CHARMS OR CONJURATIONS TO CURE OR PROTECT ANIMALS.
From the earliest ages a drum or tambourine has formed such an
indispensable adjunct of Shamanic sorcery among Tartars, Lapps,
Samoyedes, Eskimo, and Red Indians, that, taking it with other
associations, I can hardly believe that it has not been transmitted
from one to the other. In Hungary the gypsies when they wish to
know if an invalid will recover, have recourse to the cováçanescro
buçlo (chovihanescro buklo) or "witch-drum." This is a kind of
rude tambourine covered with the skin of an animal, and marked with
stripes which have a special meaning. On this are placed from nine
to twenty-one seeds of the thorn-apple (stramonium). The side of the
drum is then gently struck with a little hammer, and according to the
position which the seeds take on the marks, the recovery or death of
the patient is predicted. The following is a picture of a gypsy drum
as given by Dr. Wlislocki.
The wood for this is cut on Whitsunday. A is turned towards the
fortune-teller; nine seeds are now thrown on the drum, and with
the left hand, or with a hammer held in it, the tambourine is
tapped. Should all the seeds come within the four lines all will
go well, especially if three come within a, d, e, f. If two roll
into the space between a, i, it is lucky for a woman, between i and
f for a man. But if nearly all fall outside of b, c, g, h, all is
unfavourable. The same divination is used to know whether animals
will get well, and where stolen property is concealed. All of this
corresponds exactly to the use of the same instrument by the Laplanders
for the same purposes. The thorn-apple is a very poisonous plant, and
the gypsies are said to have first brought it to England. This is not
true, but it is extremely possible that they used it in stupefying,
killing, and "bewitching." It is very much employed at present by
the Voodoo poisoners in America.
The Turks are a Tartar race, and the drum is used among them very
generally for magical purposes. I have one of these tambouri which,
I was assured when I bought it, was made for incantations. It is of a
diamond shape, has parchment on both sides, and is inscribed with the
name Allah, in Arabic, and the well-known double triangle of Solomon,
with the moon and star.
To keep domestic animals from straying or being stolen, or falling ill,
they are, when a gypsy first becomes their owner, driven up before a
fire by his tent. Then they are struck with a switch, which is half
blacked with coal, across the back, while the following is repeated:--
"Ac tu, ac kathe!
Tu hin mange!
Te Nivasa the jiánen--
Ná dikh tu ádálen!
Trin lánca hin mánge,
Me pçándáv tute:
Yeká o devlá, ávri
O Kristus, trite Maria!"
"Stay thou, stay here!
Thou art mine!
And the Nivasi when they go--
Thou shalt not see them!
Three chains I have,
I bind thee:
One is God, the other (beyond)
The Christ, the third, Maria!"
To charm a horse, they draw, with a coal, a ring on the left hoof
and on the right a cross, and murmur:--
"Obles, obles te obles!
Ac tu, ac tù máy sástes
Ná th' ávehás beng tute
Devlá, devlá ac tute!
Gule devlá bishálá
E gráyeskro perá
Miseçescro dád!
Niko mánushenge ác
Káske me dáv, leske ac
Shukáres tu ác,
Voyesá te láccs ac,
Ashunen eftá Pçuvuse:
Eftá láncá hin mánge,
Ferinen ádálá
Táysá, táysá e pedá!"
"Round, round, and round!
Be thou, be thou very sound
The devil shall not come to thee,
God, God shall be with thee!
Sweet God drive away
From the horse's body
The Father of Evil!
Be to (go not to) any other man
To whom I give (sell) unto him
Be beautiful!
Frolicsome and good,
Seven spirits of earth hear!
I have seven chains,
Protect this animal
Ever, ever!"
