ROUMANIAN AND TRANSYLVANIAN SORCERIES AND SUPERSTITIONS, CONNECTED
WITH THOSE OF THE GYPSIES.
In her very interesting account of Roumanian superstitions,
Mrs. E. Gerard ("The Land Beyond the Forest"), finds three distinct
sources for them: firstly, the indigenous, which seems to have been
formed by or adapted to the wild and picturesque scenery and character
of the country; secondly, those derived from the old German customs
and beliefs brought by the so-called Saxon, in reality Lower Rhenish
colonists; and thirdly, the influence of the gypsies, "themselves a
race of fortune-tellers and witches." All these kinds of superstition
have twined and intermingled, acted and reacted upon one another so
that in many cases it becomes a difficult matter to determine the
exact parentage of some particular belief or custom.
It may be often difficult to ascertain in what particular country or
among what people a superstition was last found, but there is very
little trouble when we compare the great body of all such beliefs
of all races and ages and thereby find the parent sources. It is
not many years since philologists, having taken up some favourite
language--for instance, Irish--discovering many words in many
tongues almost identical with others in "Earse," boldly claimed
that this tongue was the original of all the others. Now we find the
roots of them all in the Aryan. So when we examine Folk-lore, it is
doubtless of great importance that we should learn where a tradition
last lived; but we must not stop there--we must keep on inquiring
till we reach the beginning. As a rule, with little exception, when
we find anywhere the grosser forms of fetish and black witchcraft,
we may conclude that we have remains of the world's oldest faith,
or first beginning of supernaturalism in suffering and terror, a fear
of mysterious evil influences. For with all due respect to the fact
that such superstitions might have sprung up sporadically wherever
similar causes existed to create them, it is, in the first place, a
very rare chance that they should assume exactly like forms. Secondly,
we must consider that as there are even now millions of people who
receive with ready faith and carefully nurse these primæval beliefs,
so there has been from the beginning of time abundant opportunity
for their transmission and growth. Thirdly, nothing is so quickly
transmitted as Folk-lore, which in one sense includes myths and
religion. If jade was in the prehistoric stone age carried from Iona
or Tartary all over Europe, it is even more probable that myths went
with it quite as far and fast.
It is not by loose, fanciful, and careless guess-work as to how the
resemblance of Greek or Norse legends to those of the Red Indians is
due to similar conditions of climate and life, that we shall arrive
at facts; neither will the truth be ascertained by assuming that there
was a certain beginning of them all in a certain country, or that they
were all developed out of one mythology, be it solar or Shemitic,
Hindoo or Hebrew. What we want is impartial examination--comparison
and analysis. On this basis we find that all the Folk-lore or magic
of Europe, and especially of its Eastern portion, has a great deal
which is derived from black witchcraft, or from the succeeding
Shamanism. When we find that a superstition is based on fertility,
the "mystery of generation," or "Phallic worship"--as, for instance,
wearing boars' teeth or a little pig for a charm--we may conclude
that it is very ancient, but still not older than the time when
wise men had begun to reflect on the mysteries of birth and death
and weave them into myths. The exorcism of diseases as devils, and
the belief that they, in common with other evils, may be drummed, or
smoked, or incanted away into animals, trees, and streams, belongs
in most cases to Shamanism. In all probability the oldest sorcery
of all was entirely concerned with driving out devils and injuring
enemies--just as most of the play of small boys runs to fighting or
the semblance of it, or as the mutual relations of most animals in
the lower stages consist of devouring one another. This was the very
beginning of the beginnings, and it would be really marvellous that so
much of it has survived were it not that to the one who is not quite
dazzled or blinded by modern enlightenment there is still existent
a great outer circle of human darkness, and that this darkness may
be found in thousands of intermittent varying shadows or marvellous
chiaroscuro, even in the brightest sun-pictures of modern life. As I
write I have before me a copy of the Philadelphia Press, of April 14,
1889, in which a J. C. Batford, M.D., advertises that if any one will
send him two two-cent postage stamps--i.e., twopence--"with a lock of
your hair, name, age, and sex," he will send a clairvoyant diagnosis of
your disease. This divining by the lock of hair is extremely ancient,
and had its origin in the belief that he who could obtain one from an
enemy could reach his soul and kill him. From communicating a disease
by means of such a lock, and ascertaining what was the matter with
a man, in the same manner, was a very obvious step forward.
