ABSTRACT
In the lore of the Pelasgian pre-Greeks, black earth was the most fertile of soils. By way of homeopathic logic, the opaque or black acquired among them a wondrous quality. Among the Slavs, the words for "magic" and "black" exhibit an identical root, car(n) or variations thereof, I and possess a cognate in Latin carmen or English "chann." Associated with the Crnojevic (crn = black, magical) lords, the territory (Zeta) inland from the Bocche di Cattaro (Boka Kotorska) and from what was known as Venetian Albania came to be called Crna Gora (Black [or Enchanted] Wooded Mountain), translated into the western European languages as Montenegro. In Anglo-America, one refers to the black art and to black magic. Wicked from the viewpoint of the Christian churches, the black art is awesome and uncanny in the world vision of pagans.
