THE RECOVERY OF STOLEN PROPERTY--LOVE-CHARMS--SHOES AND LOVE-POTIONS,
OR PHILTRES.
When a man has lost anything, or been robbed, he often has in his
own mind, quite unconsciously, some suspicion or clue to it. A clever
fortune-teller or gypsy who has made a life-long study of such clues,
can often elicit from the loser, hints which enable the magician to
surmise the truth. Many people place absolute confidence in their
servants, and perhaps suspect nobody. The detective or gypsy has no
such faith in man, and suspects everybody. Where positive knowledge
cannot be established there is, however, another resource. The thief
is often as superstitious as his victim. Hence he fears that some
mysterious curse may be laid on him, which he cannot escape. In
the Pacific Islands, as among negroes everywhere, a man will die if
taboo or voodoo attaches to the taking of objects which have been
consecrated by a certain formula. Therefore such formulas are commonly
employed. Among the Hungarian gypsies to recover a stolen animal,
some of its dung is taken and thrown to the East and the West with
the words:--
"Kay tut o kam dikhel:
Odoy ává kiyá mánge!"
"Where the sun sees thee,
Hence return to me!"
But when a horse has been stolen, they take what is left of his
harness, bury it in the earth and make a fire over it, saying:--
"Kó tut cordyás
Nasvales th' ávlás
Leske sor ná ávlás,
Tu ná ac kiyá leske
Avá sástes kiyá mánge!
Leskro sor káthe pashlyol
Sár e tçuv avriurál!"
"Who stole thee
Sick may he be
May his strength depart!
Do not thou remain by him,
Come (back) sound to me,
His strength lies here
As the smoke goes away!"
To know in which direction the stolen thing lies, they carry a sucking
babe to a stream, hold it over the water and say:--
"Pen mánge, oh Nivaseya
Caveskro vástehá
Kay hin m'ro gráy,
Ujes hin cavo,
Ujes sár o kam
Ujes sár páni
Ujes sár cumut
Ujes sár legujes?
Pen mánge, oh Niváseyá,
Cáveskro vastehá
Kay hin m'ro gráy!"
"Tell me, oh Nivaseha,
By the child's hand!
Where is my horse?
Pure is the child
Pure as the sun,
Pure as water,
Pure as the moon,
Pure as the purest.
Tell me, oh Nivaseha,
By the child's hand!
Where is my horse?"
In this we have an illustration of the widely spread belief that an
innocent child is a powerful agent in prophecy and sorcery. The oath
"by the hand" is still in vogue among all gypsies. "Apo miro dadeskro
vast!" ("By my father's hand!") is one of their greatest oaths in
Germany, ("Die Zigeuner," von Richard Liebich), and I have met with
an old gypsy in England who knew it.
If a man who is seeking for stolen goods finds willow twigs grown
into a knot, he ties it up and says:--
"Me avri pçándáv coreskro báçht!"
"I tie up the thief's luck!"
There is also a belief among the gypsies that these knots are twined
by the fairies, and that whoever undoes them undoes his own luck,
or that of the person on whom he is thinking. (Vide Rocholz,
"Alemannisches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel aus der Schweiz,"
p. 146). These willow-knots are much used in love-charms. To win
the love of a maid, a man cuts one of them, puts it into his mouth,
and says:--
"T're báçt me çáv,
T're baçt me piyáv,
Dáv tute m're baçt,
Káná tu mánge sál."
"I eat thy luck,
I drink thy luck;
Give me that luck of thine,
Then thou shalt be mine."
Then the lover, if he can, secretly hides this knot in the bed of
the wished-for bride. It is worth noting that these lines are so much
like English Gypsy as it was once spoken that there are still men who
would, in England, understand every word of it. Somewhat allied to
this is another charm. The lover takes a blade of grass in his mouth,
and turning to the East and the West, says:--
"Kay o kám, avriável,
Kiya mánge lele beshel!
Kay o kám tel' ável,
Kiya lelákri me beshav."
"Where the sun goes up
Shall my love be by me!
Where the sun goes down
There by her I'll be."
