{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_58465/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_58465","id":"gutenberg_58465","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58465","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fortune-telling","Magic, Romani","Romanies"],"text":"Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project\nGutenberg (This file was produced from images generously\nmade available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                             GYPSY SORCERY\n                                  AND\n                            FORTUNE TELLING\n\n\n                 ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS INCANTATIONS,\n                      SPECIMENS OF MEDICAL MAGIC,\n                          ANECDOTES AND TALES\n\n                                   BY\n\n                         CHARLES GODFREY LELAND\n             PRESIDENT OF THE GIPSY-LORE SOCIETY, &c., &c.\n\n\n                  COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR\n\n\n                                NEW YORK\n                        CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS\n\n                                MDCCCXCI\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                              DEDICATION.\n\n\n                               THIS WORK\n           IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO MY COLLEAGUES OF THE\n                   CONGR\u00c8S DES TRADITIONS POPULAIRES,\n                       HELD AT PARIS, JULY, 1889;\n                             AND ESPECIALLY\n                  TO THE FRENCH MEMBERS OF THAT BODY,\n         IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR GENEROUS HOSPITALITY,\n                AND UNFAILING KINDNESS AND COURTESY, BY\n                           CHARLES G. LELAND.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n    CHAP.                                                          PAGE\n\n    I.    THE ORIGIN OF WITCHCRAFT, SHAMANISM, AND SORCERY.--\n          VINDICTIVE AND MISCHIEVOUS MAGIC                            1\n    II.   CHARMS AND CONJURATIONS TO CURE THE DISORDERS OF GROWN\n          PEOPLE.--HUNGARIAN GYPSY MAGIC                             12\n    III.  GYPSY CONJURATIONS AND EXORCISMS--THE CURE OF CHILDREN--\n          HUNGARIAN GYPSY SPELLS--A CURIOUS OLD ITALIAN \"SECRET\"--\n          THE MAGIC VIRTUE OF GARLIC--A FLORENTINE INCANTATION\n          LEARNED FROM A WITCH--LILITH, THE CHILD-STEALER, AND\n          QUEEN OF THE WITCHES                                       41\n    IV.   SOUTH SLAVONIAN AND OTHER GYPSY WITCH-LORE.--THE WORDS\n          FOR A WITCH--VILAS AND THE SPIRITS OF EARTH AND AIR--\n          WITCHES, EGG-SHELLS, AND EGG-LORE--EGG PROVERBS--OVA\n          DE CRUCIBUS                                                65\n    V.    CHARMS OR CONJURATIONS TO CURE OR PROTECT ANIMALS          79\n    VI.   OF PREGNANCY AND CHARMS, OR FOLK-LORE CONNECTED WITH\n          IT--BOARS' TEETH AND CHARMS FOR PREVENTING THE FLOW\n          OF BLOOD                                                  100\n    VII.  THE RECOVERY OF STOLEN PROPERTY--LOVE-CHARMS--SHOES AND\n          LOVE-POTIONS, OR PHILTRES                                 108\n    VIII. ROUMANIAN AND TRANSYLVANIAN SORCERIES AND SUPERSTITIONS,\n          CONNECTED WITH THOSE OF THE GYPSIES                       122\n    IX.   THE RENDEZVOUS OR MEETINGS OF WITCHES, SORCERERS, AND\n          VILAS.--A CONTINUATION OF SOUTH SLAVONIAN GYPSY-LORE      142\n    X.    OF THE HAUNTS, HOMES, AND HABITS OF WITCHES IN THE\n          SOUTH SLAVIC LANDS.--BOGEYS AND HUMBUGS                   152\n    XI.   GYPSY WITCHCRAFT.--THE MAGICAL POWER WHICH IS INNATE\n          IN ALL MEN AND WOMEN--HOW IT MAY BE CULTIVATED AND\n          DEVELOPED--THE PRINCIPLES OF FORTUNE-TELLING              162\n    XII.  FORTUNE-TELLING (continued).--ROMANCE BASED ON CHANCE,\n          OR HOPE, AS REGARDS THE FUTURE--FOLK- AND SORCERY-LORE\n          --AUTHENTIC INSTANCES OF GYPSY PREDICTION                 186\n    XIII. PROVERBS REFERRING TO WITCHES, GYPSIES, AND FAIRIES       194\n    XIV.  A GYPSY MAGIC SPELL.--HOKKANI BARO--LELLIN DUDIKABIN,\n          OR THE GREAT SECRET--CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND INCANTATIONS\n          --TEN LITTLE INDIAN BOYS AND TEN LITTLE ACORN GIRLS OF\n          MARCELLUS BURDIGALENSIS                                   209\n    XV.   GYPSY AMULETS                                             230\n    XVI.  GYPSIES, TOADS, AND TOAD-LORE                             255\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThis work contains a collection of the customs, usages, and ceremonies\ncurrent among gypsies, as regards fortune-telling, witch-doctoring,\nlove-philtering, and other sorcery, illustrated by many anecdotes and\ninstances, taken either from works as yet very little known to the\nEnglish reader or from personal experiences. Within a very few years,\nsince Ethnology and Arch\u00e6ology have received a great inspiration, and\nmuch enlarged their scope through Folk-lore, everything relating to\nsuch subjects is studied with far greater interest and to much greater\nprofit than was the case when they were cultivated in a languid,\nhalf-believing, half-sceptical spirit which was in reality rather one\nof mere romance than reason. Now that we seek with resolution to find\nthe whole truth, be it based on materialism, spiritualism, or their\nidentity, we are amazed to find that the realm of marvel and mystery,\nof wonder and poetry, connected with what we vaguely call \"magic,\"\nfar from being explained away or exploded, enlarges before us as\nwe proceed, and that not into a mere cloudland, gorgeous land, but\ninto a country of reality in which men of science who would once have\ndisdained the mere thought thereof are beginning to stray. Hypnotism\nhas really revealed far greater wonders than were ever established by\nthe fascinatores of old or by mesmerists of more modern times. Memory,\nthe basis of thought according to Plato, which was once held to be\na determined quantity, has been proved, (the word is not too bold),\nby recent physiology, to be practically infinite, and its perfect\ndevelopment to be identical with that of intellect, so that we\nnow see plainly before us the power to perform much which was once\nregarded as miraculous. Not less evident is it that men of science\nor practical inventors, such as Darwin, Wallace, Huxley, Tyndale,\nGalton, Joule, Lockyer, and Edison, have been or are all working in\ncommon with theosophists, spiritualists, Folk-lorists, and many more,\nnot diversely but all towards a grand solution of the Unknown.\n\nTherefore there is nothing whatever in the past relating to the\ninfluences which have swayed man, however strange, eccentric,\nsuperstitious, or even repulsive they may seem, which is not of great\nand constantly increasing value. And if we of the present time begin\nalready to see this, how much more important will these facts be to the\nmen of the future, who, by virtue of more widely extended knowledge and\ncomparison, will be better able than we are to draw wise conclusions\nundreamed of now. But the chief conclusion for us is to collect as\nmuch as we can, while it is yet extant, of all the strange lore of the\nolden time, instead of wasting time in forming idle theories about it.\n\nIn a paper read before the Congr\u00e8s des Traditions populaires in Paris,\n1889, on the relations of gypsies to Folk-lore, I set forth my belief\nthat these people have always been the humble priests of what is really\nthe practical religion of all peasants and poor people; that is their\nmagical ceremonies and medicine. Very few have any conception of the\ndegree to which gypsies have been the colporteurs of what in Italy\nis called \"the old faith,\" or witchcraft.\n\nAs regards the illustrative matter given, I am much indebted to\nDr. Wlislocki, who has probably had far more intimate personal\nexperience of gypsies than any other learned man who ever lived,\nthrough our mutual friend, Dr. Anthon Herrmann, editor of the\nEthnologische Mitteilungen, Budapest, who is also himself an\naccomplished Romany scholar and collector, and who has kindly taken\na warm interest in this book, and greatly aided it. To these I may\nadd Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss, of Vienna, whose various works on the\nsuperstitions and Folk-lore of the South Slavonians--kindly presented\nby him to me--contain a vast mine of material, nearly all that of which\nhe treats being common property between peasants and the Romany, as\nother sources abundantly indicate. With this there is also much which\nI collected personally among gypsies and fortune-tellers, and similar\ncharacters, it being true as regards this work and its main object,\nthat there is much cognate or allied information which is quite as\nvaluable as gypsy-lore itself, as all such subjects mutually explain\none of the others.\n\nGypsies, as I have said, have done more than any race or class on\nthe face of the earth to disseminate among the multitude a belief\nin fortune-telling, magical or sympathetic cures, amulets and such\nsmall sorceries as now find a place in Folk-lore. Their women have\nall pretended to possess occult power since prehistoric times. By\nthe exercise of their wits they have actually acquired a certain\nart of reading character or even thought, which, however it be\nallied to deceit, is in a way true in itself, and well worth careful\nexamination. Matthew Arnold has dwelt on it with rare skill in his\npoem of \"The Gypsy Scholar.\" Even deceit and imposture never held\nits own as a system for ages without some ground-work of truth, and\nthat which upheld the structure of gypsy sorcery, has never been very\ncarefully examined. I trust that I have done this in a rational and\nphilosophic spirit, and have also illustrated my remarks in a manner\nwhich will prove attractive to the general reader.\n\nThere are many good reasons for believing that the greatest portion of\ngypsy magic was brought by the Romany from the East or India. This is\nspecially true as regards those now dwelling in Eastern Europe. And\nit is certainly interesting to observe that among these people there\nis still extant, on a very extended scale indeed, a Shamanism which\nseems to have come from the same Tartar-Altaic source which was\nfound of yore among the Accadian-Babylonians, Etruscan races, and\nIndian hill-tribes. This, the religion of the drum and the demon as a\ndisease--or devil doctoring--will be found fully illustrated in many\ncurious ways in these pages. I believe that in describing it I have\nalso shown how many fragments of this primitive religion, or cult,\nstill exist, under very different names, in the most enlightened\ncentres of civilization. And I respectfully submit to my reader,\nor critic, that I have in no instance, either in this or any other\ncase, wandered from my real subject, and that the entire work forms\na carefully considered and consistent whole. To perfect my title,\nI should perhaps have added a line or two to the effect that I have\nillustrated many of the gypsy sorceries by instances of Folk-lore drawn\nfrom other sources; but I believe that it is nowhere inappropriate,\nconsidering the subject as a whole. For those who would lay stress\non omissions in my book, I would say that I have never intended or\npretended to exhaust gypsy superstitions. I have not even given all\nthat may be found in the works of Wlislocki alone. I have, according\nto the limits of the book, cited so much as to fully illustrate the\nmain subject already described, and this will be of more interest to\nthe student of history than the details of gypsy chiromancy or more\nspells and charms than are necessary to explain the leading ideas.\n\nWhat is wanted in the present state of Folk-lore, I here repeat, is\ncollection from original sources, and material, that is from people\nand not merely from books. The critics we have--like the poor--always\nwith us, and a century hence we shall doubtless have far better ones\nthan those in whom we now rejoice--or sorrow. But material abides\nno time, and an immense quantity of it which is world-old perishes\nevery day. For with general culture and intelligence we are killing\nall kinds of old faiths, with wonderful celerity. The time is near at\nhand when it will all be incredibly valuable, and then men will wish\nsorrowfully enough that there had been more collectors to accumulate\nand fewer critics to detract from their labours and to discourage\nthem. For the collector must form his theory, or system great or\nsmall, good or bad, such as it is, in order to gather his facts;\nand then the theory is shattered by the critic and the collection\nmade to appear ridiculous. And so collection ends.\n\nThere is another very curious reflection which has been ever present\nto my mind while writing this work, and which the reader will do well\ncarefully to think out for himself. It is that the very first efforts\nof the human mind towards the supernatural were gloomy, strange, and\nwild; they were of witchcraft and sorcery, dead bodies, defilement,\ndeviltry, and dirt. Men soon came to believe in the virtue of the\nrepetition of certain rhymes or spells in connection with dead men's\nbones, hands, and other horrors or \"relics.\" To this day this old\nreligion exists exactly as it did of yore, wherever men are ignorant,\nstupid, criminal, or corresponding to their prehistoric ancestors. I\nmyself have seen a dead man's hand for sale in Venice. According\nto Dr. Block, says a writer in The St. James's Gazette, January 16,\n1889, the corpse-candle superstition is still firmly enshrined among\nthe tenets of thieves all over Europe. In reality, according to The\nStandard, we know little about the strange thoughts which agitate the\nminds of the criminal classes. Their creeds are legends. Most of them\nare the children and grandchildren of thieves who have been brought\nup from their youth in the densest ignorance, and who, constantly\nat war with society, seek the aid of those powers of darkness in the\ndread efficacy of which they have an unshaken confidence.\n\n\n   \"Fetishism of the rudest type, or what the mythologists have\n    learned to call 'animism' is part and parcel of the robber's\n    creed. A 'habit and repute' thief has always in his pocket, or\n    somewhere about his person, a bit of coal, or chalk, or a 'lucky\n    stone,' or an amulet of some sort on which he relies for safety\n    in his hour of peril. Omens he firmly trusts in. Divination is\n    regularly practised by him, as the occasional quarrels over the\n    Bible and key, and the sieve and shears, testify. The supposed\n    power of witches and wizards make many of them live in terror,\n    and pay blackmail, and although they will lie almost without\n    a motive, the ingenuity with which the most depraved criminal\n    will try to evade 'kissing the book,' performing this rite with\n    his thumb instead, is a curious instance of what may be termed\n    perverted religious instincts. As for the fear of the evil eye, it\n    is affirmed that most of the foreign thieves of London dread more\n    being brought before a particular magistrate who has the reputation\n    of being endowed with that fatal gift than of being summarily\n    sentenced by any other whose judicial glare is less severe.\"\n\n\nThis is all true, but it tells only a small part of the truth. Not\nonly is Fetish or Shamanism the real religion of criminals, but of\nvast numbers who are not suspected of it. There is not a town in\nEngland or in Europe in which witchcraft (its beginning) is not\nextensively practised, although this is done with a secrecy the\nsuccess of which is of itself almost a miracle. We may erect churches\nand print books, but wherever the prehistoric man exists--and he is\nstill to be found everywhere by millions--he will cling to the old\nwitchcraft of his remote ancestors. Until you change his very nature,\nthe only form in which he can realize supernaturalism will be by means\nof superstition, and the grossest superstition at that. Research and\nreflection have taught me that this sorcery is far more widely and\ndeeply extended than any cultivated person dreams--instead of yielding\nto the progress of culture it seems to actually advance with it. Count\nAngelo de Gubernatis once remarked to one of the most distinguished\nEnglish statesmen that there was in the country in Tuscany ten times\nas much heathenism as Christianity. The same remark was made to me\nby a fortune-teller in Florence. She explained what she meant. It\nwas the vecchia religione--\"the old religion\"--not Christianity,\nbut the dark and strange sorceries of the stregha, or witch, the\ncompounding of magical medicine over which spells are muttered, the\nmaking love-philters, the cursing enemies, the removing the influence\nof other witches, and the manufacture of amulets in a manner prohibited\nby the Church.\n\nIt would seem as if, by some strange process, while advanced\nscientists are occupied in eliminating magic from religion, the\ncoarser mind is actually busy in reducing it to religion alone. It\nhas been educated sufficiently to perceive an analogy between dead\nman's hands and \"relics\" as working miracles, and as sorcery is more\nentertaining than religion, and has, moreover, the charm of secrecy,\nthe prehistoric man, who is still with us, prefers the former. Because\ncertain forms of this sorcery are no longer found among the educated\nclasses we think that superstition no longer exists; but though we\nno longer burn witches or believe in fairies, it is a fact that of\na kind and fashion proportionate to our advanced culture, it is,\nwith a very few exceptions, as prevalent as ever. Very few persons\nindeed have ever given this subject the attention which it merits,\nfor it is simply idle to speculate on the possibility of cultivating\nor sympathizing with the lowest orders without really understanding\nit in all its higher forms. And I venture to say that, as regards a\nliteral and truthful knowledge of its forms and practices, this work\nwill prove to be a contribution to the subject not without value.\n\nI have, in fact, done my best to set forth in it a very singular truth\nwhich is of great importance to every one who takes any real interest\nin social science, or the advance of intelligence. It is that while\nalmost everybody who contributes to general literature, be it books\nof travel or articles in journals, has ever and anon something clever\nto say about superstition among the lower orders at home or abroad,\nbe it in remote country places or in the mountains of Italy, with the\nusual cry of \"Would it be believed--in the nineteenth century?\" &c.;\nit still remains true that the amount of belief in magic--call it by\nwhat name we will--in the world is just as great as ever it was. And\nhere I would quote with approbation a passage from \"The Conditions for\nthe Survival of Archaic Customs,\" by G. L. Gomme, in The Arch\u00e6ological\nReview of January, 1890:--\n\n\n   \"If Folk-lore has done nothing else up to this date it has\n    demonstrated that civilization, under many of its phases, while\n    elevating the governing class of a nation, and thereby no doubt\n    elevating the nation, does not always reach the lowest or even the\n    lower strata of the population. As Sir Arthur Mitchell puts it,\n    'There is always a going up of some and a going down of others,'\n    and it is more than probable that just as the going up of the\n    few is in one certain direction, along certain well-ascertained\n    lines of improvement or development, so the going down of the\n    many is in an equally well-ascertained line of degradation\n    or backwardness. The upward march is always towards political\n    improvement, carrying with it social development; the downward\n    march is always towards social degradation, carrying with it\n    political backwardness. It seems difficult indeed to believe that\n    monarchs like \u00c6lfred, Eadward, William, and Edward, could have had\n    within their Christianized kingdom groups of people whose status\n    was still that of savagery; it seems difficult to believe that\n    Raleigh and Spenser actually beheld specimens of the Irish savage;\n    it seems impossible to read Kemble and Green and Freeman and yet\n    to understand that they are speaking only of the advanced guard of\n    the English nation, not of the backward races within the boundary\n    of its island home. The student of archaic custom has, however,\n    to meet these difficulties, and it seems necessary, therefore,\n    to try and arrive at some idea as to what the period of savagery\n    in these islands really means.\"\n\n\nWhich is a question that very few can answer. There is to be found\nin almost every cheap book, or \"penny dreadful\" and newspaper shop\nin Great Britain and America, for sale at a very low price a Book\nof Fate--or something equivalent to it, for the name of these works\nis legion--and one publisher advertises that he has nearly thirty of\nthem, or at least such books with different titles. In my copy there\nare twenty-five pages of incantations, charms, and spells, every one\nof them every whit as \"superstitious\" as any of the gypsy ceremonies\nset forth in this volume. I am convinced, from much inquiry, that next\nto the Bible and the Almanac there is no one book which is so much\ndisseminated among the million as the fortune-teller, in some form\nor other. [1] That is to say, there are, numerically, many millions\nmore of believers in such small sorcery now in Great Britain than\nthere were centuries ago, for, be it remembered, the superstitions\nof the masses were always petty ones, like those of the fate-books;\nit was only the aristocracy who consulted Cornelius Agrippa, and\ncould afford la haute magie. We may call it by other names, but fry,\nboil, roast, powder or perfume it as we will, the old faith in the\nsupernatural and in \"occult\" means of getting at it still exists in one\nform or another--the parable or moral of most frequent occurrence in\nit being that of the Mote and the Beam, of the real and full meaning\nof which I can only reply in the ever-recurring refrain of the Edda:\n\"Understand ye this--or what?\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF WITCHCRAFT, SHAMANISM, AND SORCERY.--VINDICTIVE AND\nMISCHIEVOUS MAGIC.\n\n\nAs their peculiar perfume is the chief association with spices,\nso sorcery is allied in every memory to gypsies. And as it has not\nescaped many poets that there is something more strangely sweet\nand mysterious in the scent of cloves than in that of flowers, so\nthe attribute of inherited magic power adds to the romance of these\npicturesque wanderers. Both the spices and the Romany come from the\nfar East--the fatherland of divination and enchantment. The latter\nhave been traced with tolerable accuracy, if we admit their affinity\nwith the Indian Dom and Domar, back to the threshold of history, or\nwell-nigh into prehistoric times, and in all ages they, or their women,\nhave been engaged, as if by elvish instinct, in selling enchantments,\npeddling prophecies and palmistry, and dealing with the devil generally\nin a small retail way. As it was of old so it is to-day--\n\n\n    Ki shan i Romani\n    Adoi san' i chov'hani.\n\n    Wherever gypsies go,\n    There the witches are, we know.\n\n\nIt is no great problem in ethnology or anthropology as to how gypsies\nbecame fortune-tellers. We may find a very curious illustration of\nit in the wren. This is apparently as humble, modest, prosaic little\nfowl as exists, and as far from mystery and wickedness as an old\nhen. But the ornithologists of the olden time, and the myth-makers,\nand the gypsies who lurked and lived in the forest, knew better. They\nsaw how this bright-eyed, strange little creature in her elvish way\nslipped in and out of hollow trees and wood shade into sunlight,\nand anon was gone, no man knew whither, and so they knew that it was\nan uncanny creature, and told wonderful tales of its deeds in human\nform, and to-day it is called by gypsies in Germany, as in England,\nthe witch-bird, or more briefly, chorihani, \"the witch.