such as the caves in the side of the rock named Budvár. We have already
mentioned the cave Borza-vára near the castle of Dame Rapson; another
haunt of fairies is the cave near Almás, and the cold wind known as the
"Nemere" is said to blow when the fairy in Almás cave feels cold. On one
occasion the plague was raging in this neighbourhood; the people
ascribed it to the cold blast emanating from the cave, so they hung
shirts before the mouth of the cave, and the plague ceased. (Mentioned
by L. Köváry.)
The fairies have beautiful flower-gardens in the castle grounds, and in
the centre of the garden there is generally a golden summer-house which
swivels round on a pivot. On moonlight nights they returned to water
their flower-beds long after they had disappeared from the
neighbourhood. The peonies (Whitsun-roses) that bloom among the ruins of
Dame Rapson's Castle are even nowadays known among the people as Dame
Rapson's roses.
The fairies live an organised social life. Several of their queens are
known, as _e.g._ Dame Rapson and Fairy Helen. The latter was the most
popular among them. The queens had court-dames, who were also fairies,
and who lived near their queen's castle, as _e.g._ the court-dames of
Dame Rapson lived in Borza-vára Cave. They also live a family
life--their husbands being giants or heroes, their children fairy-girls.
Those of them, however, who waste their love on ordinary mortals all die
an ignoble death.
Although they have disappeared from earth, they continue to live, even
in our days, in caves under their castles, in which caves their
treasures lie hidden. The iron gates of Zeta Castle, which has subsided
into the ground and disappeared from the surface, open once in every
seven years. On one occasion a man went in there, and met two beautiful
fairies whom he addressed thus: "How long will you still linger here,
my little sisters?" and they replied: "As long as the cows will give
warm milk."[75] (See Baron B. Orbán, _Description of Székelyland_, 3
vols.)
Their subterranean habitations are not less splendid and glittering than
were their castles of yore on the mountain peaks. The one at Firtos is a
palace resting on solid gold columns. The palace of Tartod, and the
gorgeous one of Dame Rapson are lighted by three diamond balls, as big
as human heads, which hang from golden chains. The treasure which is
heaped up in the latter place consists of immense gold bars, golden
lions with carbuncle eyes, a golden hen with her brood, and golden casks
filled with gold coin. The treasures of Fairy Helen are kept in a cellar
under Kovászna Castle, the gates of the cellar being guarded by a magic
cock. This bird only goes to sleep once in seven years, and anybody who
could guess the right moment would be able to scrape no end of diamond
crystals from the walls and bring them out with him. The fairies who
guard the treasures of the Pogányvár (Pagan Castle) in Marosszék even
nowadays come on moonlight nights to bathe in the lake below.
Other fairies known by their names are: Tarkö (after whom a mountain
near Csik-Gyergyó takes its name) with her twin daughters Olt and Maros
(the names of the two principal rivers of Transylvania, the sources of
which are on the Tarkö); their mother touched them with her magic wand,
and they were transformed into water-fairies, they then went in search
of their father, who at the time when the elements were put in order
was transformed into the Black Sea.[76] Another fairy is Mika, the
warrioress fairy, who with her father Kadicsa led the remnants of
Attila's Huns to their present place of sojourn.[77]
As mentioned before, there were good and bad fairies. The most complete
tale about good and bad fairies is the one about Firsos and Tartód,
fully mentioned by Ipolyi.[78] The castle of Dame Vénétur (near
Bereczk), the bad fairy who defied God, was swallowed up by the earth,
and she herself turned into a stone frog.[79] Dame Jenö (Eugen), who
lived in Énlak Castle, drove out one day, and on her way home her
coachman happened to remark that: "If the Lord will help us, we shall be
home soon!" to which she haughtily replied: "Whether he will help us, or
whether he won't, we shall get home all the same." At that moment she
and her carriage were turned into stone and the people still call a rock
"Dame Jenö's Carriage." (There is also another place called "Dame Jenö's
Garden.") The fairy who lived in Sóvár Castle near Csik-Somlyó, was
spinning on the Sabbath, and while doing so used the Lord's name in
vain, and was, with her spinning-wheel turned into stone. Her stone
distaff is shown to this day. A pond near Székely-Keresztur named
"Katustava" (_i.e._ Kate's Pond) contains a sunken house which once upon
a time belonged to a woman who was punished for doing her washing on a
feast-day. Even now the children stand round the pond and sing out:
"Boil up, boil up, Catherine! boil up, boil up, Catherine! We do our
soaping on Saturday and rinse our clothes on Sunday!" In days gone by,
the water used to boil up with great force and the little folks were
dispersed, and had to run away in consequence of the rush of water.