Of all people living in Europe the peasantry of Italy and Sicily
and the gypsies seem to have retained most of this Shamanism and
witchcraft, and as the latter have been for centuries its chief
priests, travelling here and there disseminating it, we may conclude
that even where they did not originate it they have been active in
keeping the old faith alive. In Roumania, where the gypsy is called
in to conjure on all occasions, "people believe themselves to be
surrounded by whole legions of devils, witches, and goblins." There
is scarcely a day or hour in which these bad spirits have not power,
"and a whole complicated system, about as laborious as the mastering
an unknown language, is required in order to teach an unfortunate
peasant to steer clear of the dangers by which he supposes himself
to be beset."
On Wednesday and Friday no one should use needle or scissors, bake
bread, or sow flax. No bargain should ever be concluded on a Friday,
and Venus, here called Paraschiva, to whom this day is sacred,
punishes all infractions of the law. There was among the Wends a
flax-goddess, Pscipolnitza, and the shears as emblematic of death are
naturally antipathetic to Venus, the source of life. Whether Mars
has anything in common with Mors I know not, but in Roumania he is
decidedly an evil spirit of death, whence Marti, or Tuesday, is one,
when spinning is positively prohibited (here we have Venus again),
and washing the hands and combing the hair are not unattended with
danger. Whence it appears that the devil agrees with not a few saints
in detesting neatness of the person. And as it is unlucky to wash
anything on Saturday, or to spin on Thursday, or to work in the fields
on Thursday between Easter and Pentecost, it will be seen that Laziness
and Dirt have between them a fine field in Roumania. Add to this that,
as in Russia, more than half the days in the year are Saints' days,
or fast days or festivals on which it is "unlucky" to work at all,
and we find that industry cannot be said to be much encouraged by Faith
in any of its forms. This belief in holy days which bring ill-luck to
those who work on them, which is still flourishing in every country
in the world, goes back to time whereof the memory of man hath naught
to the contrary. A distinct difference is here to be observed however
between naturally resting from work on certain days, which is of course
an inherent instinct in all mankind, and the declaring such rest to be
obligatory, and its infraction punishable by death, disaster, and bad
luck, and still more the increasing such Sabbaths to such an extent
as to interfere with industry, or the turning them into fast days
or Saints' days with "observances." Here the old Shamanism comes in,
if not the evil witchcraft itself which exacted penance and fasting,
and ceremonies to exorcise the devils. The first belief was that evil
spirits inflicted pain on man, and that man, by efforts which cost
him suffering, could repel or retaliate on them. This was simple
action and reaction, and the repulsion was effected with starving,
enduring smoke, or using repulsive and filthy objects. Out of this
in due time came penance of all kinds.
The Oriental or Greek Church is found at every turn, even more
than the Catholic, interchanged, twined, and confused with ancient
sorcery. Theodore, like Saint Simeon and Anthony in Tuscany, is
very much more of a goblin than a holy man. His weakness is young
women, and sometimes in the shape of a beautiful youth, at others
of a frightful monster, he carries off those who are found working
on his day--that is the 23rd of January. Theodore, according to the
Solar mythologists personifies the sun. (De Gubernatis, "Zoological
Mythology," vol. ii. p. 296). In any case the saint who seizes girls
is the Hindoo Krishna or his prototype, and therefore may have come
through the gypsies. The overworked solar myth derives some support
from the fact that among the Serbs on Theodore's day the Sintotere--or
centaur, as the name declares--who is half horse and half man, rides
over the people who fall in his power. The Centaurs were connected
with the "rape of maidens," as shown in the legend of the Lapithæ,
and it is very probable that Theodore himself is, in the language
of the Western Americans, "half a horse," which they regard as the
greatest compliment which can be paid to a man. [15]
"Wonderful potions and salves," says Mrs. Gerard, "composed of the
fat of bears, dogs, snakes, and snails, with the oil of rain-worms,
spiders, and midges, rubbed into a paste, are concocted by these
Bohemians (i.e., gypsies). Saxon and Roumanian mothers are often
in the habit of giving a child to be nursed for nine days to some
Tzigane women supposed to have power to undo the spell."
