127
2022 SPECIAL ISSUE
 UDK 398(=163.6):615.89
 616.98:579.842
 616-036.21
Monika Kropej Telban
PhD, Research Advisor, Institute of Slovenian Ethnology, Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 
Novi trg 2, SI–1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, 
Email: Monika.Kropej@zrc-sazu.si 
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6459-3683
Folktales about the Plague and Healing Practices  against It in Narrative Folklore
ABSTRACT
The contribution discusses the narrative folklore about the plague, most notably how it spread, how people tried 
to protect themselves against the disease and how they treated it in Slovenian territory and, to some extent, within 
the wider European framework. The first part presents the analysis of folktales in which the Plague, personified as a 
demonic figure, roams from place to place, from one land to another. The second part focuses on steps taken to prevent 
the disease from spreading and means of protection against it, as well as healing, charms, incantations, and other 
vernacular practices during the epidemic.
KEY WORDS
plague, pandemics, folk narrative, Slovenia, folk medicine
IZVLEČEK
PRIPOVEDI O KUGI IN ZDRAVILNE PRAKSE PROTI TEJ BOLEZNI V LJUDSKEM IZROČILU
Prispevek obravnava pripovedno izročilo o kugi, predvsem tisti del, ki govori o njenem širjenju in načinih obram-
be in zdravljenja pred to boleznijo v slovenskem prostoru in delno v širšem evropskem okviru. V prvem delu so ana-
lizirane pripovedi v katerih se Kuga kot poosebljeni demonski lik bolezni širi iz kraja v kraj in iz dežele v deželo, v 
drugem delu članka pa je obravnavan predvsem načini preprečevanja širjenja in zaščite pred to boleznijo ter zdrav-
ljenje, zarotitve, zagovarjanje ter druge vernakularne prakse ljudi v času epidemije.
KLJUČNE BESEDE
kuga, pandemije, slovstvena folklora, Slovenija, ljudska medicina
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Folktales about the plague, the contagious dis-
ease, which had stricken humanity several times 
throughout history, have been preserved in oral tra-
dition as depictions of conditions imposed by the 
plague epidemic as well as protection against the 
disease and its treatment or as folktales about the 
plague—the demonic creature that killed people and 
cattle. Especially in Europe, people described it as a 
supernatural being very akin to their conceptions of 
death, nightmare, hunger, and various other diseases. 
Its personifications featured in the demonologies of 
many cultures and represented one of the greatest 
horrors whenever and wherever it raged.
The set of distinctive motifs used in plague folk-
tales is very comprehensive; in his catalogue “The 
Migratory Legends” (1958), the Norwegian folklor-
ist Reidar Christiansen classified them under the 
chapter Legends concerning the Great Plague, referring 
to the following narrative types:
7080. The Plague, in the shape of an old hag, 
passing from district to district with a rake or, 
and, a broom.
7085. The hag is ferried across a river or lake by 
some one who in the end recognizes her, and asks 
to be spared. The hag consulting her book refuses, 
but grants him an easy death.
7090. The survivors, a boy and a girl, and their 
fate.
7095. The rediscovery many years after of desert-
ed houses or a church.1
However, as materials preserved in the archives of 
research institutions and in printed sources suggest, 
folktales about the plague were thematically much 
more diverse. 
The plague and hunger
Ivan Grafenauer was one of the few Slovenian 
folklorists who wrote about the plague accompa-
nied by hunger in the form of the fabled insatiable 
creature Netek.2 The plague was commonly associ-
ated with hunger, personified in Slovenian folklore 
as the Netek. However much he ate, he was never 
satisfied, and he always craved for more. Hence the 
name “ne tek,” which literally translates to English 
“no appetite,” although it is more correctly rendered 
as “never full.”3
1 Christiansen, The Migratory Legends, pp. 214–215.
2 Grafenauer, Neték in “Ponočna potnica”.
3 Ivan Grafenauer also stated the names of plants and animals 
with the common root: netečje = berries that do not make 
one full, mostly cranberries; netečnik = bobnarica or mire 
drum (Ardea stellaria), a type of bird that was given this 
common name for the male’s distinctive call. (Grafenauer, 
Neték in “Ponočna potnica”, pp. 164–165).
In the oldest preserved Slovenian folktale O 
Neteku, published in 1847 by Josip Drobnič, the as-
sociation between the Netek and the plague is not 
made explicit. The author merely states that in any 
house that wants to drive the Netek away without of-
fering him food and drink, he will eat and drink all the 
human and animal supplies and make sure that the local 
fields, vineyards, and orchards will bear no fruit for three 
years. But whoever receives him with kindness, there he 
will show his gratitude.4
Similarly, no such association between the Netek 
and the plague was made by the Slovenian novel-
ist Janez Trdina, who wrote about the creature in 
1881.5 Grafenauer derived the connection between 
the Plague and the Glutton (equivalent to the Netek 
in Slovenian folklore) primarily by drawing on tradi-
tions about a voracious little man, the Glutton, that 
have been preserved in some Alpine areas, especially 
in the Central European territory, among the Ro-
mansh people in Switzerland, and in Vorarlberg in 
the Austrian Alps:
The Glutton / “Der Fresser”
In the early seventeenth century, the plague swept 
through the Bregenz Forest in the drainage basin of 
the Bregenz River in the northern part of Vorarl-
berg. One morning, a foreigner walked into the for-
mer “Sun’s” inn. He ordered lunch for twenty people 
and then set out toward Ellenborgen. He returned 
at noon, alone, and he ate all the food down to the 
last crumb by himself. The innkeeper found this atro-
cious, and she turned to the parish priest for advice. 
He told her to charge nothing for the lunch. When the 
foreigner asked how much he owed her, she said that 
everything had already been paid for. The foreigner 
thanked her and said that the plague would no longer 
spread. No one ever saw him again.6
Oral traditions of other regions also talked about 
war and hunger that followed on the heels of the 
plague. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the latter was 
said to be followed by a year of hunger.7 Bracing for 
the plague, believed to roam around in the shape of 
a woman, Rumanian farmers would leave plenty of 
food on the side of the road for all travelers to fend 
off the arrival of the disease.8 Furthermore, many 
historical sources maintain that the plague usually 
brought general shortages and the economic turmoil 
in its wake.9
4 Drobnič, Slovenska pripovedka; Grafenauer, Neték in “Po-
nočna potnica”, p. 171.
5 Trdina, Verske bajke, p. 537. 
6 Beitl, Im Sagenwald, p. 65, no. 82; Grafenauer, Neték in 
“Ponočna potnica”, pp. 159–160.