\" Just so the\ngypsies themselves, with their glittering Indian eyes, slipping like\nthe wren in and out of the shadow of the Unknown, and anon away and\ninvisible, won for themselves the name which now they wear. Wherever\nShamanism, or the sorcery which is based on exorcising or commanding\nspirits, exists, its professors from leading strange lives, or from\nsolitude or wandering, become strange and wild-looking. When men have\nthis appearance people associate with it mysterious power. This is\nthe case in Tartary, Africa, among the Eskimo, Lapps, or Red Indians,\nwith all of whom the sorcerer, voodoo or medaolin, has the eye of\nthe \"fascinator,\" glittering and cold as that of a serpent. So the\ngypsies, from the mere fact of being wanderers and out-of-doors\nlivers in wild places, became wild-looking, and when asked if they\ndid not associate with the devils who dwell in the desert places,\nadmitted the soft impeachment, and being further questioned as to\nwhether their friends the devils, fairies, elves, and goblins had not\ntaught them how to tell the future, they pleaded guilty, and finding\nthat it paid well, went to work in their small way to improve their\n\"science,\" and particularly their pecuniary resources. It was an easy\ncalling; it required no property or properties, neither capital nor\ncapitol, shiners nor shrines, wherein to work the oracle. And as I\nbelieve that a company of children left entirely to themselves would\nform and grow up with a language which in a very few years would\nbe spoken fluently, [2] so I am certain that the shades of night,\nand fear, pain, and lightning and mystery would produce in the same\ntime conceptions of dreaded beings, resulting first in demonology and\nthen in the fancied art of driving devils away. For out of my own\nchildish experiences and memories I retain with absolute accuracy\nmaterial enough to declare that without any aid from other people\nthe youthful mind forms for itself strange and seemingly supernatural\nphenomena. A tree or bush waving in the night breeze by moonlight is\nperhaps mistaken for a great man, the mere repetition of the sight\nor of its memory make it a personal reality. Once when I was a child\npowerful doses of quinine caused a peculiar throb in my ear which I\nfor some time believed was the sound of somebody continually walking\nupstairs. Very young children sometimes imagine invisible playmates or\ncompanions talk with them, and actually believe that the unseen talk\nto them in return. I myself knew a small boy who had, as he sincerely\nbelieved, such a companion, whom he called Bill, and when he could\nnot understand his lessons he consulted the mysterious William, who\nexplained them to him. There are children who, by the voluntary or\ninvoluntary exercise of visual perception or volitional eye-memory,\n[3] reproduce or create images which they imagine to be real, and this\nfaculty is much commoner than is supposed. In fact I believe that where\nit exists in most remarkable degrees the adults to whom the children\ndescribe their visions dismiss them as \"fancies\" or falsehoods. Even\nin the very extraordinary cases recorded by Professor Hale, in which\nlittle children formed for themselves spontaneously a language in\nwhich they conversed fluently, neither their parents nor anybody else\nappears to have taken the least interest in the matter. However, the\nfact being that babes can form for themselves supernatural conceptions\nand embryo mythologies, and as they always do attribute to strange\nor terrible-looking persons power which the latter do not possess,\nit is easy, without going further, to understand why a wild Indian\ngypsy, with eyes like a demon when excited, and unearthly-looking at\nhis calmest, should have been supposed to be a sorcerer by credulous\nchild-like villagers. All of this I believe might have taken place,\nor really did take place, in the very dawn of man's existence as\na rational creature--that as soon as \"the frontal convolution of\nthe brain which monkeys do not possess,\" had begun with the \"genial\ntubercule,\" essential to language, to develop itself, then also certain\nother convolutions and tubercules, not as yet discovered, but which\nad interim I will call \"the ghost-making,\" began to act. \"Genial,\"\nthey certainly were not--little joy and much sorrow has man got out of\nhis spectro-facient apparatus--perhaps if it and talk are correlative\nhe might as well, many a time, have been better off if he were dumb.\n\nSo out of the earliest time, in the very two o'clock of a misty\nmorning in history, man came forth believing in non-existent terrors\nand evils as soon as he could talk, and talking about them as fast\nas he formed them. Long before the conception of anything good or\nbeneficent, or of a Heavenly Father or benevolent angels came to him,\nhe was scared with nightmares and spirits of death and darkness,\nhell, hunger, torture, and terror. We all know how difficult it\nis for many people when some one dies out of a house-hold to get\nover the involuntary feeling that we shall unexpectedly meet the\ndeparted in the usual haunts. In almost every family there is a\nrecord how some one has \"heard a voice they cannot hear,\" or the\ndead speaking in the familiar tones. Hence the belief in ghosts,\nas soon as men began to care for death at all, or to miss those who\nhad gone. So first of all came terrors and spectres, or revenants,\nand from setting out food for the latter, which was the most obvious\nand childlike manner to please them, grew sacrifices to evil spirits,\nand finally the whole system of sacrifice in all its elaboration.\n\nIt may therefore be concluded that as soon as man began to think\nand speak and fear the mysterious, he also began to appease ghosts\nand bugbears by sacrifices. Then there sprung up at once--quite as\nearly--the magus, or the cleverer man, who had the wit to do the\nsacrificing and eat the meats sacrificed, and explain that he had\narranged it all privately with the dead and the devils. He knew all\nabout them, and he could drive them away. This was the Shaman. He\nseems to have had a Tartar-Mongol-mongrel-Turanian origin, somewhere\nin Central Asia, and to have spread with his magic drum, and songs,\nand stinking smoke, exorcising his fiends all over the face of the\nearth, even as his descendant, General Booth, with his \"devil-drivers\"\nis doing at the present day. But the earliest authentic records\nof Shamanism are to be found in the Accadian, proto-Chald\u00e6an and\nBabylon records. According to it all diseases whatever, as well as all\ndisasters, were directly the work of evil spirits, which were to be\ndriven away by songs of exorcism, burning of perfumes or evil-smelling\ndrugs, and performing ceremonies, many of which, with scraps of the\nexorcisms are found in familiar use here and there at the present\nday. Most important of all in it was the extraordinary influence of\nthe Shaman himself on his patient, for he made the one acted on sleep\nor wake, freed him from many apparently dire disorders in a minute,\namong others of epilepsies which were believed to be caused by devils\ndwelling in man--the nearest and latest explanation of which magic\npower is given in that very remarkable book, \"Psycho-Therapeutics, or\nTreatment by Sleep and Suggestion,\" by C. Lloyd Tuckey, M.D. (London:\nBailliere and Co., 1889), which I commend to all persons interested\nin ethnology as casting light on some of the most interesting and\nperplexing problems of humanity, and especially of \"magic.\"\n\nIt would seem, at least among the Laplanders, Finns, Eskimo, and\nRed Indians, that the first stage of Shamanism was a very horrible\nwitchcraft, practised chiefly by women, in which attempts were made to\nconciliate the evil spirits; the means employed embracing everything\nwhich could revolt and startle barbarous men. Thus fragments of\ndead bodies and poison, and unheard-of terrors and crimes formed its\nbasis. I think it very probable that this was the primitive religion\namong savages everywhere. An immense amount of it in its vilest\nconceivable forms still exists among negroes as Voodoo.\n\nAfter a time this primitive witchcraft or voodooism had its\nreformers--probably brave and shrewd men, who conjectured that the\npowers of evil might be \"exploited\" to advantage. There is great\nconfusion and little knowledge as yet as regards primitive man, but\ntill we know better we may roughly assume that witch-voodooism was\nthe religion of the people of the paleolithic period, if they could\ntalk at all, since language is denied to the men of the Neanderthal,\nCanstadt, Egnisheim, and Podhava type. All that we can declare with\nsome certainty is that we find the advanced Shamanism the religion of\nthe early Turanian races, among whose descendants, and other people\nallied to them, it exists to this day. The grandest incident in the\nhistory of humanity is the appearance of the Man of Cromagnon. He it\nwas who founded what M. de Quatrefages calls \"a magnificent race,\"\nprobably one which speedily developed a high civilization, and a\nrefined religion. But the old Shamanism with its amulets, exorcisms,\nand smoke, its noises, more or less musical, of drums and enchanted\nbells, and its main belief that all the ills of life came from the\naction of evil spirits, was deeply based among the inferior races and\nthe inferior scions of the Cromagnon stock clung to it in forms more\nor less modified. Just as the earlier witchcraft, or the worship and\nconciliation of evil, overlapped in many places the newer Shamanism, so\nthe latter overlapped the beautiful Nature-worship of the early Aryans,\nthe stately monotheism of the Shemites, and the other more advanced\nor ingenious developments of the idea of a creative cause. There are,\nin fact, even among us now, minds to whom Shamanism or even witchcraft\nis deeply, or innately adapted by nature, and there are hundred of\nmillions who, while professing a higher and purer doctrine, cling\nto its forms or essentials, believing that because the apparatus\nis called by a different name it is in no respect whatever the same\nthing. Finally there are men who, with no logical belief whatever in\nany kind of supernaturalism, study it, and love it, and are moved by\nit, owing to its endless associations with poetry, art, and all the\nlegends of infancy or youth. Heine was not in his reasoning moments\nanything more or less than a strict Deist or Monotheist, but all the\ndreams and spectres, fairies and goblins, whether of the Middle Ages or\nthe Talmud, were inexpressibly dear to him, and they move like myriad\nmotes through the sunshine of his poetry and prose, often causing\nlong rays when there were bars at the window--like that on which\nthe saint hung his cloak. It is probable or certain that Shamanism\n(or that into which it has very naturally developed) will influence\nall mankind, until science, by absorbing man's love of the marvellous\nin stupendous discoveries shall so put to shame the old thaumaturgy,\nor wonder-working, that the latter will seem poor and childish. In\nall the \"Arabian Nights\" there is nothing more marvellous than the\nnew idea that voices and sounds may be laid aside like real books,\nand made to speak and sing again years afterwards. And in all of that\nvast repertory of occult lore, \"Isis Unveiled,\" there is nothing so\nwonderful as the simple truth that every child may be educated to\npossess an infinitely developed memory of words, sights, sounds, and\nideas, allied to incredible quickness of perception and practice of\nthe constructive faculties. These, with the vast fields of adjusting\nimproved social relations and reforms--all of which in a certain way\nopens dazzling vistas of a certain kind of enchantment or brilliant\nhope--will go fast and far to change the old romance to a radically\ndifferent state of feeling and association.\n\nIt is coming--let it come! Doubtless there was an awful romance\nof darkness about the old witchcraft which caused its worshippers\nto declare that the new lights of Shamanism could never dissipate\nit. Just so many millions of educated people at present cannot be\nbrought to understand that all things to which they are used are not\nbased on immutable laws of nature, and must needs be eternal. They will\nfind it hard to comprehend that there can ever be any kind of poetry,\nart, or sentiment, utterly different from that to which they and their\nancestors have been accustomed. Yet it is clear and plain before them,\nthis New Era, looking them directly in the face, about to usher in a\nreformation compared to which all the reformations and revolutions,\nand new religions which the world has ever seen were as nothing;\nand the children are born who will see more than the beginning of it.\n\nIn the next chapter I will examine the Shamanic spells and charms\nstill used among certain gypsies. For, be it observed, all the gypsy\nmagic and sorcery here described is purely Shamanic--that is to say,\nof the most primitive Tartar type--and it is the more interesting\nas having preserved from prehistoric times many of the most marked\ncharacteristics of the world's first magic or religion. It treats\nevery disease, disorder, trouble, or affliction as the work of an\nevil spirit; it attempts to banish these influences by the aid of\nceremonies, many of which, by the disgusting and singular nature\nof the ingredients employed, show the lingering influences of the\nblack witchcraft which preceded Shamanism; and it invokes favourable\nsupernatural agencies, such as the spirits of the air and Mashmurdalo',\nthe giant of the forests. In addition to this there will be found to\nbe clearly and unmistakably associated with all their usages, symbols\nand things nearly connected with much which is to be found in Greek,\nRoman, and Indian mythology or symbolism. Now whether this was drawn\nfrom \"classic\" sources, or whether all came from some ancient and\nobscure origin, cannot now be accurately determined. But it certainly\ncannot be denied that Folk-lore of this kind casts a great deal of\nlight on the early history of mankind, and the gradual unfolding or\nevolution of religion and of mind, and that, if intelligently studied,\nthis of the gypsies is as important as any chapter in the grand work.\n\nThe gypsies came, historically speaking, very recently from India. It\nhas not been so carefully observed as it might that all Indians are\nnot of the religion of Brahma, much less of Buddha or of Mahommed,\nand that among the lower castes, the prim\u00e6val Altaic Shamanism, with\neven earlier witchcraft, still holds its own. Witchcraft, or Voodoo,\nor Obi, relies greatly on poisoning for its magic, and the first\ngypsies were said to poison unscrupulously. Even to this day there\nis but one word with them as with many Hindoos for both medicine and\npoison--id est drab. How exactly this form of witchcraft and Shamanism\nexists to-day in India appears from the following extract from The\nSt. James's Gazette, September 8, 1888:--\n\n\n    THE HINDOO PRIEST.\n\n    In India, the jadoo-wallah, or exorcist, thrives apace; and\n    no wonder, for is not the lower-caste Hindoo community bhut,\n    or demon-ridden? Every village, graveyard, burning-ghat, has\n    its special bhut or bhuts; and the jadoo-wallah is the earthly\n    mediator between their bhutships and the common folk. The exorcist\n    is usually the spiritual adviser to the population of a low-caste\n    village, and is known as a gooroo, or priest: that is to say, he\n    professes to hold commune with the spirits of defunct Hindoos which\n    have qualified for their unique position in the other world--by\n    their iniquity in this one, perhaps. Every Hindoo has a guardian\n    bhut that requires propitiating, and the gooroo is the medium.\n\n    Amongst the Jaiswars and other low-caste Hindoos, caste is\n    regulated by carnal pice, and a man is distinguished amongst\n    them by a regulated monetary scale. One person may be a 14-anna\n    caste man while another may only be a 12-anna caste man. Does the\n    12-anna caste man wish to supersede the 14-anna caste man, then\n    he consults the gooroo, who will, in consideration of a certain\n    contribution, promote him to a higher-caste grade. A moneyed man\n    having qualms about his future state should join the Jaiswars,\n    where at least he would have an opportunity of utilizing his spare\n    cash for the good of his soul. The average gooroo will be only too\n    glad to procure him everlasting glory for a matter of a few rupees.\n\n    The gooroo, then, serves as regulator of the lower-caste Hindoo\n    system. But it is our intention to exhibit him in his peculiar\n    position of exorcist-general to the people. This will perhaps\n    be best explained by an account of the case of one Kaloo. Kaloo\n    was a grass-cutter, and had been offended by Kasi, a brother\n    grass-cutter. Kasi, it appears, had stolen Kaloo's quilt one night\n    during his temporary absence at a neighbouring liquor-shop. Kaloo,\n    on his return, finding his quilt gone, raised the hue-and-cry;\n    and Mooloo, the village policeman, traced the robbery to Kasi's\n    hut. Yet, in spite of this damning proof, the village panchayet,\n    or bench of magistrates, decided that, as Kaloo could not swear\n    to the exact colour of his lost quilt--Kaloo was colour-blind--it\n    could not possibly be his. Anyhow, Kaloo kept Kasi in view and\n    hit upon a plan to do him a grievous bodily injury. Scraping\n    together a few rupees, he went to the village gooroo and promised\n    that worthy a reward if he would only exorcise the bhuts and get\n    them to \"make Kasi's liver bad.\" The gooroo, in consideration\n    of five rupees cash, promised compliance. So that night we find\n    the gooroo busy with sandal-wood and pig's blood propitiating the\n    neighbouring bhuts. Needless to say that Kasi had in a very short\n    space of time all the symptoms of liver complaint. Whether the\n    bhuts gave Kasi a bad liver or the gooroo gave him a few doses\n    of poison is a question. Anyhow, Kasi soon died. Another case\n    in point is that of Akuti. Akuti was a retired courtesan who had\n    long plied a profitable trade in the city. We find her, however,\n    at her native village of Ramghur, the wife of one Balu. Balu\n    soon got tired of his Akuti, and longed for the contents of her\n    strong box wherein she kept her rupees, bracelets, nose-rings,\n    and other valuables. This was a rather awkward matter for Balu,\n    for Akuti was still in the prime of life. Balu accordingly visits\n    the gooroo and wants Akuti's liver made bad. \"Nothing easier,\"\n    says the gooroo: \"five rupees.\" Balu has reckoned without his\n    host, however: for the gooroo, as general spiritual adviser to\n    the Ramghur community, visits Akuti and tells her of Balu's little\n    scheme. Naturally Balu's liver is soon in a decline, for Akuti's\n    ten rupees were put in the opposite side of the gooroo's scales.\n\n    Knaves of the gooroo genus flourish in India, and when their\n    disposition is vicious the damage they can do is appalling. That\n    these priests exist and do such things as I have illustrated is\n    beyond question. Ask any native of India his views on the bhut\n    question, and he will tell you that there are such things, and,\n    further, that the gooroo is the only one able to lay them, so to\n    speak. According to the low-caste Hindoo, the bhut is a spiteful\n    creature which requires constant supplies of liquor and pork;\n    otherwise it will wreak its vengeance on the forgetful votary who\n    neglects the supply. A strange idea, too, is this of pork being\n    pleasing to the bhuts; but when it is remembered that the Jaiswars,\n    Chamars, and other low-caste Hindoos are inordinately fond of\n    that meat themselves, they are right in supposing pig to be the\n    favourite dish of the bhuts, who, after all, are but the departed\n    spirits of their own people. Naturally bhai (brother) Kaloo, or\n    bahin (sister, English gypsy pen) Akuti, the quondam grass-cutter\n    and courtesan of Ramghur village, who in this life liked nothing\n    better than a piece of bacon and a dram of spirits, will, in their\n    state of bhuthood hanker after those things still. Acting on these\n    notions of the people, the gooroo lives and thrives exceedingly.\n\n\nYet of all this there is nothing \"Hindoo,\" nothing of the Vedas. It is\nall pre-Aryan, devil-worshipping, poisoning, and Turanian; and it is\nexactly like voodooing in Philadelphia or any other city in America. It\nis the old faith which came before all, which existed through and\nunder Brahminism, Buddhism, and Mahommedanism, and which, as is well\nknown, has cropped out again and flourishes vigorously under British\ntoleration. And this is the faith which forms the basis of European\ngypsy sorcery, as it did of yore that of the Chald\u00e6an and Etrurian,\nwhich still survive in the witchcraft of the Tuscan Romagna. Every\ngypsy who came to Europe a few centuries ago set up as a gooroo,\nand did his sorceries after the same antique fashion. Even to-day it\nis much the same, but with far less crime. But the bhut or malignant\nspirit is, under other names, still believed in, still doctored by\ngypsies with herbs and smoke, and \"be-rhymed like an Irish rat,\"\nand conjured into holes bored in trees, and wafted away into running\nstreams, and na\u00efvely implored to \"go where he is wanted,\" to where\nhe was nursed, and to no longer bother honest folk who are tired\nof him. And for all this the confiding villager must pay the gypsy\nwise-woman \"so much monies\"--as it was in the beginning and is now in\ngood faith among millions in Europe who are in a much better class\nof society. And from this point of view I venture to say that there\nis not a charm or spell set down in this work or extant which will\nnot be deeply interesting to every sincere student of the history of\nculture. Let me, however, say in this beginning once for all that\nI have only given specimens sufficient to illustrate my views, for\nmy prescribed limits quite forbid the introduction of all the gypsy\ncures, spells, &c., which I have collected.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nCHARMS AND CONJURATIONS TO CURE THE DISORDERS OF GROWN\nPEOPLE. HUNGARIAN GYPSY MAGIC.\n\n\nThough not liable to many disorders, the gypsies in Eastern Europe,\nfrom their wandering, out-of-doors life, and camping by marshes and\npools where there is malaria, suffer a great deal from fevers, which in\ntheir simple system of medicine are divided into the shilale--i.e.,\nchills or cold--and the tate shilalyi, \"hot-cold,\" or fever and\nague. For the former, the following remedy is applied: Three lungs\nand three livers of frogs are dried and powdered and drunk in spirits,\nafter which the sick man or woman says:--\n\n\n   \"Cuckerdya pal m're per\n    C\u00e1ven save mise\u00e7e!\n    Cuckerdya pal m're per\n    Den mise\u00e7eske drom odry preji\u00e1l!\"\n\n   \"Frogs in my belly\n    Devour what is bad!\n    Frogs in my belly\n    Show the evil the way out!\"\n\n\nBy \"the evil\" is understood evil spirits. According to the old\nShamanic belief, which was the prim\u00e6val religion of all mankind,\nevery disease is caused by an evil spirit which enters the body\nand can only be driven out by magic. We have abundant traces of\nthis left in our highest civilization and religion among people who\ngravely attribute every evil to the devil instead of the unavoidable\nantagonisms of nature. Nothing is more apparent in the New Testament\nthan that all diseases were anciently regarded as coming from devils,\nor evil occult, spiritual influences, their negative or cure being\nholiness in some form. This the Jews, if they did not learn it from\nthe Assyrians in the first place, had certainly studied deeply in\nBabylon, where it formed the great national cult. \"It was the devil\nput it into my head,\" says the criminal; and there is not a point of\nthis old sorcery which is not earnestly and seriously advocated by the\nRoman Catholic Church and the preachers of the Salvation Army. Among\nthe American Red Indians the idea of evil spirits is carried to\nlogical extremes. If a pen drops from our fingers, or a penny rolls\nfrom our grasp, the former of course falls on our new white dress,\nwhile the latter nine times out of ten goes directly to the nearest\ngrating, or crack or rat-hole. I aver that it is literally true,\nif I ever search for a letter or paper it is almost always at the\nbottom of the rest, while ink-wipers and pens seem to be endowed\nwith more than mere instinct or reason--they manifest genius in\nconcealing themselves. The Indians having observed this have come\nto the conclusion that it is all the work of certain busy little\nmischievous goblins, in which I, to a certain extent, agree with them,\nholding, however, that the dwelling-place of these devilkins, is in\nour own brain. What are our dreams but the action of our other mind,\nor a second Me in my brain? Certainly it is with no will or effort,\nor act of mine, that I go through a diabolical torturing nightmare,\nor a dreadful dream, whose elaborate and subtle construction betrays\nvery often more ingenuity than I in my waking hours possess. I have had\nphilosophical and literary dreams, the outlines of which I have often\nremembered waking, which far transcended anything of the kind which I\ncould ever hope to write. The maker of all this is not I or my will,\nand he is never about, or on hand, when I am self-conscious. But in the\ninadvertent moments of oblivion, while writing, or while performing\nany act, this other I, or I's, (for there may be a multitude of them\nfor aught I know) step in and tease--even as they do in dreams. Now\nthe distinction between this of subjective demons acting objectively,\nand objective or outside spirits, is really too fine to be seen even\nby a Darwinian-Carpenterian-H\u00e4eckelite, and therefore one need not\nbe amazed that Piel Sabadis or Tomaquah, of the Passamaquoddy tribe,\nor Obeah Gumbo of New Orleans, should, with these experiences, jump at\nghosts and \"gobblers,\" is not to be wondered at; still less that they\nshould do something to conciliate or compel these haunting terrors,\nor \"buggs,\" as they were once called--whence bogeys. It is a fact\nthat if one's ink-wipers get into the habit of hiding all we have\nto do is to deliberately destroy them and get others, or at least\nwatch them carefully, and they will soon be cured of wandering. On\nthe other hand, sacrifices to conciliate and please naturally occur,\nand the more expensive these are the better are they supposed to\nbe. And as human beings were of old the most valuable property, they\nwere as naturally supposed to be most acceptable to the gods, or,\nby the monotheists, to God. A West Indian voodoo on being reproached\nfor human sacrifices to the serpent, and for eating the bodies slain,\nreplied, \"Do you believe that the Son of God was sacrificed to save\nman, and do you not eat what your priests say is His very body?