Then the blade of grass is cut up into pieces and mingled with
some food which the girl must eat, and if she swallow the least bit
of the grass, she will be gewogen und treugesinnt--moved to love,
and true-hearted. On which Dr. Wlislocki remarks on the old custom
"also known to the Hindoos," by which any one wishing to deprecate
the wrath of another, or to express complete subjection, takes a
blade of grass in his mouth. Of which Grimm writes: "This custom
may have sprung from the idea that the one conquered gave himself
up like a domestic animal to the absolute power of another. And with
this appears to be connected the ancient custom of holding out grass
as a sign of surrender. The conquered man took the blade of grass in
his mouth and then transferred it to his conqueror."
If a gypsy girl be in love she finds the foot-print of her "object,"
digs out the earth which is within its outline and buries this under
a willow-tree, saying:--
"Upro pçuv hin but pçuvá;
Kás kámáv, mange th' ávlá!
Bárvol, bárvol, sálciye,
Brigá ná hin mánge!
Yov tover, me pori,
Yov kokosh, me cátrá,
Ádá, ádá me kamav!"
"Many earths on earth there be,
Whom I love my own shall be,
Grow, grow willow tree!
Sorrow none unto me!
He the axe, I the helve,
He the cock, I the hen,
This, this (be as) I will!"
Another love-charm which belongs to ancient black witchcraft, and is
known far and wide, is the following: When dogs are coupling (Wenn Hund
und Hündin bei der Paarung zusammenhängen) the lover suddenly covers
them with a cloth, if possible, one which is afterwards presented to
the girl whom he seeks, while he says:--
"Me jiuklo, yoy jiukli,
Yoy tover, me pori,
Me kokosh, yoy cátrá,
Ádá, ádá me kamáv!"
"I the dog, she the bitch,
I the helve, she the axe,
I the cock (and) she the hen,
That, that I desire."
He or she who finds a red ribbon, tape, or even a piece of red stuff
of any kind, especially if it be wool, will have luck in love. It
must be picked up and carried as an amulet, and when raising it from
the ground the finder must make a wish for the love of some person,
or if he have no particular desire for any one, he may wish for luck
in love, or a sweetheart. This is, I believe, pretty generally known
in some form all over the world. A yellow ribbon or flower, especially
if it be floating on water, presages gold; a white object, silver,
or peace or reconciliation with enemies.
It is also lucky for love to find a key. In Tuscany there is a special
formula which must be spoken while picking it up. Very old keys are
valuable amulets. Those who carry them will learn secrets, penetrate
mysteries, and succeed in what they undertake.
If you can get a shoe which a girl has worn you may make sad havoc
with her heart if you carry it near your own. Also hang it up over
your bed and put into it the leaves of rue.
During November, 1889, not a few newspaper commentators busied
themselves with conjectures as to why a Scotch constable buried the
boots of a murdered man. That it was done through some superstitious
belief is conceded; but what the fashion of the superstition is
seems unknown. It originated, beyond question, in the old Norse
custom of always burying the dead in their shoes or with them. For
they believed that the deceased would have, when he arrived in the
other world, to traverse broad and burning plains before he could
reach his destination, be it Valhalla or the dreary home of Hel;
and to protect his feet from the fire his friends bound on them the
"hell-shoon." Other cares were also taken: and in the saga of Olof
Tryggvasen we are told that one monarch was thoughtfully provided
with a cow; while the Vikings were buried in their ships, so that
they could keep on pirating "for ever and ever."
The superstition of the burial of the boots probably survives in
England. It is about seventeen years since the writer heard from an
old gypsy that when another gypsy was "pûvado," or "earthed," a very
good pair of boots was placed by him in the grave. The reason was not
given; perhaps it was not known. These customs often survive after
the cause is forgotten, simply from some feeling that good or bad
luck attends their observance or the neglect of it. Many years since
a writer in an article on shoes in The English Magazine stated that,
"according to an Aryan tradition, the greater part of the way from
the land of the living to that of death lay through morasses and vast
moors overgrown with furzes and thorns. That the dead might not pass
over them bare-foot, a pair of shoes was laid with them in the grave."
The shoe was of old in many countries a symbol of life, liberty, or
entire personal control. In Ruth we are told that "it was the custom
in Israel concerning changing, that a man plucked off his shoe and
delivered it to his neighbour." So the bride, who was originally
always a slave, transferred herself by the symbol of the shoe. When
the Emperor Waldimir made proposals of marriage to the daughter of
Ragnald, she replied scornfully that she would not take off her shoes
to the son of a slave. Gregory of Tours, in speaking of wedding, says:
"The bridegroom, having given a ring to the bride, presents her with
a shoe."