7 Softić, Zapisi usmenih predaja, p. 165.
8 Grafenauer, Neték in “Ponočna potnica”, pp. 188, 190.
9 Mal, Stara Ljubljana, p. 81; Golec, Kužne epidemije, p. 59.
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The plague personified as a woman, a man, a boy, a 
girl, or a plague pair
According to popular belief, the plague was the 
evil spirit that killed people and cattle. Especially in 
Europe, people described it as a supernatural or fa-
bled creature very akin to their conceptions of death, 
nightmare, hunger, and various other diseases. Peo-
ple sometimes imagined that the plague was caused 
by witches, sorcerers, or by Satan.10 Where the word 
“death” is of masculine gender, the plague was often 
presented as a man, and where it is assigned female 
gender, the plague, too, was analogously featured as a 
woman. In line with these conceptions, the plague—
often dubbed the Black Death in folklore—took on 
a personification of its own.
The Rhaeto-Romance people in Switzerland 
conceived of the plague as an old woman. Arnold 
Bühli published a tale about the plague that in 1566 
made its way to Ladir via Basel and Bern, personified 
as an old woman dressed in black:
She knocked on the window of a house at the top 
of the village and asked if she could spend the night 
there. No, she was told, there was no room in the 
house, but she could sleep in the barn if she wanted. 
Then they saw the old woman wrapped in black enter 
the barn. After that, no one saw her again. The next 
day, the plague broke out in the village.11
In Croatia, stories circulated about the plague 
that lived in the woods near Pavlovac, a village in the 
county of Bjelovar. 
One evening, a farmer crossed these woods with 
his wagon. The plague sat by the fire, roasting horse 
meat and human flesh. She offered the farmer human 
flesh, and he ate it. When he returned to Pavlovac, 
the plague broke out, killing all inhabitants.12 
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the plague was de-
picted as a woman holding a broom in one hand and 
a lantern in the other to find and ‘sweep away’ as 
many people as possible.13 To save themselves from 
the plague, people ran to the mountains or other 
places.14 In Slovenian folklore, an old saying has it 
that: “[i]f the plague appears, buy yourself a pair of 
sturdy shoes and run until the soles fall apart.”15
Germanic peoples depicted the plague in the 
form of a man or a boy. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm 
published, among others, the following folktale 
about the plague personified as a tall man:
10 Travner, Kuga na Slovenskem, pp. 72–73. 
11 Bühli, Sagen aus Graubünden, 2, p. 210; from: Grafenauer, 
Neték in “Ponočna potnica”, p. 186.
12 Krauß, Südslavische Pestsagen, p. 36.
13 Softić, Zapisi usmenih predaja, p. 166.
14 Ibid., p. 165.
15 Slekovec, Kuga na slovenskem štajerskem, p. 142.
The Tall Man in the Murder Lane in Hof
In 1519, just before the plague killed so many people 
in Hof a large, tall black man was seen in Murder 
Lane. His wide-spread legs reached both sides of the 
street, and his head rose far above the housetops.
My great-grandmother, Walburg Widmann, herself, 
saw how he walked along this street one evening 
with one foot at the tavern’s entrance and the other 
foot across the street in front of the large house there. 
She was so frightened that she did not know which 
way to go. In God’s name and making the sign of the 
cross, she advanced in the middle of the street and 
passed between his legs. Had she not dared to do this 
the ghost would have followed her. She had barely es-
caped when the ghost clapped his legs together so hard 
that all the houses in Murder Lane nearly collapsed.
Soon afterward the plague befell the city, and it was 
first felt in Murder Lane.16
Similarly widespread in Central and Northern 
Europe, and even in Iceland17 were the notions of 
a plague pair, a man and a woman wandering from 
place to place together, bringing the plague. Accord-
ing to the German folktale from Schweinfurt on the 
river Main, male death cut grass and his wife, female 
Death (the Plague) raked behind him, and only what 
slipped through the tines remained alive.18 In Bavar-
ia and Germany, too, the notions are documented of 
male Death and female Death wreaking havoc across 
the land in the form of the Plague. One such folktale 
has been preserved in Austrian Carinthia:
Once male Death said to female Death: “I take 
the scythe, you take the rake; I’ll cut, you’ll rake af-
ter me.” So, male Death and female Death climbed 
Mount Malta (Maltaberg). When they reached the 
last farmer, male Death started to cut grass from the 
top of Mount Malta to the bottom, and she raked the 
cut patches behind him and piled them into a heap. 
Meanwhile, the plague raged across the mountain, 
leaving no man alive; male Death cut them all 
down.19
Folktales in Vorarlberg narrated about the plague 
coming to Feldkirchen and killing almost to the last 
villager. Thenceforth, when someone sneezed, people 
would say, “God help you!”
Die Pest in Feldkirchen / The plague in Feldkirchen
Two monsters from Lichtenstein came to the river 
Ill, one carrying a broom and the other a shovel. By 
the river, one said to the other: “You go here and dig 
through here and I’ll go there and sweep through 
16 Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no. 167, p. 243: “Der lange Mann in 
der Mordgasse zu Hof.”
17 Gunnell, Mists, Magicians, pp. 49–50. 
18 Bronner, Von deutscher Sitt, p. 262; from: Grafenauer, Neték in 
“Ponočna potnica”, p. 183.
19 Graber, Sagen aus Kärnten, no. 258; from: Grafenauer, Neték 
in “Ponočna potnica”, p. 184.
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there!” So, they divided the valleys between them-
selves, causing an untold death toll. If the monster 
so much as looked at someone, that person staggered 
and blackened, and whoever sneezed came down 
with fever and perished that same day. The disease 
announced its presence through sneezing, and people 
would say: “God help you!” or “God help us all!”20
Sneezing was considered one of the symptoms 
of the plague, and this expression became widely 
used throughout Europe. According to Jacqueline 
Simpson, in the plague-ravaged seventeenth-century 
England, too, people started to say, “Bless you!” or 
“God help you!” when they heard someone sneeze, 
and this custom has been preserved to the present 
day.21
Swedish folktales narrate about the plague that 
came from the south, looking like a beautiful little 
boy rasping with an iron grater, leaving one or two 
household members alive; after him came the plague 
damsel (“pestflicka”), who swept her broom in front 
of the gate, causing everyone in the village to die.22
In the Estonian folklore, the plague came in the 
form of a male figure, depicted as a boy or a black 
man:
/…/ Near Suure-Jaani the farmer of the Tooba 
farmstead was in the forest and saw the plague spirit 
dancing and singing under the trees: “Patt-patt-patt 
to Paelamaa [farmstead], kõps-kõps-kõps to Kõnnu 
[farmstead], topp-topp-topp to Tooba [farmstead]!”
The farmer understood that it was the plague and 
said: “Let’s see!” He went home, took a rowan cudgel, 
carved three five-pointed stars on it and started wait-
ing. In the night someone came and asked to be let in. 
The farmer opened the door and saw a black man. The 
farmer started beating the man with his cudgel until 
the plague started begging that the farmer let him go. 