\" So\ndifficult is it to draw distinctions between that which is spiritual\nand the mockeries which appear to be such!\n\nThe scape-goat, or sufferer, who is martyred that many may escape--or\nin other words, the unfortunate minority--is a natural result\nof sacrifice. There is a curious trace of it in Hungarian Gypsy\nShamanism. On Easter Monday they make a wooden box or receptacle\nwhich is called the bic\u00e1pen, pronounced like the English gypsy word\nbitchapen and meaning the same, that is--a sending, a thing sent or\ngift. In this, at the bottom, are two sticks across, \"as in a cradle,\"\nand on these are laid herbs and other fetish stuff which every one\ntouches with the finger; then the whole is enveloped in a winding\nof white and red wool, and carried by the oldest person of the tribe\nfrom tent to tent; after which it is borne to the next running stream\nand left there, after every one has spat upon it. By doing this they\nthink that all the diseases and disorders which would have befallen\nthem during the coming year are conjured into the box. But woe to\nhim who shall find the box and open it, instead of throwing it at\nonce into the stream! All the diseases exorcised by the gypsy band\nwill fall upon him and his in full measure.\n\nIt would be an interesting question to know how many good people there\nare, let us say in London, who, if they had an opportunity to work off\nall their colds, gouts, scarlet-fevers, tooth- head- and stomach-aches,\nwith the consequent doctors' bills, or all suffering and expenses,\non some other family by means of secret sorcery, would or would\nnot \"try it on\"? It is curious to observe the resemblance of the\ngypsy ceremony, with its box full of mischief, and the Jewish goat;\nnot forgetting the red wool handed down from heathen sacrifice and\nsorcery of old. In the Bible white wool is the symbol of purification\n(Isaiah i. 18). The feet of the statues of the gods were enveloped in\nwool--Dii laneos habent pedes--to signify that they are slow to avenge,\nif sure. It is altogether an interesting object, this gypsy casket,\nand one would like to know what all the channels were through which\nthe magic ran ere it came to them.\n\nAnother cure against the fever is to go to a running stream and cast\npieces of wood nine times backwards into the running water, repeating\nthe rhymes:--\n\n\n   \"Shil\u00e1lyi preji\u00e1,\n    P\u00e1\u00f1ori me tut 'd\u00e1v!\n    N\u00e1\u00f1i me tut k\u00e1m\u00e1v;\n    Andakode preji\u00e1,\n    Odoy tut cuciden,\n    Odoy tut ferinen,\n    Odoy tut may k\u00e1men!\n    Mashurdalo s\u00e1sty\u00e1r!\"\n\n   \"Fever go away from me,\n    I give it, water, unto thee!\n    Unto me thou art not dear,\n    Therefore go away from here\n    To where they nursed thee,\n    Where they shelter thee,\n    Where they love thee,\n      Mashurdalo--help!\"\n\n\nThis is a very remarkable invocation which takes us into true\nheathenism. Mashurd\u00e1lo, or, correctly speaking, Mashmurd\u00e1lo (it would\nbe Masm\u00e9rdo in English gypsy), means meat-killer. He is a sylvan\ngiant--he has his hold by wode and wolde as outlawes wont to do,\nin far-away forests and lonely rocky places, where he lurks to catch\nbeast and men in order to devour them. It is needless to say to those\nwho are aware that the taste of white people's flesh is like that of\nvery superior chicken, and a negro's something much better than grouse,\nthat Mashmurd\u00e1lo prefers, like a simple, unsophisticated savage as\nhe is, men to animals. Like the German peasant who remarked, \"It's\nall meat, anyhow,\" when he found a mouse in his soup, Mashmurd\u00e1lo\nis not particular. He is the guardian of great treasures; like most\nmen in the \"advance business\" he knows where the \"money\" is to be\nfound--unlike them he is remarkably stupid, and can be easily cheated\nof his valuables. But if anybody does this Morgante a service he is\nvery grateful, and aids his benefactor either with a loan or with his\nenormous strength. In many respects he bears a remarkable resemblance\nto two giants in the American Algonkin mythology, especially to\nAt-was-kenni ges--the Spirit of the Forest--who is equally powerful,\ngood-natured, and stupid, and to the Chenoo, who is a cannibal giant\nand yet grateful to friends, and also to several Hindoo gods. The\ngypsies have here evidently fused several Oriental beings into\none. This is a process which occurs in the decline of mythologies as\nin languages. In the infancy of a speech, as in its old age, many\nwords expressing different ideas, but which sound somewhat alike,\nbecome a single term. In English gypsy I have found as many as eight\nor ten Hindi words thus concentrated into one.\n\nAnother cure for a fever. The sufferer goes in the forest and finds\na young tree. When the first rays of the rising sun fall on it the\npatient shakes it with all his might and exclaims:--\n\n\n   \"Shil\u00e1lyi, shil\u00e1lyi prejia\n    K\u00e1the tu besh\u00e1, k\u00e1the tu besh\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Fever, fever, go away!\n    Here shalt thou stay. Here shalt thou stay!\"\n\n\nIt is here plain that the shaking the sapling is intended to transfer\nthe shakes, as the chill and shuddering of the fever is called in\nAmerica, to the tree.\n\n\"Then the fever passes into the tree.\" Perhaps it was in this way\nthat the aspen learned to tremble. But among the gypsies in the south\nof Hungary, among whom the vaccination or inoculation of trees is\ngreatly the fashion, a hole is bored into the wood, into which the\npatient spits thrice, repeats the spell, and then stops the hole with\na plug. The boring of holes in trees or transferring illness to them\nis also practised without formulas of speech. Thus, if while a man is\nlying down or sitting in the spring he hears the song of the cuckoo\nhe believes that he will be ill all the time for a year to come,\nespecially with fevers, unless he goes nine times to a tree, bores a\nhole in it, and spits into it three times. Then he is safe. In German\nmythology \"the cuckoo is a bird which brings bad luck\" (Friedrich),\nand the inhabitants of Haiterbach were so persuaded of this that they\nintroduced a prayer against it into their church service, whence they\ngot the name of cuckoos (Wolf, \"Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Deutsche Myth.,\"\nvol. i. p. 440). It announces to men the infidelity of wives, and\ntells listeners how many years they have to live.\n\nIt is possible that this is a relic of an old form of sacrifice, or\nproof that the idea occurs to all men of thus making a casket of a\ntree. The occasional discovery of stone axe-heads in very old trees\nin America renders this probable. And where the wood grows up and\nencloses the object it would very rarely happen that it would ever\nbe discovered. It should be added to the previous instance that when\nthey have closed the hole, the Transylvanian gypsies eat some of the\nbark of the next tree.\n\nAnother cure for fever is effected by going in the morning before\nsunrise to the bank of a stream, and digging a hole with some\nobject--for instance, a knife--which has never been used. Into this\nhole the patient makes water, then fills up the hole, saying:--\n\n\n   \"Shil\u00e1lyi \u00e1c kathe\n    N\u00e1 \u00e1v\u00e1 kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge!\n    Suty\u00e1r\u00e1 andr\u00e9 cik!\n    Av\u00e1 kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 k\u00e1the n\u00e1 hin p\u00e1\u00f1i!\"\n\n   \"Fever stay here!\n    Do not come to me!\n    Dry up in dust,\n    Come unto me\n    When no water is here.\"\n\n\nDr. Wlislocki translates this last line, \"When there is no more water\nin the river,\" which is certainly what is meant. \"While water runs\nor grass grows,\" &c. is a formula common to all countries. Another\ncure for fever is this: the patient must take a kreutzer, an egg, and\na handful of salt, and before sunrise go with them to a cross-road,\nthrow them away backwards, and repeat:--\n\n\n   \"K\u00e1n\u00e1 \u00e1d\u00e1l\u00e1 kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge \u00e1ven\n    Ava tu kiya m\u00e1nge shil\u00e1lyi.\"\n\n   \"When these things again I see,\n    Fever then return to me.\"\n\n\nOr literally, \"When these things to me come.\" For the next three\ndays the invalid must not touch money, eggs, or salt. There is an old\nMS. collection of English charms and ceremonies, professedly of \"black\nwitchcraft,\" in which we are told that if a girl will walk stark-naked\nby the light of the full moon round a field or a house, and cast behind\nher at every step a handful of salt, she will get the lover whom she\ndesires. Salt, says Moresinus, was sacred to the infernal deities,\nand it was a symbol of the soul, or of life, because it preserved\nthe body while in it (Pitiscus, \"Leg. Ant. Rom.\" ii. p. 675). The\ndevil never eats salt. Once there was in Germany a peasant who had\na witch for a wife, and the devil invited them to supper. But all\nthe dishes were without any seasoning, and the peasant, despite all\nnudges and hints to hold his tongue kept crying for salt. And when it\nwas brought and he said, \"Thank God, here is salt at last!\" the whole\nSpuck, or ghastly scene, vanished (Horst, \"D\u00e6monomagie,\" Frankfurt,\n1818, vol. ii. p. 213). For a great deal of further information\nand symbolism on and of salt, including all the views of the ancient\nRabbis and modern rationalists on the subject of Lot's wife, the reader\nmay consult \"Symbolik und Mythologie der Natur,\" by J. B. Friedrich,\nW\u00fcrzburg, 1859: \"Salt is put into love-philtres and charms to ensure\nthe duration of an attachment; in some Eastern countries it is carried\nin a little bag as an amulet to preserve health.\"\n\nAnother cure for fever. The patient must drink, from a new jug, water\nfrom three brooks, and after every drink throw into the running stream\na handful of salt. Then he must make water into the first and say:--\n\n\n   \"K\u00e1the hin t'ro sherro!\"\n\n   \"Here is thy head!\"\n\n\nAt the second he repeats the sacred ceremony and murmurs:--\n\n\n   \"K\u00e1the hin t'ro per\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Here is thy belly!\"\n\n\nAnd again at the third he exclaims:--\n\n\n   \"Te kathehin t're punr\u00e1.\n    J\u00e1 \u00e1tunci \u00e1ndre p\u00e1\u00f1i!\"\n\n   \"And here are thy feet.\n    Go now into the water!\"\n\n\nBut while passing from one stream to another he must not look back\nonce, for then he might behold the dread demon of the fever which\nfollows him, neither must he open his mouth, except while uttering the\ncharm, for then the fever would at once enter his body again through\nthe portal thus left unclosed. This walking on in apprehension of\nbeholding the ugly spectre will recall to the reader a passage in the\n\"Ancient Mariner,\" of the man who walks in fear and dread,\n\n\n   \"Nor turns around his head,\n    For well he knows a frightful fiend\n    Doth close behind him tread.\"\n\n\nThe wise wives among the gypsies in Hungary have many kinds of\nmiraculous salves for sale to cure different disorders. These they\ndeclare are made from the fat of dogs, bears, wolves, frogs, and the\nlike. As in all fetish remedies they are said to be of strange or\nrevolting materials, like those used by Canidia of yore, the witches\nof Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, and of Burns in Tam O'Shanter.\n\nWhen a man has been \"struck by a spirit\" there results a sore, swelling\nor boil, which is cured by a sorceress as follows: The patient is put\ninto a tent by himself, and is given divers drinks by his attendant;\nthen she rubs the sufferer with a salve, the secret of which is known\nonly to her, while she chants:--\n\n\n   \"Preji\u00e1, preji\u00e1, preji\u00e1,\n    Kiy\u00e1 mise\u00e7eske, \u00e1c odoy;\n    Trianda sapa the \u00e7aven tut,\n    Trianda jiukl\u00e1 tut cingeren,\n    Trianda k\u00e1\u00e7n\u00e1 tut cun\u00e1ven!\"\n\n   \"Begone, begone, begone\n    To the Evil One; stay there.\n    May thirty snakes devour thee,\n    Thirty dogs tear thee,\n    Thirty cocks swallow thee!\"\n\n\nAfter this she slaughters a black hen, splits it open, and lays it\non the boil. Then the sufferer must drink water from three springs\nor rivulets, and throw wood nine times into the fire daily until\nhe is well. But black hens cost money, according to Wlislocki;\nalbeit the gypsies, like the children of the Mist in \"Waverley,\"\nare believed to be acquainted with a far more economical and direct\nmethod of obtaining such commodities. Therefore this expensive and\nhigh-class cure is not often resorted to, and when it is the sorceress\ngenerally substitutes something cheaper than poultry. It may be here\nobserved that the black hen occurs frequently in medi\u00e6val witch-lore\nand legend as a demon-symbol (Wolf, \"Niederl\u00e4ndische Sagen,\" pp. 647,\n650). Thus the bones of sorcerors turn into black hens and chickens,\nand it is well if your black hen dies, for if she had not you would\nhave perished in her place. Black hens were walled up in castles\nas sacrifices to the devil, that the walls might long endure; hence\nthe same fowl occurs in the arms of the family of Henneberg (Nork,\n\"Mythologie der Volkssagen,\" p. 381). The lore on this subject is\nvery extensive.\n\nThe following remedy against headache is in general use among\nTransylvanian gypsies. The patient's head is rubbed, and then washed,\nwith vinegar or hot water while the following charm is repeated:--\n\n\n   \"Oh duk \u00e1ndro m'ro shero\n    The o d\u00e1d mise\u00e7escro,\n    Ad\u00e1 dikhel \u00e1k\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    Man tu m\u00e1y dost\u00e1, m\u00e1rdy\u00e1s,\n    Miro shero tu m\u00e1rdy\u00e1s!\n    Tu n\u00e1 ac tu \u00e1ndre me.\n    J\u00e1 tu, j\u00e1 tu, j\u00e1 kere.\n    K\u00e1y tu mise\u00e7 cucides,\n    Odoy, odoy sikoves!\n    Ko j\u00e1l pro m'ro ush\u00e1lyin,\n    Ad\u00e1leske e duk hin!\"\n\n   \"Oh, pain in my head,\n    The father of all evil,\n    Look upon thee now!\n    Thou hast greatly pained me,\n    Thou tormentest my head,\n    Remain not in me!\n    Go thou, go thou, go home,\n    Whence thou, Evil One, didst suck,\n    Thither, thither hasten!\n    Who treads upon my shadow,\n    To him be the pain!\"\n\n\nIt will be seen that the principle of treading on the tail of the\ncoat practised in Ireland is much outdone by the gypsies who give a\nheadache to any one who so much as treads on their shadows. And it\nis not difficult to understand that, as with children, the rubbing\nthe head, the bathing it with warm water or vinegar, and, finally,\nthe singing a soothing song, may all conduce to a cure. The readers of\n\"Helen's Babies\" will remember the cures habitually wrought on Budge\nby singing to him, \"Charley boy one day.\" Gypsies are in many respects\nmere children, or little Budges. There can be no doubt that where\nfaith is very strong, and imagination is lively, cures which seem to\nborder on the miraculous are often effected--and this is, indeed, the\nbasis of all miracle as applied to relieving bodily afflictions. All\nof this may be, if not as yet fully explained by physiology, at least\nshown to probably rest on a material basis. But no sound system of\ncure can be founded on it, because there is never any certainty,\nespecially for difficult and serious disorders, that they can ever be\nhealed twice in succession. The \"faith\" exacted is sometimes a purely\nhereditary gift, at other times merely a form of blind ignorance and\ncredulity. It may vividly influence all the body, and it may fail to\nact altogether. But the \"Faith Healer\" and \"Christian Scientist,\" or\n\"Metaphysical Doctor,\" push boldly on, and when they here and there\nheal a patient once, it is published to the four winds as a proof\nof invariable infallibility. And as everybody believes that he has\n\"faith,\" so he hopes to be cured. In popular custom for a man to say\nhe believes in anything, and to be sure that he really has nothing\nagainst it, constitutes as much \"faith\" as most men understand. A\nman may be utterly destitute of any moral principle and yet live in\na constant state of \"faith\" and pious conviction. Here the capacity\nfor cure by means of charms is complete.\n\nIn connection with these charms for the head we may find not less\ninteresting those in reference to the hair, as given by the same\nauthority, Dr. von Wlislocki. The greatest pains are taken to ensure\neven for the new-born child what is called a full head, because every\none who dies bald is turned into a fish, and must remain in this form\ntill he has collected as many hairs as would make an ordinary wig. But\nthis lasts a long time, since he can find but a single hair every\nmonth or moon. The moon is in many ways connected in gypsy faith with\nthe hair. He who sleeps bare-headed in its light will lose his hair,\nor else it will become white. To have a heavy growth a man must scoop\nup with his left hand water from a running brook, against the current,\nand pour it on his head.\n\nImmediately after the first bathing of a newly-born child, and its\nanointing, its forehead and neck are marked with a semicircle--perhaps\nmeant to indicate the moon--made with a salve called barcali, intended\nto promote the growth of the hair. A brew, or mess, is made from\nbeans and the blood of a cow. Hairs are taken from the heads of the\nfather and mother, which hairs are burnt to a powder and mixed with\nthe brew. It is remarkable that the beans are only used for a boy,\ntheir object being to insure for him great virile or sexual power. \"The\nbean,\" says Friedrich (\"Sym. d. N.\"), \"is an erotic symbol, or one\nsignifying sexual pleasure.\" Hence it was forbidden to the Egyptian\npriests, the Pythagoreans, the priests of Jupiter in Rome, and to the\nJewish high priests on certain festivals. But if the child is a girl,\nthe seeds of the pumpkin or sunflower are substituted for beans,\nbecause the latter would make her barren.\n\nIt is an old belief, and one widely spread, that if the witches or the\ndevil can get a lock of anybody's hair, they can work him evil. The\ngypsies have the following articles of faith as regards hairs:--\n\nShould birds find any, and build them into their nests, the man who\nlost them will suffer from headaches until, during the wane of the\nmoon, he rubs his head with the yolk of eggs and washes it clean in\nrunning water. It would be very curious if this method of cleaning the\nhair and giving it a soft gloss, so much in vogue among English ladies,\nshould have originated in sorcery. Beyond this, the sufferer must\nmix some of his hairs with food and give them to a white dog to eat.\n\nIf hairs which have fallen or been cut away are found by a snake and\ncarried into its hole, the man from whom they came will continue to\nlose more until those in the snake's nest are quite decayed.\n\nIf you see human hairs in the road do not tread on them, since, in that\ncase, if they came from a lunatic, you, too, will go mad. According\nto Marcellus Burdigalensis, if you pick up some hairs in the road\njust before entering a city gate, tie one to your own head, and,\nthrowing the rest away, walk on without looking behind you, you can\ncure a headache. I have found nearly the same charm for the same\npurpose in Florence, but accompanied by the incantation which is\nwanting in Marcellus. Also his cure for headache with ivy from the\nhead of a statue, which is still used in Tuscany with the incantation\nwhich the Roman omits.\n\nFinding a hair hanging to your coat, carefully burn it, since you\nmay by so doing escape injury by witchcraft. And we may remark in\nconfirmation of this, that when you see a long hair on a man's coat\nit is an almost certain sign that he has been among the witches,\nor is bewitched; as the Countess thought when she found one clinging\nto the button of her lover, Von Adelstein, as set forth in \"Meister\nKarl's Sketch-book.\"\n\nBut to bewitch your enemy get some of his combed-out hair, steep it\nin your own water, and then throw it on his garments. Then he will\nhave no rest by night or day. I have observed that in all the Tuscan\ncharms intended to torment a foe, the objects employed are like this\nof a disgusting nature.\n\nIf a wife will hold her husband to her in love, she must take of\nher own hair and bind it to his. This must be done three times by\nfull moonlight.\n\nOr if a maid will win the love of a young man, she must take of her\nown hair, mix it with earth from his footsteps--\"und mischt diese mit\ndem Speichel einer l\u00e4ufigen Hundinn auf\"--burn the whole to powder,\nand so manage that the victim shall eat it--which, it is needless\nto say, it is not likely that he will do, knowing what it is. Earth\nfrom the footsteps of any one is regarded as a very powerful means\nof bewitching him in Italian and ancient sorcery.\n\nIf a man bind the combings of his hair to the mane of a strange horse\nit will be wild and shy till the hairs are removed.\n\nFor easy childbirth red hair is sewed in a small bag and carried on\nthe belly next the skin during pregnancy. Red hair indicates good\nluck, and is called b\u00e1l\u00e1 k\u00e1meskro, or sun-hairs, which indicates its\nIndian origin.\n\nIf any one dreams much of the dead, let him sew some of his hair into\nan old shoe, and give it to any beggar. Thereby he will prevent evil\nspirits from annoying him.\n\nIf a child suffers from sleeplessness, some of its mother's hair\nshould be sewed into its wrappings, and others pulverized, mixed\nwith a decoction of elderberries, be given it to drink. In German\nFolk-lore, as I shall show more fully anon, the elder often occurs\nas a plant specially identified with sorcery. In gypsy it is called\nyakori bengeskro, or the devil's eye, from its berries.\n\nNails cut on Friday should be burned, and the ashes mingled with\nthe fodder of cattle, who are thus ensured against being stolen or\nattacked by wild beasts. If children are dwarfish, the same ashes\nin their food will make them grow. If a child suffers from pains in\nthe stomach, a bit of nail must be clipped from its every finger;\nthis is mixed with the dried dung of a foal, and the patient exposed\nto the smoke while it is burned.\n\nA child's first tooth must, when it falls out, be thrown into a hollow\ntree. Those which come out in the seventh year are carefully kept, and\nwhenever the child suffers from toothache, one is thrown into a stream.