They returned, however, and threw stones into the pond, and the water
boiled up again vehemently. Aged people say that in their childhood the
pond was ten to twelve yards in diameter, and the water boiled up to a
height of two or three feet. Its present diameter is not more than a
couple of feet, and the boiling up has also considerably decreased in
proportion. The pond will perhaps disappear altogether, but its name
will last, as the whole close of fields is named after it. (Kate's Pond
Close).
A clear Christian influence can be traced in the four last tales.
Mohamedanism[80] has also left behind its traces in the tales in which
fairies figure who kidnap girls.
Such a fairy was Dame Hirip, who lived on the Vároldal, near
Gyergyó-Szens-Miklós. She used to stand on the castle tower with a
wreath in her hand, waiting for her two sons, who were engaged at the
bottom of the mountain, cutting down the sweethearts of the girls they
had kidnapped; until, at last, two heroes clad in mourning killed them;
whereupon their mother faded away with the wreath she held in her hand.
On mount Bükkös, which skirts the valley of the Úz, lived another
kidnapping fairy, who kidnapped a girl every year from the shores of the
Black Sea. On one occasion she happened to kidnap the sweetheart of the
King of the Ocean-Fairies, the loveliest maid in the sea; the King
pursued her and impeded her flight, and tired her out by raising a
hurricane and shower of rain. He overtook and caught her at a place
called "Stone Garden;" and, seizing her, killed her by flinging her on
to a rock. A mineral healing spring sprung up where her blood flowed on
the ground.[81]
III. WITCHES.
The degenerate descendants of bad fairies are witches;[82] in Hungarian,
"boszorkány;" in Turkish-Tartar, "Boshûr Khân;" which signifies one who
worries, annoys, or teases. They appear sometimes as green frogs,
sometimes as black cats; and they find a demoniacal delight in
"plaguing" people. Sometimes they appear as horses and kick their
enemies cruelly;[83] if such a horse be caught and shod, the horse-shoes
will be found on the hands and feet of the witch next day.[84]
In nearly every village, one or two such old women are to be found who
are suspected, but nobody dares to do them any harm.[85]
It is a very simple thing to see the witches. After the autumn sowing is
over the harrow is to be left on the field over winter. In the morning
of St. George's Day one has to go out in the field, make the harrow
stand upright, stand behind it, and observe through it the herd of
cattle as they pass by. You will then notice the head witch between the
horns of the bull, and the minor witches between the horns of the other
beasts.[86] But if you do not know the necessary protecting formula,
then you are done for.
If you do not like to risk this, there is another way. Dye the first egg
of a black hen, and take it with you to church in your pocket on Easter
Sunday, and observe the people as they walk into church. Some of them
will have great difficulty in passing through the door on account of the
length of their horns. When leaving the church, you must go out before
them and put down the egg; or stand at the meeting of two cross-roads;
or else they will carry you off. Witches, or other evil spirits, have no
power at cross-roads. The popular tales describe the witches as mothers
of giants, or dragons.[87] The witch is capable of changing forms by
turning somersaults.[88] They appear then as a puddle, brook, golden
pear-tree, fiery oven, &c. They grow so old that their lower lips hang
down as far as their knees; their eyelids also become elongated, so that
if they wish to see anything the eyelid has to be lifted up with a huge
iron rod, weighing 300 hundred-weights.
They exercise their magic powers: (1) in a defensive way;[89] (2) in an
aggressive way, by bewitching, the cause of which is some real or
fictitious offence, or evil intention. Thus by magic you can make the
woman appear who has taken away the cow's milk, and you can make her
give back the milk. The _modus procedendi_ is as follows: take a rag
saturated with milk, or a horse-shoe or chain which has been made hot in
a clear fire, place it on the threshold and beat it with the head of a
hatchet; or make a plough-share red hot, and plunge it several times
into cold water. In order to keep away intruders it is a rule that the
first woman who enters the house while the incantation proceeds is
severely beaten, because she is the culprit. Sometimes the ridiculous
thing happens that the man has to thrash his own wife, if she happens to
be the first comer.
