Pestvidéki Ásványbánya Vállalat

Among Hungarian folk songs there is a little verse: “Stork, stork why is your leg bleeding? Turkish child wounded it, Hungarian child is healing it with a pipe drum and fiddle made out of reed” (Gólya, gólya, gilice – Mitől véres a lábad? – Török gyerek vérezte – magyar gyerek gyógyítja – Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel). Only the shaman heals with drum and pipe. – B: 1020, T: 7682.→Shaman; Táltos.

Hungarians of Moldavia still remember the old story of the Hungarian King László’s visit, when he built them a fort. It is a historical fact that King László I (1077-1095) repelled the Cumanians (Kunok), who then settled south of the Hungarian population on the Rivers Szeret and Tatros (now Trotuş Romania).

King András II (1205-1235) organized the Hungarians of the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains. He also resettled some Szeklers among the Hungarians already living in Cumania, the territory to the East and South of the Carpathian Mountains, which became known as Moldavia, Wallachia and Szörénység (Szörényi Bánság, now Banatul Severinului, Romania). During this period, Hungarian villages were also established among the Cumanians and Petchenegs in Wallachia and the Szörénység. The Christian missionaries successfully converted the Cumanians and Petchenegs. The freshly resettled Christian Szeklers (Székelys) reinforced the original population and blended in well. These remote places became strong under the rule of Hungarians kings. The Diocese of Milkó was established in 1227-1228, and King Béla IV established the Diocese of Szörény in 1236 at Szörényvár (now Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania).

The Hungarian territory on the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains came under attack by the Tartars between 1239 and 1242. The original population thinned out and was slowly replaced by the Vlachs (ancestors of Romanians) arriving from the Lower Danube area. Over the next hundred years the population profile changed dramatically. Eventually the Vlachs of Voivode Bogdan became the majority group in Moldavia. The first voivodeship was established by the 14th century..

The one- or two-century-old Hungarian settlements kept their identity and autonomy for a long while. Following the Mongol-Tartar offensive, King László IV (1272-1290) sent Franciscan monks to the newly rebuilt Hungarian villages. Even the Vlach Voivode Radu’s mother, the Hungarian Klára Dobokay, and his Hungarian wife, Anna, built a Christian church in Arges between 1376-1384, where King Lajos I (1342-1382) established the Diocese of Arges.

Following the lost Battle of Mohács against the Turks (1526), the Hungarian kings faced considerable internal hardships and gradually lost their influence beyond the Carpathian Mountains and the local Hungarian population began to lose their identity. They were still, however, able to persuade the local Voivode to recognize their local rights. This momentous event identified them as “Sharers”.

1) Shepherding in the Bakony in Transdanubia was characterized by grazing pigs and sheep in the forest.

2) Shepherding in the Hortobágy on the Great Hungarian Plain included the great grassy plains, where the traders rented this area until the 17th century for raising mostly cattle and some herds of horses.

3) In the Kiskunság (Little Cumanian Plain) region between the Rivers Danube and Tisza, historical events affected the type of husbandry practiced. Both the arrival of the Cumanians and the Turks had an effect. Ultimately, the impoverished owners replaced the cattle herds for a few sheep as their land holdings decreased.

4) In the Nagykunság (Great Cumanian Plain) region, as the high density of settlements was reduced, the land became communally owned. The working animals and the “milkers” were usually kept in close proximity, and returned nightly to the barn for the evening milking, while the cattle herds kept farther away, stayed outdoors all year long. Horse and sheep breeding was practiced only from the beginning of the 19th century.

5) The Palóc shepherding in the Mátra and Bükk Mountains regions was characterized by shepherding, and herding cattle in the forests.

6) In the Somogy region in Transdanubia, pig keeping was practiced. Data from the 11th to the 19th centuries indicate that pig husbandry was the main financial resource of this area. Sheep herding became popular with the arrival of the Spanish Merinos to the southern region of Lake Balaton.

7) The Szekler shepherding in Transylvania was characterized by large herds of cattle and horses kept outdoors year-round in the natural pastures of the Carpathian Mountains. The sheep herds, made up of the very hardy, heat tolerant Transylvanian ‘racka’, and later the so-called cigálya, were mostly in family hands. These were kept in the half-wild pasturing way. – B: 1020, T: 3240.→Gray Cattle; Racka sheep.