia-Hercegovina, like its Ottoman, Habsburg, and Yugoslav predecessors, is a multinational state. Today, most citizens identify themselves as one of three groups: Bosniaks (Illyrians)(48 percent), Bosnian Croats (Slavic, 14 percent), or Bosnian Serbs (Slavic, 37 percent). In addition to Slavs, smaller groups Bosnian living in the region for centuries include Albanians (Illyrians), Germans, Roma (Gypsies), Jews, Romanians, Turks, and Hungarians. Capital: Sarajevo; Population: 4,007,608.