By magic one can make a young man marry under all circumstances a girl
previously selected. Of such a young man they say, "They have dug up a
big weed[90] for him;" or, "They are boiling his 'kapcza'[91] for him."
The latter seems to indicate some charm. The sorceress summons toads,
holds an unintelligible conversation with them, and hands some
mysterious charm which has to be placed under the threshold of the
selected young man's house. The person, however, who orders the
incantation will die the same year.
Some kinds of severe illness or accidents can be produced by planting in
secret certain magic plants on the selected person's ground; the illness
will last, and the consequences of the accident be felt, until the
plants are removed. If the owner plants these plants himself they will
serve as a preventative.
Thieves can be found out or bewitched, and they dread the thing so much
that very often they return in secret the stolen articles.
There are various formulæ to cause marriage or produce sickness. One of
them may be mentioned here.[92] The person who orders the incantation
steals from the selected victim some article of dress, and takes it to
the sorceress, who adds three beans, three bulbs of garlic, a few pieces
of dry coal, and a dead frog to it, and places these several articles in
an earthenware pot under the victim's gate or threshold, accompanied by
these words: "Lord of the infernal regions and of the devils, and
possessor of the hidden treasures; give to ... (name of the victim) some
incurable illness--(or inflame ... with irresistible love towards
...)--and I will join your party!"
In a Hungarian paper, published in 1833, we read
Some woman in Transylvania grew tired of her husband, and consulted
a sorceress about the means of getting rid of him. The sorceress (a
Wallachian old woman) visited the woman's house, and they both
retired to the garret, where the sorceress laid out an image in
clay, which was intended to represent the unfortunate husband, and
surrounded it with burning wax tapers, and both women engaged in
prayer for the quick departure from this life of the husband. The
latter, however, appeared on the scene and put an end to the
proceedings.
Amidst the vast pile of superstitions still current amidst the
peasantry, we may note the following, from a very valuable work by Varga
János, entitled _A babondák könyve, Arad_, 1877; a volume which won the
prize offered at the time by the Hungarian physicians and others, for
the best work written on the existing superstitions of the Magyar
people. Its chief aim is to instruct the people, and is written in
_very_ popular language.
To this day old women (Roman Catholics) do not swallow the consecrated
wafer at communion; but save it and carefully wrap it in a handkerchief,
and keep it in a drawer at home, as it will prevent the house from being
burnt down. An epidemic raged all over Hungary, and the people in one of
the villages attributed the outbreak of cholera to an old woman who had
died shortly before, and who was said to have been a witch in her
lifetime. The corpse was dug up, and replaced in the grave face
_downwards_, in order to stay the plague. When the rinderpest broke out
in another village they had recourse to the same remedy. The corpse of
the witch was unearthed, and reburied face downwards. As this had no
effect, the shift of the corpse was turned inside out and put on again.
As the pest still continued, the heart of the witch was taken out and
divided into four pieces, and one quarter burnt at each of the four
corners of the village, and the herd driven through the smoke. One year,
when there was a drought in the country, in a northern village, amongst
the Slováks, a young girl was let down into a well, in order to bring on
the rain.
_Ghosts._[93] There is a proverb saying that: "The good souls do not
wish to come back, and the bad ones are not allowed to return;" but
still people believe in ghosts.
_Sprites._ (Evil spirits, garabonczas.) The father of the garabonczas is
the devil; the mother, a witch. The garabonczas mostly appears as a poor
wandering student begging for milk in the village. If he be well treated
no harm will happen to the village, but if he be sent away from the
door, he will bring on hail and will destroy the crops belonging to the
place. He generally rides officially on dragons or tátos.
_Exchanged children_, or táltos.[94] If a child be born with some defect
(say without an arm, &c.) or with some supernumerary member (say six
fingers or six toes) or with a big head, people say it is an exchanged
child; it is a child of some witch who exchanged her offspring for the
baby, while the baby's mother was in bed. Babies born with teeth are
especially considered to be children of witches. Such unfortunate
creatures are very badly treated by the people, and even by their own
parents. The name "táltos" sticks to them, even when grown up. A knife
stuck into a slice of garlic and placed under the pillow of the woman in
childbed is an effective remedy against babies being exchanged by
witches.