These revolting ingredients are not the result of modern invention, but
relics of the primitive witchcraft or Ur-religion, which was founded
on pain, terror, and the repulsive. Among other Roumanian-Romany
traditions are the following:--
Swallows here as elsewhere are luck-bringing birds, and termed
Galiniele lui Dieu--fowls of the Lord. So in England we hear that:--
"The robin and the wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen."
There is always a treasure to be found where the first swallow is
seen. Among the Romans when it was observed one ran to the nearest
fountain and washed his eyes, and then during the whole year to come,
dolorem omnem oculorum tuorum hirundines auferant--the swallows will
carry away all your complaints of the eyes.
The skull of a horse over the gate of a courtyard, or the bones
of fallen animals buried under the doorstep are preservatives
against ghosts. In Roman architecture the skulls of oxen, rams,
and horses continually occur as a decoration, and they are used
as charms to-day in Tuscany. Black fowls are believed to be in the
service of witches. The skull of a ram placed at the boundary of a
parish in Roumania keeps off disease from cattle; it was evidently
a fetish in all ages. In Slavonian, Esthonian, and Italian tales
black poultry occur as diabolical--to appease the devil a black cock
must be sacrificed. But in Roumania the (black) Brahmaputra fowl is
believed, curiously enough, to be the offspring of the devil and a
Jewish girl--truly an insignificant result of such clever parentage.
A cow that has wandered away will be safe from witches if the owner
sticks a pair of scissors or shears in the centre crossbeam of
the dwelling-room. The Folk-lore of shears is extensive; Friedrich
derives it from the cutting of the threads of life by the Fates. Thus
Juno appears on a Roman coin (Eckhel, "Numis. Vet." viii. p. 358)
as holding the shears of death. The swallow is said in a Swedish
fairy tale to have been the handmaid of the Virgin Mary, and to have
stolen her scissors, for which reason she was turned into a bird--the
swallow's tail being supposed to resemble that article. Gypsies in
England use the shears in incantations.
A whirlwind denotes that the devil is dancing with a witch, and he
who approaches too near it may be carried off bodily to hell (as has
indeed happened to many a wicked Pike in a cyclone or blizzard in
Western America), though he may escape by losing his cap.
It is very dangerous to point at a rainbow or an approaching
thunderstorm. Probably the devil who here guides the whirlwind or
directs the storm regards the act as impolite. He punishes those who
thus indicate the rainbow by a gnawing disease. Lightning is averted
by sticking a knife in a loaf of bread and spinning the two on the
floor of the loft of the house while the storm lasts. The knife appears
not only in many gypsy spells, but in the Etruscan-Florentine magic.
The legends of Domdaniel and the College of Sorcery in Salamanca appear
in the gypsy Roumanian Scholomance, or school which exists somewhere
far away deep in the heart of the mountains, "where the secrets of
nature, the language of animals, and all magic spells are taught by the
devil in person." Only ten scholars are admitted at a time, and when
the course of learning has expired nine are dismissed to their homes,
but the tenth is detained by the professor in payment. Henceforth,
mounted on an ismeju, or dragon, he becomes the devil's aide-de-camp,
and assists him in preparing thunderbolts and managing storms and
tempests. "A small lake, immeasurably deep, high up in the mountains,
south of Hermanstadt, is supposed to be the caldron in which the
dragon lies sleeping and where the thunder is brewed."
"Whoever turns three somersaults the first time he hears thunder
will be free from pains in the back during the twelvemonth." Of this
prescription--which reads as if it had originated with Timothy, in
"Japhet in Search of a Father," when he practised as a mountebank--it
may be said that it is most unlikely that any person who is capable
of putting it in practice should suffer with such pains.
To be free from headache rub the forehead with a piece of iron or
stone. This may be a presage of the electric cure or of that by
"metallic tractors."