Then a piece of salted bread is given to the horse, and the owner
spits seven times into his eyes, by which he is supposed to lose
all fear for supernatural beings. According to the gypsies, horses,
especially black ones, can see beings which are invisible to human
eyes. I have known an old English gypsy who believed that dogs could
see ghosts when men could not. The mysterious manner in which dogs
and horses betray fear when there is apparently nothing to dread,
the howling of the former by night, and the wild rushes of the latter,
doubtless led to this opinion. The bread and salt will recall to the
reader the fact that the same was given at the ancient mysteries
apparently for the purpose of strengthening the neophyte so that
he should not fear the supernatural beings whom he was supposed
to meet. It is curious to find this peculiar form of the sacrament
administered to a horse. Another protective charm is common among the
Southern Hungarian gypsies. The dung of a she-goat dried and powdered
is sifted on a horse's back and this spell recited:--
"Miseçes prejiá,
Andrál t're perá!
Trádá cik buscákri
Miseçes perákri,--
Andral punrá, andral dumno,
Andral yákhá, andral kánná!
Nevkerádyi av ákána,
Ac tu, ac tu cá mánge:
Ác tu, ác tu, ác káthe!"
"Evil be gone
From thy belly!
Drive away she-goat's dung
Evil from the belly,
From the feet, from the back,
From the eyes, from the ears!
New-born be now,
Be thou, be thou only mine:
Stay thou, stay thou, stay here!"
There is evidently a relation here between the dung of the she-goat
and certain ancient symbols. Whatever was a sign of fruitfulness,
generation, or productiveness, whether it was set forth by the
generative organs, sexual passion, or even manure which fertilises,
was connected with Life which is the good or vital principle opposed to
death. As the goat was eminently a type of lechery, so the she-goat,
owing to the great proportion of milk which she yielded, set forth
abundance; hence the cornucopia of Amalthea, the prototype of the
she-goat Heidrun of the Northern mythology, who yielded every day
so much milk that all the Einheriar, or dwellers in Valhall, could
satisfy themselves therewith. [14] But the forms or deities indicating
life were also those which shielded and protected from evil, therefore
Here, the mother of life and of birth, had in Sparta a shrine where
she-goats were sacrificed to her, while at Canuvium the statue of Juno
Sospita (who was also Here), was covered with a she-goat's skin. It
is in the ancient sense of fertility identified with protection,
that the she-goat's dung is used to exorcise evil from the horse by
the gypsies. There is, in fact, in all of these charms and exorcisms
a great deal which evidently connects them with the earliest rites
and religions.
In the Hungarian gypsy-tribe of the Kukuya, the following method of
protecting horses is used: The animal is placed by the tent-fire and
there a little hole is dug before him into which ninefold grass and
some hairs from his mane and tail are put. Then his left fore-hoof
is traced on the ground, and the earth within it is carefully taken
out and shaken into the hole, while these lines are repeated:--
"Yeká cunul yeká bál,
Tute e bokh náñi sál,
Ko tut corel, the merel
Sar e bálá, cunulá,
Pal e pçuv the yov ável!
Pçuvus, adalen tute,
Sástes gráy ác mánge!"
"A straw, a hair!
May you never be hungry!
May he who steals you die!
Like the hair and the straw,
May he go to the ground!
Earth, these things to thee!
May a sound horse be mine!"
If the animal be a mare and it is desired that she shall be with foal,
they give her oats to eat out of an apron or a gourd, and say:--
"Trin kánályá, trin jiuklá,
Jiánen upre pláyá!
Cábá, pçares hin perá!
Trin kánályá, trin jiuklá
Jiánen tele pláyá,
É çevá ándrasaváren
Yek cumut ándre çasáren,
Tre perá sik pçáreven!"
"Three asses, three dogs,
Go up the hill!
Eat, fill thy belly with young!
Three asses, three dogs,
Go down the hill,
They close the holes,
They put the moon in (them)
Thy belly be soon fruitful!"
"The moon has here," remarks Wlislocki, "a phallic meaning, the
mention of the ass, and the use of the gourd and apron are symbols
of fertility. Vide De Gubernatis, 'Animals in Indian Mythology,'
in the chapter on the ass."
There is another formula for protecting and aiding cattle, which
is practised among other races besides that of the gypsies; as, for
instance, among the Slovacks of Northern Hungary. This I shall leave
in the original:--
"Dieses Verwahrungsmittel besteht darin, dass dem gekauften
weiblichen Thiere der Mann den blanken Hintern zeigt, einem
männlichen Thiere aber eine weibliche Person. Hiebei werden die
Worte gesagt:--
"Sár o kár pál e punrá,
Kiyá mánge ác táysá!