_Goblins_[95] (Lidércz) are the servants of evil spirits or the evil
spirits themselves. One favourite form they like to appear in is the
"wandering fire," or will-o'-the-wisp. A hen that crows (a hermaphrodite
bird) is also a goblin; and a combination of cock and hen is hatched
from the first egg laid by the young hen, or from very small undersized
eggs as are sometimes laid by fowls. A little decrepit, undeveloped
chicken is also always looked at with suspicion. The good housewife
breaks the first egg laid by a young hen, or a very small egg, to
prevent the goblin's being hatched. The crowing hen is executed, the
neck being laid on the threshold and cut off with a hatchet; if the head
jumps into the yard, then no matter, but if it hops inside the house,
then it means that the house will be burnt down. (In Germany some
hundred and seventy years ago a crowing hen was brought before the
judges, sentenced to death, its neck cut off by the public executioner
in the market-place, and the body burnt at the stake.)
_Roadside wanderers or inhabitants of graves._[96] Sickly, yellow,
haggard-looking people are said to live in graves or crypts at night.
The Magyar people are very good-natured, and their hospitality is well
known. But such a grave-inhabitant can reckon upon having no mercy. If
they stop and rest anywhere somebody is sure to die in the
neighbourhood. If anybody look at them it will bring on jaundice; if
anybody touch them the healthy person will dry up; children die if
touched or kissed by such a creature.
There is a rich mine of Folk-Medicine, as yet but little worked by
western students: a few examples will be found in "Székely
Folk-Medicine," _Folk-lore Journal_, April 1884, and we append a few
more, which may be of interest, from an old MS.[97]
_Jaundice_ is brought on by looking through the window of a house where
there is a corpse laid out, and seeing it. It is cured by taking nine
"creepers" from the head of a person with the same Christian names as
the patient; put the nine insects into an apple; bake the whole, and
give it to the patient for internal application. Then take the
foeces[98] of a person of the same Christian name; place them in a
hard-boiled egg, having first removed the yolk; sew the egg in a small
bag, and place it _secretly_ under the altar, and allow three masses to
be said over it; then hang it round the patient's neck, who has to wear
it for nine days. The cure is to be repeated nine times. There is a
marginal note in the book to the effect that our "doctor" had altogether
six cases under treatment, but not one of the patients got beyond the
first stage of the cure.[99]
_Pleurisy._ Take a trough in which the dough has been kneaded and taken
out; pour water into it cross-ways (diagonally from corner to corner)
then pour water in cross form over the peel; scrape out the trough and
knead with one finger the scrapings into a flat cake and place it on the
aching side. Varga also gives a form of prayer which has to be recited
when the dough is placed on the side. The same prayer is prescribed for
toothache and sore throat.
_Scurvy._ (In Magyar "süly.") The scorbutic place is to be rubbed with a
piece of rancid bacon, and the following ditty sung:--
"Sü-sü, lentils-sü
Peas-sü,--pumpkin-sü,
Onion-sü,--77 sorts of sü,
I order thee, in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary to disappear!"
_Cataract_ in the eye. This is cured with a long prayer, commencing I †
N † R † I, and, if it has no effect, another (shorter) prayer is
mumbled, and the performer breathes upon the eye.
_Gangrene_ is also cured by prayers; a little garlic and broken glass is
placed upon the wound.
Another way is to bury three hairs of the patient in the gutter under
the eaves, and then to say the Lord's Prayer. When the medicine-man
arrives at the words "as in earth," he drops a slice of garlick, this is
afterwards buried in some secluded spot. If anybody steps on this place
he will be affected by the same disease.
_Hydrophobia_ is cured by a mixture of the following nine ingredients:--
1. A kind of small, vermilion, flat beetle;
2. Some dittany gathered before St. John's Day;
3. Splinters of tree struck by lightning before St. George's Day;
4. Some cantharides;
5. Young buds of ash gathered in early spring;
6. Rue gathered before St. George's Day;
7. "St. Ivan's beetle" (? glow-worm);
8. "Christmas crumb"[100] and eggshell from between two
Christmases;
9. On Midsummer Day, at early dawn, the medicine-man walks out
barefoot, and the weeds, grasses, flowers, &c. that stick to his
sole or toes form ingredient No. 9.
The mixture is to be taken internally.
_Epilepsy_ is treated with an oil prepared by the quack out of
horseradish; also some brimstone and other things.
_External_ wounds and sore nails are cured by placing a live toad on the
place.
The rash called _St. Anthony's Fire_. A man whose Christian name is
Anthony has to produce sparks with steel and flint.[101]
_Scab_ is treated with an ointment made of beef-fat and brimstone; the
ointment to be used for three days, and to be followed up by a hot-air
bath. As these useful establishments only exist in large towns, the
unfortunate sufferer is put inside a hot oven.