It is unfortunate in all Catholic countries to meet with a priest
or nun, especially when he or she is the first person encountered
in the morning. In Roumania this is limited to the Greek popa. But
to be first met by a gypsy on going forth is a very fortunate omen
indeed. According to a widely-spread and ancient belief it is also
very lucky to meet with any woman of easy virtue--the easier the
better. This is doubtless derived from the ancient worship of Venus,
and the belief that any thing or person connected with celibacy
and chastity, such as a nun, is unlucky. It would appear from this
that the Roumanians, or their gypsy oracles, have formed an opinion
that their own popas are strictly abstinent as regards love, while
Protestant priests marry and are accordingly productive. Why the
Catholic clergy are included with the latter is not at all clear. It
is lucky also to meet a gypsy at any time, and doubtless this belief
has been well encouraged by the Romany.
"It's kushti bak to wellán a Rom,
When tute's a pirryin pré the drom."
"When you are going along the street
It's lucky a gypsy man to meet."
Likewise, it is lucky to meet with a woman carrying a jug full of
water, &c., but unlucky if it be empty. So in the New Testament the
virgins whose lamps were full of oil received great honour. The lamp
was an ancient symbol of life; hence it is very often found covered
with aphrodisiac symbols or made in Phallic forms. It is barely
possible that common old popular simile of "Not by a jug-full"--meaning
"not by a great deal"--is derived from this association of a full
vessel with abundance.
It is a Roumanian gypsy custom to do homage to the Wodna zena, or
"Water-woman" (Hungarian gypsy, Nivashi), by spilling a few drops of
water on the ground after filling a jug, and it is regarded as an
insult to offer drink without observing this ceremony. A Roumanian
will never draw water against the current (also as in the Hungarian
gypsy charms), as it would provoke the water-spirit. If water is
drawn in the night-time, whoever does so must blow three times over
the brimming jug, and pour a few drops on the coals.
The mythology of the Roumanians agrees with that of the gypsies. It
is sylvan, and Indian. In deep pools of water lurks the dreadful
balaur or Wodna muz--i.e., the Waterman (Muz is both gypsy and
Slavonian)--who lies in wait for victims. In every forest lives the
mama padura, or weshni dye--"the forest mother"--who is believed to
be benevolent to human beings, especially towards children who have
lost their way in the wood. But the Panusch is an amorous spirit who,
like the wanton satyrs of old, haunts the silent woodland shades,
and lies in wait for helpless maids. "Surely," observes Mrs. Gerard,
"this is a corruption of 'great Pan,' who is not dead after all,
but merely banished to the land beyond the forest." What a find this
would have been for Heine when writing "The Gods in Exile"!
"In deep forests and lonely mountain gorges there wanders about a
wild huntsman of superhuman size." He appears to be of a mysterious
nature, and is very seldom seen. Once he met a peasant who had shot
ninety-nine bears, and warned him never to attempt to kill another. But
the peasant disregarded his advice, and, missing his aim, was torn
in pieces by the bear.
Very singular is the story that this Lord of the Forest once taught a
hunter--that if he loaded his gun on New Year's Night with a live adder
he would never miss a shot during the ensuing year. It is not probable
that he was told to put a live and "wiggling" snake into his gun. The
story of itself suggests the firing out the ramrod for luck. It has
been observed by C. Lloyd Morgan that if a drop of the oil of a foul
tobacco pipe be placed in the mouth of a snake the muscles instantly
become set in knotted lumps and the creature becomes rigid. If much is
given the snake dies, but if only a small amount is employed it may be
restored. This, as Mr. Oakley has suggested, may explain the stories
of Indian snake-charmers being able to turn a snake into a stick. It is
performed by spitting into the snake's mouth and then placing the hand
on its head till it becomes stiffened. "The effect may be produced by
opium or some other narcotic." And it may also occur to the reader that
the jugglers who performed before Pharaoh were not unacquainted with
this mystery. It is probable that the hunter in the gypsy Roumanian
story first gave his adder tobacco before firing it off.
The Om ren, or wild man, is a malevolent forest spectre, the terror
of hunters and shepherds. He is usually seen in winter, and when he
finds an intruder on his haunts, he tears up pine trees by the roots
with which he slays the victim, or throws him over a precipice, or
overwhelms him with rocks. In every detail he corresponds to a being
greatly feared by the Algonkin Indians of America.