\n\nTeeth which have been buried for many years, serve to make a singular\nfetish. They are mingled with the bones of a tree-frog, and the whole\nthen sewed up in a little bag. If a man has anything for sale, and will\ndraw or rub this bag over it, he will have many offers or customers\nfor the articles thus enchanted. The bones are prepared by putting\nthe frog into a glass or earthen receptacle full of small holes. This\nis buried in an ant-hill. The ants enter the holes and eat away all\nthe flesh, leaving the bones which after a few weeks are removed. [4]\n\nTo bear healthy and strong children women wear a string of bears'\nclaws and children's teeth. Dr. von Wlislocki cites, apropos of this,\na passage from Jacobus Rueff, \"Von Empfengnussen\": \"Etlich schwanger\nwyber pfl\u00e4gend einen b\u00e4ren klauen von einem b\u00e4ren tapen yngefaszet am\nhals zuo tragen\" (Some women when with child are accustomed to wear\nmounted bears' claws on their necks). In like manner boars' teeth,\nwhich much resemble them, are still very commonly worn in Austria\nand Italy and almost over all Europe and the East. It is but a few\ndays since I here, in Florence, met with a young English lady who\nhad bought a very large one mounted in silver as a brooch, but who\nwas utterly unaware that there was any meaning attached to it. [5]\nI have a very ancient bear's tooth and whistle in silver, meant for\na teething child. It came from Munich.\n\nPain in the eyes is cured with a wash made of spring or well water\nand saffron. During the application the following is recited:--\n\n\n   \"Oh dukh \u00e1ndr\u00e1l y\u00e1kh\u00e1\n    J\u00e1 \u00e1ndr\u00e9 p\u00e1\u00f1i\n    J\u00e1 andr\u00e1l p\u00e1\u00f1i\n    Andr\u00e9 safr\u00e1ne\n    Andr\u00e9 p\u00e7uv.\n    J\u00e1 andr\u00e1l p\u00e7uv\n    Kiy\u00e1 P\u00e7uvusheske.--\n    Odoy hin cer\u00e7\u00e1,\n    Odoy ja te \u00e7a.\"\n\n   \"Oh, pain from the eyes\n    Go into the water,\n    Go out of the water\n    Into the saffron,\n    Go out of the saffron\n    Into the earth.\n    To the Earth-Spirit.\n    There's thy home.\n    There go and eat.\"\n\n\nThis incantation casts light upon the earliest Shamanic remedies. When\nit was discovered that certain herbs really possessed curative\nqualities, this was attributed to inherent magic virtues. The increase\nof their power by combining them with water, or mingling them, was due\nto mystic affinities by which a spirit passed from one to another. The\nSpirit of Earth went into saffron, that of saffron into water. The\nmagician thus by a song sent the pain into its medical affinity, and\nso on back to the source whence it came. From early times saffron,\nas one of the earliest flowers of spring, owing to its colour, was\nconsecrated to magic and love. Eos, the goddess of the Aurora, was\ncalled krokotieplos, the one with the saffron garment. Therefore the\npublic women wore a yellow robe. Even in Christian symbolism it meant\nlove, as Portalis declares: \"In the Christian religion the colours\nsaffron and orange were the symbols of God embracing the heart and\nilluminating the souls of the faithful\" (\"Des Couleurs Symboliques,\"\nParis, 1837, p. 240). So we can trace the chain from the prehistoric\nbarbarous Shamanism, preserved by the gypsies, to the Greek, and from\nthe Greek to the medi\u00e6val form still existent.\n\nThe same sympathetic process of transmission may be traced in the\nremedy for the erysipelas. The blood of a bullfinch is put into a new\nvessel with scraped elder-bark, and then laid on a cloth with which\nthe eyes are bound up overnight. Meanwhile the patient repeats:--\n\n\n   \"Duy y\u00e1kh\u00e1 hin m\u00e1nge\n    Duy punr\u00e1 hin m\u00e1nge\n    Dukh \u00e1ndr\u00e1l y\u00e1kh\u00e1\n    J\u00e1 \u00e1ndre punr\u00e1\n    J\u00e1 \u00e1ndr\u00e1l punr\u00e1.\n    J\u00e1 \u00e1ndre p\u00e7uv,\n    J\u00e1 \u00e1ndr\u00e1l p\u00e7uv\n    Andro meriben!\"\n\n   \"I have two eyes,\n    I have two feet,\n    Pain from my eyes\n    Go into my feet!\n    Go from my feet,\n    Go into the earth!\n    Go from the earth\n    Into death!\"\n\n\nWe have here in the elder-bark associations of magic which are\nancient and widely spread, and which still exist; for at the present\nday country people in New England attribute to it curative virtues\nwhich it really does not possess. From the earliest times among the\nNorthern races the Lady Elder, as we may learn from the Edda, or\nFin Magnusen (\"Prisc\u00e6 veterum Borealium Mythologi\u00e6 Lexicon,\" pp. 21,\n239), and Nyerup (\"Worterbuch der Scandinavischen Mythologie\"), had\nan unearthly, ghostly reputation. Growing in lonely, gloomy places\nits form and the smell of its flowers seemed repulsive, so that it was\nassociated with death, and some derived its name from Frau Holle, the\nsorceress and goddess of death. But Schwenki (\"Mythologie der Slaven\")\nwith more probability traces it from hohl, i.e., hollow, and as spirits\nwere believed to dwell in all hollow trees, they were always in its\njoints. The ancient Lithuanians, he informs us, worshipped their god\nPuschkeit, who was a form of Pluto, in fear and trembling at dusk,\nand left their offerings under the elder-tree. Everybody has seen\nthe little puppets made of a piece of elder-pith with half a bullet\nunder them, so that they always stand upright, and jump up when\nthrown down. Among the Slovaks these seem to have had some magical\napplication. Perhaps their priests persuaded them that these jumping\nJacks were miraculous, for they called them Pikuljk, a name derived\nfrom Peklo, the under-world. They still believe in a Pikuljk, who\nis a servant of the Evil One. He does all kinds of favours for men,\nbut ends by getting their souls. The ancestors of the Poles were\naccustomed to bury all their sins and sorrows under elder-trees,\nthinking that they thereby gave to the lower world what properly\nbelonged to it. This corresponds accurately to the gypsy incantation\nwhich passes the disease on from the elder bark into the earth, and\nfrom earth unto death. Frau Ellhorn, or Ellen, was the old German\nname for this plant. \"Frau, perhaps, as appropriate to the female\nelf who dwelt in it\" (Friedrich, \"Symbolik,\" p. 293). When it was\nnecessary to cut one down, the peasant always knelt first before\nit and prayed: \"Lady Ellhorn, give me of thy wood, and I will give\nthee of mine when it shall grow in the forest.\" Grimm (\"Deutsche\nMythologie,\" cxvi.) cites from a MS. of 1727 the following: \"Paga\nnismo ortum debet superstitio, sambucam non esse exscindendum nisi\nprius rogata permissione his verbis: Mater Sambuci permitte mihi tu\u00e6\ncoedere sylvam!\" On the other hand, Elder had certain protective and\nhealing virtues. Hung before a stable door it warded off witchcraft,\nand he who planted it conciliated evil spirits. And if a twig of it\nwere planted on a grave and it grew, that was a sign that the soul of\nthe deceased was happy, which is the probable reason why the very old\nJewish cemetery in Prague was planted full of elders. In a very curious\nand rare work, entitled \"Blockesberge Berichtung\" (Leipzig, 1669),\nby John Pr\u00e6torius, devoted to \"the Witch-ride and Sorcery-Sabbath,\"\nthe author tells us that witches make great use of nine special\nherbs--\"nam in herbis, verbis et lapidibus magna vis est.\" Among\nthese is Elder, of which the peasants make wreaths, which, if they\nwear on Walpurgis night, they can see the sorceresses as they sweep\nthrough the air on their brooms, dragons, goats, and other strange\nsteeds to the Infernal Dance. Or when they anderswo herumvagiren--\"go\nvagabonding anywhere else.\" \"Yea, and I know one fellow who sware unto\nmen, that by means of this herb he once saw certain witches churning\nbutter busily, and that on a roof, but I mistrust that this was a sell\n(Schnake), and that the true name of this knave was Butyrolambius\"\n(\"Blocksberg,\" p. 475). The same author informs us that Hollunder\n(or Elder) is so called from hohl, or hollow, or else is an anagram\nof Unholden, unholy spirits, and some people call it Alhuren, from\nits connection with witches and debauchery, even as Cordus writes:--\n\n\n   \"When elder blossoms bloom upon the bush,\n    Then women's hearts to sensual pleasure rush.\"\n\n\nHe closes his comments on this subject with the dry remark that if\nthe people of Leipzig wear, as is their wont, garlands of elder with\nthe object of preventing breaches of the seventh commandment among\nthem, it has in this instance, at least, utterly failed to produce\nthe expected effect. \"Quasi! creadt Jud\u00e6us Apella!\"\n\nIt should be mentioned that in the gypsy spell the next morning\nthe cloth with the elder-bark must be thrown into the next running\nwater. To cure toothache the Transylvanian gypsies wind a barley-straw\nround a stone, which is thrown into a running stream, while saying:--\n\n\n   \"Oh dukh \u00e1ndre m're d\u00e1nd\u00e1,\n    Tu n\u00e1 b\u00e1res cinger\u00e1!\n    N\u00e1 \u00e1v\u00e1 kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge,\n    Mire muy n\u00e1 hin kere!\n    Tut \u00f1ik\u00e1n\u00e1 me k\u00e1m\u00e1v,\n    Ac tu m\u00e1nge p\u00e1l p\u00e1c\u00e1;\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 e p\u00e7us y\u00e1rpakri\n    Avel tele p\u00e1\u00f1ori!\"\n\n   \"Oh, pain in my teeth,\n    Trouble me not so greatly!\n    Do not come to me,\n    My mouth is not thy house.\n    I love thee not all,\n    Stay thou away from me;\n    When this straw is in the brook\n    Go away into the water!\"\n\n\nStraw was anciently a symbol of emptiness, unfruitfulness, and\ndeath, and it is evidently used in this sense by the gypsies, or\nderived by them from some tradition connected with it. A feigned or\nfruitless marriage is indicated in Germany by the terms Strohwittwer\nand Strohwittwe. From the earliest times in France the breaking a\nstraw signified that a compact was broken with a man because there\nwas nothing in him. Thus in 922 the barons of Charles the Simple, in\ndethroning him, broke the straws which they held (Charlotte de La Tour,\n\"Symbols of Flowers\").\n\nStill, straws have something in them. She who will lay straws on the\ntable in the full moonlight by an open window, especially on Saturday\nnight, and will repeat--\n\n\n   \"Straw, draw, crow craw,\n    By my life I give thee law\"--\n\n\nthen the straws will become fairies and dance to the cawing of a crow\nwho will come and sit on the ledge of the window. And so witches were\nwont to make a man of straw, as did Mother Gookin, in Hawthorne's tale,\nand unto these they gave life, whence the saying of a man of straw and\nstraw bail, albeit this latter is deemed by some to be related to the\nbreaking of straws and of dependence, as told in the tale of Charles\nthe Simple. Straw-lore is extensive and curious. As in elder-stalks,\nsmall fairies make their homes in its tubes. To strew chopped straw\nbefore the house of a bride was such an insult to her character, in\nGermany, and so common that laws were passed against it. I possess\na work printed about 1650, entitled \"De Injuriis qu\u00e6 haud raro\nNovis Nuptis inferri solent. I. Per sparsionem dissectorum culmorum\nfrugum. Germ. Dusch das Werckerling Streuen,\" &c. An immense amount\nof learned quotation and reference by its author indicates that this\ncustom which was influenced by superstition, was very extensively\nwritten on in its time. It was allied to the binding of knots and\nother magic ceremonies to prevent the consummation of marriages.\n\nThere is a very curious principle involved in curing certain disorders\nor afflictions by means of spells or verses. A certain word is\nrepeated many times in a mysterious manner, so that it strikes\nthe imagination of the sufferer. There is found in the Slavonian\ncountries a woolly caterpillar called Wolos, whose bite, or rather\ntouch, is much dreaded. I have myself, when a boy, been stung by such\na creature in the United States. As I remember, it was like the sting\nof a bee. The following (Malo Russian) spell against it was given me\nby Prof. Dragomanoff in Geneva. It is supposed that a certain kind\nof disorder, or cutaneous eruption, is caused by the Wolos:--\n\n\n   \"Wolosni--Wolosnic\u00e9h!\n    Holy Wolos.\n    Once a man drove over empty roads\n    With empty oxen,\n    To an empty field,\n    To harvest empty corn,\n    And gather it in empty ricks.\n    He gathered the empty sheaves,\n    Laid them in empty wagons,\n    Drove over empty roads,\n    Unto an empty threshing-floor.\n    The empty labourers threshed it,\n    And bore it to the empty mill.\n    The empty baker (woman)\n    Mixed it in an empty trough,\n    And baked it in an empty oven.\n    The empty people ate the empty bread.\n    So may the Wolos swallow this disorder\n    From the empty ---- (here the name of the patient.)\n\n\nWhat is here understood by \"empty\" is that the swelling is taken away,\nsubtracted, or emptied, by virtue of the repetition of the word,\nas if one should say, \"Be thou void. Depart! depart! depart! Avoid me!\"\n\nThere is a very curious incantation also apparently of Indian-gypsy\norigin, since it refers to the spirits of the water who cause\ndiseases. In this instance they are supposed to be exorcised by Saint\nPaphnutius, who is a later Slavonian-Christian addition to the old\nShamanic spell. In the Accadian-Chald\u00e6an formulas these spirits are\nseven; here they are seventy.\n\nThe formula in question is against the fever:--\n\n\n    \"In the name of God and his Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen!\n\n    \"Seventy fair maids went up out of the ocean.\n\n    \"They met the Saint Paphnutius, who asked:\n\n    \"'Whence come ye, oh Maidens?'\n\n    \"They answered, 'From the ocean-sea.\n\n    \"'We go into the world to break the bones of men.\n\n    \"'To give them the fever. (To make hot and cold).'\"\n\n\nThen the holy Paphnutius began to beat them, and gave them every one\nseventy-seven days:--\n\n\n    \"They began to pray, 'O holy Paphnutius!\n\n    \"'Forgive us, (and) whoever shall bear with him (thy) name,\n    or write it, him we will leave in peace.\n\n    \"'We will depart from him\n\n    \"Over the streams, over the seas.\n\n    \"'Over the reeds (canes) and marshes.\n\n    \"'O holy Paphnutius, sua misericordia, of thy mercy,\n\n    \"'Have pity on thy slave, even on the sick man ---- (the name is\n    here uttered),\n\n    \"'Free him from fever!'\"\n\n\nIt is remarkable that, as a certain mysterious worm, caterpillar, or\nsmall lizard (accounts differ) among the Algonkin Indians is supposed\nto become at will a dragon, or sorcerer, or spirit, to be invoked or\ncalled on, so the Wolos worm is also invoked, sometimes as a saint\nor sorcerer, and sometimes as a spirit who scatters disease. The\nfollowing gypsy-Slavonian incantation over an invalid has much in\ncommon with the old Chald\u00e6an spells:--\n\n\n   \"Wolosni, Wolosnic\u00e9h!\n    Thou holy Wolos!\n    God calls thee unto his dwelling,\n    Unto his seat.\n    Thou shalt not remain here,\n    To break the yellow bones.\n    To drink the red blood,\n    To dry up the white body.\n    Go forth as the bright sun\n    Goes forth over the mountains,\n    Out from the seventy-seven veins,\n    Out from the seventy limbs (parts of the body).\n    Before I shall recognize thee,\n    Before I did not name thee (call on thee).\n    But now I know who thou art;\n    I began to pray to the mother of God,\n    And the mother of God began to aid me.\n    Go as the wind goes over the meadows or the shore (or banks),\n    As the waves roll over the waters,\n    So may the Wolos go from ----\n    The man who is born,\n    Who is consecrated with prayer.\"\n\n\nThe Shamanic worship of water as a spirit is extremely ancient,\nand is distinctly recognized as such by the formulas of the Church\nin which water is called \"this creature.\" The water spirits play a\nleading part in the gypsy mythology. The following gypsy-Slav charm, to\nconsecrate a swarm of bees, was also given to me by Prof. Dragomanoff,\nwho had learned it from a peasant:--\n\n\n   \"One goes to the water and makes his prayer and greets the\n    water thus:--\n\n\n       \"Hail to thee, Water!\n        Thou Water, Oliana!\n        Created by God,\n        And thou, oh Earth, Titiana!\n        And ye the near springs, brooks and rivulets,\n        Thou Water, Oliana,\n        Thou goest over the earth,\n        Over the neighbouring fountains and streams,\n        Down unto the sea,\n        Thou dost purify the sea,\n        The sand, the rocks, and the roots--\n        I pray thee grant me\n        Of the water of this lake,\n        To aid me,\n        To sprinkle my bees.\n        I will speak a word,\n        And God will give me help,\n        The all-holy Mother of God,\n        The mother of Christ,\n        Will aid me,\n        And the holy Father\n        The holy Zosimos, Sabbateus and the holy Friday Parascabeah!\n\n\n   \"When this is said take the water and bear it home without looking\n    back. Then the bees are to be sprinkled therewith.\"\n\n\nThe following Malo-Russian formula from the same authority, though\nrepointed and gilt with Greek Christianity, is old heathen, and\nespecially interesting since Prof. Dragomanoff traces it to a Finnic\nShaman source:--\n\n\n   \"Charm Against the Bite of a Serpent.\n\n\n                  \"The holy Virgin sent a man\n                   Unto Mount Sion,\n                   Upon this mountain\n                   Is the city of Babylon,\n                   And in the city of Babylon\n                   Lives Queen Volga.\n\n                   Oh Queen Volga,\n                   Why dost thou not teach\n                   This servant of God\n    (Here the name of the one bitten by a serpent is mentioned)\n                   So that he may not be bitten\n                   By serpents?\"\n\n\n    (The reply of Queen Volga)\n\n\n                  \"Not only will I teach my descendants\n                   But I also will prostrate myself\n                   Before the Lord God.\"\n\n\n   \"Volga is the name of a legendary heathen princess of Kief, who\n    was baptized and sainted by the Russian Church. The feminine\n    form, Olga, or Volga, corresponds to the masculine name Oleg,\n    or Olg, the earliest legendary character of Kief. His surname\n    was Viechtchig--the sage or sorcerer\" (i.e., wizard, and from a\n    cognate root). \"In popular songs he is called Volga, or Volkh,\n    which is related to Volkv, a sorcerer. The Russian annals speak\n    of the Volkv of Finland, who are represented as Shamans.\" Niya\n    Predania i Raskazi (\"Traditions and Popular Tales of Lesser\n    Russia,\" by M. Dragomanoff, Kief, 1876) in Russian.\n\n\nI have in the chapter on curing the disorders of children spoken of\nLilith, or Herodias, who steals the new-born infants. She and her\ntwelve daughters are also types of the different kinds of fever for\nwhich the gypsies have so many cures of the same character, precisely\nas those which were used by the old Bogomiles. The characteristic\npoint is that this female spirit is everywhere regarded as the cause\nof catalepsy or fits. Hence the invocation to St. Sisinie is used in\ndriving them away. This invocation written, is carried as an amulet\nor fetish. I give the translation of one of these from the Roumanian,\nin which the Holy Virgin is taken as the healer. It is against cramp\nin the night:--\n\n\n   \"Spell Against Night-cramp.\n\n   \"There is a mighty hill, and on this hill is a golden apple-tree.\n\n   \"Under the golden apple-tree is a golden stool.\n\n   \"On the stool--who sits there?\n\n   \"There sits the Mother of God with Saint Maria; with the boxes\n    in her right hand, with the cup in her left.\n\n   \"She looks up and sees naught, she looks down and sees my Lord\n    and Lady Disease.\n\n   \"Lords and Ladies Cramp, Lord and Lady Vampire--Lord Wehrwolf\n    and his wives.\n\n   \"They are going to ---- (the sufferer), to drink his blood and\n    put in him a foul heart.\n\n   \"The Mother of God, when she saw them, went down to them, spoke\n    to them, and asked them, 'Whither go ye, Lord and Lady Disease,\n    Lords and Ladies Cramp, &c.?'\n\n  \"'We go to ---- to drink his blood, to change his heart to a\n    foul one.'\n\n  \"'No, ye shall return; give him his blood back, restore him his\n    own heart, and leave him immediately.'\n\n   \"Cramps of the night, cramps of the midnight, cramps of the day,\n    cramps wherever they are. From water, from the wind, go out from\n    the brain, from the light of the face, from the hearing of the\n    ears, from his heart, from his hands and feet, from the soles of\n    his feet.\n\n   \"Go and hide where black cocks never crow, [6] where men never go,\n    where no beast roars.\n\n   \"Hide yourself there, stop there, and never show yourself more!\n\n   \"May ---- remain pure and glad, as he was made by God, and was\n    fated by the Mother of God!\n\n   \"The spell is mine--the cure is God's.\"\n\n\nIn reference to the name Herodias (here identified with Lilith, the\nHebrew mother of all devils and goblins); it was a great puzzle to\nthe writers on witchcraft why the Italian witches always said they\nhad two queens whom they worshipped--Diana and Herodias. The latter\nseems to have specially presided at the witch-dance. In this we can\nsee an evident connection with the Herodias of the New Testament.\n\nI add to this a few more very curious old Slavonian spells from\nDr. Gaster's work, as they admirably illustrate one of the principal\nand most interesting subjects connected with the gypsy witchcraft;\nthat is to say, its relation to early Shamanism and the forms in\nwhich its incantations were expressed. In all of these it may be\ntaken for granted, from a great number of closely-allied examples,\nthat the Christianity in them is recent and that they all go back to\nthe earliest heathen times. The following formula, dating from 1423,\nagainst snake-bites bears the title:--\n\n\n   \"Prayer of St. Paul against Snakes.\n\n   \"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I once\n    was a persecutor, but am now a true follower; and I went from\n    my dwelling-place in Sicily, and they set light to a trunk,\n    and a snake came therefrom and bit my right hand and hung from\n    it. But I had in me the power of God, and I shook it off into the\n    burning fire and it was destroyed, and I suffered no ill from the\n    bite. I laid myself down to sleep; then the mighty angel said:\n    'Saul, Paul, stand up and receive this writing'; and I found in\n    it the following words:\n\n  \"'I exorcise you, sixty and a half kinds of beasts that creep on\n    the earth, in the name of God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth,\n    and in the name of the immovable throne.\n\n  \"'Serpent of Evil, I exorcise thee in the name of the burning\n    river which rises under the footstool of the Saviour, and in the\n    name of His incorporeal angels!\n\n  \"'Thou snake of the tribe of basilisks, thou foul-headed snake,\n    twelve-headed snake, variegated snake, dragon-like snake, that art\n    on the right side of hell, whomsoever thou bitest thou shalt have\n    no power to harm, and thou must go away with all the twenty-four\n    kinds. If a man has this prayer and this curse of the true, holy\n    apostle, and a snake bites him, then it will die on the spot, and\n    the man that is bitten shall remain unharmed, to the honour of the\n    Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now and for all time. Amen.'\"\n\n\nIt is not improbable that we have in Paul and the Serpent and the\nformula for curing its bite (which is a common symbol for all disease)\na souvenir of Esculapius, the all-healer, and his serpent. The\nfollowing is \"a prayer against the toothache, to be carried about\nwith one,\" i.e., as an amulet prayer:--\n\n\n   \"Spell for the Toothache.\n\n   \"Saint Peter sat on a stone and wept. Christ came to him and said,\n   'Peter, why weepest thou?' Peter answered, 'Lord, my teeth pain\n    me.' The Lord thereupon ordered the worm in Peter's tooth to come\n    out of it and never more go in again. Scarcely had the worm come\n    out when the pain ceased. Then spoke Peter, 'I pray you, O Lord,\n    that when these words be written out and a man carries them he\n    shall have no toothache.' And the Lord answered, ''Tis well,\n    Peter; so may it be!'\"\n\n\nIt will hardly be urged that this Slavonian charm of Eastern origin\ncould have been originated independently in England. The following,\nwhich is there found in the north, is, as Gaster remarks, \"in the\nsame wording\":--\n\n\n   \"Peter was sitting on a marble stone,\n    And Jesus passed by.\n    Peter said, 'My Lord, my God,\n    How my tooth doth ache!'\n    Jesus said, 'Peter art whole!\n    And whosoever keeps these words for My sake\n    Shall never have the toothache.'\"\n\n\nThe next specimen is a--\n\n\n   \"Charm against Nose-bleeding.\n\n   \"Zachariah was slain in the Lord's temple, and his blood turned\n    into stone. Then stop, O blood, for the Lord's servant, ----. I\n    exorcise thee, blood, that thou stoppest in the name of the\n    Saviour, and by fear of the priests when they perform the liturgy\n    at the altar.