As regards the Scandinavian hel-shoe, or hell-shoon, Kelley, in his
"Indo-European Folk-lore," tells us that a funeral is still called
a dead shoe in the Henneberg district; and the writer already cited
adds that in a MS. of the Cotton Library, containing an account of
Cleveland in Yorkshire, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there is a
passage which illustrates this curious custom. It was quoted by Sir
Walter Scott in the notes to "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,"
and runs thus:--
"When any dieth certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie,
reciting the journey that the partye deceased must goe; and they
are of beliefe that once in their lives it is goode to give a
pair of new shoes to a poor man; forasmuch as before this life
they are to pass bare-foote through a great lande, full of thornes
and furzen--excepte by the meryte of the almes aforesaid they have
redeemed the forfeyte--for at the edge of the launde an oulde man
shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the partie
when he was lyving, and after he hath shodde them dismisseth them
to go through thick and thin without scratch or scalle.
This must be a very agreeable reflection to all gentlemen who have
bestowed their old boots on waiters, or ladies who have in like
fashion gifted their maids. It is true, the legend specifies new
shoes; but surely a pair of thirty-shilling boots only half worn count
for as much as a new pair of half a sovereign chaussures. However,
if one is to go "through thick and thin without scratch or scalle,"
it may be just as well to be on the safe side, and give a good new
extra stout pair to the gardener for Christmas. For truly these
superstitions are strange things, and no one knows what may be in them.
There are one or two quaint shoe stories of the olden time which
may be of value to the collector. It befell once in the beginnings
of Bohemia, that, according to Schafarik ("Slawische Alterthümer,"
vol. ii. p. 422), Lïbussa, queen of that land, found herself compelled
by her council to wed. And the wise men, being consulted, declared that
he who was to marry the queen would be found by her favourite horse,
who would lead the way till he found a man eating from an iron table,
and kneel to him. So the horse went on, and unto a field where a man
sat eating a peasant's dinner from a ploughshare. This was the farmer
Prschemischl. So they covered him with the royal robes and led him to
the queen expectant. But ere going he took his shoes of willow-wood
and placed them in his bosom and kept them to remind him ever after
of his low origin. It will, of course, at once strike the reader,
as it has the learned, that this is a story which would naturally
originate in any country where there are iron ploughshares, horses,
queens, and wooden shoes: and, as Schafarik shrewdly suggests, that
it was all "a put-up job;" since, of course, Prschemischl was already
a lover of the queen, the horse was trained to find him and to kneel
before him, and, finally, that the ploughshare and wooden shoes were
the prepared properties of the little drama. The only little flaw in
this evidence is the name Prschemischl, which, it must be admitted,
is extremely difficult to get over.
The Seven League Boots and the shoes of Peter Schlemihl, which take
one over the world at will, have a variation in a pair recorded
in another tale. There was a beautiful and extremely proud damsel,
who refused a young man with every conceivable aggravation of the
offence, informing him that when she ran after him, and not before
that, he might hope to marry her; and at the same time meeting a poor
old gypsy woman who begged her for a pair of old shoes. To which the
proud Princess replied:--
"Shoes here, shoes there;
Give me a couple, I'll give thee a pair."
To which the old gypsy, who was a witch, grimly muttered, "I'll give
thee a pair which----" The rest of the expression was really too
unamiable to repeat. Well, the youth and the witch met, and, going to
the lady's shoemaker, "made him make" a superbly elegant pair of shoes,
which were sent to the damsel as a gift. Such a gift! No sooner were
they put on than off they started, carrying the Princess, malgré elle,
over hill and dale. By and by she saw that a man--the man, of course,
whom she had refused--was in advance of her. As in the song of the
Cork Leg, "the shoes never stopped, but kept on the pace." And the
young man led her to a lonely castle and reasoned with her. And as
she had promised to marry should she ever run after him, and as she
had pursued him a whole day, she kept her word. The shoes she sent
to the witch filled with gold; and they were wedded, and all went as
merry as a thousand grigs in a duck-pond.