The oameni micuti, or "small men," are grey-bearded dwarfs, dressed
like miners. They are the kobolds or Bergmännchen of Germany. They
seldom harm a miner, and when one has perished in the mine they make
it known to his family by three knocks on his door. They may be heard
quarrelling among themselves and hitting at one another with their
axes, or blowing their horns as a signal of battle. These "horns of
Elf-land blowing" connect them with the Korriagan of Brittany, who are
fairies who always carry and play on the same instrument. Prætorius
devotes a long chapter to all the learning extant on the subject of
these Bergmännrigen, or Subterraneans.
The mountain monk is the very counterpart of Friar Rush in English
fairy-lore, and is also of Indian origin. He delights in kicking over
water-pails, putting out lamps, and committing mischief, merry, mad, or
sad. Sometimes he has been known to strangle workmen whom he dislikes,
though, on the other hand, he often helps distressed miners by filling
their empty lamps or guiding those who have lost their way. But he
always bids them keep it a secret, and if they tell they suffer for it.
Gana is queen of the witches, and corresponds to the Diana of the
Italians. Gana is probably only a variation of the word Diana. Among
the Wallachians this goddess is in fact known as Dina and Sina. She,
like the wilde Jäger, rushes in headlong hunt over the heavens or
through the skies followed by a throng of witches and fairies. "People
show the places where she has passed, and where the grass and
leaves are dry" (Friedrich). She is a powerful enchantress, and is
strongest in her sorcery about Easter-tide. To guard against her the
Wallachians at this time carry a piece of lime-tree or linden wood. She
is a beautiful but terrible enchantress, who presides over the evil
spirits who meet on May eve. She was the ruler of all Transylvania
(a hunting country) before Christianity prevailed there. Her beauty
bewitched many, but whoever let himself be lured into drinking mead
from her urus (or wild ox) drinking-horn perished. She is like the
Norse Freya, a cat goddess, and seems to be allied to the Chesme,
or cat, or fountain-spirit of the Turks. According to ancient Indian
mythology the moon is a cat who chases the mice (stars) of night,
and in the fifth book of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," when the gods fled
from the giants Diana took the form of a cat:--
"Fele soror Phoebi, nivea Saturni a vacca
Pisce Venus latuit."
(V. 325, 332.)
"According to the Hellenic cosmogony the sun and moon created
the animals--the sun creating the lion and the moon the cat" (De
Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," ii. 58). Gertrude, the chief
sorceress or queen of the witches in old German lore, appears when dead
as surrounded by mice; she is, in fact, a cat. The Turkish Chesme,
or fountain-cat, inveigles youths to death like the Gana, Diana,
or Lorelei, who does the same, and is also a water-sprite.
The Dschuma is a fierce virgin, or sometimes an old witch, who is
incarnate disease, such as the cholera. She is supposed to suffer from
cold and nakedness, and may be heard at night when disease is raging,
wailing for want. Then the maidens make garments and hang them out;
but it is a most effective charm when seven old women spin, weave,
and sew for her a scarlet shirt all in one night without once speaking.
A curious book might be written on the efficacy of nakedness in
witch-spells. In some places in Roumania there is a spirit always naked
(at least appearing such), who requires a new suit of clothes every
year. These are given by the inhabitants of the district haunted
by such an elf, who on New Year's Night lay them out in some place
supposed to be frequented by him or her.
In 1866, in a Wallachian village in the district of Bihar, to avert
the cholera, six youths and maidens, all quite naked, traced with
a ploughshare a furrow round their village to form a charmed circle
over which the disease could not pass.
When the land is suffering from long droughts the Roumanians ascribe
it to the gypsies, who by occult means make dry weather in order to
favour their own trade of brickmaking. When the necessary rain cannot
be obtained by beating the guilty Tziganes, the peasants resort to
the Papaluga, or Rain-maiden. For this they strip a young gypsy girl
stark-naked, and then cover her up in flowers and leaves, leaving only
the head visible. Thus adorned the Papaluga, or Miss Jack-in-the-Green,
is conducted with music round the village, every person pouring water
on her as she passes. When a gypsy girl cannot be had, or the Tziganes
are supposed to be innocent, a Roumanian maiden may be taken. This
custom is very widely spread.