\"\n\n\nThose who sell these charms are almost universally supposed to be\nmere quacks and humbugs. If this were the case, why do they so very\ncarefully learn and preserve these incantations, transmitting them\n\n\n          \"as a rich legacy\n    Unto their issue.\"\n\n\nBut they really do believe in them, and will give great prices for\nthem. Prof. Dragomanoff told me that once in Malo-Russia it became\ngenerally known that he had made a MS. collection of such spells. A\npeasant who was desirous of becoming a sorcerer, but who had very few\nincantations of his own, went whenever he could by stealth into the\nProfessor's library and surreptitiously copied his incantations. And\nwhen Prof. Dragomanoff returned the next year to that neighbourhood, he\nfound the peasant doing a very good business as a conjuring doctor, or\nfaith-healer. I have a lady correspondent in the United States who has\nbeen initiated into Voodoo and studied Indian-negro witchcraft under\ntwo eminent teachers, one a woman, the other a man. The latter, who\nwas at the very head of the profession, sought the lady's acquaintance\nbecause he had heard that she possessed some very valuable spells. In\nthe fourth or highest degree, as in Slavonian or Hungarian gypsy-magic,\nthis Indian-Voodoo deals exclusively with the spirits of the forest\nand stream.\n\nM. Kounavine, as set forth by Dr. A. Elysseeff (Gypsy-Lore Journal,\nJuly, 1890), gives a Russian gypsy incantation by which the fire is\ninvoked to cure illness. It is as follows:--\n\n\n   \"Great Fire, my defender and protector, son of the celestial fire,\n    equal of the sun who cleanses the earth of foulness, deliver this\n    man from the evil sickness that torments him night and day!\"\n\n\nThe fire is also invoked to punish, or as an ordeal, e.g.:--\n\n\n   \"Fire, who punishest the evil-doer, who hatest falsehood,\n    who scorchest the impure, thou destroyest offenders; thy flame\n    devoureth the earth. Devour ---- if he says what is not true,\n    if he thinks a lie, and if he acts deceitfully.\"\n\n\nThese are pronounced by the gypsy sorcerer facing the burning\nhearth. There is another in which fire is addressed as Jandra, and\nalso invoked to punish an offender:--\n\n\n   \"Jandra, bearer of thunderbolts, great Periani (compare Parjana,\n    an epithet of Indra, Slavonic Perun), bearer of lightning, slay\n    with thy thunderbolt and burn with thy celestial fire him who\n    dares to violate his oath.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nGYPSY CONJURATIONS AND EXORCISMS--THE CURE OF CHILDREN--HUNGARIAN\nGYPSY SPELLS--A CURIOUS OLD ITALIAN \"SECRET\"--THE MAGIC VIRTUE OF\nGARLIC--A FLORENTINE INCANTATION LEARNED FROM A WITCH--LILITH, THE\nCHILD-STEALER, AND QUEEN OF THE WITCHES.\n\n\nIn all the schools of Shamanic sorcery, from those of the\nAssyrian-Accadian to the widely-spread varieties of the present day,\nthe Exorcism forms the principal element. An exorcism is a formula,\nthe properties or power of which is that when properly pronounced,\nespecially if this be done with certain fumigations and ceremonies, it\nwill drive away devils, diseases, and disasters of every description;\nnay, according to very high, and that by no means too ancient,\nauthority, it is efficacious in banishing bugs, mice, or locusts,\nand it is equal to Persian powder as a fuge for fleas, but is,\nunfortunately, too expensive to be used for that purpose save by the\nvery wealthy. It has been vigorously applied against the grape disease,\nthe Colorado beetle, the army worm, and the blizzard in the United\nStates, but, I believe, without effect, owing possibly to differences\nof climate or other antagonistic influences.\n\nClosely allied to the Exorcism is the Benediction, which soon grew\nout of it as a cure. The former being meant to repel and drive away\nevil, the latter very naturally suggested itself, by a law of moral\npolarity, as a means of attracting good fortune, blessings, health, and\npeace. As the one was violently curative, the other was preventive. The\nbenediction would keep the devils and all their works away from a man\nor his home--in fact, if stables be only well blessed once a year,\nno mishaps can come to any of the animals who inhabit them; and I\nmyself have known a number of donkeys to receive a benediction in\nRome, the owner being assured that it would keep them safe from all\nthe ills which donkeys inherit. And in the year 1880, in one of the\nprincipal churches of Philadelphia, blessed candles were sold to a\ncongregation under guarantee that the purchase of one would preserve\nits possessor for one year against all disorders of the throat, on\nwhich occasion a sermon was preached, in the which seven instances\nwere given in which people had thus been cured.\n\nBetween blessing and banning it soon became evident that many formulas\nof words could be used to bring about mysterious results. It is\nprobable that the Exorcism in its original was simply the angry,\nelevated tone of voice which animals as well as men instinctively\nemploy to repel an enemy or express a terror. For this unusual language\nwould be chosen, remembered, and repeated. With every new utterance\nthis outcry or curse would be more seriously pronounced or enlarged\ntill it became an Ernulphian formula. The next step would be to give\nit metric form, and its probable development is very interesting. It\ndoes not seem to have occurred to many investigators that in early\nages all things whatever which were remembered and repeated were\ndroned and intoned, or sing-sung, until they fell of themselves into\na kind of metre. In all schools at the present day, where boys are\nrequired to repeat aloud and all together the most prosaic lessons,\nthey end by chanting them in rude rhythm. All monotone, be it that\nof a running brook, falls into cadence and metre. All of the sagas,\nor legends, of the Algonkin-Wabanaki were till within even fifty years\nchants or songs, and if they are now rapidly losing that character it\nis because they are no longer recited with the interest and accuracy\nwhich was once observed in the narrators. But it was simply because\nall things often repeated were thus intoned that the exorcisms became\nmetrical. It is remarkable that among the Aryan races it assumed what\nis called the staff-rhyme, like that which Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson,\nand Byron, and many more employ, as it would seem, instinctively,\nwhenever witches speak or spells or charms are uttered. It will not\nescape the reader that, in the Hungarian gypsy incantations in this\nwork, the same measure is used as that which occurs in the Norse\nsagas, or in the scenes of Macbeth. It is also common in Italy. This\nis intelligible--that its short, bold, deeply-marked movement has\nin itself something mysterious and terrible. If that wofully-abused\nword \"weird\" has any real application to anything, it is to the\nstaff-rhyme. I believe that when a man, and particularly a woman, does\nnot know what else to say, he or she writes \"lurid,\" or \"weird,\" and I\nlately met with a book of travels in which I found the latter applied\nseventy-six times to all kinds of conundrums, until I concluded that,\nlike the coachman's definition of an idea in Heine's \"Reisebilder,\" it\nmeant simply \"any d----d nonsense that a man gets into his head.\" But\nif weird really and only means that which is connected with fate or\ndestiny, from the Anglo-Saxon Weordan, to become, German, Werden,\nthen it is applicable enough to rhymes setting forth the future and\nspoken by the \"weird sisters,\" who are so-called not because they are\nawful or nightmarish, or pokerish, or mystical, or bug-a-boorish,\nbut simply because they predict the future or destiny of men. \"The\nAthenians as well as Gentiles excelled in these songs of sorcery,\nhence we are told (Varro, \"Q. de Fascin\") that in Achaia, when they\nlearned that a certain woman who used them was an Athenian they stoned\nher to death, declaring that the immortal gods bestowed on man the\npower of healing with stones, herbs, and animals, not with words\"\n(\"De Rem. Superstit. Cognos cendis\"). Truly, doctors never agree.\n\nIt was in 1886 that I learned from a girl in Florence two exorcisms\nor invocations which she was accustomed to repeat before telling\nfortunes by cards. This girl, who was of the Tuscan Romagna and\nwho looked Etruscan with a touch of gypsy blood, was a repertory of\npopular superstitions, especially witch-lore, and a maker and wearer\nof fetishes, always carrying a small bag full of them. Bon sang ne\npeut mentir.\n\nThe two formulas were as follows. I omit a portion from each:--\n\n\n   \"Venti cinque carte siete!\n    Venti cinque diavoli diventerete,\n    Diventerete, anderete\n    Nel' corpo, nel' sangue nell' anima,\n    Nell' sentimenti del corpo;\n    Del mio amante non posso vivere,\n    Non passa stare ne bere,\n    Ne mangiare ne ...\n    Ne con uomini ne con donne non passa favellare,\n    Finche a la porta di casa mia\n    Non viene picchiare!\"\n\n   \"Ye are twenty-five cards,\n    Become twenty-five devils!\n    Enter into the body, into the blood, into the soul;\n    Into the feelings of the body\n    Of my lover, from whom I cannot live.\n    For I cannot stand (exist), or drink,\n    Or eat ...\n    Nor can I converse with men or women\n    Till at the door of my house\n    He shall come to knock.\"\n\n\nThe second incantation was the same, but beginning with these words:--\n\n\n   \"I put five fingers on the wall,\n    I conjure five devils,\n    Five monks and five friars,\n    That they may enter the body\n    Into the blood, into the soul,\" &c.\n\n\nIf the reader will take Le Normant's \"Magie Chaldaienne,\" and carefully\ncompare these Italian spells with those of ancient Nineveh, he will\nnot only find a close general resemblance, but all the several details\nor actual identity of words. And it is not a little curious that the\nsame formulas which were repeated--\n\n\n   \"Once on a time when Babylon was young\"--\n\n\nshould still be current in Italy. So it passed through the ages--races\ncame and went--and among the people the old sorcery was handed\nacross and adown, so that it still lives. But in a few years more\nthe Folk-lorist will be its only repository.\n\nThis chapter is devoted to conjuring diseases of children by\ngypsies. It bears a great likeness to one in the very devout work\nof Peter Pipernus, \"De Pueris affectis morbis magicis\" (\"Of Boys who\nhave been Bewitched into Disease\"), only that Pipernus uses Catholic\nincantations, which he also employs \"pro ligatis in matrimonio,\"\n\"pro incubo magico,\" \"de dol\u00f3ribus stomachi magicis,\" &c., for to him,\nas he declares, all disease is of magic origin.\n\nThe magic of the gypsies is not all deceit, though they deceive with\nit. They put faith themselves in their incantations, and practise\nthem on their own account. \"And they believe that there are women,\nand sometimes men, who possess supernatural power, partly inherited\nand partly acquired.\" The last of seven daughters born in succession,\nwithout a boy's coming into the series, is wonderfully gifted, for\nshe can see hidden treasure or spirits, or enjoy second sight of many\nthings invisible to men. And the same holds good for the ninth in a\nseries of boys, who may become a seer of the same sort. Such a girl,\ni.e., a seventh daughter, being a fortune in herself, never lacks\nlovers. In 1883 the young Vojvode, or leader, of the Kukaya gypsy\ntribe, named Danku Niculai, offered the old gypsy woman, Pale Boshe,\none hundred ducats if she would persuade her seventh daughter to\nmarry him. In the United States of America there are many women who\nadvertise in the newspapers that they also are seventh daughters\nof seventh daughters at that, and who make a good thing of it as\nfortune-tellers; but they have a far more speedy, economical, and\neffective way of becoming the last note in an octave, than by awaiting\nthe slow processes of being begotten or born, inasmuch as they boldly\ndeclare themselves to be sevenths, which I am assured answers every\npurpose, as nobody ever asks to see their certificates of baptism\nany more than of marriage. [7]\n\nMost of these witch-wives--also known in Hungary as cohalyi, or \"wise\nwomen,\" or gule romni, \"sweet\" or \"charming women\"--are trained up\nfrom infancy by their mothers in medicine and magic. A great part\nof this education consists in getting by heart the incantations or\nformulas of which specimens will be given anon, and which, in common\nwith their fairy tales, show intrinsic evidence of having been drawn\nat no very distant period from India, and probably in common with\nthe lower or Shamanic religion of India from Turanian sources. But\nthere is among the Hungarian gypsies a class of female magicians who\nstand far above their sisters of the hidden spell in power. These\nare the lace romni, or \"good women,\" who draw their power directly\nfrom the Nivasi or Pchuvusi, the spirits of water and earth, or of\nflood and fell. For the Hungarian gypsies have a beautiful mythology\nof their own which at first sight would seem to be a composition of\nthe Rosicrucian as set forth by Paracelsus and the Comte de Gabalis,\nwith the exquisite Indo-Teutonic fairy tales of the Middle Ages. In\nfact, in some of the incantations used we find the Urme, or fairies,\ndirectly appealed to for help.\n\nWith the gypsies, as among the early Accadians, diseases are supposed\nto be caused by evil supernatural influences. This is more naturally\nthe case among people who lead very simple lives, and with whom\nsickness is not almost a natural or normal condition, as it is\nwith ladies and gentlemen, or the inhabitants of cities, who have\n\"always something the matter with them.\" Nomadic life is conducive to\nlongevity. \"Our grandfathers died on the gallows--we die from losing\nour teeth,\" said an old gypsy to Doctor von Wlislocki, when asked what\nhis age was. Therefore among all people who use charms and spells those\nwhich are devoted to cure occupy the principal position. However,\nthe Hungarian Romany have many medicines, more or less mysterious,\nwhich they also apply in connection with the \"healing rhymes.\" And\nas in the struggle for life the weakest go first to the wall, the\nremedies for the diseases of children are predominant.\n\nWhen a mother begins to suffer the pangs of childbirth, a fire is made\nbefore her tent, which is kept up till the infant is baptized, in order\nto drive away evil spirits. Certain women feed this fire, and while\nfanning it (fans being used for bellows) murmur the following rhyme:--\n\n\n   \"Oh yakh, oh yakh p\u00e7abuva,\n                     P\u00e7abuva,\n    Te cav\u00e9st\u00e1r tu tr\u00e1d\u00e1,\n                Tu trada,\n    P\u00e7\u00favushen te Nivashen\n    Tire t\u00e7uva the traden!\n    Lace Urmen \u00e1ven\u00e1,\n    Caves b\u00e1\u00e7t\u00e1les dena,\n    K\u00e1the hin yov b\u00e1\u00e7t\u00e1les,\n    Andre lime b\u00e1\u00e7t\u00e1les!\n    Motura te r\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    Te \u00e1tunci but' r\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    Motura te r\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    Te \u00e1tunci, but' r\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    Me dav' andre y\u00e1kher\u00e1!\n    Oh y\u00e1kh, oh y\u00e1kh p\u00e7abuva,\n    Rovel cavo: \u00e1shuna!\"\n\n\nIt may here be remarked that the pronunciation of all these words\nis the same as in German, with the following additions. C = teh in\nEnglish, or to ch in church. C = ch in German as in Buch. J = azs,\nor the English j, in James; n, as in Spanish, or nj in German, while\nsh and y are pronounced as in English. \u00c1 is like ah. The literal\ntranslation is:--\n\n\n   \"Oh Fire, oh Fire, burn!\n                      Burn!\n    And from the child (do) thou drive away\n                                 Drive away!\n    P\u00e7uvuse and Nivashi\n    And drive away thy smoke (pl.)\n    (Let) good fairies come (and)\n    Give luck to the child,\n    Here it is lucky (or fortunate)\n    In the world fortunate\n    Brooms and twigs (fuel)\n    And then more twigs,\n    And then yet more twigs\n    I put (give) to the fire.\n    Oh fire, oh fire--burn!\n    The child weeps: listen!\"\n\n\nIn South Hungary the gypsy women on similar occasions sing the\nfollowing charm:--\n\n\n   \"Eft\u00e1 P\u00e7uvush\u00e1, efta Niv\u00e1sh\u00e1\n    Andr\u00e9 mal aven\u00e1\n    P\u00e7abuven, p\u00e7abuven, oh y\u00e1kh\u00e1!\n    D\u00e1y\u00e1kri punro dind\u00e1len,\n    Te gule caves mud\u00e1ren;\n    P\u00e7abuven, p\u00e7abuven, oh y\u00e1kh\u00e1;\n    Ferinen o caves te daya!\"\n\n   \"Seven P\u00e7uvushe, seven Nivasi\n    Come into the field,\n    Burn, burn, oh fire!\n    They bite the mother's foot,\n    They destroy the sweet child;\n    Fire, fire, oh burn!\n    Protect the child and the mother!\"\n\n\nWhen the birth is very difficult, the mother's relations come to help,\nand one of them lets an egg fall, zwischen den Beinen derselben. On\nthis occasion the gypsy women in Southern Hungary sing:--\n\n\n   \"\u00c1nro, \u00e1nro in obles,\n    Te e pera in obles:\n    Ava cavo s\u00e1st\u00e1vestes!\n    Devl\u00e1, devl\u00e1, tut akharel!\"\n\n   \"The egg, the egg is round,\n    And the belly is round,\n    Come child in good health!\n    God, God calls thee!\"\n\n\nIf a woman dies in child-bed two eggs are placed under her arms and\nthe following couplet is muttered:--\n\n\n   \"Kana anro kirnes hin,\n    Kathe na\u00f1i t\u00e7ud\u00e1 hin!\"\n\n   \"When this egg is (shall be) decayed,\n    Here (will be) is no milk!\"\n\n\nWhen the after-pains begin it is the custom with some of the gypsy\ntribes in the Siebenburgen to smoke the sufferer with decayed\nwillow-wood which is burned for the purpose while the women in\nattendance sing:--\n\n\n   \"Sik te sik o t\u00e7u ur\u00e1l,\n    Te ur\u00e1l o con ur\u00e1l!\n    Kana len h\u00e1djin\u00e1ven\n    Sascipen\u00e1 tut' \u00e1ven;\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 o t\u00e7u n\u00e1 ur\u00e1l--\n    Tute n\u00e1\u00f1i the dukhal,\n    Tute n\u00e1\u00f1i the dukhal.\"\n\n   \"Fast and fast the smoke flies,\n    And flies, the moon flies,\n    When they find (themselves)\n    Health (yet) will come to thee,\n    \"When the smoke no (longer) flies\n    Thou wilt feel pain no more!\"\n\n\nThere is a strange, mysterious affinity between gypsies and the moon. A\nwonderful legend, which they certainly brought from India since in it\nMekran is mentioned as the place where its incident occurred, details\nthat there, owing to the misrepresentations of a sorcerer, the gypsy\nleader, Chen, was made to marry his sister Guin, or Kan, which brought\nthe curse of wandering upon his people. Hence the Romany are called\nChen-Guin. It is very evident that here we have Chon and Kan, or Kam,\nthe Moon and Sun, which is confirmed by another gypsy legend which\ndeclares that the Sun, because he once violated or still seeks to\nseduce his sister, the Moon, continually follows her, being destined\nto wander for ever. And as the name Chen-Kan, or Zingan, or Zigeuner,\nis known all over the East, and, as this legend shows, is of Indian\norigin, it is hardly worth while to believe with Miklosich that it is\nderived from an obscure Greek heretical sect of Christians--the more\nso as it is most difficult to believe that the Romany were originally\neither Greeks or Christians or Christian heretics.\n\nWhen a gypsy woman is with child she will not, if she can help it,\nleave her tent by full moonshine. A child born at this time it is\nbelieved will make a happy marriage. So it is said of birth in the\nWestern World:--\n\n\n   \"Full moon, high sea,\n    Great man thou shalt be;\n    Red dawning, cloudy sky,\n    Bloody death shalt thou die.\n\n   \"Pray to the Moon when she is round,\n    Luck with you will then abound,\n    What you seek for shall be found\n    On the sea or solid ground.\"\n\n\nMoon-worship is very ancient; it is alluded to as a forbidden\nthing in the Book of Job. From early times witches and other women\nworked their spells when stark-naked by the light of the full moon,\nwhich is evidently derived from the ancient worship of that planet\nand the shameless orgies connected with it. Dr. Wlislocki simply\nremarks on this subject that the moon has, in the gypsy incantation,\n\"eine Phallische Bedeutung.\" In ancient symbolism the horns of the\nmoon were regarded as synonymous with the horns of the ox--hence\ntheir connection with agriculture, productiveness, and fertility,\nor the generative principle, and from this comes the beneficent\ninfluence not only of the horns, but of horse-shoes, boars' tusks,\ncrabs' claws, and pieces of coral resembling them.\n\nThe great love of gypsy mothers for their children, says Wlislocki,\ninduces their friends to seek remedies for the most trifling\ndisorders. At a later period, mother and child are left to Mother\nNature--or the vis medicatrix Natur\u00e6. What is greatly dreaded is the\nBerufen, or being called on, \"enchanted,\" in English \"overlooked,\"\nor subjected to the evil eye. An universal remedy for this is the\nfollowing:--\n\nA jar is filled with water from a stream, and it must be taken with,\nnot against, the current as it runs. In it are placed seven coals,\nseven handfuls of meal, and seven cloves of garlic, all of which is\nput on the fire. When the water begins to boil it is stirred with a\nthree-forked twig, while the wise woman repeats:--\n\n\n   \"Mise\u00e7' yakh\u00e1 tut dikhen,\n    Te yon k\u00e1the mud\u00e1ren!\n    Te \u00e1tunci eft\u00e1 cok\u00e1\n    Te \u00e7aven mise\u00e7e yakh\u00e1;\n    Mise\u00e7' yakh\u00e1 tut dikhen,\n    Te yon k\u00e1the mud\u00e1ren!\n    But pr\u00e1hest\u00e1r e yakh\u00e1\n    Atunci kores th'\u00e1ven\u00e1;\n    Mise\u00e7' yakh\u00e1 tut dikhen\n    Te yon k\u00e1the mud\u00e1ren!\n    P\u00e7\u00e1buven\u00e1 p\u00e7\u00e1buven\u00e1\n    Andre develeskero yakh\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Evil eyes look on thee,\n    May they here extinguished be!\n    And then seven ravens\n    Pluck out the evil eyes;\n    Evil eyes (now) look on thee,\n    May they soon extinguished be!\n    Much dust in the eyes,\n    Thence may they become blind,\n    Evil eyes now look on thee;\n    May they soon extinguished be!\n    May they burn, may they burn\n    In the fire of God!\"\n\n\nDr. Wlislocki remarks that the \"seven ravens\" are probably represented\nby the seven coals, while the three-pointed twig, the meal and the\ngarlic, symbolize lightning. He does not observe that the stick may be\nthe tri\u00e7ula or trident of Siva--whence probably the gipsy word trushul,\na cross; but the connection is very obvious. It is remarkable that the\ngypsies assert that lightning leaves behind it a smell like that of\ngarlic. As garlic forms an important ingredient in magic charms, the\nfollowing from \"The Symbolism of Nature\" (\"Die Symbolik und Mythologie\nder Natur\"), by J. B. Friedrich, will be found interesting:--\n\n\n   \"We find in many forms spread far and wide the belief that\n    garlic possesses the magic power of protection against poison and\n    sorcery. This comes, according to Pliny, from the fact that when\n    it is hung up in the open air for a time, it turns black, when\n    it is supposed to attract evil into itself--and, consequently, to\n    withdraw it from the wearer. The ancients believed that the herb\n    which Mercury gave to Ulysses to protect him from the enchantment\n    of Circe, and which Homer calls moly, was the alium nigrum, or\n    garlic, the poison of the witch being a narcotic. Among the modern\n    Greeks and Turks, garlic is regarded as the most powerful charm\n    against evil spirits, magic, and misfortune. For this reason they\n    carry it with them, and hang it up in their houses as a protection\n    against storms and bad weather. So their sailors carry with them\n    a sack of it to avert shipwreck. If any one utters a word of\n    praise with the intention of fascinating or of doing harm, they\n    cry aloud 'Garlic!' or utter it three times rapidly. In Aulus\n    Persius Flaccus (Satyr. V.) to bite garlic averts magic and the\n    evils which the gods send to those who are wanting in reverence\n    for them. According to a popular belief the mere pronunciation of\n    'Garlic!' protects one from poison.\"\n\n\nIt appears to be generally held among them and the Poles that this\nword prevents children from \"beschreien werden\" that is, from being\nbanned, or overlooked, or evil-eyed. And among the Poles garlic\nis laid under children's pillows to protect them from devils and\nwitches. (Bratraneck, \"Beitr\u00e4ge zur \u00c6sthetik der Pflanzenwelt,\"\np. 56). The belief in garlic as something sacred appears to have been\nvery widely spread, since the Druids attributed magic virtues to it;\nhence the reverence for the nearly allied leek, which is attached to\nKing David and so much honoured by the Welsh.