FORTUNE-TELLING (continued).--ROMANCE BASED ON CHANCE, OR HOPE, AS
REGARDS THE FUTURE--FOLK- AND SORCERY-LORE--AUTHENTIC INSTANCES OF
GYPSY PREDICTION.
It would seem to all who now live that life would be really
intolerably dry were it utterly deprived of mystery, marvel, or
romance. This latter is the sentiment of hopeful chance allied to
the beautiful. Youth is willing or eager to run great risks if the
road to or through them passes by dark ravines, under castled rocks--
"o'er dewy grass
And waters wild and fleet"
--and ever has been from the beginning. Now, it is a matter of serious
importance to know whether this romance is so deeply inherent in
man that it can never be removed. For, rightly viewed, it means
current religion, poetry, and almost all art--as art at least was
once understood--and it would seem as if we had come, or are coming,
to a time when science threatens to deprive us of it all. Such is
the hidden fear of many a priest and poet--it may be worth while to
consider whether it is all to pass away into earnest prose or assume
new conditions. Has the world been hitherto a child, or a youth,
were poetry and supernaturalism its toys, and has the time come when
it is to put away childish things?
We can only argue from what we are, and what we clearly know or
understand. And we know that there are in Nature, though measured
by the senses alone, phenomena which awake delightful or terrible,
sublime or beautiful, grave or gay feelings, or emotions, which inspire
corresponding thoughts. There is for us "an elf-home glory-land,"
far over setting suns, mysterious beauty in night and stars in
their eternal course, grandeur of God in the ocean, loveliness in
woman, chiaroscuro in vapoury valleys and the spray of waterfalls
by moonlight, exciting emotions which are certainly not within the
domain of science--as yet--and which it is impossible for us, as we
are at present constituted, to imagine as regarded entirely from the
standpoint of chemical and physical analysis. To see in all this--as we
are--only hydro-carbons, oxygen, silex and aluminium, atoms, molecules,
and "laws"--that is to say, always the parts and combinations and no
sense as regards man that he is, with his emotional sense of beauty,
anywhere in the game or of any account--is going far too far. Setting
teleology and theology entirely aside, Man, as the highest organism,
has a right to claim that, as the highest faculties which have been
as yet developed in him were caused by natural phenomena, therefore
there is in the phenomena a certain beauty which is far more likely
to lead to more advanced enjoyment of form, colour, or what we call
the æsthetic sense, than to shrink away and disappear. And it seems
to me that the most extended consideration of science leads to the
result or conclusion that under its influence we shall find that the
chemical and physical analyses of which I have spoken are only the
dry A B C of a marvellously grand literature, or of a Romance and
Poetry and Beauty--perhaps even of a wondrous "occult" philosophy,
of whose beginning even we have, as yet, no idea.
But, great as it may be, those who will make it must derive their
summary of facts or bases of observation from the past, and therefore
I urge the importance of every man who can write doing what he can
to collect all that illustrates Humanity as it is and as it was in
by-gone ages. It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive
what a Folk-lore or ethnological society in ancient Greece, Rome,
or Egypt might not have collected and preserved for the delight of
every civilized human being of the present day. It is very true
that the number of persons, as yet, who understand this--still
less of those who take a real interest in it--is extremely limited,
and they do not extend in England, America, or any other country, to
more than a few hundreds. To the vast multitude, even of learned men,
Folk-lore is only a "craze" for small literary bric-à-brac, a "fancy"
which will have its run, and nothing more. To its earnest devotees
it is the last great development of the art of learning and writing
history, and a timely provision for future social science. It sets
forth the most intimate inner life of people as they were, and the
origins of our life as it is. In Folk-lore, Philology, Ethnology,
and the study of Mythology or Religion find their greatest aid.
The amount of Red Indian Folk-lore which has been suffered to perish
in the United States without exciting the least interest is beyond
all belief. Thoreau could find in the Algonkin legends of New
England nothing but matter for feeble-minded ridicule. But there
are men coming, or a generation rising, to whom every record of
the past will be of value, for they are beginning to perceive that
while the collector is doing work of value the mere theorist, who
generally undervalues if he does not actually oppose the collector,
will with his rubbish be swept away "down the back-entry of time,"
to be utterly forgotten.