Wie der Schwantz am Bein,
Sollst du stets bei mir sein!"
Or else:--
"Sár e minc pal e per,
Kiyá mánge ác buter!
Wie das Loch im Leib,
Also bei mir bleib!"
To secure swine to their owner a hole is dug in the turf which is
filled with salt and charcoal dust, which is covered with earth,
and these words uttered:--
"Adá hin tute
Ná ává pál menge
Dáv tute, so kámáv
Pçuvusheyá, áshuná,
Cores tuna muká
Hin menge trin láncá,
Trin máy láce Urmá,
Ke ferinen men!"
"This is thine,
Come not to us!
I give thee what I can
Oh Spirit of earth, hear!
Let not the thief go!
We have three chains,
Three very good fairies
Who protect us."
If the swine find the hole and root it up--as they will be tolerably
certain to do owing to their fondness for salt and charcoal--they
will not be stolen or run away.
The Urmen, or Fairies, are supposed to be very favourable to
cattle, therefore children who torment cows are told "Urme tute ná
bica somnakune pçábáy"--"The fairies will not send you any golden
apples!" If the English gypsies had the word Urme (and it may be that
it exists among them even yet), this would be, "I Urme ná bitcher
tute sonnakai pábya!"
But the mighty charm of charms to protect cattle from theft is the
following: Three drops of blood are made to fall from the finger of a
little child on a piece of bread which is given to the animal to eat,
with these words:--
"Dav tute trinen rátá
Ternes te láces ávná!
Ko tut corel, ádáleske
Hin rát te más shutyárdye!
Káná rátá te rátá
Paltire per ávná,
Yákh te yákh te báre yákh
Sikoves çál te çál
Ko kámel tut te çál!"
"I give three (drops of) blood
To become young and good;
Who steals thee to him
Shall be (is) blood and flesh dried up!
When blood and blood
Pass into thy belly,
Fire and fire and great fire
Shall devour and devour all
Who will eat thee!"
This incantation takes us back to grim old heathenism with hints of
human sacrifice. When the thief was suspected or privately detected
it is probable that a dose of some burning poison made good the
prediction. "The word young" remarks Dr. Wlislocki, "may be here
understood to mean innocent, since, according to ancient belief, there
was a powerful magic virtue in the blood of virgins and of little
children. Every new tent is therefore sprinkled by the gypsies with
a few drops of a child's blood to protect it from magic or any other
accident." So in prehistoric times, and through the Middle Ages, a
human being was often walled up alive in the foundations of a castle
to insure its durability. (Vide P. Cassel, "Die Symbolik des Blutes,"
p. 157.)
When the wandering, or tent-gypsies, find that cattle are ill and do
not know the nature of the disease, they take two birds--if possible
quails, called by them bereçto or füryo--one of which is killed, but
the other, besprinkled with its blood, is allowed to fly away. With
what remains of the blood they sprinkle some fodder, which is put
before the animal, with the words:--
"So ándre tu miseç hin
Avri ává!
Káthe ker ná ávlá,
Miseçeske!
Káná rátá ná ávná,
Násvályipen ná ávná!
Miseç, tu ávri ává,
Ada ker ná láce;
Dáv rátá me káthe!"
"What in thee is evil
Come forth!
Here is no home
For the evil one!
When (drops of) blood come not,
Sickness comes not,
Thou evil one, come forth!'
"Trin párne, trin kále,
Trin tçule páshlajen káthe,
Ko len hádjinel
Ac kivá mánge!"
"Three white, three black,
Three fat lie together here.
Whoever disturbs them
Remain to me! (Be mine!)"
To insure pigs thriving by a new owner, some charcoal-dust is mingled
with their food and these words spoken:--
"Nivaseske ná muká,
The çál t're çábená!
Miseç yákhá tut díkhen,
The yon káthe mudáren,
Tu atunci çábá len!"
"Do not let the Nivasi
Eat thy food,
Evil eyes see thee,
And they here shall perish,
Then do thou eat them!"
