Another great axe dance fromt he troope in Arizona with Harnas Dragoslav at the head! These guys have been getting better with every clip I see from them..an inspiration to all us axe swingers out there!

Austria: Containing a Description of the Manners, Customs, Character and Costumes of the People of that Empire

By Frederic Shoberl

Published by C. S. Williams, 1828

The usual costume of the peasants of the Bukowina, consists of white or red trowsers, a shirt, the wide, open sleeves of which are embroidered at the wrist, and over that an open waistcoat bordered with fur. With a pouch slung over his shoulder, and a long handled hatchet, which supplies the place of a stick, in his hand, he usually p’roceeds to his work in the fields and woods.

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The woodcutter of Bocsko in the county of Marmaros, whose axe is his only companion, frequently abides for weeks together in the immense forests, to earn wherewithal to satisfy his scanty wants, partly by cutting wood or fuel, which he conveys at a very moderate rate to Szi- geth, the capital of the county, and partly by furnishing timber for salt-rafts.

His apparel is of coarse hempen stuff; in winter he dresses rather warmer, but even then his bosom is uncovered and icicles may be seen hanging from it, without prejudice to the health of this hardy Highlander. His shoes consist of a piece of tanned ox-hide, which is fastened on the foot with a leathern thong, and just serves to keep it from the ground.

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The dress of these cattle-keepers in the county of Schii- megh, consisting of a shirt and wide trowsers of coarse linen as already described, is rendered stiff and of a dark dirty colour by the giease with which it is purposely imbued. Their object in thus besmearing the clothes is to render them more durable, and to prevent vermin from harbouring in them, as well as to defend the person from the bites of gnats : but whatever the object may be, they are seldom changed before they are ready to fall in pieces. The feet are enveloped in wool, over which they fasten on the sole a piece of leather by straps. Besides a round hat, frequently ornamented’ with a ribbon, and a large mantle of thick coarse woollen cloth, for here they seldom use sheep-skin cloaks, they are provided with a leathern pocket, hanging by a broad belt over the shoulder, and carry, for offence and defence, a small axe with a long handle. The broad belt by which the pocket hangs is generally adorned with two or three rows of shining metal buttons, for which these herdsmen are so eager, that they have been often known to fall upon travellers for the sake of them alone. The axe serves them in place of a stick, and in time of need becomes a formidable weapon against man or beast. They understand the management of this instrument so well, that at the distance of twenty or thirty paces they seldom miss a mark set up against the trunk of a tree. Their skill in this exercise is derived from constant practice while their flocks are feeding.

Sixty Folk-Tales

from Exclusively Slavonic Sources

by A. H. Wratislaw

The Plague Swarm

[1890]

A RUTHENIAN, having lost his wife and children by the plague, fled into the forest from his desolate cottage and sought safety there. He wandered about all day long; towards evening he constructed a booth of branches, lit a little fire, and fell asleep, wearied out. It was already after midnight when a mighty noise awoke him. He rose to his feet, listened, and heard a kind of songs in the distance, and accompanying the songs a sound of tambourines and fifes. He listened, in no small astonishment, that, when death was raging around, people were rejoicing there so merrily. The noise that he heard kept continually approaching, and the terrified Podolian * espied a swarming multitude advancing along a wide road. It was a troop of strange-looking spectres that circled round a carriage; the carriage was black and elevated, and in it sat the Plague. At every step the frightful company kept increasing; for on the road almost everything was transformed into a spectre.

Feebly burned his little fire; a tolerably large firebrand was still smoking a little. Scarcely had the plague-swarm drawn near when the firebrand stood upon feet, extended two arms–the burning part began to glitter with two glaring eyes–it began to sing in concert with the others. The villager was stupefied; in speechless terror he seized his axe and was on the point of striking the nearest spectre, but the axe flew out of his hands, transformed itself into a tall woman with raven-black tresses, and, singing, vanished before his eyes. The plague-swarm proceeded onwards; and the Podolian saw how the trees, the bushes, the owls, the screech-owls, assuming tall shapes, increased the multitude, the terrible harbinger of a frightful death. He fell down powerless, and when in the morning the warmth of the sun awoke him, the vessels that he had brought with him were smashed and broken, the clothes torn to rags, the provisions spoilt. He perceived that no one but the plague-swarm had done him all this mischief, and, thanking God that he had at any rate escaped with life, proceeded further to seek shelter and food.