Gypsy sorcery-lore is of great value because all over the Aryan
world gypsies have in ancient or modern times been, so to speak, the
wandering priests of that form of popular religion which consists
of a faith in fortune-telling. This is really a very important
part in every cult; the most remarkable thing connected with it;
as with charms, fetishes, incantations and protective spells,
being the extraordinary success with which the more respectable
magi have succeeded in convincing their followers that their own
sorcery was not "magic" at all, and that the world-old heathen rites,
which are substantially the same, are mere modern thieveries from the
"established religion." Prediction and prophecy were the cornerstones
of the classic mythology and of the Jewish law; they were equally
dear to the Celtic races, and all men seem from the earliest times to
have believed that coming events cast their shadows before. How this
began and grew requires no deep study. Many disorders are prefaced
by uneasy dreams or unaccountable melancholy, even as the greatest
disaster which befel the gods of Valhalla was preceded by the troubled
dreams of Balder. Sometimes the first symptom of gout is a previous
irritability. But if diseases are believed to be caused by the literal
occupation of the body by evil spirits these presages will be ascribed
to occult spiritual influences. A man in excellent health feels gay--he
goes hunting and has luck--of course his guardian spirit is believed to
have inspired him to go. Then comes the priest or the gypsy to predict,
and the hits are recorded and the misses are promptly forgotten.
The following instance has been related to me in good faith by a
learned friend, whose books are well known to all Folk-lorists:--
"I can quote from my own experience a strange event founded on
a prediction made to me by a gypsy in 1863. This was before I
had learned the language of the Romany or had begun to take any
interest in them. At the time of which I speak, I met one day here,
in T----, one or two gypsy women bearing as usual babies on their
shoulders, when the oldest as I was passing by pointed me out to
the bystanders, saying in German, 'Der Herr hat viel Kummer gehabt'
('That gentleman has had much trouble'--or sorrow).
"This was true enough, as I was suffering greatly at the time
from a previous bereavement, though I was no longer in mourning,
nor was there at the instant any indication of gloom in my looks,
for I was in a cheerful humour. So I stopped to ask her why she had
made her remark. She replied, 'Ja, geben Sie mir die linke Hand und
legen Sie drei Silbermünze darauf, wenn Sie weiteres hören wollen'
('Yes, give me your hand, and put three silver coins on it, if
you would hear more'). I did so, when she repeated her assertion
as to my sorrow, and added, 'Aber eine Gräfinn steht für Ihnen'
('But there is a countess awaiting you').
"I laughed at myself for listening to this, and for the strange
feeling of interest or faith which I felt in it, and which my
common sense told me was ridiculous. And yet the prediction,
strangely enough, was fulfilled, though not in the sense in which I
suppose most people would have taken it. Soon after I lost another
relative, and was overwhelmed with that and other troubles when
Providence sent me a friend in that most amiable and remarkable
woman the Countess B----, who, with that noble and gracious
affability which distinguishes her, as well as her husband,
Sir ----, relieved my mind and cheered my depressed spirits.
"I add to this a marvellous story of a gypsy prediction which was
uttered here in T---- and published last year in a small biography,
but which is worth consideration because I have heard it apparently
well authenticated by trustworthy people. A very great disgrace to
our town--I am happy to say he was the only one--was a Mr. M----,
of very good family. This man kept a mistress named R. M----,
who became acquainted with a young man who was employed as a
clerk at the Credit Anstalt, and who always at night carried on
his person its keys. This M---- learned, and formed the following
plot: The victim was to be enticed by the woman to her room, where
she proposed to cut his throat, take the keys, and with the aid of
M---- to rob the bank and escape. It succeeded so far as that the
young man was brought to her room, but when she began to attempt
to kill him he struggled, and was overpowering her when M----
entered the room and shot him dead.
"The precious pair were subsequently arrested and tried, and
in the report of the proceedings there appears the following
curious statement:--
"'It is a singular thing (cosa piu singolare) that to this woman
(M----'s mistress, Miss R----), a gypsy woman who pretended to
palmistry predicted that she would come to a bad end (ch'essa
finirebbe assai male).' Which she effectually did, being condemned
to fourteen years' hard labour, and would have been hung had not
her "interesting state" inclined the judge to mercy.
"There is the following addition in the pamphlet to what has
been quoted: 'Being begged by the said Maria R---- to look more
closely into the hand, the Zingara refused to do so, and went away
muttering strange or foreign words.' (Borbottanda strane parole)."
To this my informant adds:--
"I know of a more cheerful case of gypsy prediction, and of quite
another kind, and which happened to a friend's friend of mine,
also here in T----. The 'subject' was a young lady, who was
'intended' or betrothed, to an Italian actor, who had gone to
play at Madrid; but for two months she heard nothing from him,
and, believing that he had neglected her, was in despair.
"One morning she was passing through one of the main streets,
and was talking with my friend, when a dark gypsy girl going by,
whispered to her in a hurried manner: 'Domani avrai una lettera
e sarai felice' ('To-morrow you will receive a letter and be
happy'). Having said this and nothing more, without asking for
money, she went away. The promised letter was in fact received,
all went well, and the lady is now married to the gentleman. This
is all simply true. I leave the comments on the case to
investigators. Can it be that gypsies are sometimes clairvoyant?"