As a particularly powerful conjuration against thieves, the owner
runs thrice, while quite naked, round the animal or object which he
wishes to protect, and repeats at every turn:--
"Oh coreyá ná prejiá.
Dureder ná ává!
T're vástá, t're punrá
Avená kirñodyá
Te ádá pedá láves!"
"Oh, thief, do not go,
Further do not come!
Thy hands, thy feet
Shall decay
If thou takest this animal!"
Another "thieves' benediction" is as follows: The owner goes at
midnight with the animal or object to be protected to a cross-roads,
and while letting fall on the ground a few hairs of the beast, or a
bit of the thing whatever it be, repeats:--
"Ada hin tute,
Ná ává pál menge,
Dav tute, so kámáv;
Pçuvuseyá áshuná!"
"This home is not good,
Here I give (thee) blood!"
"The gypsies call the quail the devil's bird (Ciriclo bengeskro),
and ascribe diabolic properties to it. (Vide Cassel, 6 and 162.) The
daughters of the Nivasi appear as quails in the fields by day, but
during the night they steal the corn. To keep them away it is held
good during sowing-time to place in each of the four corners of the
field, parts of a quail, or at least some of the feathers of a black
hen which has never laid an egg. This superstition is also current
among the Roumanian peasants of the Siebenbürgen."
The primitive meaning of the myth may perhaps be found in the Greek
tradition which regarded the quail, because it was a bird of passage,
as a type of revival of spring or of life. Hercules awakes from
his swoon when his companion Iolaus (from the Greek ioulos, youth),
holds a quail to his nose. Hercules suffered from epilepsy, for which
disease the ancients thought the brain of a quail was a specific. The
placing pieces of a quail, by the gypsies, in the corners of a field
when corn is sown, connects the bird with spring. Artemis, a goddess
of spring and life, was called by the Romans Ortygyia, from ortyx,
a quail. Therefore, as signifying new life, the quail became itself
a cure for many diseases. And it seems to be like the Wren, also a
bird of witchcraft and sorcery, or a kind of witch itself. It is a
protector, because, owing to its pugnacity, it was a type of pluck,
battle and victory. In Phoenicia it was sacrificed to Hercules, and
the Romans were so fanatical in regard to it that Augustus punished
a city-father for serving upon his table a quail which had become
celebrated for its prowess. And so it has become a devil's bird among
the gypsies because in the old time it was regarded as a devil of a
bird for fighting.
The gypsies are hardly to be regarded as Christians, but when they
wish to contend against the powers of darkness they occasionally
invoke Christian influences. If a cow gives bloody milk it is thought
to be caused by her eating Wachtelkraut, or quail weed, which is a
poison. In such a case they sprinkle the milk on a field frequented
by quails and repeat:--
"Dav rátá tumenge
Adá ná hin láce!
Ráyeskro Kristeskro rátá
Adá hin máy láce
Adá hin ámenge!"
"I give to you blood,
Which is not good!
The Lord Christ's blood
Is truly good,
That is ours!"
If a cow makes water while being milked, she is bewitched, and
it is well in such a case to catch some of the urine, mix it with
onion-peelings and the egg of a black hen. This is boiled and mixed
with the cow's food while these lines are repeated:--
"Ko ándré hin, avriává,
Trin Urma cingárden les,
Trin Urma tráden les
Andre yándengré ker
Beshel yov ándre ker
Hin leske máy yakhá,
Hin leske máy páña!"
"Who is within, let him come out!
Three Urme call him,
Three Urme drive him
Into the egg-shell house,
There he lives in the house;
He has much fire,
He has much water!"
Then half the shell of the egg of the black hen is thrown into a
running stream and the other half into a fire.