The shoe, as has been shown by a Danish writer in a book chiefly
devoted to the subject, is a type of life, especially as shown in
productiveness and fertility. Hence old shoes and grain are thrown
after a bride, as people say, for luck; but the Jews do it crying,
"Peru urphu"--"Increase and multiply." For this, and much more, the
reader may consult that wonderful treasury of Folk-lore, "Die Symbolik
und Mythologie der Natur," J. B. Friedrich, Würzburg, 1859. To which
we would add our mite by remarking as a curious confirmation of this
theory, that--
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
Who had so many children she didn't know what to do.
This passes now for a mere nursery-rhyme; but doubtless there are
those who will trace it back to the early morning of mythology,
and prove that it was once a Himaritic hymn, sung to some Melitta
who has long passed away down the back entry of time.
For several additional Hungarian gypsy love-charms and spells,
collected by Dr. Wlislocki, published in Ethnographia, and subsequently
in The Gipsy-Lore Journal for June, 1890, I am greatly indebted to
the kindness of Mr. D. MacRitchie:--
"The gypsy girls of Transylvania believe that spells to 'know
your future husband' can be best carried out on the eves of
certain days, such as New Year, Easter, and Saint George. 'On
New Year's Eve they throw shoes or boots on a willow tree, but
are only allowed to throw them nine times.' Compare this with the
throwing of the old shoe after the bride in many countries. 'If
the shoe catches in the branches the girl who threw it will be
married within a year.'
"On the same eve they go to a tree and shake it by turns,
singing:--
"'Per de, per de prájtina,
Varekaj hin, hász kamav?
Basá, párro dzsiuklo,
Pirano dzsal mai szigo.'
"'Scattered leaves around I see,
Where can my true lover be?
Ah, the white dog barks at last!
And my love comes running fast!'
"If during the singing the bark of a dog should be heard, the
damsel will be 'wedded and bedded ere New Year comes again. This
is virtually the same with a charm practised in Tuscany, which from
other ancient witness I believe to be of Etruscan origin. Allied to
this is the following: On the night of Saint George's Day (query,
Saint George's Eve?) gypsy girls blindfold a white dog, then,
letting it loose, place themselves quietly in several places. She
to whom the dog runs first will be the first married. Blindman's
buff was anciently an amorous, semi-magical, or witches' game,
only that in place of the dog a man was blindfolded.
"'Or the girl pulls a hair from her head, fastens a ring to it,
and dangles it in a jug. The ring vibrates or swings, and so
often as it touches the side of the jug so many years will it
be before she marries.' This is an ancient spell of Eastern
origin. As performed according to old works the thread must be
wound around the ring-finger and touch the pulse. On the edge of a
bowl the letters of the alphabet, or numerals, are marked, and the
ring swinging against these spells words or denotes numbers. The
touching of the latter indicates the number of lovers a girl is
to have.
"Early on Whitsunday morning the girls go out, and if they see
clouds in the East they throw twigs in that direction, saying:--
"'Predzsia, csirik leja,
Te ná tráda m're píranes.'
"'Fly my bird--fly, I say,
Do not chase my love away.'
"For they think that if on Whitsun-morn there are many clouds in
the East few girls will be married during the coming year. This
peculiar, seemingly incomprehensible, custom of the gypsies
originated in an old belief, the germ of which we find in
the Hindoo myth, according to which the spring morning which
spreads brightness and blessings descends from the blue bird
of heaven, who, on the other hand, also represents night or
winter. Special preparations are made so that the predictions shall
be fulfilled. On the days mentioned the girls are neither allowed
to wash themselves, nor to kiss any one, nor go to church. At
Easter, or on the Eve of Saint George, the girl must eat fish,
in order to see the future in her dreams.
"On Easter morning the girls boil water, in the bubbles of which
they try to make out the names of their future husbands.
"To find out whether the future husband is young or old the girl
must take nine seeds of the thorn-apple, ploughed-up earth of
nine different places, and water from as many more. With these
she kneads a cake, which is laid on a cross-road on Easter or
Saint George's morning. If a woman steps first on the cake her
husband will be a widower or an old man, but if a man the husband
will be single or young.