The farmer said: “When you promise that you won’t 
go anywhere anymore to kill, I will stop.” The plague 
promised and the man stopped beating.23
As seen above, stories about the plague also 
frequently named places that were visited by the 
Plague. According to the Estonian folklorist Reet 
Hiiemäe, within the framework of the legends about 
dangerous places—for instance of the places where 
the spread of plague is mentioned in the legends—
a mental map can be established, which covers the 
emergence of the threat in the community as well 
as their escape from it.24 In a similar vein, Timothy 
Tangherlini observes based on Scandinavian plague 
20 Beitl, Im Sagenwald, p. 65 no. 82; from: Grafenauer, Neték in 
“Ponočna potnica”, p. 184.
21 Simpson and Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore, p. 280.
22 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 994; from: Grafenauer, Neték 
in “Ponočna potnica”, p. 187.
23 Hiiemäe, Esti kratkupärimus, p. 124; Hiiemäe, Narrative 
Maps, p. 180.
24 Hiiemäe Narrative Maps, pp. 179–181.
narratives that in folk belief, quite logically, people 
tried to narratively map the route of the plague spirit 
as the personification of the disease.25
People in Iceland and also in some other Euro-
pean countries narrated that the Plague appears as a 
fog, mist or cloud which lay across the lowlands, kill-
ing people and livestock, and that people saved their 
lives by going to the mountains.26
The plague will let itself be carried or ferried, 
because it cannot cross water by itself
Folktales about the plague traveling a predesig-
nated route to selected destinations and letting itself 
be ferried across a river or a sea to an island are men-
tioned by both Timothy Tangherlini in Scandinavia 
(1988) and Reet Hiiemäe in Estonia (2016), and they 
are also documented in the French-Breton, Prussian, 
and Polish folklores. The Southern Slavs, too, nar-
rated that the plague was unable to swim across a 
river or a sea and therefore found itself a means of 
transport. Many folktales were published by Matija 
Valjavec27 and Friedrich Krauß,28 for example:
The plague came to a piece of water. Just then, the 
river Sava spilled over, and she could not wade, so 
she asked a man riding in a boat to take her across, 
oblivious of a dog under his seat. He took her into his 
boat and started rowing. Once they reached the mid-
dle of the water, the dog woke up, saw the plague, and 
charged at her. The plague asked the man to set her 
free, but to no avail, as the dog was already tearing 
at her and grabbing her until she fell into the water. 
Thus, she barely reached the far bank of the river and 
threatened to avenge all her wounds until all dogs 
died. Well, thank God, that did not happen, and there 
are more dogs every day.29
Many folktales describing how the plague let it-
self be carried or transported from one place to an-
other mention its fear of dogs30 and cats, and that it 
was repelled by the rooster’s crow. Juniper sprigs were 
also used to keep the plague away:
The plague asked a ferryman who transported people 
from the Littoral to a nearby island to take her there 
across the channel. She would do him no harm, but if 
he did not trust her, he could place thorns and juni-
per sprigs in the middle of the boat, between himself 
 
25 Tangherlini, Ships, Fogs and Traveling Pairs.
26 Gunnell, Mists, Magicians, p. 49; Travner, Kuga na Sloven-
skem, p. 76.
27 Valjavec, Narodna pripovjedke, p. 243.
28 Krauß, Südslavische Pestsagen, p. 14, Krauß, Volksglaube, pp. 
64, 67.
29 Valjavec, Narodne pripovjedke, p. 243; Krauß, Volksglaube, p. 
64; from: Grafenauer, Neték in “Ponočna potnica”, p. 190.
30 The plague also avoided dogs according to the Bosnian and 
Herzegovinian folklore; cf.: Softić, Zapisi usmenih predaja, p. 
164.
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and the Plague. The ferryman did so and was left un-
harmed, while the Plague sowed death all around.31
Such folktales also inspired the Slovenian poet 
Anton Aškerc and his ballad “Ponočna potnica” 
(Midnight Passenger).32 
Prophylactic actions and remedies 
The plague and agrarian rituals
The memory of ancient agrarian rituals in the 
Southern Slavic region has been preserved by the 
folktale about
the Plague and Death, who were believed to be sis-
ters from Sarajevo. One killed people and the other 
took them to the otherworld. Once, they promised a 
man to do him no harm if he would carry them to 
another place on his back and protect them from be-
ing ravaged by dogs. On their way, the farmer asked 
them how people could be saved from the plague. 
They advised to yoke a dozen naked young men and a 
dozen naked young women to plows and make them 
plow the same furrow around the village seven times. 
When the man left them, many villagers died that 
day. Then, heeding his advice, they sent two dozen 
young men and women to plow a furrow around the 
village and saved themselves from the plague.33
Similar folktales and rituals of “plowing out the 
disease” were known in other parts of Central and 
Southern Europe, as confirmed by the memory of a 
custom that was preserved in Loška Dolina in Slove-
nia until the end of the nineteenth century. Women 
plowed out the plague by dragging the plows around 
the village, some having them tied to their waists 
and others holding them by the handle. In this way, 
they plowed the same furrow around the village three 
times.34
Aiša Softić discovered similar methods of pro-
tection against the disease in Bosnian and Herzego-
vinian manuscripts. The following folklore has been 
preserved around Bosanska Gradiška:
People in the village found twin sisters and two black 
oxen born of the same cow. A new plow had to be 
built overnight and then the sisters, completely na-
ked, plowed a furrow around the entire village with 
the oxen. Thus, they fended off the plague.35 
In such narrative traditions, Softić highlights the 
belief that it was important to draw the magic circle 
around a person, a group of people or, as in this case, 
31 Krauß, Volksglaube, p. 67; Grafenauer, Neték in “Ponočna 
potnica”, pp. 190–191, note 24.
32 Aškerc, Ponočna potnica, p. 385.
33 Krauß, Südslavische Pestsagen, pp. 25–30.
34 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, pp. 130, 392.
35 Softić, Zapisi usmenih predaja, p. 163.
around the entire village for protection against evil 
forces. However, this custom also attributed a special 
magic power to dragging a plow around the village 
as a magic act, where it was also important who per-
formed the plowing and how.
Incantations and apotropaic acts
One of the rare reports on how people warded off 
the plague and cured it was provided by the English 
writer Daniel Defoe, who preserved a fictionalized 
account of life in London in 1665 in his book A Jour-
nal of the Plague Year (1722). He described various 
herbal remedies, preventive charms, as well as omens 
and portents of the plague. Herbs that were believed 
to prevent the spread of the plague were garlic and 
rue (Ruta graveolens), as well as tobacco and vinegar. 