Forty years ago there was a strange mania in the northern cities of
the United States for "fast" girls of the most reckless kind to go out
naked very late by night into the street to endeavour to run around
a public square or block of houses and regain their homes without
being caught by the police. I suspect that superstition suggested
this strange risk. It is an old witch-charm that if a girl can,
when the moon is full, go forth and run around a certain enclosure,
group of trees, or dwelling, without being seen, she will marry the
man whom she loves. There are also many magical ceremonies which,
to ensure success, must be performed in full moonlight and when quite
naked. "Among the Saxons in Transylvania when there is a very severe
drought it is customary in some places for several girls, led by an
old woman, and all of them absolutely naked, to go at midnight to the
courtyard of some peasant and steal his harrow. With this they walk
across fields to the nearest stream, where the harrow is put afloat
with a burning light on each corner" (Mrs. Gerard, "Land Beyond,"
&c.). This is evidently the old Hindoo floating of lamps by maidens
on the Ganges, and in all probability of gypsy importation.
She who will pronounce a certain spell, strip herself quite naked,
and can steal into the room where a man is lying sound asleep and
can clip from his head a lock of hair and escape without awakening
him or meeting any one will obtain absolute mastery over him, or at
least over his affections. The hair must be worn in a bag or ring on
the person. But woe unto her who is caught, since in that case the
enchantment "all goes the other way." Once a beautiful but very poor
Hungarian maid gave all she had to a young gypsy girl for a charm to
win the love of a certain lord, and was taught this, which proved to
be a perfect success. Having clipped the lock of hair she wove it in a
ring and wedded him. After a time she died, and the gypsy being called
in to dress the corpse found and kept the ring. Then the lord fell in
love with the gypsy and married her. But ere long she too died, and
was buried, and the ring with her. And from that day the lord seemed
as if possessed to sit by her grave, and finally built a house there,
and never seemed happy save when in it.
"If a Roumanian maid," says Mrs. Gerard, "desires to see her future
husband's face in the water she has only to step naked at midnight
into the nearest lake or river, or, if she shrink from this, let her
take a stand on the more congenial dung-hill with a piece of Christmas
cake in her mouth, and as the clock strikes twelve listen attentively
for the first sound of a dog's bark. From whichever side it proceeds
will also come the expected suitor."
A naked maid standing on a "congenial dung-hill" with a piece of
Christmas cake in her mouth would be a subject for an artist which
should be eagerly seized in these days when "excuses for the nude in
art" are becoming so rare. It is worth observing that this conjuration
is very much like one observed in Tuscany, in which Saint Anthony is
invoked to manifest by a dog's barking at night, as by other sounds,
whether the applicant, or invoker, shall obtain her desire.
At the birth of a child in Wallachia every one present takes a stone
and throws it behind him, saying, "This into the jaws of the Streghoi"
[16]--"a custom," says Mrs. Gerard, "which would seem to suggest
Saturn and the swaddled up stones." It is much more suggestive of
the stones thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Strigoi is translated as
"evil spirits"--it is evidently, originally at least, the streghe,
or witches of Italy, from the Latin strix, the dreaded witch-bird
of Ovid. "Festus derives the word à stringendo from the opinion that
they strangle children." Middle Latin strega (Paulus Grillandus). For
much learning on this subject of the Strix the reader may consult De
Gubernatis, "Myth of Animals," vol. ii. p. 202.
"As long as the child is unbaptized it must be carefully watched for
fear lest it be changed or stolen away." This is common to Christians,
heathen, and gypsies to watch it for several days. "A piece of iron,
or a broom laid beneath the pillow will keep spirits away." So in
Roumania and Tuscany. Quintus Serenus, however, recommends that when
the striga atra presses the infant, garlic be used, the strong odour
of which (to their credit be it said) is greatly detested by witches.
