Prison

According to tradition, Dereszla Hill got its name from its whipping post (in Hungarian: deres) where unruly serfs were tied, and the town also had the right of execution by capital punishment, which suggests that over the centuries there was a need for a local prison or jail.

But it was not only due to such issues that the municipality had to maintain a prison in that era. Bodrogzug offered an excellent opportunity for the outlaws and robbers of the area to hide from the authorities, but from time to time there were also small and large robberies in and around the settlement, which justified Bodrogkeresztúr having its own prison. In 1911, for example, the Wolkeinstein family was robbed and an attempt was made to sell the valuables in Miskolc. In 1932 a woman drowned her baby in the Bodrog river.

However, these were not the only fears in the lives of the inhabitants of the settlement - in many cases, other mystical, underworldly rumours were also circulating, giving people a source of fear, or at least concern, in everyday life. In the village, for example, an incredible number of tales and stories were cropping up about the witches in the village, who often brought evil spells on the housewives or even drained the milk from the cows.

Witches could be identified in several ways. One of them said that half a litre of milk had to be boiled and poured into the fire – by which the witches' faces were burnt. According to another source, hot milk was to be put in the chimney and within three days the witch crawled out of the chimney. The making of “Luca chairs” was also common among the lads, and there were many stories about this even in the 1960s. At midnight mass on Christmas Eve, the person sitting on the Luca chair could see who the witch of the village was. One could identify witches easily, as they sat with their backs to the altar and had horns. "Auntie Wolf's was so big she couldn't go in." - we read in one story.

The boys had to flee the church at the end of the service. They had to throw the pieces of the chair into five wells and run home. If they didn't get to the house in time, the witches would catch up with them and kick them. That's why poppies were scattered along the way, because they believed the witches would pick up the poppies one by one, which would slow them down.