Wooden Fences

Таrаbа and plоt are Serbian words for one and the same thing, with variations: a wooden fence made of stakes, boards, planks or intertwined branches, whereas tаrаbа is made mostly of  planks, and plоt of stakes with intertwined branches. The Serbian word prоšćе denotes a stake, a picket, pointed at its upper side and driven into the ground – which is the basic form of a wooden fence. A black locust tree stake is good, but the oak one is the best. When stakes are driven into the ground, planks are nailed onto or branches intertwined, the best being the willow tree ones, as they are tough and fibrous. A well-built wooden fence may last up to a hundred years. To weave 350m of such a fence takes one week. Wooden fences are an integral part of an image of a Serbian countryside. Today, they are slowly being replaced with wire, wrought iron or concrete ones.

LANGUAGE

There is a saying, ‘To hold to something as a drunkard to a wooden fence’, meaning to be too insisting on something, to stubbornly hold to something. Also, there is an expression, to fall like a stake, meaning to fall supine, in one’s full length.