\n\n\n   \"Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate\n    Upon Saint David's Day.\"--Shakespeare.\n\n\nThe magic virtues of garlic were naturally enough also attributed to\nonions and leeks, and in a curious Italian work, entitled \"Il Libro\ndel Comando,\" attributed (falsely) to Cornelius Agrippa, I find\nthe following:--\n\n\n   \"Segreto magico d'indovinare, colle cipole, la salute d'una\n    persona lontana. A magic secret to divine with onions the health\n    of a person far distant. Gather onions on the Eve of Christmas\n    and put them on an altar, and under every onion write the name\n    of the persons as to whom one desires to be informed, ancorche\n    non scrivano, even if they do not write.\n\n   \"The onion (planted) which sprouts the first will clearly announce\n    that the person whose name it bears is well.\n\n   \"And in the same manner we can learn the name of the husband or\n    wife whom we should choose, and this divination is in use in many\n    cantons of Germany.\"\n\n\nVery much allied to this is the following love charm from an English\ngypsy:--\n\n\n   \"Take an onion, a tulip, or any root of the kind (i.e. a bulbous\n    root?), and plant it in a clean pot never used before; and while\n    you plant it repeat the name of the one whom you love, and every\n    day, morning and evening, say over it:--\n\n  \"'As this root grows\n    And as this blossom blows,\n    May her heart be\n    Turned unto me!'\n\n\n\"And it will come to pass that every day the one whom you love will\nbe more and more inclined to you, till you get your heart's desire.\"\n\n\nA similar divination is practised by sowing cress or lettuce seed in\nthe form of names in gardens. If it grows well the one who plants it\nwill win the love of the person indicated.\n\nAs regards the use of coals in incantations, Marcellus Burdigalensis,\n[8] a Latin physician of the third century, who has left us a\ncollection of Latin and Gaelic charms, recommends for a cure for\ntoothache: \"Salis granum, panis micam, carbonem mortuum in phoenicio\nalligabis,\" i.e., to carry a grain of salt, a crumb of bread, and a\ncoal, in a red bag.\n\nWhen the witch-brew of coals, garlic, and meal is made, and boiled\ndown to a dry residuum, it is put into a small three-cornered bag,\nand hung about the child's neck, on which occasion the appropriate\nrhyme is repeated nine times. \"And it is of special importance that\nthe bag shall be made of a piece of linen, which must be stolen,\nfound, or begged.\"\n\nTo learn whether a child has been overlooked, or evil-eyed, or\nenchanted, the \"wise woman\" takes it in her arms, and goes to the\nnext running stream. There she holds the face of the babe as nearly\nas she can to the water, and repeats:--\n\n\n   \"P\u00e1\u00f1i, p\u00e1\u00f1i sikova,\n    Dikh the upr\u00e9, dikh t\u00e9l\u00e9!\n    Buti p\u00e1\u00f1i sikovel\n    Buti p\u00e1l y\u00e1kh the dikhel\n    Te \u00e1k\u00e1n\u00e1 mud\u00e1rel.\"\n\n   \"Water, water, hasten!\n    Look up, look down!\n    Much water hastens\n    (May) as much come into the eye\n    Which looked evil on thee,\n    And may it now perish.\"\n\n\nIf the running brook makes a louder sound than usual then it is\nsupposed to say that the child is enchanted, but if it runs on as\nbefore then something else is the matter, and to ascertain what it\nis other charms and ceremonies are had recourse to. This incantation\nindicates, like many others, a constant dwelling in lonely places,\nby wood and stream, as gypsies wont to do, and sweet familiarity with\nNature, until one hears sermons in stones, books in the running brooks,\nand voices in the wind. [9] Civilized people who read about Red Indian\nsorcerers and gypsy witches very promptly conclude that they are mere\nhumbugs or lunatics--they do not realize how these people, who pass\nhalf their lives in wild places watching waving grass and falling\nwaters, and listening to the brook until its cadence speaks in real\nsong, believe in their inspirations, and feel that there is the same\nmystical feeling and presence in all things that live and move and\nmurmur as well as in themselves. Now we have against this the life\nof the clubs and family, of receptions and business, factories and\nstock-markets, newspapers and \"culture.\" Absolutely no one who lives\nin \"the movement\" can understand this sweet old sorcery. But nature\nis eternal, and while grass grows and rivers run man is ever likely\nto fall again into the eternal enchantments. And truly until he does\nhe will have no new poetry, no fresh art, and must go on copying old\nideas and having wretchedly worn-out exhibitions in which there is\nnot one original idea.\n\nIf it appears that the child is overlooked, or \"berufen,\" many means\nare resorted to, \"one good if another fails,\" but we have here to do\nonly with those which are connected with incantations. A favourite\none is the following: Three twigs are cut, each one from a different\ntree, and put into a pipkin which has been filled with water dipped\nor drawn with, not against, the current of a stream. Three handfuls\nof meal are then put in and boiled down to a Brei, or pudding. A\nhorse hair is then wound round a needle, which is stuck not by the\npoint but by the head into the inner bottom of a tub, which is filled\nwith water, and placed upon this is the pipkin with the pudding. Then\nthe \"overlooked,\" or evil-seen child is held over the tub while the\nfollowing rhyme is chanted:--\n\n\n   \"P\u00e1\u00f1i, p\u00e1\u00f1i lunj\u00e1r\u00e1,\n    P\u00e1\u00f1i, p\u00e1\u00f1i isbin\u00e1;\n    Te n\u00e1shv\u00e1lipen \u00e7uc\u00e1\n    N\u00e1shv\u00e1lipen mud\u00e1r\u00e1,\n    Mud\u00e1ra te \u00e1k\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    K\u00e1the besh\u00e1 \u00f1ik\u00e1n\u00e1,\n    S\u00e1r pr\u00e1yti\u00f1a suty\u00e1rel,\n    K\u00e1the \u00e1ndre piri, \u00e1ndre piri,\n    Nivasheshe les d\u00e1v\u00e1s!\"\n\n   \"Water, water, spread!\n    Water, water, stretch!\n    And sickness disappear,\n    Sickness be destroyed,\n    Be destroyed now.\n    Remain not here at all!\n    Who ever has overlooked this child\n    As this leaf in the pot (maybe)\n    Be given to the Nivashi!\"\n\n\nThis is repeated nine times, when the water in the tub, with the\npipkin and its contents, are all thrown into the stream from which the\nwater was drawn. This is a widely-spread charm, and it is extremely\nancient. The pipkin placed across the tub or trough--trog--here\nsignifies a bridge, and Wlislocki tells us that no Transylvanian\ntent-gypsy will cross a bridge without first spitting thrice over\nthe rails into the water. The bridge plays an important part in\nthe mythology and Folk-lore of many races. The ancient Persians\nhad their holy mountain, Albordi, or Garotman, the abode of gods\nand blessed souls, to which they passed by the bridge Cin-vat, or\nChinevad, whence the creed: \"I believe in the resurrection of the\ndead; that all bodies shall live renewed again, and I believe that\nby the bridge Cin-vat all good deeds will be rewarded, and all evil\ndeeds punished.\" The punishment is apparent from the parallel of\nthe bridge Al Sirat, borrowed by the Mahommedans from the Persians,\nover which the good souls passed to reward, and from which the wicked\ntumbled down into hell.\n\nWhen I first met Emerson in 1849 I happened to remark that a bridge\nin a landscape was like a vase in a room, the point on which an\neye trained to the picturesque involuntarily rested. Nearly thirty\nyears after, when we were both living at Shepherd's Hotel in Cairo,\nhe reminded me of this one day when by the Nile we were looking\nat a bridge. As a bridge must cross a stream, or a torrent which\nis generally beautiful by itself, and as the cross or span has the\neffect of defining and framing the picture, as a circlet or tiara\nsets off a beautiful head, it is not remarkable that in all ages\nmen have made such objects subjects of legend and song. Hence the\noft-repeated Devil's Bridge, so-called because it seemed to simple\npeasants impossible for mere mortals to build, although bridges are\nhabitually and more naturally connected with salvation and saints. He\nwho in early ages built a bridge, did a great deed in times when\nroads were rare; hence the great priest was called the Pontifex.\n\nAnother spell for the purpose of averting the effects of the evil eye\nis as follows: The mother of the overlooked child fills her mouth with\nsalt water, and lets it drop or trickle on the limbs of the infant,\nand when this has been done, repeats:--\n\n\n   \"Mise\u00e7 y\u00e1kh\u00e1 tut dikhen\n    S\u00e1r p\u00e1\u00f1ori--\n    Mudaren!\n    N\u00e1shvalipen prejia:\n    Andral t'ro shero\n    Andral t're kolyin,\n    Andral t're por\n    Andral t're punr\u00e1\n    Andral t're v\u00e1st\u00e1\n    Kathe prej\u00e1nen,--\n    Andre y\u00e1kh\u00e1 yon j\u00e1nen!\"\n\n   \"False (evil) eyes see thee,\n    Like this water\n    May they perish!\n    Sickness depart\n    From thy head,\n    From thy breast,\n    From thy belly,\n    From thy feet,\n    From thy hands,\n    May they go hence\n    Into the evil eyes!\"\n\n\nIt may be observed that meal forms an ingredient in several of these\nsorceries. It is a very ancient essential to sacrifices, and is offered\nto the spirits of the stream to appease them, as it was often given\nfor the same purpose to the wind. The old Germans, says Pr\u00e6torius,\nimagined the storm-wind as a starving, ravenous being, and sought to\nappease it by throwing meal to it. So it happened once even of later\nyears near Bamberg when a mighty wind was raging one night that an\nold woman took her meal-bag and threw its contents out of the window,\nsaying:--\n\n\n   \"Lege dich, lieber Wind,\n    Bringe dies deinem Kind!\"\n\n   \"Dear Wind, be not so wild,\n    Take that unto thy child!\"\n\n\n\"In which thing,\" adds the highly Protestant Pr\u00e6torius (\"Anthropodemus\nPlutonicus,\" p. 429), \"she was like the Papists who would fain appease\nthe Donnerwetter, or thunderstorms, with the sound of baptized bells,\nas though they were raging round like famished lions, or grim wolves,\nor a soldier foraging, seeking what they may devour.\" The Wind here\nrepresents the Wild Hunter, or the Storm, the leader of the W\u00fcthende\nHeer, or \"raging army,\" who, under different names, is the hero of\nso many German legends.\n\nThat the voice of the wind should seem like that of wild beasts\nroaring for food would occur naturally enough to any one who was\nfamiliar with both.\n\nWhen a child refuses the breast the gypsies believe that a P\u00e7uvus-wife,\nor a female spirit of the earth has secretly sucked it. In such\na case they place between the mother's breasts onions, and repeat\nthese words:--\n\n\n   \"P\u00e7uvushi, P\u00e7uvushi,\n    Ac tu n\u00e1shv\u00e1lyi\n    Tiro t\u00e7ud ac yakh\u00e1,\n    Andre p\u00e7uv tu p\u00e7\u00e1buv\u00e1!\n    Th\u00e1vd\u00e1, th\u00e1vd\u00e1 miro t\u00e7ud,\n    Th\u00e1vd\u00e1, th\u00e1vd\u00e1, parno t\u00e7ud,\n    Th\u00e1vd\u00e1, th\u00e1vd\u00e1, s\u00e1r k\u00e1m\u00e1v,--\n    Mre c\u00e1veske bokhale!\"\n\n   \"Earth-spirit! Earth-spirit!\n    Be thou ill.\n    Let thy milk be fire!\n    Burn in the earth!\n    Flow, flow, my milk!\n    Flow, flow, white milk!\n    Flow, flow, as I desire\n    To my hungry child!\"\n\n\nThe same is applied when the milk holds back or will not flow, as\nit is then supposed that a P\u00e7uvus-wife has secretly suckled her own\nchild at the mother's breast. It is an old belief that elves put\ntheir own offspring in the place of infants, whom they sometimes\nsteal. This subject of elf-changelings is extensively treated by\nall the writers on witchcraft. There is even a Latin treatise, or\nthesis, devoted to defining the legal and social status, rights,\n&c., of such beings. It is entitled, \"De Infantibus Supposititiis,\nvulgo Wechsel-B\u00e4lgen,\" Dresden, 1678. \"Such infants,\" says the author\n(John Valentine Merbitz), \"are called Cambiones, Vagiones (\u00e0 continuo\nvagitu), Germanis K\u00fcllkr\u00e4pfe, Wechselkinder, Wechselb\u00e4lge, all of\nwhich indicates, in German belief, children which have nothing human\nabout them except the skin.\"\n\nWhen the child is subject to convulsive weeping or spasms, and loses\nits sleep, the mother takes a straw from the child's sleeping-place\nand puts into her mouth. Then, while she is fumigated with dried\ncow-dung, into which the hair of the father and mother have been\nmingled, she chants:--\n\n\n   \"Bala, b\u00e1l\u00e1 p\u00e7ubuven,\n    Cik te b\u00e1l\u00e1 p\u00e7ubuven,\n    Cik te b\u00e1l\u00e1 p\u00e7ubuven,\n    P\u00e7\u00e1buvel n\u00e1shv\u00e1lyipen!\"\n\n   \"Hair, hair, burn!\n    Dirt and hair burn!\n    Dirt and hair burn!\n    Illness be burned!\"\n\n\nThis bears manifest mark of Hindoo origin, and I have no doubt that\nthe same ceremony in every detail is practised in India at the present\nday. In Southern Hungary convulsive weeping in children is cured\nas follows: In the evening, when the fire burns before the tent,\nthe mother takes her child in her arms and carries it three times\naround the fire, putting on it a pipkin full of water, into which she\nputs three coals. With this water she washes the head of her child,\nand pours some of it on a black dog. Then she goes to the next stream\nor brook, and lets fall into it a red twist, saying:--\n\n\n   \"L\u00e1v\u00e1 Niv\u00e1shi \u00e1d\u00e1 bolditori te l\u00e1h\u00e1 m're caveskro rovipen! K\u00e1n\u00e1\n    s\u00e1stavestes \u00e1n\u00e1v me tute p\u00e7\u00e1b\u00e1y\u00e1 te y\u00e1ndr\u00e1.\"\n\n   \"Nivashi take this twist, and with it the weeping of my child. When\n    it is well I will bring thee apples and eggs.\"\n\n\nWhen a child \"bumps\" its head the swelling is pressed with the blade\nof a knife, and the following spell is muttered thrice, seven, or\nnine times, according to the gravity of the injury:--\n\n\n   \"Ac tu, ac tu, ac kovles,\n    The may sik tu mudar\u00e9s!\n    Andre pcuv tu ji\u00e1,\n    Dikav tut me \u00f1ik\u00e1n\u00e1!\n    Shuri, shuri, \u00e1n\u00e1,\n    De pal p\u00e7uv!\"\n\n   \"Be thou, be thou, be thou weak (i.e., soft)\n    and very soon perish!\n    Go thou into the earth,\n    May I see thee never more!\n    Bring knives, knives,\n    Give (i.e., put) into the earth.\"\n\n\nThen the knife is stuck three, seven, or nine times into the earth. If\nthe child or a grown person has a bleeding at the nose, some of the\nblood is covered with earth, and the following verse repeated:--\n\n\n   \"P\u00e7uvush, d\u00e1v tute\n    P\u00e7uvush, l\u00e1v\u00e1 m\u00e1nge,\n    De tre c\u00e1veske\n    Hin may t\u00e1te!\n    Sik lava!\"\n\n   \"Pcuvus, I give to thee,\n    Pcuvus, oh take from me,\n    Give it to thy child,\n    It is very warm,\n    Take it quickly!\"\n\n\nIf the child has pains in the stomach, the hair of a black dog is\nburned to powder and kneaded with the mother's milk and some of\nthe f\u00e6ces of the child into a paste. This prescription occurs in the\nmagical medical formulas of Marcellus Burdigalenis, the court-physician\nat Rome in the fourth century: \"Cape mel atticum et stercus infantis\nquod primum demittit, statim ex lacte mulieris quoe puerum allactat\npermiscebis et sic inunges,\" &c. Most of the prescriptions of Marcellus\nwere of ancient Etrurian origin, and I have found many of them still\nin use in the Romagna Toscana. This is put into a cloth and bound\non the belly of the child. When it falls asleep a hole is bored in\na tree and the paste put into it. The hole is then stopped up with a\nwooden plug, and while this is being done the following is repeated:--\n\n\n   \"Andr\u00e1l por preji\u00e1,\n    Andr\u00e9 selene besh\u00e1!\n    Besh\u00e1 besh\u00e1 tu k\u00e1the!\n    Pen\u00e1v, pen\u00e1v me tute!\"\n\n   \"Depart from the belly\n    Live in the green! (tree)\n    Remain, remain thou here!\n    I say, I say to thee!\"\n\n\nThe black dog is in many countries associated with sorcery and\ndiabolical influences, and \"in European heathendom it was an emblem\nof the evil principle. The black demon Cernobog was represented by\nthe Slavs as a black dog. Among the Wallachians there is a horrible\nvampire-like creature called Priccolitsh, or Priculics, who appears\nas a man in fine healthy condition, but by night he becomes a dog,\nkills people by the mere touch, and devours them.\" The black dogs of\nFaust and of Cornelius Agrippa will occur to most readers.\n\nGypsies have always been regarded as sorcerers and child-stealers,\nand it is remarkable that Lilith, the mother of all witchcraft,\ndid the same. At the present day the Slavonian gypsies have spells\nagainst such a spirit.\n\nIn the Chald\u00e6an magic, as set forth by Lenormant, as I have already\nstated, the powers of evil are incarnate diseases, they are seven\nin number, and they are invoked by means of verses which bear an\nextraordinary resemblance to those which are still current in Italy\nas well as in other countries. According to some writers this is all\nmere chance coincidence, or due to concurrent causes and similar\nconditions in different countries. That diseases, like hunger, or\ndeath, or the terrors of the night, may have been incarnated as evil\nspirits naturally by all mankind may be granted, but when we find them\narranged in categories of numbers, in widely different countries,\nemploying the same means of banishing them--that is, by short songs\nand drum-beating--when we find these incantations in the same general\nforms, often with the same words, our belief as to the identity of\norigin is confirmed at every step. We can admit that the Jews were\nin Babylon and wandered thence all over the world, but that any other\nreligious or superstitious system should have done the same would be\nobstinately denied. And by an incredible inconsistency, scholars who\nadmit the early migrations of whole races on a vast scale, from the\nremotest regions of the East to Western Europe, deny that legends\nand myths come with them or that they could have spread in like manner.\n\nOne of the attributes of the witch of the Middle Ages in which she has\nbeen confused with the Queen of the Fairies, and fairies in general, is\nthat she steals newly-born children. This is a very ancient attribute\nof the female demon or sorceress or strega, and it is found among Jews\nat the present day who believe in the Benemmerinnen, or witches who\nhaunt women in childbirth as well as in Lilith. \"The Jews banish this\nfirst wife of Adam by writing on the walls, 'Adam chava chuz Lilith,'\n('Keep away from here, Lilith!')\" (\"Anthropodemus Plutonicus,\" by\nJohn Pr\u00e6torius, 1666). That it is very ancient is rendered probable\nbecause the famous Bogomile formula of incantation against the\ntwelve fever-fits (Tresevica), or kinds of fever, turns entirely on\nthe legend of six children stolen by the demon who is compelled to\nrestore them. Here we have the very oldest form of witchcraft known,\nthat is incarnate disease in numbers allied to child-stealing. This\nspell of the Tresevica is attributed, says Dr. Gaster, to Pope\nJeremia, the founder of Bogomilism (the great Oriental Slavonian\nheresy which spread over Europe in the Middle Ages and prepared the\nway for Protestanism). \"There is no doubt, therefore, that the spell\nis derived from the East, and I have elsewhere proved its existence\nin that quarter as early as the eighth century. It may have been of\nManich\u00e6an origin. It has been preserved up to the present day in all\nthe lands of Eastern Europe and, with certain modifications, exists\namong Germans and Jews.\" Though attributed to Sisynios, the immediate\nfollower of Manes, as chief of the Manich\u00e6ans, it seems to have been\nderived from an earlier Oriental tale which became the basis of all\nlater formul\u00e6. I give it here in the Roumanian form, which closely\nresembles the old one. Here, as in all the other variants, the demon\nis a feminine one. The following is the legend:--\n\n\n   \"I, Sisveas, I came down from the Mount of Olives, saw the\n    Archangel Gabriel as he met the Avestitza, wing of Satan, and\n    seized her by the hair and asked her where she was going. And she\n    answered that she was going to cheat the holy Virgin by her tricks,\n    steal the new-born child, and drink its blood. The archangel asked\n    her how she could get into houses so as to steal the children,\n    and she answered that she changed herself into a fly or a cat or\n    such forms. But whosoever knew her twelve and a half (nineteen)\n    names and wrote them out she could not touch. She told him these\n    names, and they were written down.\"\n\n\nThere is a Coptic as well as a Greek parallel to this. The fairy who\nsteals the children is called Lilith, and is further identified with\nHerodias and her twelve daughters as personifications of different\nkinds of fever. This is extremely interesting, as it casts some light\non a question which has greatly puzzled all writers on witchcraft as\nto how or why Herodias was so generally worshipped in company with\nDiana by witches as a goddess in Italy. This is mentioned by Pipernus,\nGrillandus, Mirandola, and Horst. The name is probably much older\nthan that of the Herodias of the New Testament.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nSOUTH SLAVONIAN AND OTHER GYPSY WITCH-LORE.--THE WORDS FOR A\nWITCH--VILAS AND THE SPIRITS OF EARTH AND AIR--WITCHES, EGG-SHELLS,\nAND EGG-LORE--EGG PROVERBS--OVA DE CRUCIBUS.\n\n\nThere is current in the whole of the Southern Slavonian provinces a\nvast mass of legends and other lore relating to witches, which, in the\nopinion of Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss, may also be regarded as Romany,\nsince it is held in common with the gypsies. There can, indeed, be\nvery little doubt that most of it was derived from, or disseminated\nby, them, since they have been the principal masters in magic and\ndoctors in medicine in the Slavonic lands for many centuries. There\nare others deeply learned in this subject who share the same opinion,\nit being certain that the gypsies could hardly have a separate lore for\nthemselves and one for magic practices on others, and I entertain no\ndoubt that they are substantially the same; but to avoid possible error\nand confusion, I give what I have taken in this kind from Dr. Krauss\n[10] and others by itself.\n\nAs the English word witch, Anglo-Saxon Wicca, comes from a\nroot implying wisdom, [11] so the pure Slavonian word vjestica,\nBulgarian, vjescirica (masculine, viestae), meant originally the\none knowing or well informed, and it has preserved the same power\nin allied languages, as Veaa (New Slovenish), knowledge, Vedavica,\na fortune-teller by cards, Viedma (Russian), a witch, and Vedwin,\nfatidicus. In many places, especially in Dalmatia, witches are more\ngently or less plainly called Krstaca, the crossed, from Krst, a cross,\ni.e., christos, or Rogulja, \"horned,\" derived from association with\nthe horns of devils. In Croatia the Italian Striga is used, while\namong the Slovenes and Kai-Kroats the term copernica (masculine,\ncoprnjak). \"But it enrages the witches so much to be called by\nthis word that when they hear that any one has used it they come\nto his house by night and tear him in four pieces, which they cast\nafar into the four quarters of the earth, yea, and thereunto carry\naway all the swine, horses, and cattle, so intolerable is their\nwrath.\" Therefore men use the word hmana zena, or \"common woman,\"\nhmana being the Slavonic pronunciation of the German word gemein, or\ncommon. In Dalmatia and far into Servia a witch is called macisnica,\nand magic, macija, which is, evidently enough, the Italian magia. But\nthere are witches and witches, and it appears that among the learned\nthe vjestica differs from the macionica, and this from the Zlokobnica\nwho, as the \"evil-meeter,\" or one whom it is unlucky to encounter in\nthe morning, is probably only one who has the evil eye. A quotation\nfrom a Servian authority, given by Dr. Krauss, is as follows:--\n\n\n   \"I have often heard from old Hodzas and Kadijas, that every female\n    Wallach, as soon as she is forty years old, abandons the 'God be\n    with us!' and becomes a witch (vjestica), or at least a zlokobnica\n    or macionica. A real witch has a mark of a cross under her nose, a\n    zlokobnica has some hairs of a beard, and a macionica may be known\n    by a forehead full of dark folds (frowns), with blood-spots in her\n    face\" (\"Niz srpskih pripoviedaka. Vuk. vit. Vecevica. Pancevo,\"\n    p, 93. 