"To see the form of a future husband a girl must go on the night
of Saint George to a cross-road. Her hair is combed backwards,
and, pricking the little finger of the left hand, she must let
three drops of blood fall on the ground while saying:--
"'Mro rat dav piraneszke,
Kász dikhav, avava adaleske.'
"'I give my blood to my loved one,
Whom I shall see shall be mine own!'
"Then the form of her future husband will rise slowly out of the
blood and fade as slowly away. She must then gather up the dust,
or mud-blood, and throw it into a river, otherwise the Nivashi,
or Water-spirits, will lick up the blood, and the girl be drowned
within the year. It is said that about twenty years ago the
beautiful Roszi (Rosa), the daughter of Peter Danku, the waywode,
or chief of the Kukuja tribe, was drowned during the time of
her betrothal because when she performed this ceremony she had
neglected to gather up the sprinkled blood.
"If a girl wishes to see the form of her future husband, and
also to know what luck awaits her love, she goes on any of the
fore-named nights to a cross-road, and sits down on the ground,
putting before her a fried fish and a glass of brandy. Then the
form of her future husband will appear and stand before her for
a time, silent and immovable. Should he then take the fish the
marriage will be happy, but if he begin with the brandy it will
be truly wretched. But if he takes neither, one of the two will
die during the year.
"That the laying of cards, the interpretation of dreams, the
reading of the future in the hand, and similar divinations are
constantly practised is quite natural, but it would lead us too
far to enlarge on all these practices. But there are charms to
win or cause love which are more interesting. Among these are
the love-potions or philtres, for preparing which gypsies have
always been famed.
"The simplest and least hurtful beverage which they give unknown to
persons to secure love is made as follows:--On any of the nights
mentioned they collect in the meadows gander-goose (Romání, vast
bengeszkero--devil's hand; in Latin, Orchis maculata; German,
Knabenkraut), the yellow roots of which they dry and crush and
mix with their menses, and this they introduce to the food of
the person whose love they wish to secure."
Of the same character is a potion which they prepare as follows:
On the day of Saint John they catch a green frog and put it in a
closed earthen receptacle full of small holes, and this they place
in an ant-hill. The ants eat the frog and leave the skeleton. This is
ground to powder, mixed with the blood of a bat and dried bath-flies
and shaped into small buns, which are, as the chance occurs, put
secretly into the food of the person to be charmed.
There is yet another charm connected with this which I leave in
the original Latin in which it is modestly given by Dr. Wlislocki:
"Qualibet supradictarum noctium occiduntur duo canes nigri, mas et
femina, quorum genitalia exstirpata ad condensationem coquntur. Hujus
materiæ particula consumpta quemvis invincibili amore facit exardescare
in eam eamve, qui hoc medio prodigioso usus est."
It may be remarked that these abominable charms are also not only
known to the Tuscan witches of the present day, but are found in Voodoo
sorcery, and are indeed all over the world. To use revolting means in
black sorcery may be, or perhaps certainly is, spontaneous-sporadic,
but when we find the peculiar details of the processes identical,
we are so much nearer to transmission or history that the burden of
disproving must fall on the doubter.
"To the less revolting philtres belongs one in which the girl
puts the ashes of a burnt piece of her dress which had been wet
with perspiration and has, perhaps, hair adhering to it, into a
man's food or drink (also Tuscan).
"To bury the foot of a badger (also Voodoo), or the eye of a crow,
under one's sleeping-place is believed to excite or awaken love.
"According to gypsy belief one can spread love by transplanting
blood, perspiration, or hair into the body of a person.
"By burning the hair, blood, or saliva of any one, his or her
love can be extinguished.
"The following is a charm used to punish a faithless lover. The
deceived maid lights a candle at midnight and pricks it several
times with a needle, saying:--
"'Pchagerav momely
Pchagera tre vodyi!'
"'Thrice the candle's broke by me
Thrice thy heart shall broken be!'
"If the faithless lover marries another, the girl mixes the broken
shell of a crab in his food or drink, or hides one of her hairs
in a bird's nest. This will make the marriage unhappy, and the
husband will continually pine for his neglected sweetheart."
This last charm is allied to another current among the Slavonians,
and elsewhere mentioned, by which it is believed that if a bird gets
any of a man's hair and works it into a nest he will suffer terribly
till it is completely decayed.