Next to the Nivasi and Pçuvuse, or spirits of earth and air, and human
sorcerers or witches, the being who is most dreaded as injuring cattle
is the Chagrin or Cagrino. These demons have the form of a hedgehog,
are of yellowish colour, and are half a yard in length, and a span
in breadth. "I am certain," says Wlislocki, "that this creature
is none other than the equally demoniac being called Harginn, still
believed in by the inhabitants of North-western India. (Vide Liebrecht,
p. 112, and Leitner, 'Results of a Tour in Dardistan Kashmir,' &c.,
vol. i. p. 13.) The exact identity of the description of the two, as
well as that of the name, prove that the gypsies brought the belief
from their Indian home." It may here be observed that the Indian name
is Harginn, and the true gypsy word is pronounced very nearly like
'Hágrin--the o being an arbitrary addition. The transposition of
letters in a word is extremely common among the Hindu gypsies. The
Chagrin specially torments horses, by sitting on their backs and
making water on their bodies. The next day they appear to be weary,
sad, sick, and weak, bathed in sweat, with their manes tangled. When
this is seen the following ceremony is resorted to: The horse is
tied to a stake which has been rubbed with garlic juice, then a red
thread is laid in the form of a cross on the ground, but so far from
the heels of the horse that he cannot disturb it. And while laying
it down the performer sings:--
"Sáve miseç ac káthe,
Ác ándre lunge táve,
Andre leg páshader páñi.
De tu tire páñi
Andre çuca Cháriñeyá,
Andre tu sik mudárá!"
"All evil stay here,
Stay in the long thread,
In the next brook (water).
Give thy water,
Jump in Chagrin!
Therein perish quickly!"
Of the widely-spread and ancient belief in the magic virtues of garlic
and red wool I have elsewhere spoken. That witches and goblins or
imps ride horses by night and then restore them in the morning to
their stalls in a wretched condition--trembling, enfeebled, and with
tangled manes--is believed all the world over, and it would probably
be found that the Chagrin also gallops them.
Another charm against this being consists of taking some of the hair
of the animal, a little salt, and the blood of a bat, which is all
mixed with meal and cooked to a bread. With this the foot of the horse
is smeared, and then the empty pipkin is put into the trunk of a high
tree while these words are uttered:--
"Ac tu cin kathe,
Cin ádá tçutes ávlá!"
"Stay so long here,
Till it shall be full!"
The blood of the bat may be derived from an Oriental belief that
the bat being the most perfect of birds, because it has breasts
and suckles its young, it is specially adapted to magical uses. In
the Tyrol he who bears the left eye of a bat may become invisible,
and in Hesse he who wears the heart of a bat bound to his arm with
red thread will always win at cards. The manes of the horses which
have been tangled and twisted by the Chagrin must not be cut off or
disentangled unless these words are spoken:--
"Cin tu jid', cin ádá bálá jiden."
"So long live thou, long as these hairs shall live."
It is an European belief that knots of hair made by witches must not
be disentangled. The belief that such knots are made intentionally
by some intelligence is very natural. I have often been surprised to
find how frequently knots form themselves in the cord of my eye-glass,
even when pains are taken at night to lay it down so as to be free of
them. Apropos of which I may mention that this teasing personality
of the eye-glass and cord seems to have been noted by others. I was
once travelling on the Nile in company with a Persian prince, who
became convinced that his eye-glass was very unlucky, and therefore
threw it into the river.
The Chagrin specially torments mares which have recently foaled;
therefore it is held needful, soon after the birth, to put into the
water which the mother drinks glowing hot coals, which are thrice taken
from the fire. With these are included pieces of iron, such as nails,
knives, &c., and the following words are solemnly murmured:--
"Piyá tu te ña ac sovnibnastár!"
"Drink, and do not be sleepy!"
Many readers may here observe that charcoal and iron form a real tonic,
or very practical strengthening dose for the enfeebled mare. But here,
as in many cases medicine makes a cure and the devil or the doctor
gets the credit. The Chagrin is supposed to attack horses only while
they are asleep. Its urine often causes swellings or sores. These
are covered by day with a patch of red cloth, which is stuck at night
into a hole in a tree, which is closed with a cork, while these words
are pronounced:--
"Ac tu káthe
Cin áulá táv pedá
Cin pedá yek ruk
Cin ruk yek mánush
Ko mudarel tut."
"Remain thou here
Till the rag become an animal,
Till the animal, a tree,
Till the tree, a man,
Who will destroy thee!"