Mary Barton: An Historical Tale of Poland

By Henry Krasinski

Published by A.K. Newman and Co., 1846

One of the Colonel’s coachmen, a Carpathian mountaineer proposed to exhibit a performance common in his country. He was a man exceedingly tall and broad-chested, but appeared to possess singular activity. His brown hair, hanging down upon his back was curled at the end ; a kind of short tunic of grey cloth fitted close to his waist, shewing off his admirable shape ; a large white collar was turned down over his shoulders, and above this collar ran a cord decorated with several bows of ribbons, and on this cord were strung a row of ducats separated by the bows ; these coins jingled at theleast movement he made. His legs were confined in tight, cloth pantaloons, and he wore sandals. A broad, leathern belt was buckled round his loins, and to this belt was suspended a small axe of highly polished steel, and glittering like a mirror. The mountaineer, taking off his large, broad-brimmed hat, requested one of the lackeys to station himself with his back against a tree, and to hold up a lock of his hair between his finger and thumb close to the tree, and hardly an inch from his head. The lackey feeling assured that no harm would come to him in the presence of his master, complied without hesitation, being very curious to know what the mountaineer was about to do. The latter, fixing himself at about twenty-five paces from the man, and humming a Carpathian ditty, began to whirl round upon the spot where he stood with incredible quickness and dexterity. All at once, while performing this species of  dance, he laid hold of his axe, and shouting aloud hurled it with all his might. The weapon spun round several times, gleaming and whizzing in its course, and struck asunder, between the hand and the head of the lackey, the lock of hair that he was holding against the tree, in which it was half buried, to the great surprise of every one, and particularly of the lackey, who stood staring with open-mouthed amazement, aving little expected to be made the butt of so dangerous a diversion. Had the axe struck half an inch higher or lower, it would have infallibly cloven his hand or his head. The feat was performed so unexpectedly that no time was left for reflexion, or opposition.  Although the extraordinary address of the mountaineer was greatly admired, he nevertheless received a severe lecture for having carried his temerity so far. But to convince the company of the infallibility of his hand and eye, he pulled out the axe, withdrew to the distance of fifty paces, commenced the same whirling movement of his body, hurled the weapon again, and lodged it in the same spot of the tree, the poor astonished lackey, having taken particular care, by flying for refuge behind his master, not to be again exposed to similar danger.

If the Kanasz possesses a hut made out of branches, the brigand becomes his companion for the night. His relations with refugees and vagabonds of the forest are the result of circumstances ; he is their spy, their sentinel. In return for his services the brigands respect the animals he guards, and for which he is responsible ; but if the opportunity occurs of doing a stroke of business for himself, the Kanasz does not neglect to profit by it. He manages the little hatchet which he carries in his waist-belt with as much dexterity as the Spaniards the knife and the Italians the stiletto. The Kanaszes are fond of assembling together for games of skill, and hurl their axes, which whirl round and round in the air as they fly whistling into the trunk of a birch-tree at forty or fifty paces distant, with great exactness of aim. To the Hungarian peasant, as well as to the Russian and Wallachian, the hatchet is a weapon of warfare which he prefers to a gun. I have often seen in Transylvania the peasant going out to hunt bears with nothing but a single axe ; he lies in wait, and when the animal comes up, lets fly this axe, which splits open the animal’s head.

Some vertical figure eights done with the mountain axe held in one hand. This comes directly from Rusyn dance but rather than jump over the axe head when it passes low I withdraw the leg back as one would do in saber fencing.

I really need to retake this clip using the shorter Rusyn style axe rather than the longer Hungarian style I am using. Notice how I am choked up a bit on the handle. With a shorter axe I would be right at the end.

The hatchet-headed walking-sticks were then put in requisition — I do not know whether I have mentioned before, that all the peasants of the north of Hungary carry sticks armed at the top with a small hatchet-head, which I had previously considered only as an ornament, or to be used in defence, but which were now more usefully employed — and a dozen similar trees were soon felled and added to the fire, raising a glorious blaze, which set wind and snow at complete defiance.

Peasant Art in Austria and Hungary By Charles Holme 1911
Their axe-headed
sticks, which also serve as weapons, are of engraved brass, or of
wood inlaid with brass, some of the work being beautifully executed.
Their textiles and wooden objects, which they ornament
with pierced or chip-carving, are particularly good.

The axe played an large an interesting role among the foresters of the western Ukraine known as the Hutsuls or Trans-Carpathian Rusyns. One interesting piece of folklore is about the sound of a phantom axe. An icident of this myth can be seen in the classic Soviet era film “Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors” where young Marichka and Ivan are out on their own playing when they here the sound of an axe nearby and call it the “invisible axe”, Ivan begins to play a song on his pipe and sings about his missing goats (A traditional song about the Devil having his goats stolen by God) and an eerie wail belows from the distance and scare the two youngsters.

My friend and fellow researcher Ainsley Friedberg was nice enough to point me in the right direction with this piece of folklore and to transcribe the following from her copy of the book of the same name for me:

“An old Hutsul related to Onyshchuk that in his youth, when he had been a shepherd, he had heard someone felling trees and groaning and breathing heavily. Although the noises were quite near, nothing was visible, The mysterious hewer was felling trees all night and floating them down a stream, but in the morning, when the shepherds went to see how many trees the invisible woodsman had felled, they saw to their amazement that the surrounding forest was intact. (The sound of the ax, I suspect, belongs to a myriad of preternatural phenomena collectively called blud, which leads men and women astray) – Notes on the Text of Kotsiubynsky’s “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by Bohdan Rubchak

I have this book ordered via ILL so I am anxiously awaiting it. Meantime the film “Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors” has recenty been released on DVD with subtitles so it is worth checking out for the lore and over beauty of the film and the region it was shot in. Very neat to see how much of a role the axe plays in the lives of these people in the film.

Even the poster for the movie is a dead giveaway as to how important the axe is to this film. Don’t get it expecting to see some great martial arts moves of feats of highland brigands, you may see a head or two busted and some wood being chopped but the most interesting thing is how they carry the axe around like a gentleman carries his cane.

The first annual Southwest Vatra took place on the weekend of June 20th. Harnas Dragoslav gave a presentation on the gear and lore of the highland brigand. We will be adding a transcript of this to the site very soon. Below is the offical logo for the event with original artwork by our own Harnas Dragoslav and also a pic of some of the gear that was part of his presentation.