oxen drivers trade in the balkans

hi!

Today I found an article about the last rabadzija, or ox drivers, in eastern Bosnia, and thought it would be nice to share it with everyone on the forum, so i translated it, both as a good read, and as a way to compare how the people worked with oxen in other parts of the world.

The trade of an oxen driver includes having a team of oxen and a wagon, and, for a daily wage, moving everything necessary everywhere it needs to be moved.

This includes everything from hauling firewood and building material from the forests, delivering supplies to the mountain villages, to hauling hay from the higher pastures to the stalls, everything.
Oh yeah, all year round, in all weather conditions.
Oxen were preferred because of the terrain, which is mountainous.

ARTICLE:

The oxen drivers of Tara (mountain), once and now:

When snow covers the slopes of Tara, since the local population has no “strong” mechanization to haul the hay down from the distant snow-covered mountain hay fields – oxen drivers are still a dire necessity for these people.
For only the oxen drivers are ready, capable and equipped to pass with their ox-wagons, and oxen teams, through the snow covered mountain roads.

The trade of an oxen driver is one of those rustic occupations did today mostly by the people without a chance of getting a better job.
This trade, today seldom preformed by anyone, and mostly in mountainous regions, where oxen drivers are still indispensable for supplying distant and scattered villages after snow covers the mountain paths and roads.

Strong oxen like a good wagon: Ilija Ilijasevic (74) today is the oldest active ox-driver around Tara. With his two oxen pulling a heavy wagon, Ilija can still walk for miles, delivering hay and supplies to local villages: walking with a goad-whip (a goad with a long lash fastened to the end), pulling them by their halters and guiding them through the mountain paths, to prevent them from slipping and falling down the mountain side.

“Rabadzija (ox-driver) – that’s the last-to-pick trade! Last, i tell you! I’m seventy-four, and still working, and I started when I was nine. I have only the first grade of elementary school, and from nine children father gave me to learn the ox-driver’s trade. And today, there are no younger people willing to do this”, says Ilija with a smile, standing before his oxen.
Since it’s snowing outside, Ilija covered his oxen with blankets, and bags of flour, sugar, and salt, carefully laden in the wagon, with nylon.
“What would all my work be for, if my oxen caught cold, and the bags got wet?”

His twenty years younger cousin, Dragan Ilijasevic, claims that a good team is like a good wagon. “The stronger oxen are,the better they pull, and these days nothing goes without these oxen. These weight 1300 kg (2800 pounds), and if they were smaller, they wouldn’t be able to pull.” Dragan points out.

That morning he and Ilija woke up at 4 a.m., to feed the oxen first. “Now it’s past noon, and I’ve hauled three loads of hay, ad now I’m off to deliver supplies to the next village… You’re wet and muddy to the skin after work, there you have an ox-driver’s job! So pass on to all the younger people: don’t be an ox-driver, better go and make charcoal, just don’t be an ox-driver, it’s the hardest job! I don’t want to complain, I’ve done this all my life, but I have to honestly say that this job isn’t for anyone in this contemporary time” advises Ilija.

He claims that there isn’t as much profit in this job today as there once was. “Back then it was better, because the dinar (currency) was more valuable and expensive, and now: they don’t give lots of money, but expect a job properly done.
“Today my daily wage is 30 euros (45 dollars), but it’s work from 7 ‘o clock(a.m.), till nightfall, depends on when the sun sets.” adds Ilija.
The price of his services includes a fee for buying new oxen, but since these days there’s less work, there’s also less investment in the oxen.
“When I was younger, I exchanged an ox or two every year, and now two to three years pass before I exchange one. Now I can’t work much in summer either. Because then there’s the same work as in winter – hauling tree trunks from the creek to the road, where no power can enter but the ox.
And the tools I use are the big yoke (my guess a yoke with more space between the animals), the logging nails (like hooks), chain, hammer, axes, goad – and that’s all!” counts Ilija.

the picture above is from Romania, but it’s essentially the same as in Bosnia

If he’ll live, he’ll drive again next summer.
“I’m still doing pretty well, and I’ll die with a goad in my hand and standing, like an old oak.” Ilija tells to all around him, waving his goad with a smile on his face.

Retired men: In contrast to Ilija, his fellow ox-drivers from mount Dikava, a part of Tara, spreading above the town of Visegrad, are mostly retired. They are still kept alive by the memories of days and years of hauling hay from the snow-covered mountains.
“We would gather as soon as the cockerels sing. We put wooden forks, hay rakes, frame, chains, ropes, and a bag with some corn bread, bacon or dried meat.” says Obren Tasic, who, until recently, drove oxen, or more specifically, “hayed”.
That means he mostly hauled hay on an ox wagon. And he did so, as he says, as long as he can remember.

“In the past we (ox-drivers) would gather and make a caravan of ten or more oxen wagons, and then plod away to mount Dikava. We ox drivers would be warm in our linen clothes, with woolen scarfs wrapped around our heads and caps, and drive the oxen forward by cracking our long whips made of sheep skin fastened to cornel staves.
After 12-hour-long journey through the snow, wet and frostbitten waist down, in the eve we arrive on the snow covered pastures of mount Dikava. After we loaded the hay on the sleds, we went in the mountain cabins almost all families had. We’d carry in some hay to sleep on, and sit around the fire, dry our rubber shoes and woolen socks and drink rakija (an alcoholic drink common in the Balkan region) from a small wooden barrel.” Obrad narrates poetically.

His colleague Vlaso Baranac claims in those days some unbelievable things happened.
“In one cabin near mount Zlatar a man once slept a night with a bear!
Here’s how it happened: One year Petar Jevtic stayed on Dikava to feed the sheep (or to take the feed for them). In the night something slammed on the door and they broke open. It was a bear. The huge animal shook itself and laid down by the fireplace near the door. And fell asleep. Poor Petar crawled into the corner and didn’t move a muscle all night.
In the morning the bear woke up, growled, and went out. That’s how a man spent a night in a cabin with a bear.” tells Vaso.
Not Vaso, nor other ox drivers don’t recall that anyone, after Petar Jevtic, spent a night in the mountains with a bear or any other beast.
“Well, that may be because today there are more bears here on Tara than there are ox-drivers. And even if a bear would want to look for an ox driver, he’d have to walk for miles to pick up his scent.” thinks Vaso quite seriously.

there, that was long!
hope it’s not boring, and that you liked it!