In his novel, he also wrote about charm papers, tied 
up on the person with many knots, and certain words 
or figures written on them, among them the word 
Abracadabra formed in a triangle.36
Similar approaches were documented elsewhere 
in Europe. In Slovenian territory, reports on incanta-
tions against the plague have been preserved from as 
early as the sixteenth century—specifically, one from 
1583, in which Bishop Paolo Bisanti notified the pa-
triarch of Aquileia that Slovenians in Gorizia region 
practiced incantations against the plague.37
An incantation or a spell of some sort against 
all contagious diseases from 1851, preserved in the 
Book of Incantations by Jakob Rant from Dolenčice 
in Poljanska Dolina reads as follows:
pokličem jest Jaka vimen Svetga Benedikta in vi-
men Tega Nar Svetišga Čez nebeške Moči nar Nar 
visokišiga Čez Svet zijan z zinaji Adonoji
Attanatos Deous
Bog tanar Močnejši U Presveti Trojici
zpik = tro = ik = volf
toje Aleluja Aleluja Aleluja
trikrat križ naredit in trikrat gor dihnit še 4 nebeška 
znamenja se morja dat (. S ổ . . S S ổ S S o. L. ♀) 
vžit Nato se moli 7 očenašov h Čajsti Presvetej Tro-
jici in teh Patronov.
[I call Jacob in the name of Saint Benedict and in 
the name of the holiest of Saints in the Heavens 
and on Earth, looked on with zinaji (?) of Ado- 
nis (?)
Attanatos Deous
God the mightiest of the Holy Trinity
zpik = tro = ik = volf
This is Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
Draw three crosses and take three breaths in the 
air, and then make four heavenly signs using (?) 
(. S ổ . . S S ổ S S o. L. ♀). Then pray 7 Our Fa-
36 Simpson and Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore, p. 280.
37 Gruden, Zgodovina slovenskega naroda, p. 1061; from: Möd-
erndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 33.
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St. Roch Church in Dravlje and a plague column on the Celovška Road.
Plague column from 1743 in Maribor’s Main Square, by Jožef Straub. Saint Mary is surrounded by six 
saints–intercessors against the plague. The monument was erected as a token of gratitude for putting 
an end to the plague (1681), which killed one-third of the population in the seventeenth century.
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thers in honor of the Holy Trinity and the Patron 
Saints.].38 
People also used defensive magic symbols or let-
ters and spells against the plague, very few of which 
have been preserved.39 The oldest known Slovenian 
zapretek or charm against the plague is contained in 
the Carinthian Duhovna brauna (Spiritual Defense) 
from 1740:
Gospod Franzhiskus Salorius shkof v Salmonii je ana 
prizha de v leti 1547 se je sgodivo, da so utrenti per 
Conziliumu al rati ukupe bli sbrani shkofi in drugi 
kuoshterski tavishi, k so Rat dershali, da je she zhries 
20 shkofou inu tok vishah na kugi umerlo, tedei je 
ta patriarh od Austicie, usam te prizhiozhe buhstabe 
ratou, kteri so od s. Zahariusa shkofa, v Jerusalem 
resvoshani, inu sa kuo gorei sehranjeni bli, inu poter-
deni, to majo kako ano shishno pomuzh, kader je kuga 
de je imamo udrukano per sabe nositi. K so tu sturili 
ni obeden vezh na kugi umerou inu kader se bushtabi 
na ane duri sa shribajo, so usi pred kugo obuarani, 
kiri pod isto streho bonajo. 
Buhstabi sa kugo so leti: + ZDIA + BIZ + SAB + 
ZHGP + BFRS.
[Sir Franciscus Salorius bore witness to bishops 
and other men of the cloth having gathered to 
hold a council in 1547. Because twenty bishops 
and several senior clerics had already died of the 
plague, the Patriarch of Antioch (?) recommended 
using all letters (buhštabi) that Bishop Zacharias 
from Jerusalem had approved to protect homes 
from the plague. They were to be printed and 
worn on the body. People heeded the advice, and 
no one died of the plague again; and when they 
wrote them on their front doors, no one ever died 
of the plague from that house again.
These are the letters against the plague: + ZDIA 
+ BIZ + SAB + ZHGP + BFRS.].40
People would also wear little pouches around 
their necks, with incantations, charms, and magic 
symbols sown in to protect them from the plague. 
Saints—protectors against the plague
To triumph over the plague, people also erected 
plague columns, churches and chapels dedicated to 
patron saints against the plague, especially St. Roch, 
St. Sebastian, St. Rosalie, and St. Barbara, as well as 
St. Oswald in Carinthia.41
38 The Book of Incantations by Jakob Rant, locally known as 
Kočar from Dolenčice no. 9 in Poljanska Dolina. The manu-
script from 1851 was kept by Janez Dolenc; from: Mödern-
dorfer, Ljudska medicina, pp. 23–24.
39 Some examples are in: Travner, Kuga na Slovenskem, pp. 79–
80.
40 Dolenc, Zagovori, p. 45.
41 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 33.
As evident from the folklore that has been pre-
served in the village of Povir in the municipality of 
Sežana, St. Fabian was another powerful intercessor 
against the plague:
The plague in the shape of a black girl stood on top of 
a hill, calling: “Fabian, Sebastian, when you summon 
your strength, you keep me away from Povir!”
At the Church of St. James, people especially wor-
shipped St. Sebastian and St. Fabian, who were also 
invoked against the plague.42
In 1644, when the plague raged in Zapuže and 
Dravlje near Ljubljana, the inhabitants of the Dravlje 
neighborhood swore to build a church and honor it 
with a ceremonial procession every year on the Feast 
of St. Roch (August 16th), which usually ended with 
a fête.43
In his sermon dedicated to St. Roch from the col-
lection of sermons “Sacrum promptuarium” (1691), 
the Baroque preacher and author Janez Svetokriški 
wrote about the devastating plague in Slovenian ter-
ritory and about processions that people attended on 
that day for St. Roch to protect them against this 
dreadful disease.44 
Closures and quarantines
According to folklore, a cross alone, erected on 
the road or in front of a tunnel leading to another re-
gion, could prevent the plague from spreading. Thus 
narrates the Carinthian tradition:
The road from Mežica to Črna ran through a tunnel 
on which a cross was mounted some time before the 
plague struck. There being no other path connecting 
the town with Mežica, the cross prevented the plague 
from advancing to Črna.45 
Violations of the ban on traveling to other places 
where the plague had not yet erupted could some-
times be very serious, and they could also result in 
death:
Hundreds of years ago, the plague raged in Mežica. 
For this horrid disease not to spread elsewhere, they 
posted military guards at Reht to prevent any vil-
lager from leaving. At the Kajžar Cross on the right 
bank of the river Meža, they dug a deep pit and 
threatened to bury alive whoever came to that pit 
and wanted to proceed toward the village.
Kajžar had a beautiful daughter. This beauty reached 
the pit first on her way to run errands in Mežica. The 
soldiers grabbed her and threw her in the pit. Deaf 
to her earnest implorations and heart-wrenching 
cries, the cruel soldiers buried her alive. Thenceforth, 
42 Zgodnja Danica 33, September 10th, 1880, p. 294; from Kro-
pej, Od ajda, p. 300.
