„Проклетият нежит"
"The Cursed Nezhit"

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the possibility of direct relationship between two branches of science: viz. archaeology and ethnology. What is meant is a rare kind of monuments, which have survived a millennium. These are the apocrypha prayers, said to ward off the mysterious illness, known as "nezhit". Small lead plates with protective texts, worn by the sick as amulets, existed as early as in the 10th and 11th centuries. The tradition persisted during the 13th-14th century period, which is evinced by monu¬ments, unearthed by archaeological investigations on the territories of Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia. In the 16th-17th period, however, there were already apocrypha prayers against "nezhit" that have been preserved and that were included in the texts of books. At last in the 19th and 20th centuries these beliefs can be found in oral folklore. At present it is hard to understand what exactly "nezhit" means. The concept has most probably undergone certain evolution during the centuries turning from what once had been an awful illness into a relatively innocent gum disease.

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