Prilog istraživanju običaja obilježavanja mjesta odmaranja s pokojnikom<br>Contribution to the Research on the Custom of Marking the Resting Place with the Deceased</br>

Abstract

The term mirila in the literature involves the stone construction marking the resting place with the deceased. Karsikko, roughly, means “pruning of the tree”, but also denotes memorial inscription features on boards, on building walls or on rocks. Karsikko as a memorial to the place of resting with the deceased has the same function as a cross-tree. At sixteen sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are also records of the custom of incising the cross on trees at the road crossings where they rested with the deceased. In this paper I have tried, on the basis of the available literature and newly discovered data, to indicate possible links among the practices of mirila, karsikko, and cross-tree.