Dr. Wlislocki suggests that "the idea of the tree's becoming a man,
is derived from the old gypsy belief that the first human beings
were made from the leaves of trees," and refers to what he has
elsewhere written on a tradition of the creation of the world, as
held by Transylvanian gypsies. The following is a children's song,
in which the belief may be traced:--
"Amaro dád jál ándro bes
Cingerel odoy caves,
Del dáyákri andre pádá
Yek cavoro ádá ávla."
"Our father went into a wood,
There he cut a boy,
Laid it in mother's bed,
So a boy comes."
The Greeks believed that man was made from an ash-tree, and the
Norsemen probably derived it from the same source with them. In
1862 I published in The Continental Magazine (New York) a paper on
the lore connected with the ash, in which effort was made to show
that in early times in India the Banyan was specially worshipped,
and that the descendants of men familiar with this cult had, after
migrating to the Far West, transferred the worship and traditions
of the banyan to the ash. It has been observed that the ash-tree
sometimes--like the banyan--sends its shoots down to the ground,
where they take root. The Algonkin Indians seem to have taken this
belief of man's origin from the ash from the Norsemen, as a very
large proportion of their myths correspond closely to those of the
Edda. But, in brief, if the Greeks and Norsemen were of Aryan origin,
and had ever had a language in common, they probably had common myths.
The following is the remedy for the so-called Würmer, or worms, i.e.,
external sores. Before sunrise wolf's milk (Wolfsmilch, rukeskro tçud)
is collected, mixed with salt, garlic, and water, put into a pot,
and boiled down to a brew. With a part of this the afflicted spot is
rubbed, the rest is thrown into a brook, with the words:--
"Kirmora jánen ándre tçud
Andrál tçud, andré sir
Andrál sir, andré páñi,
Panensá kiyá dádeske,
Kiyá Niváseske
Pçándel tumen shelehá
Eñávárdesh teñá!"
"Worms go in the milk,
From the milk into the garlic,
From the garlic into the water,
With the water to (your) father,
To the Nivasi,
He shall bind you with a rope,
Ninety-nine (yards long)."
A common cure of worms in swine among the Transylvanian tent-gypsies
is to stand ere the sun rises before a çadcerli, or nettle, and while
pouring on it the urine of the animal to be cured, repeat:--
"Láce, láce detehárá!
Hin mánge máy bute trásha
Kirmora hin [báleceske],
Te me penáv, penáv tute!
Káles hin yon, loles, párnes,
Deisislá hin yon mulánes!"
"Good, good morrow!
I have much sorrow.
Worms are in [my swine to-day]
And I say, to you I say,
Black are they or white or red
By to-morrow be they dead!"
The nettle has its own peculiar associations. According to the gypsies
it grows chiefly in places where there is a subterranean passage
to the dwellings of the Pçuvus, or Earth-fairies, therefore it is
consecrated to them and called Kásta Pçuvasengré, Pcuvus-wood. Hence
the gypsy children while gathering nettles for pigs sing:--
"Cádcerli ná pçábuvá!
André ker me ná jiáv,
Kiyá Pçuvus ná jiáv,
Tráden, tráden kirmorá!"
"Nettle, nettle do not burn,
In your house no one shall go,
No one to the Pcuvus goes,
Drive, drive away the worms!"
"The nettle," says Friedrich ("Symbolik der Natur," p. 324), "because
it causes a burning pain is among the Hindoos a demoniac symbol, for,
as they say, the great serpent poured out its poison on it. But as evil
is an antidote for evil, the nettle held in the hand is a guard against
ghosts, and it is good for beer when laid upon the barrel." "From its
employment as an aphrodisiac, and its use in flagellation to restore
sexual power, it is regarded as sacred to Nature by the followers of a
secret sect or society still existing in several countries, especially
Persia" (MS. account of certain Secret Societies). The gypsies believe
that the Earth-fairies are the foes of every kind of worm and creeping
insect with the exception of the snail, which they therefore call
the "gráy Pçuvusengré," the Pçuvus-horse. Gry-puvusengree would
in English gypsy mean the earthy-horse. English gypsies, and the
English peasantry, as well as gypsies, call snails "cattle, because
they have horns." Snails are a type of voluptuousness, because they
are hermaphrodite, and exceedingly giving to sexual indulgence, so
that as many as half a dozen may be found mutually giving and taking
pleasure. Hence in German Schnecke, a snail, is a term applied to
the pudendum muliebre. And as anything significant of fertility,
generation, and sexual enjoyment was supposed to constitute a charm
or amulet against witchcraft, i.e., all evil influences, which are
allied to sterility, chastity, and barrenness, a snail's shell forms
a powerful fetish for a true believer. The reference to white, black,
or red in the foregoing charm, or rather the one before it, refers,
says Dr. Wlislocki, to the gypsy belief that there are white, black,
and red Earth-fairies. A girl can win (illicit) love from a man by
inducing him to carry a snail shell which she has had for some time
about her person. To present a snail shell is to make a very direct
but not very delicate declaration of love to any one. I have heard
of a lady who caused an intense excitement in a village by collecting
about a hundred large snails, gilding their shells, and then turning
them loose in several gardens, where their discovery excited, as may
be supposed, great excitement among the finders.
