Abstrakt: | The paper analyzes Bulgarian
spring rites of scaring away insects, reptiles, predators and rodents, as well as magical
prohibitions and acts protecting against them (symbolic closing off, sewing off, blocking off animal
snouts / eyes). Interpreting a rite as a cultural text, particular attention is drawn to the relation between
the rite’s ritual (the act, its performer and object, used props, placement in time and space)
and verbal layers (words accompanying the action). The excerpted folklore texts (expressions pronounced
during the act of scaring away) are discussed from the point of view of structural variety. |