By: Jelena Kulušić (For ENG, scroll)
Šezdeseta je godina 18. stoljeća. Zimsko je doba i dan je kratak, pa se i mlado, i staro diljem raštrkanih sela dinarskog krša okuplja oko ognjišta, radi grijanja i zabave uz vatru. Sijelima je puk uz granicu mletačkog, austrijskog i osmanskog imperija običavao prikratiti vrijeme kad priroda odmara i radova nema. Do kasno u noć nizale bi se junačke pjesme i priče, legende, zagonetke, pošalice i rugalice koje danas učeno nazivamo usmenom književnošću.
Tako je i u Srinjinama, jednom od naselja slavne Poljičke kneževine. Iz kuće starješine Ivaniša dopire zvuk dipli. Prizorom dominira živopisan brkat starac oštrih crta lica i neobične frizure koju nazivaju perčinom, a danas bi je prije povezali s kakvim indijanskim ili tatarskim plemenom, negoli modnim krikom i simbolom prestiža u srednjodalmatinskom zaleđu. Starina Ivaniš omiljeni je poljički diplar i pripovjedač, jedan od rijetkih koji i pismaricu imade, pa se njegovo ognjište s pravom može smatrati glavnim wifi i info-hotspotom u ovom dijelu Poljica.
Kad pjesma i diple utihnu, starješina, smočivši grlo vinom iz dižvice[1], pripali lulu pa upita malog Šimuna: “Je li, oko didovo, ‘ko ono ima glavu o’ prajca a uši o’ tovara?” Dječak će na to veselo, jer mu djed posvećuje pažnju: “Cesar, dide! Deklecijan!”. Započe tako Ivaniš jednu od brojnih priča o vražjem caru, koje su se mogle čuti u poljičkom kraju, potaknute tisućljetnom službenom propagandom o caru progonitelju kršćana. Oko 1915., 150 godina kasnije, štorije poljičkih starješina o “Deklecijanu” zabilježit će i slavni arheolog don Frane Bulić.
No, Bulić nije jedina učena glava zaintrigirana ovim zanimljivim narodom čija se povijest stoljećima vrtjela u krug, prateći cikluse seljačko-hajdučkog života na surovom kršu. Vraćamo se u Ivaniševo doba, ali na drugu stranu jadranske obale, u grad u koji vode svi putevi. Iako se u Rimu neprekidno nešto događa, Alberto Fortis, mladi talijanski opat i prirodoslovac pustolovnog duha osjeća se sputano. Dok profesori u njega polažu velike nade, devetnaestogodišnjem Fortisu po glavi se ne muva teologija, nego slavenski svijet iz prekomorskih provincija. Ništa čudno, tà upoznat je sa suvremenim trendovima. Europa druge polovine 18. stoljeća uživa u putopisima i izvještajima iz dalekih krajeva i novim otkrićima. Pustolove na putovanjima prate geolozi, astronomi, botaničari. Za mlade bogate Engleze organiziraju se “maturalci”, tzv. Grand Tours, zamišljeni kao edukativni obredi prijelaza, putovanja europskim kulturnim i sveučilišnim centrima, namijenjena širenju duhovnog horizonta buduće društvene elite Otoka. Kako to već ide, nije trebalo dugo da mladi Britanci postanu sinonim za raskalašenost (a mislili ste da fenomen Zrće u doba Mozarta i Beethovena nije bio moguć)!
No dok je europska zlatna mladež poduzimala ziheraška putovanja u Italiju, Švicarsku i slične uređene zemlje, naš se Fortis dokopao Venecije, samo da bi je preskočio. Njegov su cilj istočnojadranska obala i njena unutrašnjost – Morlakija ili Vlajland.[2] Upravo će ga putopisni izvještaj “O običajima Morlaka” prometnuti u jednog od vodećih europskih influencera te inspirirati književni trend morlakizma. O našim se vlajima naveliko počelo čitati po salonima diljem Europe koja je u njima pronašla svoje “plemenite divljake”, polubarbare iz susjedstva koji žive u prirodnom stanju, neiskvareni od ruke civilizacije i progresa (nije, doduše, zabilježeno da bi ikojem od salonaša palo na pamet zamijeniti gradski komfor dinarskom kolibom).