43 Mal, Stara Ljubljana, p. 82.
44 Svetokriški, Sacrum promptuarium, pp. 53–54.
45 Möderndorfer, Koroške narodne pripovedke, p. 62.
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the plague was never seen again. According to the 
soldiers’ and popular belief, it had transformed into 
Kajžar’s beautiful daughter and that was the only 
way to do away with it forever.46
A tale, preserved in Treibach in Austrian Carin-
thia, narrates about the misfortunate fate of a vic-
tim—a girl that was thrown into a pit and buried 
alive to stop the plague from spreading. The memory 
of the pestilence that raged at that time is kept alive 
by a plaque, mounted near the tower in the cemetery 
adjacent to the Church of St. Kosmas and St. Da-
mian, bearing the inscription: “Plague 1715.”
When the plague ravaged the land in 1715, the vil-
lagers decided to dig a ditch in front of the church 
during Mass, where they would bury alive the first 
person that would come out from the church before 
the end of Mass. Such misfortune befell a little girl 
who rushed home early to tend to her ill mother. She 
was buried alive, and the plague never entered the 
village again.47
Town folk sought to fend off the plague by post-
ing guards outside the town walls and preventing en-
trance to foreigners and beggars. The so-called plague 
guards prohibited passage to people and goods with-
out health certificates or “fede.” Newcomers from in-
fected areas were sent into mandatory quarantine at 
the lazaretto station.48 As a rule, any outbreak of no 
matter how locally limited epidemic prompted the 
closure of provincial borders and a severe restriction 
or suspension of traffic, which had an adverse impact 
on the provincial economy.49
Sources also report that in 1598, when the plague 
swept through Ljubljana, a wooden fence was raised 
around the village of Krakovo, completely cutting it 
off from the world, and the same steps were taken 
in other plague-ridden settlements. Infected houses 
were marked with a huge plague cross painted on the 
front door.50
Protection with herbal remedies and apotropaic acts
On the onset of an infectious disease, people also 
tried to protect themselves against it by smoking the 
house and barns with juniper (Juniperus communis) 
and charcoal, mixed with Alpine valerian (Valeriana 
celtica), myrrh (Commiphore), and incense.51 The in-
habitants of Styria also believed that they could ward 
off the plague by sharpening their scythes.52
46 Ibid., p. 61.
47 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 33.
48 Mal, Stara Ljubljana, p. 84.
49 Golec, Kužne epidemije, p. 26.
50 Mal, Stara Ljubljana, p. 82.
51 Košir, Ljudska medicina, p. 30; from Möderndorfer, Ljudska 
medicina, p. 23.
52 Pajek, Črtice, p. 84.
To keep the plague away, the inhabitants of Tre-
bija in Poljanska Dolina in Upper Carniola buried 
the plague victim’s clothes in the ground for three 
days, after which they hung them for three days on 
the roof under moonlight, and then finally left them 
exposed to sunlight for another three days.53
According to the “Večna Pratika” almanac, diet 
helped keep the plague at bay by avoiding cooked 
herbs, such as spinach, sorrel, chicory, garlic, anis, 
parsley, and sage. It recommended to abstain from 
salted fish, mushrooms, all kinds of meat, bacon, old 
rotten cheese, melons, and onions, as well as from 
beverages, such as apple and pear cider, hard wine,54 
distilled wine,55 and boiled water.56 It was beneficial 
to drink celandine (Chelidonium maius) boiled in 
wine, juice from the leaves and roots of wall german-
der (Teucrium chamaedrys), or to mix wine with the 
dried powder of its leaves and roots. Wealthier fami-
lies used lemon (Citrus limonum) and orange (Citrus 
aurantium) peels soaked in wine.
Protection against the plague was also provided 
by common rue (Ruta graveolens) and acorn as well 
as by ingesting the root of wild angelica (Angelica sil-
vestris) or “the root of the Holy Ghost” after fasting. 
Another herbal remedy held in esteem was burnet-
saxifrage, also called solidstem burnet or lesser bur-
net (Pimpinella saxifraga), a grassland plant resem-
bling caraway with spicy roots tasting like pepper. Its 
roots and leaves were used to make tea. In Rosental 
(Slo.: Rož) in Austrian Carinthia, burnet-saxifrage 
also had a reputation as a remedy for cholera, which 
was considered as serious a threat as the plague. The 
following story has been preserved:
In Rosental, too, a terrible cholera once broke out, 
killing people like flies. Every house counted dead 
bodies, and some went completely extinct. Markele’s 
cottage, too, had already buried its master, his wife, 
and their children, leaving only the old grandfather 
sitting sadly on the bench in front of the house. While 
he contemplated the fate of his children, a bird flew 
by, repeating:
“Burnet, burnet, burnet!”
The man did not know what to make of it. The bird 
flew away and soon returned and dropped from its 
beak an herb that looked like caraway. The old man 
picked up the herb and went to forage it. He brewed 
its roots into a tea and drank it. The Black Death did 
not catch him or anyone else who drank such tea or 
rinsed their mouths with its decoction. The herb was 
named burnet (Pimpinella saxifraga)! Thenceforth, 
cholera has no longer wreaked such havoc among 
those that are familiar with this remedy.57
53 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 31.
54 Wine containing a high concentration of acid, tannins, and 
usually also alcohol.
55 Cognac or brandy.
56 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 31.
57 Möderndorfer, Koroške narodne pripovedke, p. 62–63.
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People would also carry burnet in their pockets, 
apart from garlic and juniper, which were ascribed 
similar apotropaic effects. In Carinthia, it was cus-
tomary to soak burnet in liquor and always have a 
bottle of this alcoholic concoction on hand. Styrians, 
however, would carry on them the seeds of pimper-
nel or chicken blindness (Anagallis phoenicia) to drive 
away evil spirits and wear the cross of St. Benedict 
around their necks.58 During the plague, they pro-
tected their nostrils, eyes, ears, temples, and veins 
with wine vinegar, in which they soaked rue and el-
derberries.59
The healing benefits of sunlight and honey are 
presented in a folktale from Mežica, Carinthia:
The plague killed all the inhabitants of Mežica, ex-
cept a man on the Pustotnik farm. He defended him-
self against the plague by eating nothing but honey 
and by soaking in the sun every day, lying face down 
at the foot of the hill.60
Fire was deemed a natural disinfectant; in some 
plague-afflicted areas, every newcomer had to pass by 
the fire before they were permitted to meet the local 
inhabitants. In Lower Carniola, every participant in 
the Midsummer Day celebration would jump over 
the bonfire three times to protect themselves from 
the plague. In White Carniola, farmers would, still in 
more recent times, light bonfires in their courtyards 
during the plague and drive their cattle through the 
embers.61
In Styria, a time-honored tradition was preserved 
until the end of the nineteenth century to start the 
Easter morning by lighting bonfires or the so-called 
vuzenice, in firm belief that as far as their smoke 
reached, there the plague would never come, and 
buckwheat would never be nipped by frost.62
Water was attributed a similar defensive power 
against the plague. The inhabitants of Motnik in 
Upper Carniola believed that the plague would not 
come to them if they ran to the running water and 
washed themselves in it on Holy Saturday before 
“untying the church bells.”63
Treatment
The plague was primarily treated with medicinal 
plants, vinegar, wine, honey, tobacco, and many other 
natural remedies. In the countryside, people most of-
ten turned for help to village healers, and witch doc-
tors, whereas physicians, if at all accessible, primarily 
tended to patients in towns and mansions. During 
58 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 32.