"The Romans used to cook their coena demonum for the house-spirits,
and the Hindoos prepared food for them." From them it has passed
through the gypsies to Eastern Europe, and now the Roumanian, who
has by a simple ceremony made a contract with the devil, receives
from him an attendant spirit called a spiridsui or spiridush which will
"Serve his master faithfully
For seven long year,"
but in return expecting the first mouthful of every dish eaten by
his master.
"So many differing fancies have mankind,
That they the master-sprites may spell and bind."
Nearly connected with the Roumanian we have the beliefs in magic of
the Transylvanian Saxons, all of them shared with the gypsies and
probably partially derived from them. Many people must have wondered
what could have been the origin of the saying in reference to a very
small place that "there was not room to swing a cat in it." "But I
don't want to swing a cat in it," was the very natural rejoinder
of a well-known American litterateur to this remark applied to
his house. It is possible that we may find the origin of this odd
saying in a superstition current in Transylvania, whither it in all
probability was carried by the gypsies, whose specialty it is to
bear the seeds of superstitions about here and there as the winds
do those of plants. In this country it is said that if a cat runs
away, when recovered she must be swung three times round to attach
her to the dwelling. The same is done by a stolen cat by the thief
if he would retain it. Truly this seems a strange way to induce an
attachment--or pour encourager les autres. It is evident, however,
that to the professional cat-stealer the size of his room must be a
matter of some importance. It is a pity that this saying and faith
were unknown to Moncrief-Maradan, "the Historiogriffe of Cats,"
("OEuvres," Paris, 1794), who would assuredly have made the most of it.
As regards entering new houses in Transylvania the rule is not "Devil
take the hindmost," but the foremost. The first person or being who
enters the maiden mansion must die, therefore it is safe to throw in
a preliminary dog or cat. The scape-cat is, however, to be preferred.
I can remember once, when about six years of age, looking down into
a well in Massachusetts and being told that the reflection which I
saw was the face of a little boy who lived there. This made a deep
impression on me, and I reflected that it was very remarkable that
the dweller in the well could assume the appearance of every one who
looked at him. In Transylvania it is, says Mrs. E. Gerard, "dangerous
to stare down long into a well, for the well-dame who dwells at the
bottom is easily offended. But children are often curious, and so,
bending over the edge, they call out mockingly, 'Dame of the Well,
pull me down into it!' and then run away rapidly."
Whoever has been robbed and wishes to find the thief should take a
black hen, and for nine Fridays must with the hen fast strictly; the
thief will then either bring back the plunder or die. This is called
"taking up the black fast" against any one. It is said that a peasant
of Petersdorf returned one day from Bistritz with 200 florins, which
he had received for oxen. Being very tipsy he laid down to sleep,
having first hidden his money in a hole in the kitchen wall. When he
awoke he missed his coin, and having quite forgotten what he had done
with it believed it had been stolen. So he went to an old Wallachian,
probably a gypsy, and induced him to take up the black fast against
the thief. But as he himself had the money the spell worked against
him and he grew weaker and pined away as it went on. By some chance
at the last moment he found his money, but it was too late, and
he died. Pages of black hen-lore may be gathered from the works of
Friedrich, De Gubernatis and others; suffice it to say that Bubastis,
the Egyptian moon-goddess, appears to have been the original mistress
of the mysterious animal, if not the black hen as well as cat herself,
and mother of all the witches.
Magic qualities are attached in Hungary as in Germany to the lime
or linden tree; in some villages it is usual to plant one before a
house to prevent witches from entering. From very early times the
lime tree was sacred to Venus among the Greeks, as it was to Lada
among the Slavonians. This, it is said, was due to its leaves being
of the shape of a heart. In a Slavonian love-song the wooer exclaims:--
"As the bee is drawn by the lime-perfume (or linden-bloom)
My heart is drawn by thee."
This was transmitted to Christian symbolism, whence the penance laid
by Christ on Mary Magdalen was that "she should have no other food
save lime-tree leaves, drink naught except the dew which hung on
them, and sleep on no other bed save one made of its leaves" (Menzel,
"Christliche Symbolik," vol. ii. p. 57). "For Magdalena had loved much,
therefore her penance was by means of that which is a symbol of love."