_Quinsy._--With the child's finger stroke the throat of a lizard,[102]
caught before St. George's Day.
_Cramp._--Place a left-hand window-frame across the child suffering from
cramp, or burn feathers under its nose.
_Hand of Glory._[103]--The little finger of the human foetus has all the
virtues of (and is used for the same purpose as) the hand of glory. All
the famous brigands are believed to have one of these articles in their
possession.
When a person is _in extremis_ they place him or her, bed and all, in a
line with and under the main joist of the ceiling. If the dead person's
eyes are left open somebody will soon follow him or her.
_Superstitious Days._
_Friday._ Work commenced or finished on Friday is sure to fail.
Who laughs on Friday will cry on Sunday.
To sneeze on Friday the first thing in the morning when the stomach is
empty means some great catastrophe.
To start on a journey on Friday is unlucky.
He or she who is taken ill on Friday will never again leave their bed.
A guest on Friday means one week's distress.
Dough kneaded on Friday will not rise.
Linen washed on Friday will give the wearer some skin disease.
If the fires are lighted in the rooms for the first time on Friday the
house will be burnt down.
If a baby gets its first tooth on a Friday the front teeth will come all
right but no more.
If a baby commence to talk on a Friday it will, when grown up, stammer
or remain mute altogether.
If the new year commence with a Friday all the crops will fail.
If a hen commence to sit on her eggs on a Friday the eggs become
addled.[104]
_St. Matthias._ "It is better trust the ice after St. Matthias' Day than
in you, my dear little maid." _Erdélyi_, vol. 3. Folk-Song No. 200.
_St. George's Day_ is a very lucky day.
A butterfly caught before St. George's Day brings great luck.
Snakes caught before St. George's Day make a powerful medicine.
The skin of a marmot caught before St. George's Day will make a purse
which will never be empty.
The person who sees a swallow or stork before St. George's Day will
live as many years as the bird flaps its wings.
Procure the wing of a bat caught before St. George's Day and wrap up
money in it; then you will never be without cash.
On the night following St. George's Day one can listen to the
conversation of the witches and overhear their secrets about good and
bad herbs.
All the medicines gathered before St. George's Day are very powerful.
_Christmas Eve._--Roman Catholics fast on this day--eating no meat,
using instead fish and vermicelli with crushed poppy seed and honey.
Those who stand on "Lucy's chair" during midnight mass can tell who is a
witch and who is not. St. Lucy's Day is December 13th, and on that day
some begin to make a small chair, or stool, working at it, on each
following day, so as to get it ready by Christmas Eve. The maker then
takes it to midnight mass, and sits upon it in order to discover who are
witches in the parish. All those who turn their backs to the altar
whilst he (or she) sits on the stool, are witches. "Lucy's chair" is
also said of anything that is being made very slowly. On this day, too,
the farmer's wife and servants wrap their heads up in cloaks, and, armed
with big brushes (a sort of brush tied athwart the end of a pole), go
round and catch the hens and touch their hinder parts, believing that it
will cause them to lay more eggs. The twelve days following St. Lucy's
are called Lucy's Kalendar, and are very carefully observed. If the
first, second, third, &c., be raining, windy, foggy, &c., so will the
first, second, third, &c., months of the next year be.
_Christmas Day._--Every hour of this day is significant and pregnant
with good or evil. It seems as if on this day every good angel descended
from heaven to scatter blessings, and every demon ascended from the
infernal regions to shower curses on the heads of men.[105]
Even the remnants of food have their magic power. The well-known
"Christmas crumb" forming an important ingredient in many
folk-medicines.
Whoever picks up an apple or nut from the ground will be covered with
sores; and if anyone steps upon a reel of cotton (or gets entangled in
it) upon this day, he will, without fail, have an attack of the "evil of
Lazarus."
A sort of basket made of twisted or plaited straw, such as is used for
taking dough to the bakers, is filled with hay and put under the table
to receive the "little Jesus," who is said to get into it. Maize put
under this basket is said to fatten fowls to a wondrous extent, and
cattle thrive marvellously on the hay. Whosoever eats nuts without honey
will lose his teeth.
Whosoever does not eat a slice of garlic with honey on this holy day
will get a sore throat.[106]
There are several Finnish superstitions with regard to this season,
_e.g._: