When a person falls ill from mrak (dark)

From the old days across Bosnia there was a taboo according to which washed clothes should not spend the night hanging outside because of the danger that the owner might fall victim to evil ghosts. According to traditional belief with the sun setting the Jinn and devils are being released and they spread quickly across the dark and they’re lurking and attacking people. They use various ways with that intent and one of them is to possess washed clothes which is hanging on the balcony or in the yard. Allegedly, people whose clothes is left outside, overnight will be afflicted by various fears, insomnia and mental distress.

Stravarka Fatka Hasanović from Banovići is probably among the oldest folk healers in BiH. She started practicing lead melting ritual back in 1945, when she was nine years old. Speaking about herself and her healing work in the Sarajevo magazine, claiming that she helped women which cannot stay pregnant even after ten or more years of marriage, she spoke how she cured the following: našice, krajčicu, spellbound eyes, fear, smolanice, sapunice, ringworms, ulcers.

Explaining what type of disease is hidden behind the name našice stravarka Fatka warned that we should avoid washing clothes in the afternoon and leaving it wet overnight since in that case “mrak will stick to the clothes and dry on it, when a person puts the clothes on and falls asleep it will rule over his mind. Since the old days this disease was called našice. As Fatka claims našice are best recognised by waking up a man in the middle of the night. When he suddenly jerks and wakes up the man is completely disoriented, and if he stands up to go somewhere, to the bathroom or kitchen, something will pull him back and he will fall down, this happens even to the strongest man, says stravarka from Banovići.


stravarka Fatka Hasanović

-If the clothes stays dry overnight nothing will happen since mrak will not stick to it. But if it stays overnight, wet, then it is better to wash it again in the morning so it can dry during the day or once you pick it up in the morning you should light a candle at dusk and you should bring around it all the clothes that stayed outside overnight. With this, stravarka Fatka claims, you will neutralise all of the negative effects on it.