1881).\n\n\nOf the great number of South Slavonian terms for the verb to enchant\nor bewitch, it may suffice to say that the commencement, carati,\ncari carani, carovnik, &c., appear to have much more affinity to\nthe gypsy chor-ava, to steal or swindle, and chov-hani, a witch,\nthan to the Italian ciarlatano, and the French and English charlatan,\nfrom which Dr. Krauss derives them.\n\n\n\n\nTHE VILAS-SYLVANA ELEMENTARY SPIRITS.\n\nAmong the Slavonic and gypsy races all witchcraft, fairy- and\nFolk-lore rests mainly upon a belief in certain spirits of the wood and\nwold, of earth and water, which has much in common with that of the\nRosicrucians and Paracelsus, but much more with the gypsy mythology\n(as given by Wlislocki, \"Vom Wandernden Zigeunervolke,\" pp. 49-309),\nwhich is apparently in a great measure of directly Indian origin.\n\n\"In the Vile\" says Dr. Krauss, \"also known as Samovile, Samodivi,\nand Vilevrjaci, we have near relations to the forest and field\nspirits, or the 'wood-' and 'moss-folk' of Middle Germany, France,\nand Bavaria; the 'wild people' of Eifel, Hesse, Salzburg, and the\nTyrol; the wood-women and wood-men of Bohemia; the Tyrolese Fanggen,\nF\u00e4nken, N\u00f6rkel, and Happy Ladies; the Roumanish Orken, Euguane,\nand Dialen; the Danish Ellekoner; the Swedish Skogsnufvaz; and the\nRussian Ljesje; while in certain respects they have affinity with the\nTeutonic Valkyries.\" Yet they differ on the whole from all of these,\nas from English fairies, in being more like divinities, who exert a\nconstant and familiar influence for good or evil on human beings, and\nwho are prayed to or exorcised on all occasions. They have, however,\ntheir exact parallel among the Red Indians of North America as among\nthe Eskimo, and it is evident that they are originally derived from\nthe old or primeval Shamanic faith, which once spread all over the\nearth. It is very true, as Dr. Krauss remarks, that in the West of\nEurope it is becoming almost impossible to trace this true origin of\nspirits now regarded as merely diabolical, or otherwise put into new\nr\u00f4les; but among the South Slavonians and gypsies we can still find\nthem in very nearly their old form and playing the same parts. We can\nstill find the Vila as set forth in old ballads, the incarnation of\nbeauty and power, the benevolent friends of sufferers, the geniuses\nof heroes, the dwellers by rock and river and greenwood tree. But\nthey are implacable in their wrath to all who deceive them, or who\nbreak a promise; nay, they inflict terrible punishment even on those\nwho disturb their rings or the dances which they make by midsummer\nmoonlight. Hence the proverb applied to any man who suddenly fell ill:\n\"Naiso je na vilinsko kolo\" (\"He stepped on a fairy-ring\"). From this\narbitrary exercise of power we find the Vila represented at times as\na spirit who punishes and torments.\n\nThus we are told that there was once a shepherd named Stanko, who\nplayed beautifully on the flute. One evening he was so absorbed in\nhis own music that when the Ave Maria bell rung, instead of repeating\nthe prayer he played it. As he ended he saw a Vila sitting on a\nhedge. And from that hour she never left him. By table, by his bed,\nat work or play, the white form and unearthly eyes of the spirit were\nclose to him.\n\n\n   \"By a spell to him unknown,\n    He could never be alone.\"\n\n\nWitches and wizards were summoned to aid him, but to no avail; nay,\nit made matters worse, for the Vila now often beat him, and when\npeople asked him why it was, he replied that the Vila did so because\nhe refused to wander out into the world with her. And yet again he\nwould be discovered in the top of a tree, bound with bast; and so it\nwent on for years, till he was finally found one morning drowned in\na ditch. So in the Wolf Dietrich legend the hero refuses the love\nof die rauhe Else, and is made mad by the witch and runs wild. All\nof which is identical with what is told in an Algonkin tale (vide\n\"The Algonkin Legends of New England\").\n\nThere are three kinds of witches or spirits among the Southern\nSlavonians which correspond in every respect exactly to those in\nwhich the gypsies believe. The first of these are the Zracne Vile,\nor aerial spirits. These, like the spirits of the air of Scripture,\nare evily-disposed to human beings, playing them mischievous tricks\nor inflicting on them fatal injuries. They lead them astray by night,\nlike Friar Rush and Robin Goodfellow, or the English gypsy Mullo doods,\nor bewilder and frighten them into madness. Of the second kind are the\nEarth spirits, Pozemne Vile, in gypsy Pcuvushi or Puvushi. These are\namiable, noble, and companionable beings, who often give sage counsel\nto men. Thirdly are the Water sprites, in Slavonic Povodne Vile,\nin gypsy Nivashi, who are to the highest degree vindictive at times,\nyet who behave kindly to men when they meet them on land. But woe to\nthose who, while swimming, encounter them in streams or lakes, for\nthen the goblins grasp and whirl them about until they perish. From\nthis account by Dr. Krauss, it appears as if this Slavonic mythology\nwere derived from the gypsy, firstly, because it is more imperfect\nthan the latter, and secondly, because in it Vilas, or spirits,\nare confused with witches, while among the gypsies they are clearly\nseparated and distinctly defined.\n\nDr. Wlislocki says (\"Vom Wand. Zigeunervolke,\" p. 253) that \"gypsies\nare still a race given to Shamanism, but yet they reverence a\nhighest being under the name of devla or del.\" This is, however,\nthe case to-day with all believers in Shaman or Sorcery-religion, the\ndifference between them and monotheists being that this highest god\nis little worshipped or even thought of, all practical devotion being\npaid to spirits who are really their saints. By close examination the\nGypsy religion, like that of the country-folk in India, appears to\nbe absolutely identical in spirit with that of American Indians. And\nI should say that the monk mentioned by Pr\u00e6torius, who declared\nthat though God and Christ should damn him, yet he could be saved\nby appealing to Saint Joseph, was not very far removed from being\na Shamanist.\n\nThe Hungarian gypsies are divided into tribes, and one of these,\nthe Kukaya, believes itself to be descended from the P\u00e7uvushi, or\nearth-fairies, according to the following story, narrated by Dr. H. von\nWlislocki in his paper on the genealogy and family relations of the\nTransylvanian Tent Gypsies:--\n\n\n   \"Many thousand years ago there were as yet in the world very\n    few Pchuvushi. These are beings of human form dwelling under\n    the earth. There they have cities, but they very often come to\n    the world above. They are ugly, and their men are covered with\n    hair. (All of this indicates a prehistoric subterranean race\n    like the Eskimo, fur-clad. [12]) They carry off mortal girls for\n    wives. Their life is hidden in the egg of a black hen.\"\n\n\nThis is the same as that of the Orco or Ogre in the Italian tale, \"I\nRacconti delle Fate, Cesare da Causa,\" Florence, 1888. Whoever kills\nthe hen and throws the egg into a running stream, kills the pchuvush.\n\n\n   \"Once a young Pchuvush woman came up to the world and sat in a\n    fair green forest. She saw a very beautiful youth sleeping in\n    the shade, and said: 'What happiness it must be to have such a\n    husband. Mine is so ugly!' Her husband, who had stolen silently\n    after her, heard this, and reflected: 'What a good idea it would\n    be to lend my wife to this young man till she shall have borne a\n    family of beautiful children! Then I could sell them to my rich\n    Pchuvus friends.' So he said to his wife: 'You may live with\n    this youth for ten years if you will promise to give me either\n    the boys or the girls which you may bear to him.' She agreed to\n    this. Then the Pchuvus began to sing:--\n\n      \"'Kuku, kuk\u00e1ya\n        Kames to adala?\n        Kuku, kukaya.'\n\n   \"That is in English:--\n\n      \"'Kuku, kukaya\n        Do you want this (one) here?\n        Kuku, kukaya.'\n\n   \"Then the young man awoke, and as the goblin offered him much gold\n    and silver with his wife, he took her and lived with her ten years,\n    and every year she bore him a son. Then came the Pchuvush to get\n    the children. But the wife said she had chosen to keep all the\n    sons, and was very sorry but she had no girls to give him! So he\n    went away sorrowfully, howling:--\n\n      \"'Kuku, kuk\u00e1ya!\n        Ada kin jirkl\u00e1!\n        Kuku, kukaya!'\n\n   \"That is to say:--\n\n      \"'Kuku, kukaya!\n        These are dogs here!\n        Kuku, kukaya!'\n\n   \"Then the ten boys laughed and said to their father: 'We will\n    call ourselves Kukaya.' And so from them came the race.\"\n\n\nDr. Wlislocki points out that there are races which declare themselves\nto be descended from dogs, or, like the Romans, from wolves. It is\na curious coincidence that the Eskimo are among the former.\n\nIn all parts of Eastern Europe, as in the West, many people are not\nonly careful to burn the parings of their nails [13] and the combings\nof hair, for fear lest witches and imps should work sorcery with them\nto the injury of those from whom they came, but they also destroy the\nshells of eggs when they have eaten their contents. So A. Wuttke tells\nus in his book, \"Der Deutsche Volks Aberglaube der Gegenwart,\" 1869:\n\"When one has eaten eggs the shells must be broken up or burned,\nor else the hens will lay no more, or evil witches will come over\nthem.\" And in England, Spain, the Netherlands, or Portugal, there are\nmany who believe or say that if the witches can get such shells from\nwhich people have eaten, unbroken, they can, by muttering spells,\ncause them to grow so large that they can use them as boats. Dom\nLeitas Ganet (\"Dona Branca ou a Conquista do Algarve,\" Paris, 1826),\nhowever, assures us that is a very risky thing for the witches, because\nif they do not return home before midnight the shell-boat perishes,\n\"whence it hath come to pass that many of these sorceresses have been\nmiserably drowned.\"\n\nHowever, an egg hung up in a house is a lucky amulet, hence the\nostrich eggs and cocoanuts resembling them which are so common in the\nEast. And it is to be observed that every gypsy in England declares\nthat a pivilioi, or cocoanut, as a gift brings bak or luck, I myself\nhaving had many given to me with this assurance. This is evidently\nand directly derived from India, in which country there are a mass\nof religious traditions referring to it.\n\n\n   \"Once there was a gypsy girl who noticed that when anybody ate\n    eggs they broke up the shells, and asking why this was done\n    received for answer:--\n\n  \"'You must break the shell to bits for fear\n    Lest the witches should make it a boat, my dear.\n    For over the sea away from home,\n    Far by night the witches roam.'\n\n\n\"Then the girl said: 'I don't see why the poor witches should not\nhave boats as well as other people.' And saying this she threw the\nshell of an egg which she had been eating as far as she could, and\ncried, 'Chovihani, lav tro bero!' ('Witch--there is your boat!') But\nwhat was her amazement to see the shell caught up by the wind and\nwhirled away on high till it became invisible, while a voice cried,\n'Paraka!' ('I thank you!')\n\n\"Now it came to pass some time after that the gypsy girl was on an\nisland, where she remained some days. And when she wished to return,\nbehold a great flood was rising, and it had washed her boat away, she\ncould see nothing of it. But the water kept getting higher and higher,\nand soon there was only a little bit of the island above the flood,\nand the girl thought she must drown. Just then she saw a white boat\ncoming; there sat in it a woman with witch eyes; she was rowing with\na broom, and a black cat sat on her shoulder. 'Jump in!' she cried\nto the girl, and then rowed her to the firm land.\n\n\"When she was on the shore the woman said: 'Turn round three times\nto the right and look every time at the boat.' She did so, and every\ntime she looked she saw the boat grow smaller till it was like an\negg. Then the woman sang:--\n\n\n  \"'That is the shell you threw to me,\n    Even a witch can grateful be.'\n\n\n\"Saying this she vanished, cat, broom, shell, and all.\n\n\n   \"Now my story is fairly done,\n    I beg you to tell a better one.\"\n\n\nAs regards these boats which grow large or small at will we find them\nin the Norse ship Skidbladnir, which certain dwarfs made and gave to\nFrey. It is so large that all the gods and their army can embark in\nit. But when not in use it may be so contracted that one may hava i\npungi sino--put it in his purse or pocket. The Algonkin god Glooskap\nhas not only the counterpart of Skidbladnir, but the hammer of Thor\nand his belt of strength. He has also the two attendant birds which\nbring him news, and the two wolves which mean Day and Night.\n\nAnother legend given by Dr. Krauss, relative to witches and egg-shells\nis as follows:--\n\n\n   \"By the Klek lived a rich tavern-keeper and his wife. He was thin\n    and lean--hager und mager--while she was as fat as a well-fed pig.\n\n   \"One day there came a gypsy woman by. She began to tell his\n    fortune by his hand. And as she studied it seriously she became\n    herself serious, and then said to him, 'Listen, you good-natured\n    dolt (mor\u00e9)! Do you know why you are so slim and your wife so\n    stout?' 'Not I.' 'My good friend (Latcho pral), your wife is\n    a witch. Every Friday when there is a new moon (mladi petak)\n    she rides you up along the Klek to the devil's dance' (Uraze\n    kolo). 'How can that be?' 'Simply enough. As soon as you fall\n    asleep, she slips a magic halter over your head. Then you become a\n    horse, and she rides you over the hills and far away over mountains\n    and woods, cities and seas, to the witches' gathering.\n\n      \"'Little you know where you have been,\n        Little you think of what you have seen,\n\n  \"'For when you awake it is all forgotten, but the ride is hard\n    for you, and you are wasting away, and dying. Take great care of\n    yourself on the next Friday when there is a new moon!'\n\n   \"So the gypsy went her way, and he thought it over. On the\n    next Friday when the moon was new he went to bed early, but\n    only pretended to sleep. Then his wife came silently as a cat\n    to the bed-side with the magic halter in her hand. As quick as\n    lightning he jumped up, snatched it from her, and threw it over\n    her head. Then she became, in a second, a mare. He mounted her,\n    and away she flew through the air--over hills and dales like the\n    wind, till they came to the witches' meeting.\n\n   \"He dismounted, bound the mare to a tree, and, unseen by the\n    company, watched them at a little distance. All the witches carried\n    pots or jars. First they danced in a ring, then every one put\n    her pot on the ground and danced alone round it. And these pots\n    were egg-shells.\n\n   \"While he watched, there came flying to him a witch in whom\n    he recognized his old godmother. 'How did you come here?' she\n    inquired. 'Well, I came here on my mare, I know not how.' 'Woe\n    to you--begone as soon as possible. If the witches once see you\n    it will be all up with you. Know that we are all waiting for one'\n    (this one was his wife), 'and till she comes we cannot begin.' Then\n    the landlord mounted his mare, cried 'Home!' and when he was\n    there tied her up in the stable and went to bed.\n\n   \"In the morning his servant-man said to him: 'There is a mare in\n    the stable.' 'Yes,' replied the master; 'it is mine.' So he sent\n    for a smith, and made him shoe the mare. Now, whatever is done\n    to a witch while she is in the form of an animal remains on or\n    in her when she resumes her natural shape.\n\n   \"Then he went out and assembled a judicial or legal commission. He\n    led the members to his house, told them all his story, led forth\n    the mare, and took off the halter. She became a woman as before,\n    but horse-shoes were affixed to her feet and hands. She began to\n    weep and wail, but the judge was pitiless. He had her thrown into\n    a pit full of quicklime, and thus she was burnt to death. And\n    since that time people break the shells of eggs after eating\n    their contents, lest witches should make jars or pots of them.\"\n\n\nThe following story on the same subject is from a different source:--\n\n\n   \"There was once a gypsy girl who was very clever, and whenever\n    she heard people talk about witches she remembered it well. One\n    day she took an egg-shell and made a small round hole in it very\n    neatly, and ate the yolk and white, but the shell she put on a\n    heap of white sand by a stream, where it was very likely to be\n    seen. Then she hid herself behind a bush. By and by, when it was\n    night, there came a witch, who, seeing the shell, pronounced a\n    word over it, when it changed to a beautiful boat, into which\n    the witch got and sailed on the water, over the sea.\n\n   \"The girl remembered the word, and soon ate another egg and turned\n    it into a boat. Whenever she willed it went over the world to\n    places where fruit and flowers abounded, or where people gave her\n    much gold for such things as knives and scissors. So she grew rich\n    and had a fine house. The boat she hid away carefully in a bush.\n\n   \"There was a very envious, wicked woman, whom the girl had\n    befriended many a time, and who hated her all the more for it. And\n    this creature set to work, spying and sneaking, to find out the\n    secret of the girl's prosperity. And at last she discovered the\n    boat, and, suspecting something, hid herself in the bush hard by\n    to watch.\n\n   \"By and by the girl came with a basket full of wares for her\n    trade, and, drawing out the boat, said, 'To Africa!'--when off\n    it flew. The woman watched and waited. After a few hours the girl\n    returned. Her boat was full of fine things, ostrich feathers and\n    gold, fruit and strange flowers, all of which she carried into\n    her house.\n\n   \"Then the woman put the boat on the water, and said, 'To\n    Africa!' But she did not know the word by means of which it was\n    changed from an egg-shell, and which made it fly like thought. So\n    as it went along the woman cried, 'Faster!' but it never heeded\n    her. Then she cried again in a great rage, and at last exclaimed,\n   'In God's name get on with you!' Then the spell was broken, and\n    the boat turned into an egg-shell, and the woman was drowned in\n    the great rolling sea.\"\n\n\nEgg-lore is inexhaustible. The eggs of Maundy Thursday (Witten\nDonnertag), says a writer in The Queen, protect a house against thunder\nand lightning, but, in fact, an egg hung up is a general protection,\nhence the ostrich eggs and cocoanuts of the East. Some other very\ninteresting items in the communication referred to are as follows:--\n\n\n   \"Witches and Eggs.--'To hang an egg laid on Ascension Day in the\n    roof of a house,' says Reginald Scot in 1584, 'preserveth the\n    same from all hurts.' Probably this was written with an eye to the\n   'hurts' arising from witchcraft, in connection with which eggs were\n    supposed to possess certain mysterious powers. In North Germany,\n    if you have a desire to see the ladies of the broomstick on May\n    Day, their festival, you must take an egg laid on Maundy Thursday,\n    and stand where four roads meet; or else you must go into church\n    on Good Friday, but come out before the blessing. It was formerly\n    quite an article of domestic belief that the shells must be broken\n    after eating eggs, lest the witches should sail out to sea in them;\n    or, as Sir Thomas Browne declared, lest they 'should draw or prick\n    their names therein, and veneficiously mischief' the person who\n    had partaken of the egg. North Germans, ignoring this side of the\n    question, say, 'Break the shells or you will get the ague;' and\n    Netherlanders advise you to secure yourself against the attacks\n    of this disagreeable visitor by eating on Easter Day a couple of\n    eggs which were laid on Good Friday.\n\n   \"Scottish Superstitions.--Scotch fishers, who may be reckoned\n    among the most superstitious of folks, believe that contrary\n    winds and much consequent vexation of spirit will be the result of\n    having eggs on board with them; while in the west of England it\n    is considered very unlucky to bring birds' eggs into the house,\n    although they may be hung up with impunity outside. Mr. Gregor,\n    in his 'Folklore of the North-East of Scotland,' gives us some\n    curious particulars concerning chickens, and the best methods of\n    securing a satisfactory brood. The hen, it seems, should be set on\n    an odd number of eggs, or the chances are that most, if not all,\n    will be addled--a mournful prospect for the henwife; also they\n    must be placed under the mother bird after sunset, or the chickens\n    will be blind. If the woman who performs this office carries the\n    eggs wrapped up in her chemise, the result will be hen birds; if\n    she wears a man's hat, cocks. Furthermore, it is as well for her\n    to repeat a sort of charm, 'A' in thegeethir, A' oot thegeethir.'\n\n   \"Unlucky Eggs.--There are many farmers' wives, even in the present\n    day, who would never dream of allowing eggs to be brought into\n    the house or taken out after dark--this being deemed extremely\n    unlucky. Cuthbert Bede mentions the case of a farmer's wife in\n    Rutland who received a setting of ducks' eggs from a neighbour at\n    nine o'clock at night. 'I cannot imagine how she could have been so\n    foolish,' said the good woman, much distressed, and her visitor,\n    upon inquiry, was told that ducks' eggs brought into a house\n    after sunset would never be hatched. A Lincolnshire superstition\n    declares that if eggs are carried over running water they will be\n    useless for setting purposes; while in Aberdeen there is an idea\n    prevalent among the country folks that should it thunder a short\n    time before chickens are hatched, they will die in the shell. The\n    same wiseacres may be credited with the notion that the year the\n    farmer's gudewife presents him with an addition to his family\n    is a bad season for the poultry yard. 'Bairns an' chuckens,'\n    say they, 'dinna thrive in ae year.' The probable explanation\n    being that the gudewife, taken up with the care of her bairn,\n    has less time to attend to the rearing of the 'chuckens.'\n\n   \"Fortune-telling in Northumberland.--Besides the divination\n    practised with the white of an egg, which certainly appears\n    of a vague and unsatisfactory character, another species of\n    fortune-telling with eggs is in vogue in Northumberland on the eve\n    of St. Agnes. A maiden desirous of knowing what her future lord\n    is like, is enjoined to boil an egg, after having spent the whole\n    day fasting and in silence, then to extract the yolk, fill the\n    cavity with salt, and eat the whole, including the shell. This\n    highly unpalatable supper finished, the heroic maid must walk\n    backwards, uttering this invocation to the saint:--\n\n      \"'Sweet St. Agnes, work thy fast,\n        If ever I be to marry man,\n        Or man be to marry me,\n        I hope him this night to see.'\"\n\n\nFriedrich and others assert that the saying in Luke xi. 12--\"Or if he\nshall ask an egg shall he give him a scorpion?\"--is a direct reference\nto ancient belief that the egg typified the good principle, and the\nscorpion evil, and which is certainly supported by a cloud of witnesses\nin the form of classic folk-lore. The egg, as a cosmogenic symbol, and\nindicating the origin of all things, finds a place in the mythologies\nof many races. These are indicated with much erudition by Friedrich,\n\"Symbolik der Natur,\" p. 686.\n\nIn Lower Alsatia it is believed that if a man will take an Easter egg\ninto the church and look about him, if there be any witches in the\ncongregation he may know them by their having in their hands pieces\nof pork instead of prayer-books, and milk-pails on their heads for\nbonnets (Wolf, \"Deutsche M\u00e4hrchen und Sagen,\" p. 270). There is also\nan ancient belief that an egg built into a new building will protect\nit against evil and witchcraft. Such eggs were found in old houses in\nAltenhagen and Iserlohen, while in the East there is a proverb, \"the\negg of the chamber\" (\"Hamasa\" of Abu Temman, v. R\u00fcckert, Stuttgart,\n1846), which seems to point to the same practice.