Striga
I scream, you scream...
This is part of a yearlong series on the second edition of Colière, the Euclidian Non-Isochronous Rhythms card deck. Each card is a pretext to gloss over one item of Romanian mythology, anthropomorphize it, all aimed at easier visualizing and audiating one particular rhythm.
Today it’s about “Striga”.
Let’s begin with the end.
In February 2004, a woman from the village of Marotinu de Sus in Dolj County claimed that she had been visited by her late uncle, a 76-year-old Romanian man named Petre Toma who had died in December the previous year. Fearing the deceased might have become a strigoi, the woman's brother-in-law, Gheorghe Marinescu, organized a vampire hunting group made up of several family members. After drinking some alcohol, they dug up the coffin of Petre Toma, made an incision in his chest, and tore the heart out. After removal of the heart, the body was burned and the ashes were mixed in water and drunk by Toma's niece, believing that this would put an end to the haunting.[citation needed] Dolj County police later arrested six of the family members who participated in the ritual, charging them with "disturbing the peace of the dead".[16] They were sentenced to six months' imprisonment and ordered to pay damages to the family of the deceased. Since then, in the nearby village of Amărăştii de Sus, people drive a fire-hardened stake through the heart or belly of the dead as a "preventive measure".[17]
Striga, strigoi, tomayto, tomahto. It goes by cognates of the Greek Strix all the way through Eastern Europe. For the Greeks it was menacing owl related, then it blurred away ending as some kind of ghost, a dead soul haunting the living. Albanians have their shtriga that turns into an insect, the Polish have their vampiric strzyga.
Mostly women, basically witches, stalking for young children, babies to steal or to get ill. It’s well documented these days on the internet. Ways to prevent turning into one and ways to keep her away from your house and family. Protection and prevention.
The few accounts on Striga from Cartea Vâlvelor by Maria Ionița are so convoluted and all over the place I don’t know what to make of it. She might come try entering the house to spread some disease, or kill crops just by passing by them. She might break people, as in rendering them retarded. Often she will fly away and congregate on some mountain top or other remote location where there are some Striga games or fights. She might use a flying ointment and exit through the chimney while living a double life. Very witchy.
This is one step longer than the previous entry from yesterday, Ursitoarele. It is Vuiet (Roar) E(13,14) in Coliere V1. Striga is in the same family with the verb a striga = to scream. Probably related with the Greek owl that started it all. It’s an animal call. But otherworldly. Vuiet is simply a rumbling sound, not necessarily animal related. Not the roar of a lion. A dead roar. Something elemental. From beyond. That’s where it touches Striga territory. Both are otherworldly haunting sounds. Quite fitting for a long string of rapid beats ending somewhat abruptly after 13. Unlucky 13.
1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-5!
I’m struggling to find a nice mnemonic for those 13 shots, if I come up with something I’ll edit here.