Fortisova putovanja financiraju britanski i talijanski mecene, no on ubrzo stvara i dodatni izvor džeparca – postaje prvi strani turoperator i vodič po Vlajlandu. Njegove bismo itinerere mogli označiti kao početke aktivnog turizma u Dalmaciji. Europsku gospodu dovodi na, danas bismo rekli, treking i kanjoning po škrapama, krškim hridinama i strmim liticama. Spuštajući se u pećine i jame (npr. Rudelića spilju blizu vrela Cetine), prisjećaju se Danteovih opisa pakla. Fortisu naročito imponira to što uspijeva pratiti vješte lokalne vodiče koji “hode čudesnom vještinom verući se po najstrmijim stijenama i spuštajući se niz najvrletnije litice gdje bi se reklo da samo ptice mogu proći.” Priznaje da mu više od bilo kakve laske ljudi iz bijeloga svijeta gode pohvale iskrenih zadihanih Morlaka.
Ali neka, gdje je zadihanosti, tu je i dobrog teka! Za kraj vas stoga prepuštamo Fortisovom food blogu, tj. opisu ručka koji je za njega i jednog anglikanskog biskupa, na groblju uz starohrvatsku crkvu Sv. Spasa na vrelu Cetine, priredio izvjesni Vuković, domaćin koji je i prije 250 godina znao da je čovjek ključ uspjeha u turizmu (“taj udvorni plemenitaš ne razumije ni riječi talijanski, ali se savršeno razumije u gostoljublje”):
“Jedan od grobova poslužio nam je kao trpeza; ali još čudnije trpeze bijahu postavljene ispred nas, a držale su dva pečena janjeta što nam ih donesoše. Bile su to plosnate beskvasne pogače namijenjene da u isto vrijeme posluže kao tanjuri i kao kruh. Pohlepno smo progutali pogače koje nam se učiniše izvrsnima; i milord je podigao glas prema meni govoreći veoma prikladno glasno: ‘Eh, pojeli smo čak i stolove!’”
E tako se jede! Nek’ vam naši trekeri-izjelice otvore dobar tek!
*
It’s the sixties of the 18th century. In wintertime, days are short, so throughout the villages of the Dinaric karst, the young and old flock to the fireplace, for warmth and fun. Living on the borders of the Venetian, Austrian and Ottoman Empires, the country folk gather to pass the time while nature rests and work is sparse. Late into the night, they exchange heroic songs and tales, legends, riddles, jokes and mocking comebacks – nowadays known as oral literature, these used to be circulated during sijela (gatherings) around the fireplace.
We find the same setting in Srinjine, a village in the famous Republic of Poljica.[3] From Elder Ivaniš’s house, the sound of diple rises.[4] The scene is dominated by a moustachioed senior of sharp features. He wears an unusual hairstyle, a hairlock or perčin, which we’d sooner connect with a Native American or a Tatar tribe than consider a fashion statement or the symbol of prestige in the Dalmatian Hinterland. Elder Ivaniš is a beloved storyteller and diple-player in Poljica, one of the rare ones who owns a pismarica (songbook). We wouldn’t be wrong to call his hearth the main WiFi and info-hotspot in this part of Poljica.
When the sounds of song and diple die down, the elder clears his throat with some wine from a džizvica.[5] He lights his pipe and turns to young Šimun, “So, apple of your grandpa’s eye, tell me who’s got a pig’s head and an ass’s ears?” The boy joyfully replies, “The Emperor, grandpa! Decletian!” Ivaniš then begins one of the many stories about the devilish emperor. Rural Dalmatia abound with similar narratives, inspired by a thousand-year long hate propaganda against the great Roman emperor Diocleatian, who had one weak spot though – he persecuted Christians. And even a 150 years later, around 1915, stories about “Decletian” told by the Poljica elders would be noted down by the famous archaeologist, Father Frane Bulić.