59 Ibid., p. 30.
60 Möderndorfer, Koroške narodne pripovedke, p. 62.
61 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 31.
62 Pajek, Črtice, p. 84.
63 Letopis Matice Slovenske, 1887, pp. 88–167; from Möderndor-
fer, Ljudska medicina, p. 32.
the plague, they would put on special protective out-
fits not to get infected by the disease themselves. 
They wore leather cloak and covered their faces with 
beaked masks and spectacles. The long beaks were 
filled with a mixture of aromatic herbs that were be-
lieved to protect against infection.64
Although already running rampant in Ljubljana 
in 1198 and 1230, the Black Death caused the great-
est devastation between 1347 and 1350. It revisit-
ed Ljubljana in 1568 and 1569, and after it broke 
out again in 1586, a small lazaretto was set up near 
the walls of the Šentpeter cemetery on the bank of 
the river Ljubljanica. Lazaretto stations were sub-
sequently expanded, and a plague hospital was also 
constructed.65
People fought the plague with herbal remedies; 
in The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Die Ehre deß 
Hertzogthums Crain, 1689), Valvasor already wrote 
about butterbur (Petasites officinalis), a plant growing 
near waterbodies and in the valleys around Šmarješke 
Toplice that purportedly cured uncurable diseases 
and even the plague itself. In the same volume, he 
also mentioned the roots of angelica (Angelica silves-
tris) and stressed that he could not recommend them 
enough for their healing power against the plague, 
adding that the Carniolan soil provided herbs that 
beat the plague. Apart from the two stated above, 
these were also: Doronicum, Pimpinella saxifraga, 
Scorzonera, Galera, Veronica, Juniperus communis, Suc-
cisa, Gentiana, Potentilla erecta, Veleriana, Chelidoni-
um maius, and Imperatoria ostruthium.66
In Carinthia, Vinko Möderndorfer wrote a tale 
about the already mentioned Pimpinella saxifraga, 
which was believed to cure the plague:
There was no known cure for the plague. Then birds, 
completely unfamiliar to the inhabitants of Mežica, 
flew in from somewhere, calling: “Use burnet, use 
burnet, use burnet!” And people, indeed, helped 
themselves with burnet (Pimpinella saxifraga) and 
recovered.67
Another plant held in esteem was starch-root 
(Arum maculatum). The juice extracted from its 
leaves and roots was added sugar. People drank 
it every morning and evening, in the hope that it 
would take away the plague, fever, and other conta-
gious diseases.68
During the plague and febrile diseases, it was fur-
ther recommended to drink wine mixed with juice 
from the leaves and roots of starch-root and a con-
coction of wine boiled with burnet-saxifrage (Pimpi-
64 Golec, Kužne epidemije, p. 37.
65 Mal, Stara Ljubljana, p. 81.
66 Valvasor, Die Ehre, III, pp. 377–380; from: Möderndorfer, 
Ljudska medicina, p. 34.
67 Möderndorfer, Koroške narodne pripovedke, p. 62; Kelemi-
na, Bajke in pripovedke, p. 395, note 196/VII.
68 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 23, 34.
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MONIKA KROPEJ TELBAN: FOLKTALES ABOUT THE PLAGUE AND HEALING PRACTICES AGAINST IT IN NARRATIVE FOLKLORE, 127–140 2022
nella saxifraga). Great benefits were also ascribed to 
powdered wall germander (Teucrium chamaedrys)69 
and a decoction of sorrel and terjak (black elderberry 
juice mixed with sugar).
Popular remedies against the plague in Mur-
ska Sobota were pine (Pinus) and anise (Pimpinella 
anisum).70 It was advisable to drink “Ehrenpreis wa-
ter” mixed with powdered heath speedwell (Veronica 
officinalis) every morning and evening,71 and people 
also cooked wine soup with added garlic. A highly 
esteemed remedy was the king’s egg or the golden 
egg, prepared with egg yolk, terjak tea, and saffron.72 
In some areas, an egg white or a prune was placed on 
the pustule, and the inhabitants of Murska Sobota 
treated infected wounds with dried toads.73 Toads 
were considered a valuable plague cure by drawing 
out the poison. Some cooked them in milk or vinegar 
and ate them, or they were put as bandages on infect-
ed wounds. For this reason, people looked for them 
during the days of celebrating Marian masses.74
When the plague erupted in the autumn of 1680 
near Leskovec in Haloze, a story circulated about a 
woman who recommended an infected man to cook 
a toad in vinegar. Heeding her advice, the farmer ate 
the toad and drank the soup in which he cooked it. 
He sweated profusely and fully recovered the next 
morning. The news spread like fire across the neigh-
borhood, and toads became celebrated as the most 
effective cure for the plague. People throughout 
Haloze searched for toads and cooked them, as well 
as carried them around alive.75
Other plague cures were deer and chamois horns, 
sulfur, and vitriol used as powders, drinks, dressings, 
and bandages.76 “Večna pratika” recommended wear-
ing neck pouches with powdered spider (Araneida) or 
toad (Bufo vulgaris), as well as žilštajn (snake stone).77 
On their pilgrimages, Carinthians bought devotional 
images of Mother of God and put them in patients’ 
food to ward off the plague.78
Believing that the demon of the person’s disease 
can be defeated by the positive spirit, people also 
practiced a magical treatment: “hammering of the 
plague” into a tree. They bore a hole into a tree (lin-
den, oak or willow tree) which was supposed to be a 
holy tree. Next day at sunrise they put into the hole 
a bit of the sick person’s blood, nail or hair, than they 
69 Ibid., p. 34.
70 Slovenski gospodar 18/12, March 20th, 1884, p. 94.
71 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 23.
72 Ibid., p. 34.
73 Slovenski gospodar 18/12, March 20th, 1884, p. 94.
74 Gruden, Zgodovina slovenskega naroda, p. 1076; from Mö-
derndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 34.
75 Slovenski gospodar, 1885, 198; from Möderndorfer, Ljudska 
medicina, p. 32.
76 Valvasor, Die Ehre, III, pp. 377; from: Möderndorfer, Ljudska 
medicina, p. 34.
77 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 32.
