Legends and myths are always unusual and interesting, and the Mostar legend about July 20th is still alive today.
Namely, two days ago, Catholics celebrated Elijah’s Day, a memorial to St. Elijah, and an old legend says that on that day one should not swim in the River Neretva.
There is a belief that this cold river is particularly dangerous on that day and that many drowned in the Neretva on Elijah’s day.
For decades, parents have been making sure that children do not swim in the Neretva on that day, and adults also avoid it, even though the people of Mostar are excellent swimmers.
Legend has it that it all started when, long ago, a handsome young man with yellow hair and eyebrows appeared on Elijah’s day in Mostar.
It was not known where he came from, or what his name was, and he didn’t talk about it either. He walked around Mostar, visited shops, talked to people, and captivated them with his politeness, kindness, and education. The inhabitants of Mostar did not notice when tired and overheated from the unbearable Mostar heat, he went down to the river bank, carefully laid down his clothes, and jumped into the beneficial freshness and blueness of the river. He never appeared again.
Days later, skilled swimmers from the Neretva searched for his body in the eddies, in the caves along and across the blue river. However, in vain. The stranger disappeared as he had come.
The only trace of his existence was his clothes, carefully stacked on the rock. No one touched it. They avoided it, feeling some strange secrecy as if the fingers of some incomprehensible higher power were involved in it. For several days it was being told in bars, in houses, and on the streets that “Zuti” (Yellow), that’s what they called him because of the color of his hair and eyebrows, drowned.
And the people got tired of retelling and that event was quickly forgotten.
And then, suddenly, one autumn day, “Zuti” appeared on the streets of the city. People cowered before him in fear. He just wandered without a specific goal and said nothing. The bravest approached him, asking him what had happened to him, but they didn’t get any answer.
The stranger was just silent and as if he didn’t even see them, he was staring blankly. He was dressed in the same clothes that were waiting for him on the bank of the river. During the day he wandered the streets of the city, and at night he hid in the caves along the river. And so a few years passed, and then one day he headed somewhere north along the river and no one ever saw him again. He remained only present in the stories in the village, and only in the late hours when the most mysterious things begin to be recounted.
The legend spread beyond Mostar, so many rivers in other cities, not only the Neretva, are deserted on this day.
Orthodox Christians and believers of the Islamic faith celebrate Elijah’s day (that is, Alidjun’s Day) on August 2nd and also avoid swimming in rivers on that day, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
