Two of his assistants took hold of little Amar who, suddenly among strangers, started screaming. But Shishko, unmoved, deftly finished the operation with no anaesthetic in less than 20 seconds.
Only after the honored visitors left, the women -- Amar's mother and two sisters, all dressed for the occasion in elaborately gold-embroidered traditional blouses and pantaloons -- entered the room.
The boy's father Efrim, part of the Gorani diaspora who brought his family from Sweden, was choked with emotion as neighbors and relatives poured into the house, wishing good luck and bringing presents for the boy.
His voice trembling, Efrim drew deeply on a cigarette and said he did not think his son would remember much of the rite.
"I remember mine only because I bought a bicycle from the money I got from relatives for Sunet," he said.
Washing his hands before hurrying to the next home, Shishko said he has not had a single mishap during his long career.
"I learned the trade for 10 years with a master before I started to work alone. But now, I don't have a successor. All young people are obsessed with computers and this new, loud and poor music," he complained.
Shishko is paid 10 euros (US$13) to 15 euros for each operation.
"I do this for free for the children from poor families," he said proudly.
The circumcisions were over by early afternoon, as families of this year's boys prepared lunch for all in 14 huge military caldrons. Their neighbors from Gornje Ljubine had brought a barbecued bull for the banquet.
Shehadin Hasani, 70, a retired pastry shop owner, was in charge of preparing halva, a traditional desert offered only on special occasions.
Troublesome political issues so present elsewhere in Kosovo seemed to have bypassed the village, sparing it the uncompromising bickering between Serbs and Albanians over the future status of the UN-run province where some 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are still deployed.
"Someone else, stronger and more powerful, will decide over the status," Shishko said.
The fourth and final day was dedicated to traditional sports dating back to Ottoman rule in the Balkans -- tugs-of-war, long jumping, Turkish wrestling and stone-throwing.
The next morning, silence again prevailed in the small hamlet as it would for another five years, until the next Sunet.