78 Košir, Ljudska medicina, p. 103.
crammed the hole, nailed up the tree with a nail, and 
hoped that the demon of the disease would be de-
feated by the spirit of the tree.79
The plague kills cattle
The plague also threatened cattle. Cattle plague 
was widely conceived of in animal form, especially 
in the shape of a pig, a goat, and a three-legged calf 
covered with spots of many colors.80
Whereas the memory of the murderous plague 
largely dissipated in the nineteenth century, it was 
still in the 1990s that the inhabitants of Slovenian 
Prekmurje described 
the plague as Divine Punishment roaming the world, 
from village to village, from house to house, killing 
cattle in barns and chickens in henhouses. In ancient 
times, it also killed people, who then shut themselves 
in their houses and drove it away with prayers and 
superstitions.81
According to another folktale that has been pre-
served in Prekmurje, people imagined the cattle-kill-
ing plague in the shape of a multicolored calf:
Küga
Kuga [the plague] resembles a calf of many colors. It 
tends to appear in the courtyard or in the fence. Its 
apparition is always a bad omen. A cow or some other 
animal will die at the house where the plague has 
made itself seen. Sometimes, the plague will also trick 
people into thinking that it is heading somewhere at 
night. In the same way, it once lured Špilak, a rojar 
(beekeeper) from Bratonci, to the ulnjak (beehive). 
On returning home, he found that his most beautiful 
cow had died.82
In the folktale above, cattle plague was also at-
tributed features characteristic of supernatural be-
ings that made people stray from their paths, such as 
witches or nightlights.
Another folktale from Prekmurje has it that the 
plague took on the form of a white calf wandering 
around at night and barking like a dog. When it 
roamed about settlements, it caused people and ani-
mals in the villages to die. Cattle plague is white and 
has a bovine head, and pig plague is white and has a 
pig head.83 People warded off pig plague by attaching 
blessed sticks behind barn pillars. To protect pigs from 
infection, it was also customary to hang a toad in the 
barn. In Slovenian Istria, many barns still have horse-
heads and horseshoes mounted on the walls as defen-
sive masks. In White Carniola (Slo.: Bela Krajina), 
79 Travner, Kuga na Slovenskem, pp. 78–79.
80 Krauß, Südslavische Pestsagen, p. 36.
81 Rešek, Brezglavjeki, p. 91, no. 35.
82 Kühar, Narodno blago, p. 58, no. 50; reprint: Kühar, Ljudsko 
izročilo, p. 148.
83 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 29.
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MONIKA KROPEJ TELBAN: FOLKTALES ABOUT THE PLAGUE AND HEALING PRACTICES AGAINST IT IN NARRATIVE FOLKLORE, 127–1402022
they also used to mount them on beehives and place 
brooms turned upside down on entrances to barns, as 
well as pierce tiny holes into doors with a knife.84
In Dražgoše, it was customary to place the cross 
of St. Benedict on the barn door and in the Pod-
juna Valley (Ger.: Jauntal) in Austrian Carinthia a 
tatrman’s85 head carved in wood.86 Slovenians in the 
Raba (Hun.: Rába) Valley drilled holes in the horns 
of their cattle and put pieces of paper in them with 
various defensive spells or charms.87
Widely used in the eighteenth century was a 
book written by the veterinarian and healer Johannes 
Gottlieb Wolstein. In 1784, it was translated into 
Slovenian by Jožef Ignacij Fanton de Brunn from 
Ljubljana, a veterinarian of the province of Carniola 
and a physic in Idrija, who titled it Bukuvze od sh-
vinskih bolesni sa kmeteshke ludy [The Book on Cattle 
Diseases for Rural People]88 His translation was later 
corrected by Anton Tomaž Linhart, who published 
it under the title Bukve od kug inu bolesen Goveje shi-
vine, tih Ovaz inu Svin [The Book on Plagues and 
Diseases in Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs]; released in 1792 
in Ljubljana, the volume also contains advice on how 
to treat cattle plague.
Cattle was also treated with herbal remedies. In 
the hills around Škofja Loka, it was still in recent 
times that people protected their animals against the 
plague by adding the roots of gentian (Gentiana) and 
especially juniper and garlic to fodder on Christmas 
Eve and Holy Saturday.89
Epilogue
The plague retreated from Slovenian territory af-
ter the Ottomans were finally driven out from the 
central Danubian region.90 In subsequent periods, 
it gave way for other epidemics, most notably chol-
era, smallpox, typhoid fever, Spanish influenza, and 
currently the pandemic of Covid-19. Although the 
memory of the plague has all but faded in the light 
of scientific and particularly technological advances 
of the modern developed world, the Covid-19 pan-
demic has rekindled it and brought it back into the 
popular mental discourse, shining a new light on the 
long forgotten narrative folklore, literature, and visu-
al art associated with these periods.
In such difficult situations as epidemic or even 
pandemic outbreaks, people adapt to the new circum-
stances and seek a way out of the crisis. Daily prac-
84 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 32.
85 In Carinthia, tatrman was—often in the form of a water 
sprite—depicted on water wells and buildings for apotropaic 
purposes.
86 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 32.
87 Ibid, p. 32.
88 Štrekelj, Zgodovina slovenskega slovstva, p. 465.
89 Möderndorfer, Ljudska medicina, p. 29.
90 Mal, Stara Ljubljana, p. 84.
tices and narratives offer an insight into how people 
sought to protect themselves against the plague epi-
demic and how they cured the disease. Throughout 
history, folklore has approached epidemics earnestly 
and with great concern. Moreover, folktales about 
the plague epidemic, often presenting the plague in 
personified forms, narrate how it spread and where, 
how it traveled, and how it behaved.
Now, centuries later, it is interesting to observe 
many similar protective measures, for instance road 
barriers, border closures, and quarantine as well as 
penalties for their infringement, a list of active sub-
stances and nutritional ingredients helping to fight 
the disease. Notable differences are in the narrative 
culture, which now spreads through the internet,91 
and especially in major medical advancements.
REFERENCES
NEWSPAPERS
Letopis Matice Slovenske, 1887.
Slovenski gospodar, 1884, 1885.
Zgodnja Danica, 1880.
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P O V Z E T E K
Pripovedi o kugi in zdravilne prakse proti tej 
bolezni v ljudskem izročilu
Pripovedi o kugi so se v ustnem izročilu ohranile 
bodisi kot opis razmer in obrambe pred epidemijo 
kuge ter zdravljenja te bolezni bodisi kot povedke 
o kugi – demonu, ki mori ljudi in živino. Motiviko 
ljudskih povedk o kugi je v svoj katalog »Migracij-
ske pripovedke« (1958) uvrstil že norveški folklorist 
Reidar Christiansen pod številke 7080–7095. Ven-
dar pa je tematika še precej bolj raznolika, kar lahko 
razberemo iz gradiva, ki se je ohranilo v arhivih razi-
skovalnih ustanov in tiskanih virih. Eden redkih fol-
kloristov, ki je v slovenskem prostoru pisal o kugi in 
spremljajoči lakoti v podobi nenasitnega bajeslovne-
ga bitja Netka, je bil Ivan Grafenauer (1958). Kugo 
so namreč ljudje pogosto povezovali z lakoto, ki jo 
je v slovenskem izročilu poosebljal Netek. Podobne 
pripovedi so se ohranile v alpskem svetu, predvsem v 
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srednjeevropskem prostoru, med Retoromani v Švi-
ci ter v Vorarlbergu v avstrijskih Alpah v liku po-
žerušnega možička Snedeža. Tudi drugod je ustno 
izročilo poročalo o tem. V Bosni in Hercegovini so 
pripovedovali, da kugi sledi leto lakote (Softić 2020). 
