Learning at the crossroads

Note: ; Type number: Bihari 1980. L/1. I. *1/A. István Darmo added another addition to the above story in November 2004: “Four years after this happened, I took him to the bishop of Rozsnyó. He was already walking on two crutches. Well, the bishop invited him into the church, but he didn’t go in. He didn’t enter the church. He said he couldn’t because they were standing in front of him. There were more of us there, but no one saw anything.” The motif of taking off the boot/changing the buckle, in connection with recognition using the lucaszék, also appears elsewhere in the folklore of the region. It is mentioned in both Áj and Várhosszúrét, and in both places it is connected to recognition during the Christmas midnight mass. (cf.: Magyar Zoltán, 2001. 472., Fehérváry István, 1937. 228.). The place for recognizing witches in Catholic villages is usually the midnight mass (B. Kovács István, 1994. 233-234.), elsewhere the Stations of the Cross (Ujváry Zoltán, 2000. 50.,133.). Mihály Tompa also mentions the latter in his poem Keresztútról.