My own comment on the case is that, admitting that the gypsy knew
beforehand all the circumstances or even the "parties" in the affair,
she had divined or "intuited" a result, and risked, as some might call
it, or else uttered from a real conviction, her prophecy. How the mind,
without any miracle--as miracles are commonly regarded--often arrives
quite unconsciously to such conclusions, I have already considered in
another chapter. Making every allowance for unconscious exaggeration
and the accretive power of transmission, I am willing to believe that
the story is actually true.
The following is also perfectly authentic: An English lady of excellent
family, meeting a gypsy, was told by the latter that in six months the
most important event of her life would come to pass. At the end of the
time she died. On her death-bed she said, "I thought the gypsy meant
a marriage, but I feel that something far more important is coming,
for death is the great end of life."
The following was told me by a Hungarian gentleman of Szegedin:--
"There was in Arad a lady who went to a ball. She had a necklace
to which were attached four rings. During the evening she took
this from her neck, and doubling it, wore it on her arm as a
bracelet. In the house where she lived was a young gentleman
who came to accompany her home from the ball. All at once, late
at night, she missed her necklace and the rings, which were of
great value.
"The next day she sent for a gypsy woman, who, being consulted,
declared that the collar had been stolen by some one who was very
intimate in her house. Her suspicions rested on the young man
who had accompanied her home. He was arrested, but discharged
for want of evidence.
"Three months after there came a kellner, a waiter, from some
other city, to Arad. The lady, being in a café or some such place
of resort, was waited on by this man, and saw one of her rings
on his hand. He was arrested, and before the police declared
that he held the ring in pledge, having advanced money upon it
to a certain gentleman. This gentleman was the lady's betrothed,
and he had stolen her necklace and rings. The gypsy had truly
enough said that the articles had been taken by some one who was
intimate in her house."
The gentleman who told me this story also said that the death of his
father had been foretold by a gypsy--that is, by a lady who was of
half-gypsy blood.
It should be borne in mind, though few realize its truth, that in
stages of society where people believe earnestly in anything--for
example, in witchcraft or the evil eye--there results in time a state
of mind or body in which they are actually capable of being killed
with a curse, or a fear of seeing what is not before them in the body,
and of many nervous conditions which are absolutely impossible and
incomprehensible to the world of culture at the present day. But there
are still places where witchcraft may be said to exist literally,
for there the professors of the art to all intents work miracles,
because they are believed in. There is abundance of such faith
extant, even in England. I have heard the names of three "white"
witch doctors in as many towns in the West of England, who are paid
a guinea a visit, their specialty being to "unlock," or neutralize,
or defeat the evil efforts of black witches. This, as is indeed true,
indicates that a rather high class of patients put faith in them. In
Hungary, in the country, the majority, even of the better class, are
very much influenced by gypsy-witches. Witness the following, which is
interesting simply because, while there is very little indeed in it,
it was related to me as a most conclusive proof of magic power:--
"In a suburb of Szegedin, inhabited only by peasants, there is
a school with a farm attached to it. The pay of the teacher is
trifling, but he can make a comfortable living from the land. This
was held by an old man, who had a young assistant. The old man
died; the youth succeeded him, and as he found himself doing
well, in due time he took a wife. They lived happily together
for a year and had a daughter. In the spring the teacher had to
work very hard, not only in school but on his farm, and so for
the first time contracted the habit of going to the tavern to
refresh himself, and what was worst, of concealing it from his
wife under plausible tales, to which she gave no trust. She began
to be very unhappy, and, naturally enough, suspected a rival.
"Of course she took advice from a gypsy woman, who heard all the
story and consulted her cards. 'There is,' she said, 'no woman
whatever in the way. There is no sign of one for good or evil, na
latchi na misec, in the cards. But beware! for there is a great
and unexpected misfortune coming, and more than this I cannot
see.' So she took her pay and departed. Suddenly her child fell
ill and died after eight days. Then the husband reformed his ways,
and all went well with them. So, you see, the gypsy foretold it
all, wonderfully and accurately."
It requires no sorcery to conjecture that the gypsy already knew
the habits of the schoolmaster, as the Romany is generally familiar
with the tavern of every town. To predict a misfortune at large is
a sure card for every prophetess. What is remarkable is that a man
of the world and one widely travelled, as was my informant, attached
great importance to the story. It is evident that where so much of
the sherris sack of faith accompanies such a small crust of miracle
there must be a state of society in which miracles in their real
sense are perfectly capable of being worked.