Romunski kmetje so, ko so pričakovali prihod kuge, 
ki naj bi hodila naokrog v podobi ženske, ob cesti na-
stavili obilo hrane, s katero so gostili vse popotnike, 
da bi s tem preprečili prihod kuge. 
Kugo so si v evropskem prostoru ljudje predsta-
vljali poosebljeno v podobi žene, moža, dečka, dekle-
ta ali kužnega para. Kjer je beseda »smrt« moškega 
spola, je bila tudi kuga pogosto predstavljena kot 
moški, kjer pa je beseda »smrt« ženskega spola, je 
bila analogno temu tudi kuga prikazana kot ženska. 
Pogoste so bile tudi predstave o kužnem paru – možu 
in ženi, ki sta hodila od kraja do kraja in morila ljudi. 
V nemški povedki iz Schweinfurta ob reki Majni je 
smrtnik kosil, žena smrt (kuga) pa je grabila. Podob-
ne pripovedi so bile dokumentirane tudi na Bavar-
skem v Nemčiji in na Avstrijskem Koroškem. 
Švedske povedke pripovedujejo, da je prišla kuga 
z juga v podobi majhnega lepega dečka, za njim pa 
je prišlo kužno dekle (pestflicka), ki je dokončno po-
metla z metlo pred vrati, tedaj pa so vsi v vasi pomrli. 
V estonskem izročilu je bila kuga poosebljena v 
moški podobi, kot fant ali črni mož. Reet Hiiemäe je 
ugotovila, da je mogoče v teh povedkah, ki naštevajo 
kraje, kam vse je kuga namenjena, določiti mentalni 
zemljevid, ki je določal kraje, ki jim je grozila kuga, 
pa tudi možnost, kako ji ubežati oziroma preprečiti 
njen prihod. 
V Evropi so bile razširjene predstave, da kuga ne 
more sama čez vodo in da se pogosto da prenesti ali 
prepeljati v drugi kraj. Timothy Tangherlini je ugo-
tovil, da so v Skandinaviji ljudje pogosto pripovedo-
vali o kugi, ki potuje po vnaprej določeni poti v kraje, 
kamor se je namenila in se da prepeljati čez reko ali 
morje na otok. Podobne povedke so bile dokumenti-
rane tudi v francosko-bretonskem, pruskem in polj-
skem izročilu. Veliko tovrstnih pripovedi so poznali 
južni Slovani, številne sta objavila Matija Valjavec in 
Friedrich Krauß, navdihnile pa so tudi slovenskega 
pesnika Antona Aškerca (Ponočna potnica, 1890). V 
povedkah je pogosto omenjeno, da se je kuga bala 
psov in mačk, odganjalo pa jo je tudi petelinje kiki-
rikanje. 
Ohranil se je spomin na stari agrarni ritual, s ka-
terim so v južnoslovanskem prostoru skušali »kugo 
zaorati«. Ljudje so namreč, da bi se obranili bolezni, 
kugo »zaorali« na različne načine, na primer tako, da 
so ženske okoli vasi vlekle plug in z njim trikrat za-
risale brazdo okoli vasi. Izročilo iz okolice Bosanske 
Gradiške pripoveduje, da so v vasi našli dve sestri 
dvojčici in dva črna vola. Čez noč je bilo treba nare-
diti nov plug, nato pa sta sestri povsem goli zaorali 
eno brazdo okoli cele vasi. Pri tej šegi je imelo poleg 
risa – kroga, ki naj bi branil pred zlimi silami – ma-
gično moč predvsem oranje okoli vasi kot čarno deja-
nje, poleg tega je bilo pomembno, kdo je oral in kako 
je bilo oranje izvedeno. 
Proti kugi so se ljudje skušali zaščititi tudi z za-
govori in obrambnimi čarnimi znaki ali črkami ter 
izreki zoper kugo, vendar se jih ni veliko ohranilo. 
Najstarejši znani slovenski »zapretek« proti kugi je 
zapisan v koroški Duhovni brauni (Duhovni brambi) 
iz leta 1740. Okoli vratu so nosili tudi vrečice, v kate-
re so zašili napisane zagovore, »zapretke« in čarovne 
znake, ki naj bi jih branili pred kugo. 
Da bi premagali kugo, so postavljali kužna zna-
menja, cerkve in kapelice, posvečene zavetnikom 
pred kugo, predvsem svetemu Roku, svetemu Bo-
štjanu, sveti Rozaliji, sveti Barbari in na Koroškem 
svetemu Ožboltu. 
Kršitve prepovedi prehajanja v drugi kraj so lah-
ko bile zelo ostre in so zahtevale človeško žrtev. Pri-
poved, ki se je ohranila v Treibachu na Avstrijskem 
Koroškem, govori o nesrečni usodi deklice, ki so jo 
vrgli v jamo in živo pokopali, da bi preprečili širje-
nje kuge. V mestih kužne straže prišlekom in blagu 
niso dovoljevale prehoda brez zdravstvenih spričeval, 
imenovanih »fede«. 
Pred kugo pa so se branili – in jo tudi zdravi-
li – predvsem z rastlinami in apotropejskimi dejanji. 
Prostore v hiši in hlevih so pokadili z brinjem ( Ju-
niperus communis) in ogljem, ki so mu dodali spika 
(Valeriana celtica), mire (Commiphore) in kadila. 
Med rastlinami so posebno moč pripisovali pred-
vsem česnu, bedrencu (Pimpinella saxifraga), angeli-
ki (Angelica silvestris), repuhu (Petasites officinalis), 
šterkovcu (Arum maculatum) in jetičniku (Veronica 
officinalis). Kot zdravilo ali apotropejsko sredstvo 
pa so uporabljali tudi krastače (Bufo vulgaris), pajke 
(Araneida) in kačji kamen. 
V težkih situacijah, kakršna je izbruh epidemije 
ali celo pandemije, se ljudje prilagajajo nastalim raz-
meram in iščejo pot iz krize. V vsakodnevnih praksah 
in pripovedih se kaže, kako so se ljudje skušali braniti 
pred kužno epidemijo in kako so jo zdravili. 
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