If pigs lose their appetites a brew is made of milk, charcoal dust,
and their own dung, which is put before them with the words: "Friss
Hexe und verreck!"
"In this place I must remark that the Transylvanian tent-gypsies use
for grumus merdoe also the expression Hirte (feris)" (Wlislocki). To
cure a cough in animals one should take from the hoofs of the first
riding horse, dirt or dust, and put it into the mouth of the suffering
animal with the words:--
"Prejiál te náñi yov ável!"
"May he go away and never return!"
To have a horse always in good spirits and lively during the waning
moon his spine is rubbed with garlic, while these words are uttered:--
"Miseç ándre tut,
O beng the çal but!
Laces ándre tut
Acel ándre tut!"
"(What is) evil in thee,
May the devil eat it much!
(What is) good in thee,
May it remain in thee!"
But it is far more effective when the garlic is put on a rag of the
clothes of one who has been hanged, and the place rubbed with it: in
which we have a remnant of the earliest witchcraft, before Shamanism,
which had recourse to the vilest and most vulgar methods of exciting
awe and belief. This is in all probability the earliest form in which
magic, or the power of controlling invisible or supernatural influences
manifested itself, and it is very interesting to observe that it still
survives, and that the world still presents every phase of its faiths,
ab initio.
There is a very curious belief or principle attached to the use of
songs in conjuring witches, or in averting their own sorcery. It
is that the witch is obliged, willy nilly, to listen to the end
to what is in metre, an idea founded on the attraction of melody,
which is much stronger among savages and children than with civilized
adults. Nearly allied to this is the belief that if the witch sees
interlaced or bewildering and confused patterns she must follow them
out, and by means of this her thoughts are diverted or scattered. Hence
the serpentine inscriptions of the Norsemen and their intertwining
bands which were firmly believed to bring good luck or avert evil
influence. A traveller in Persia states that the patterns of the
carpets of that country are made as bewildering as possible "to avert
the evil eye." And it is with this purpose that in Italian, as in
all other witchcraft, so many spells and charms depend on interwoven
braided cords.
"Twist ye, twine ye, even so,
Mingle threads of joy and woe."
The basis for this belief is the fascination, or instinct, which
many persons, especially children, feel to trace out patterns, to
thread the mazes of labyrinths or to analyze and disentangle knots and
"cat's cradles." Did space permit, nor inclination fail, I could point
out some curious proofs that the old belief in the power of long and
curling hair to fascinate was derived not only from its beauty but
also because of the magic of its curves and entanglements.
The gypsies believe that the Earth-spirits are specially interested
in animals. They also teach women the secrets of medicine and
sorcery. There are indications of this in the negro magic. Miss
Mary Owen, an accomplished Folk-lorist of St. Joseph, Missouri, who
has been deeply instructed in Voodooism, informs me that a woman to
become a witch must go by night into a field and pull up a weed by
the roots. From the quantity of soil which clings to it, is inferred
the degree of magic power which the pupil will attain. I am not
astonished to learn that when this lady was initiated, the amount
of earth collected was unusually great. In such cases the Pchuvus
(or Poovus in English gypsy), indicate their good-will by bestowing
"earth," which, from meaning luck or good-fortune, has passed in
popular parlance to signifying money.