Mrs. Gerard tells us that "a particular growth of vine leaf, whose
exact definition I have not succeeded in rightly ascertaining, is
eagerly sought by Saxon girls in some villages. Whoever finds it,
puts it in her hair, and if she then kisses the first man she meets on
her way home she will soon be married. A story is related of a girl,
who having found this growth, meeting a nobleman in a carriage stopped
the horses and begged leave to kiss him." To which he consented. This
particular growth, unknown to Mrs. Gerard, is when the leaves or
tendrils or shoots form a natural knot. Among the gypsies in Hungary,
as may be elsewhere read, such knots in the willow are esteemed as
of great magic efficacy in love. A knot is a symbol of true love in
all countries.
"This knot I tie, this knot I knit,
For that true love whom I know not yet."
On Easter Monday in Transylvania the lads run about the towns and
villages sprinkling with water all the girls or women whom they
meet. This is supposed to cause the flax to grow well. On the following
day the girls return the attention by watering the boys. "This
custom, which appears to be a very old one," says Mrs. Gerard, "is
also prevalent among various Slav races, such as Poles and Serbs. In
Poland it used to be de rigeur that water be poured over a girl who
was still asleep, so in every house a victim was selected who had
to feign sleep and patiently receive the cold shower-bath, which was
to ensure the luck of the family during the year. The custom has now
become modified to suit a more delicate age, and instead of formidable
horse-buckets of water, dainty little perfume squirts have come to
be used in many places." As the custom not only of sprinkling water,
but also of squirting or spraying perfumes is from ancient India (as
it is indeed prevalent all over the East), it is probable that the
gypsies who are always foremost in all festivals may have brought this
"holi" custom to Eastern Europe. Of late it has extended to London,
as appears by the following extract from The St. James's Gazette,
April, 1889.
"The newest weapon of terror in the West End is the 'scent
revolver.' Its use is simple. You dine--not wisely but the other
thing--and then you stroll into the Park, with your nickel-plated
scent revolver in your pocket. Feeling disposed for a frolic,
you walk up to a woman, present your weapon, pull the trigger,
and in a moment she is drenched, not with gore but with scent,
which is nearly as unpleasant if not quite so deadly. Mr. Andrew
King, who amused himself in that way, has been fined 10s. at
Marlborough Street. Let us hope that the 'revolver' was confiscated
into the bargain."
One way of interrogating fate in love affairs is to slice an apple in
two with a sharp knife; if this can be done without cutting a seed
the wish of the heart will be fulfilled. Of yore, in many lands the
apple was ever sacred to love, wisdom, and divination. Once in Germany
a well-formed child became, through bewitchment, sorely crooked and
cramped; by the advice of a monk the mother cut an apple in three
pieces and made the child eat them, whereupon it became as before. In
Illzach, in Alsace, there is a custom called "Andresle." On Saint
Andrew's Eve a girl must take from a widow, and without returning
thanks for it, an apple. As in Hungary she cuts it in two and must
eat one half of it before midnight, and the other half after it; then
in sleep she will see her future husband. And there is yet another
love-spell of the split apple given by Scheible ("Die gute alte Zeit,"
Stuttgart, 1847, p. 297) which runs as follows:--
"On Friday early as may be,
Take the fairest apple from a tree,
Then in thy blood on paper white
Thy own name and thy true love's write,
That apple thou in two shalt cut,
And for its cure that paper put,
With two sharp pins of myrtle wood
Join the halves till it seem good,
In the oven let it dry,
And wrapped in leaves of myrtle lie,
Under the pillow of thy dear,
Yet let it be unknown to her;
And if it a secret be
She soon will show her love for thee."
Similar apple sorceries were known to the Norsemen. Because the apple
was so nearly connected with love and luxury--"Geschlechtsliebe und
Zeugungslust"--those who were initiated in the mysteries and vowed to
chastity were forbidden to eat it. And for the same reason apples,
hares, and Cupids, or "Amorets," were often depicted together. In
Genesis, as in the Canticles of Solomon, apples, or at least the fruit
from which the modern apple inherited its traditions are a symbol of
sexual love. In Florence women wishing for children go to a priest and
get from him a blessed apple, over which they pronounce an incantation
to Santa Anna--la San' Na--who was the Lucina of the Latins.