BBC - Serbs

Likovi: BBC reporter, Srbi, vampir -Peter Plogojowitz, Kleopatra i naravno Kosovo

Invited for dinner by my landlord in early January, he handed me a belated Christmas gift of a wallet. No sooner had I opened it, than he gasped, grabbed it back and quickly put a token 20 dinar note (around 20 pence) inside. "It's bad luck to offer an empty wallet to somebody," he told me.

It was my first taste of Serb superstition. But there were many more...

Never place your handbag on the ground, or you'll become penniless.

Don't even think about going outside with wet hair, or your brain will become inflamed.

And if you dare to sit on the corner of a table, you'll never get married.

If you do find your future spouse (which would, incidentally never happen if you let somebody sweep the floor with a broom in your direction), you'd better not sing at the table, or your other half will go mad.

And whatever happens, make sure you call a newborn baby ugly. If you say it's sweet, the infant will be plagued by bad luck.

Above all, though, beware of the draught. Ladies who expose their stomachs to cold air will end up with frozen ovaries and never be able to have children.

Sit next to an open window and you'll have an eternally stiff neck. Even at the height of summer, you see older Serbs frantically closing windows on public buses.

There is even a Serbian saying: many have died from draughts, but nobody has died from a bad smell.

Page last updated at 11:58 GMT, Thursday, 4 February 2010