Naturally, Bulić wasn’t the only learned head intrigued by these fascinating people whose history had run in circles for centuries, following the cycle of the peasant-hajduk (rebel) life on the harsh karst.
We return now to Ivaniš’s own time, but look across the Adriatic, to the city where all roads lead. Although there is always something going on in Rome, Alberto Fortis, a young Italian priest and natural scientist with an adventurous mind, feels trapped. While his Professors have high hopes for the nineteen-year old Fortis, his thoughts do not dwell on theology, but the Slavic world from overseas. This is nothing peculiar in a connoisseur of contemporary trends. The second half of the 18th century has Europe enjoying travelogues and reports from far-away places and describing new discoveries. Travel writers and adventurers are accompanied on their journeys by geologists, astronomers and botanists. The young and rich English embark on their Grand Tours, envisioned as educational rites of passage. They travel to cultural and educational centres of Europe, to broaden the horizons of the future social elite of the UK. As these things are wont to happen, the young Brits quickly become a synonym for profligacy. (And you thought Zrće could not have existed at the time of Mozart and Beethoven!)
While European golden youth is playing it safe by travelling to Italy, Switzerland and similar orderly countries, Fortis reaches Venice, only to skip it. His goal is the east Adriatic’s hinterland – Morlachia.[6] His travel report “Manners of the Morlacchi” will make him one of the leading European influencers and inspire a literary trend of Morlachism. The common folks of Dalmatia are suddenly read about in salons across Europe, which has found in them the “noble savages”, or half-barbarians from its back yard, living in a natural state, uncorrupted by the civilization and progress. (There hasn’t been a single instance, though, of any salon-frequenting individual expressing the desire to replace city comforts with a Dinaric cottage.)
Fortis’s journeys are financed by British and Italian patrons, but he soon discovers an additional source of income – he becomes the first foreign tour operator and tourist guide in Morlachia. His itineraries may well be considered the beginning of active tourism in Dalmatia. He brings European gentleman to try, in modern-day terms, trekking and canyoning in škrape (limestone pavements) karst crags and steep cliffs. Descending into caves and caverns (such as the Rudelića Cave near the source of the River Cetina), they recall Dante’s descriptions of hell. Fortis is particularly proud of being able to follow the nimble local guides who “climb, with surprising dexterity, from the bottom of these abysses, to the plain tops of the hills, which one would have expected only birds to be able to cross.” He admits that, more than any flattery by the outsiders, he enjoys the praise of a sincere Morlach out of breath.
Nevertheless, where you gasp for breath you gain appetite! We’ll therefore leave you with Fortis’s food blog – a description of the lunch prepared for him and an Anglican bishop by a Morlach called Vuković. Lunch was taken at the cemetery next to the old-Croatian Church of Holy Salvation, at the source of the Cetina. Even 250 years ago, their host was aware that the key to successful tourism is the human touch: “That honest Morlach cannot speak a word of Italian; but understands hospitality perfectly well”, Fortis noted.
“One of the grave stones served us for a table; but we had more curious tables set before us to sustain two roasted lambs. There were flat unleavened cakes, destined to serve at the same time for dishes and for bread. We thought the cakes excellent, and they were soon eat up, when the learned bishop turning to me, said very opportunely, ‘Eh, we seem to have eaten the tables!’”
That’s how one enjoys a meal! We wish you a delicious lunch!
[1] Drvena posuda slična bukari.
[2] Morlacima su Talijani nazivali stanovništvo dalmatinske unutrašnjosti, ili što bi se od milja reklo, vlaje.
[3] Hinterland of present day Omiš.
[4] Diple, or a type of a double flute.
[5] A wooden container similar to a jug.
[6] Morlachia was an Italian term for Dalmatian hinterland and its people.
Translated by: Srebrenka Peregrin