\n\nThe Romans expressed a disaster by saying, \"Ovum ruptum est\" (\"The\negg is smashed\"). Among other egg-proverbs I find the following:--\n\n\n    His eggs are all omelettes (French); i.e., broken up.\n\n    Eggs in the pan give pancakes but nevermore chicks (Low German).\n\n    Never a chicken comes from broken eggs (Low German).\n\n    Bad eggs, bad chickens. Hence in America \"a bad egg\" for a man\n    who is radically bad, and \"a good egg\" for the contrary.\n\n    Eggs not yet laid are uncertain chickens; i.e., \"Do not count\n    your chickens before they are hatched.\"\n\n    Tread carefully among eggs (German).\n\n    The egg pretends to be cleverer than the hen.\n\n    He waits for the eggs and lets the hen go.\n\n    He who wants eggs must endure the clucking of the hen\n    (Westphalian).\n\n    He thinks his eggs are of more account than other people's hens.\n\n    One rotten egg spoils all the pudding.\n\n    Rotten eggs and bad butter always stand by one another; or \"go\n    well together.\"\n\n        Old eggs, old lovers, and an old horse,\n        Are either rotten or for the worse.\n\n    (Original:\n\n        Alte Eyer\n        Alte Freier--\n        Alter Gaul\n        Sind meistens faul.)\n\n   \"All eggs are of the same size\" (Eggs are all alike), he said,\n    and grabbed the biggest.\n\n    As like as eggs (Old Roman).\n\n    As sure as eggs.\n\n    His eggs all have two yolks.\n\n    If you have many eggs you can have many cakes.\n\n    He who has many eggs scatters many shells.\n\n    To throw an egg at a sparrow.\n\n    To borrow trouble for eggs not yet hatched.\n\n    Half an egg is worth more than all the shell.\n\n    A drink after an egg, and a leap after an apple.\n\n    A rotten egg in his face.\n\n\nIn the early mythology, the egg, as a bird was hatched from it, and as\nit resembled seeds, nuts, &c., from which new plants come, was regarded\nas the great type of production. This survives in love-charms, as when\na girl in the Tyrol believes she can secure a man's love by giving\nhim a red Easter egg. This giving red eggs at Easter is possibly\nderived from the ancient Parsees, who did the same at their spring\nfestival. Among the Christians the reproductive and sexual symbolism,\nwhen retained, was applied to the resurrection of the body and the\nimmortality of the soul. Hence Easter eggs. And as Christ by His\ncrucifixion caused this, or originated the faith, we have the ova\nde crucibus, the origin of which has puzzled so many antiquaries;\nfor the cross itself was, like the egg, a symbol of life, in earlier\ntimes of reproduction, and in a later age of life eternal. These eggs\nare made of a large size of white glass by the Armenian Christians.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nCHARMS OR CONJURATIONS TO CURE OR PROTECT ANIMALS.\n\n\nFrom the earliest ages a drum or tambourine has formed such an\nindispensable adjunct of Shamanic sorcery among Tartars, Lapps,\nSamoyedes, Eskimo, and Red Indians, that, taking it with other\nassociations, I can hardly believe that it has not been transmitted\nfrom one to the other. In Hungary the gypsies when they wish to\nknow if an invalid will recover, have recourse to the cov\u00e1\u00e7anescro\nbu\u00e7lo (chovihanescro buklo) or \"witch-drum.\" This is a kind of\nrude tambourine covered with the skin of an animal, and marked with\nstripes which have a special meaning. On this are placed from nine\nto twenty-one seeds of the thorn-apple (stramonium). The side of the\ndrum is then gently struck with a little hammer, and according to the\nposition which the seeds take on the marks, the recovery or death of\nthe patient is predicted. The following is a picture of a gypsy drum\nas given by Dr. Wlislocki.\n\nThe wood for this is cut on Whitsunday. A is turned towards the\nfortune-teller; nine seeds are now thrown on the drum, and with\nthe left hand, or with a hammer held in it, the tambourine is\ntapped. Should all the seeds come within the four lines all will\ngo well, especially if three come within a, d, e, f. If two roll\ninto the space between a, i, it is lucky for a woman, between i and\nf for a man. But if nearly all fall outside of b, c, g, h, all is\nunfavourable. The same divination is used to know whether animals\nwill get well, and where stolen property is concealed. All of this\ncorresponds exactly to the use of the same instrument by the Laplanders\nfor the same purposes. The thorn-apple is a very poisonous plant, and\nthe gypsies are said to have first brought it to England. This is not\ntrue, but it is extremely possible that they used it in stupefying,\nkilling, and \"bewitching.\" It is very much employed at present by\nthe Voodoo poisoners in America.\n\nThe Turks are a Tartar race, and the drum is used among them very\ngenerally for magical purposes. I have one of these tambouri which,\nI was assured when I bought it, was made for incantations. It is of a\ndiamond shape, has parchment on both sides, and is inscribed with the\nname Allah, in Arabic, and the well-known double triangle of Solomon,\nwith the moon and star.\n\nTo keep domestic animals from straying or being stolen, or falling ill,\nthey are, when a gypsy first becomes their owner, driven up before a\nfire by his tent. Then they are struck with a switch, which is half\nblacked with coal, across the back, while the following is repeated:--\n\n\n   \"Ac tu, ac kathe!\n    Tu hin mange!\n    Te Nivasa the ji\u00e1nen--\n    N\u00e1 dikh tu \u00e1d\u00e1len!\n    Trin l\u00e1nca hin m\u00e1nge,\n    Me p\u00e7\u00e1nd\u00e1v tute:\n    Yek\u00e1 o devl\u00e1, \u00e1vri\n    O Kristus, trite Maria!\"\n\n   \"Stay thou, stay here!\n    Thou art mine!\n    And the Nivasi when they go--\n    Thou shalt not see them!\n    Three chains I have,\n    I bind thee:\n    One is God, the other (beyond)\n    The Christ, the third, Maria!\"\n\n\nTo charm a horse, they draw, with a coal, a ring on the left hoof\nand on the right a cross, and murmur:--\n\n\n   \"Obles, obles te obles!\n    Ac tu, ac t\u00f9 m\u00e1y s\u00e1stes\n    N\u00e1 th' \u00e1veh\u00e1s beng tute\n    Devl\u00e1, devl\u00e1 ac tute!\n    Gule devl\u00e1 bish\u00e1l\u00e1\n    E gr\u00e1yeskro per\u00e1\n    Mise\u00e7escro d\u00e1d!\n    Niko m\u00e1nushenge \u00e1c\n    K\u00e1ske me d\u00e1v, leske ac\n    Shuk\u00e1res tu \u00e1c,\n    Voyes\u00e1 te l\u00e1ccs ac,\n    Ashunen eft\u00e1 P\u00e7uvuse:\n    Eft\u00e1 l\u00e1nc\u00e1 hin m\u00e1nge,\n    Ferinen \u00e1d\u00e1l\u00e1\n    T\u00e1ys\u00e1, t\u00e1ys\u00e1 e ped\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Round, round, and round!\n    Be thou, be thou very sound\n    The devil shall not come to thee,\n    God, God shall be with thee!\n    Sweet God drive away\n    From the horse's body\n    The Father of Evil!\n    Be to (go not to) any other man\n    To whom I give (sell) unto him\n    Be beautiful!\n    Frolicsome and good,\n    Seven spirits of earth hear!\n    I have seven chains,\n    Protect this animal\n    Ever, ever!\"\n\n\nThen a piece of salted bread is given to the horse, and the owner\nspits seven times into his eyes, by which he is supposed to lose\nall fear for supernatural beings. According to the gypsies, horses,\nespecially black ones, can see beings which are invisible to human\neyes. I have known an old English gypsy who believed that dogs could\nsee ghosts when men could not. The mysterious manner in which dogs\nand horses betray fear when there is apparently nothing to dread,\nthe howling of the former by night, and the wild rushes of the latter,\ndoubtless led to this opinion. The bread and salt will recall to the\nreader the fact that the same was given at the ancient mysteries\napparently for the purpose of strengthening the neophyte so that\nhe should not fear the supernatural beings whom he was supposed\nto meet. It is curious to find this peculiar form of the sacrament\nadministered to a horse. Another protective charm is common among the\nSouthern Hungarian gypsies. The dung of a she-goat dried and powdered\nis sifted on a horse's back and this spell recited:--\n\n\n   \"Mise\u00e7es preji\u00e1,\n    Andr\u00e1l t're per\u00e1!\n    Tr\u00e1d\u00e1 cik busc\u00e1kri\n    Mise\u00e7es per\u00e1kri,--\n\n    Andral punr\u00e1, andral dumno,\n    Andral y\u00e1kh\u00e1, andral k\u00e1nn\u00e1!\n    Nevker\u00e1dyi av \u00e1k\u00e1na,\n    Ac tu, ac tu c\u00e1 m\u00e1nge:\n    \u00c1c tu, \u00e1c tu, \u00e1c k\u00e1the!\"\n\n   \"Evil be gone\n    From thy belly!\n    Drive away she-goat's dung\n    Evil from the belly,\n    From the feet, from the back,\n    From the eyes, from the ears!\n    New-born be now,\n    Be thou, be thou only mine:\n    Stay thou, stay thou, stay here!\"\n\n\nThere is evidently a relation here between the dung of the she-goat\nand certain ancient symbols. Whatever was a sign of fruitfulness,\ngeneration, or productiveness, whether it was set forth by the\ngenerative organs, sexual passion, or even manure which fertilises,\nwas connected with Life which is the good or vital principle opposed to\ndeath. As the goat was eminently a type of lechery, so the she-goat,\nowing to the great proportion of milk which she yielded, set forth\nabundance; hence the cornucopia of Amalthea, the prototype of the\nshe-goat Heidrun of the Northern mythology, who yielded every day\nso much milk that all the Einheriar, or dwellers in Valhall, could\nsatisfy themselves therewith. [14] But the forms or deities indicating\nlife were also those which shielded and protected from evil, therefore\nHere, the mother of life and of birth, had in Sparta a shrine where\nshe-goats were sacrificed to her, while at Canuvium the statue of Juno\nSospita (who was also Here), was covered with a she-goat's skin. It\nis in the ancient sense of fertility identified with protection,\nthat the she-goat's dung is used to exorcise evil from the horse by\nthe gypsies. There is, in fact, in all of these charms and exorcisms\na great deal which evidently connects them with the earliest rites\nand religions.\n\nIn the Hungarian gypsy-tribe of the Kukuya, the following method of\nprotecting horses is used: The animal is placed by the tent-fire and\nthere a little hole is dug before him into which ninefold grass and\nsome hairs from his mane and tail are put. Then his left fore-hoof\nis traced on the ground, and the earth within it is carefully taken\nout and shaken into the hole, while these lines are repeated:--\n\n\n   \"Yek\u00e1 cunul yek\u00e1 b\u00e1l,\n    Tute e bokh n\u00e1\u00f1i s\u00e1l,\n    Ko tut corel, the merel\n    Sar e b\u00e1l\u00e1, cunul\u00e1,\n    Pal e p\u00e7uv the yov \u00e1vel!\n    P\u00e7uvus, adalen tute,\n    S\u00e1stes gr\u00e1y \u00e1c m\u00e1nge!\"\n\n   \"A straw, a hair!\n    May you never be hungry!\n    May he who steals you die!\n    Like the hair and the straw,\n    May he go to the ground!\n    Earth, these things to thee!\n    May a sound horse be mine!\"\n\n\nIf the animal be a mare and it is desired that she shall be with foal,\nthey give her oats to eat out of an apron or a gourd, and say:--\n\n\n   \"Trin k\u00e1n\u00e1ly\u00e1, trin jiukl\u00e1,\n    Ji\u00e1nen upre pl\u00e1y\u00e1!\n    C\u00e1b\u00e1, p\u00e7ares hin per\u00e1!\n    Trin k\u00e1n\u00e1ly\u00e1, trin jiukl\u00e1\n    Ji\u00e1nen tele pl\u00e1y\u00e1,\n    \u00c9 \u00e7ev\u00e1 \u00e1ndrasav\u00e1ren\n    Yek cumut \u00e1ndre \u00e7as\u00e1ren,\n    Tre per\u00e1 sik p\u00e7\u00e1reven!\"\n\n   \"Three asses, three dogs,\n    Go up the hill!\n    Eat, fill thy belly with young!\n    Three asses, three dogs,\n    Go down the hill,\n    They close the holes,\n    They put the moon in (them)\n    Thy belly be soon fruitful!\"\n\n\n\"The moon has here,\" remarks Wlislocki, \"a phallic meaning, the\nmention of the ass, and the use of the gourd and apron are symbols\nof fertility. Vide De Gubernatis, 'Animals in Indian Mythology,'\nin the chapter on the ass.\"\n\nThere is another formula for protecting and aiding cattle, which\nis practised among other races besides that of the gypsies; as, for\ninstance, among the Slovacks of Northern Hungary. This I shall leave\nin the original:--\n\n\n   \"Dieses Verwahrungsmittel besteht darin, dass dem gekauften\n    weiblichen Thiere der Mann den blanken Hintern zeigt, einem\n    m\u00e4nnlichen Thiere aber eine weibliche Person. Hiebei werden die\n    Worte gesagt:--\n\n       \"S\u00e1r o k\u00e1r p\u00e1l e punr\u00e1,\n        Kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge \u00e1c t\u00e1ys\u00e1!\n\n        Wie der Schwantz am Bein,\n        Sollst du stets bei mir sein!\"\n\n\nOr else:--\n\n\n   \"S\u00e1r e minc pal e per,\n    Kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge \u00e1c buter!\n\n    Wie das Loch im Leib,\n    Also bei mir bleib!\"\n\n\nTo secure swine to their owner a hole is dug in the turf which is\nfilled with salt and charcoal dust, which is covered with earth,\nand these words uttered:--\n\n\n   \"Ad\u00e1 hin tute\n    N\u00e1 \u00e1v\u00e1 p\u00e1l menge\n    D\u00e1v tute, so k\u00e1m\u00e1v\n    P\u00e7uvushey\u00e1, \u00e1shun\u00e1,\n    Cores tuna muk\u00e1\n    Hin menge trin l\u00e1nc\u00e1,\n    Trin m\u00e1y l\u00e1ce Urm\u00e1,\n    Ke ferinen men!\"\n\n   \"This is thine,\n    Come not to us!\n    I give thee what I can\n    Oh Spirit of earth, hear!\n    Let not the thief go!\n    We have three chains,\n    Three very good fairies\n    Who protect us.\"\n\n\nIf the swine find the hole and root it up--as they will be tolerably\ncertain to do owing to their fondness for salt and charcoal--they\nwill not be stolen or run away.\n\nThe Urmen, or Fairies, are supposed to be very favourable to\ncattle, therefore children who torment cows are told \"Urme tute n\u00e1\nbica somnakune p\u00e7\u00e1b\u00e1y\"--\"The fairies will not send you any golden\napples!\" If the English gypsies had the word Urme (and it may be that\nit exists among them even yet), this would be, \"I Urme n\u00e1 bitcher\ntute sonnakai p\u00e1bya!\"\n\nBut the mighty charm of charms to protect cattle from theft is the\nfollowing: Three drops of blood are made to fall from the finger of a\nlittle child on a piece of bread which is given to the animal to eat,\nwith these words:--\n\n\n   \"Dav tute trinen r\u00e1t\u00e1\n    Ternes te l\u00e1ces \u00e1vn\u00e1!\n    Ko tut corel, \u00e1d\u00e1leske\n    Hin r\u00e1t te m\u00e1s shuty\u00e1rdye!\n\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 r\u00e1t\u00e1 te r\u00e1t\u00e1\n    Paltire per \u00e1vn\u00e1,\n    Y\u00e1kh te y\u00e1kh te b\u00e1re y\u00e1kh\n    Sikoves \u00e7\u00e1l te \u00e7\u00e1l\n    Ko k\u00e1mel tut te \u00e7\u00e1l!\"\n\n   \"I give three (drops of) blood\n    To become young and good;\n    Who steals thee to him\n    Shall be (is) blood and flesh dried up!\n\n    When blood and blood\n    Pass into thy belly,\n    Fire and fire and great fire\n    Shall devour and devour all\n    Who will eat thee!\"\n\n\nThis incantation takes us back to grim old heathenism with hints of\nhuman sacrifice. When the thief was suspected or privately detected\nit is probable that a dose of some burning poison made good the\nprediction. \"The word young\" remarks Dr. Wlislocki, \"may be here\nunderstood to mean innocent, since, according to ancient belief, there\nwas a powerful magic virtue in the blood of virgins and of little\nchildren. Every new tent is therefore sprinkled by the gypsies with\na few drops of a child's blood to protect it from magic or any other\naccident.\" So in prehistoric times, and through the Middle Ages, a\nhuman being was often walled up alive in the foundations of a castle\nto insure its durability. (Vide P. Cassel, \"Die Symbolik des Blutes,\"\np. 157.)\n\nWhen the wandering, or tent-gypsies, find that cattle are ill and do\nnot know the nature of the disease, they take two birds--if possible\nquails, called by them bere\u00e7to or f\u00fcryo--one of which is killed, but\nthe other, besprinkled with its blood, is allowed to fly away. With\nwhat remains of the blood they sprinkle some fodder, which is put\nbefore the animal, with the words:--\n\n\n   \"So \u00e1ndre tu mise\u00e7 hin\n            Avri \u00e1v\u00e1!\n    K\u00e1the ker n\u00e1 \u00e1vl\u00e1,\n            Mise\u00e7eske!\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 r\u00e1t\u00e1 n\u00e1 \u00e1vn\u00e1,\n    N\u00e1sv\u00e1lyipen n\u00e1 \u00e1vn\u00e1!\n    Mise\u00e7, tu \u00e1vri \u00e1v\u00e1,\n    Ada ker n\u00e1 l\u00e1ce;\n    D\u00e1v r\u00e1t\u00e1 me k\u00e1the!\"\n\n   \"What in thee is evil\n            Come forth!\n    Here is no home\n            For the evil one!\n    When (drops of) blood come not,\n    Sickness comes not,\n    Thou evil one, come forth!'\n\n   \"Trin p\u00e1rne, trin k\u00e1le,\n    Trin t\u00e7ule p\u00e1shlajen k\u00e1the,\n    Ko len h\u00e1djinel\n    Ac kiv\u00e1 m\u00e1nge!\"\n\n   \"Three white, three black,\n    Three fat lie together here.\n    Whoever disturbs them\n    Remain to me! (Be mine!)\"\n\n\nTo insure pigs thriving by a new owner, some charcoal-dust is mingled\nwith their food and these words spoken:--\n\n\n   \"Nivaseske n\u00e1 muk\u00e1,\n    The \u00e7\u00e1l t're \u00e7\u00e1ben\u00e1!\n    Mise\u00e7 y\u00e1kh\u00e1 tut d\u00edkhen,\n    The yon k\u00e1the mud\u00e1ren,\n    Tu atunci \u00e7\u00e1b\u00e1 len!\"\n\n   \"Do not let the Nivasi\n    Eat thy food,\n    Evil eyes see thee,\n    And they here shall perish,\n    Then do thou eat them!\"\n\n\nAs a particularly powerful conjuration against thieves, the owner\nruns thrice, while quite naked, round the animal or object which he\nwishes to protect, and repeats at every turn:--\n\n\n   \"Oh corey\u00e1 n\u00e1 preji\u00e1.\n    Dureder n\u00e1 \u00e1v\u00e1!\n    T're v\u00e1st\u00e1, t're punr\u00e1\n    Aven\u00e1 kir\u00f1ody\u00e1\n    Te \u00e1d\u00e1 ped\u00e1 l\u00e1ves!\"\n\n   \"Oh, thief, do not go,\n    Further do not come!\n    Thy hands, thy feet\n    Shall decay\n    If thou takest this animal!\"\n\n\nAnother \"thieves' benediction\" is as follows: The owner goes at\nmidnight with the animal or object to be protected to a cross-roads,\nand while letting fall on the ground a few hairs of the beast, or a\nbit of the thing whatever it be, repeats:--\n\n\n     \"Ada hin tute,\n      N\u00e1 \u00e1v\u00e1 p\u00e1l menge,\n      Dav tute, so k\u00e1m\u00e1v;\n      P\u00e7uvusey\u00e1 \u00e1shun\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"This home is not good,\n    Here I give (thee) blood!\"\n\n\n\"The gypsies call the quail the devil's bird (Ciriclo bengeskro),\nand ascribe diabolic properties to it. (Vide Cassel, 6 and 162.) The\ndaughters of the Nivasi appear as quails in the fields by day, but\nduring the night they steal the corn. To keep them away it is held\ngood during sowing-time to place in each of the four corners of the\nfield, parts of a quail, or at least some of the feathers of a black\nhen which has never laid an egg. This superstition is also current\namong the Roumanian peasants of the Siebenb\u00fcrgen.\"\n\nThe primitive meaning of the myth may perhaps be found in the Greek\ntradition which regarded the quail, because it was a bird of passage,\nas a type of revival of spring or of life. Hercules awakes from\nhis swoon when his companion Iolaus (from the Greek ioulos, youth),\nholds a quail to his nose. Hercules suffered from epilepsy, for which\ndisease the ancients thought the brain of a quail was a specific. The\nplacing pieces of a quail, by the gypsies, in the corners of a field\nwhen corn is sown, connects the bird with spring. Artemis, a goddess\nof spring and life, was called by the Romans Ortygyia, from ortyx,\na quail. Therefore, as signifying new life, the quail became itself\na cure for many diseases. And it seems to be like the Wren, also a\nbird of witchcraft and sorcery, or a kind of witch itself. It is a\nprotector, because, owing to its pugnacity, it was a type of pluck,\nbattle and victory. In Phoenicia it was sacrificed to Hercules, and\nthe Romans were so fanatical in regard to it that Augustus punished\na city-father for serving upon his table a quail which had become\ncelebrated for its prowess. And so it has become a devil's bird among\nthe gypsies because in the old time it was regarded as a devil of a\nbird for fighting.\n\nThe gypsies are hardly to be regarded as Christians, but when they\nwish to contend against the powers of darkness they occasionally\ninvoke Christian influences. If a cow gives bloody milk it is thought\nto be caused by her eating Wachtelkraut, or quail weed, which is a\npoison. In such a case they sprinkle the milk on a field frequented\nby quails and repeat:--\n\n\n   \"Dav r\u00e1t\u00e1 tumenge\n    Ad\u00e1 n\u00e1 hin l\u00e1ce!\n    R\u00e1yeskro Kristeskro r\u00e1t\u00e1\n    Ad\u00e1 hin m\u00e1y l\u00e1ce\n    Ad\u00e1 hin \u00e1menge!\"\n\n   \"I give to you blood,\n    Which is not good!\n    The Lord Christ's blood\n    Is truly good,\n    That is ours!\"\n\n\nIf a cow makes water while being milked, she is bewitched, and\nit is well in such a case to catch some of the urine, mix it with\nonion-peelings and the egg of a black hen. This is boiled and mixed\nwith the cow's food while these lines are repeated:--\n\n\n   \"Ko \u00e1ndr\u00e9 hin, avri\u00e1v\u00e1,\n    Trin Urma cing\u00e1rden les,\n    Trin Urma tr\u00e1den les\n    Andre y\u00e1ndengr\u00e9 ker\n    Beshel yov \u00e1ndre ker\n    Hin leske m\u00e1y yakh\u00e1,\n    Hin leske m\u00e1y p\u00e1\u00f1a!\"\n\n   \"Who is within, let him come out!\n    Three Urme call him,\n    Three Urme drive him\n    Into the egg-shell house,\n    There he lives in the house;\n    He has much fire,\n    He has much water!\"\n\n\nThen half the shell of the egg of the black hen is thrown into a\nrunning stream and the other half into a fire.\n\nNext to the Nivasi and P\u00e7uvuse, or spirits of earth and air, and human\nsorcerers or witches, the being who is most dreaded as injuring cattle\nis the Chagrin or Cagrino. These demons have the form of a hedgehog,\nare of yellowish colour, and are half a yard in length, and a span\nin breadth. \"I am certain,\" says Wlislocki, \"that this creature\nis none other than the equally demoniac being called Harginn, still\nbelieved in by the inhabitants of North-western India. (Vide Liebrecht,\np. 112, and Leitner, 'Results of a Tour in Dardistan Kashmir,' &c.,\nvol. i. p. 13.) The exact identity of the description of the two, as\nwell as that of the name, prove that the gypsies brought the belief\nfrom their Indian home.\" It may here be observed that the Indian name\nis Harginn, and the true gypsy word is pronounced very nearly like\n'H\u00e1grin--the o being an arbitrary addition. The transposition of\nletters in a word is extremely common among the Hindu gypsies. The\nChagrin specially torments horses, by sitting on their backs and\nmaking water on their bodies. The next day they appear to be weary,\nsad, sick, and weak, bathed in sweat, with their manes tangled. When\nthis is seen the following ceremony is resorted to: The horse is\ntied to a stake which has been rubbed with garlic juice, then a red\nthread is laid in the form of a cross on the ground, but so far from\nthe heels of the horse that he cannot disturb it. And while laying\nit down the performer sings:--\n\n\n   \"S\u00e1ve mise\u00e7 ac k\u00e1the,\n    \u00c1c \u00e1ndre lunge t\u00e1ve,\n    Andre leg p\u00e1shader p\u00e1\u00f1i.\n\n    De tu tire p\u00e1\u00f1i\n    Andre \u00e7uca Ch\u00e1ri\u00f1ey\u00e1,\n    Andre tu sik mud\u00e1r\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"All evil stay here,\n    Stay in the long thread,\n    In the next brook (water).\n    Give thy water,\n    Jump in Chagrin!\n    Therein perish quickly!\"\n\n\nOf the widely-spread and ancient belief in the magic virtues of garlic\nand red wool I have elsewhere spoken. That witches and goblins or\nimps ride horses by night and then restore them in the morning to\ntheir stalls in a wretched condition--trembling, enfeebled, and with\ntangled manes--is believed all the world over, and it would probably\nbe found that the Chagrin also gallops them.\n\nAnother charm against this being consists of taking some of the hair\nof the animal, a little salt, and the blood of a bat, which is all\nmixed with meal and cooked to a bread. With this the foot of the horse\nis smeared, and then the empty pipkin is put into the trunk of a high\ntree while these words are uttered:--\n\n\n   \"Ac tu cin kathe,\n    Cin \u00e1d\u00e1 t\u00e7utes \u00e1vl\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Stay so long here,\n    Till it shall be full!\"\n\n\nThe blood of the bat may be derived from an Oriental belief that\nthe bat being the most perfect of birds, because it has breasts\nand suckles its young, it is specially adapted to magical uses. In\nthe Tyrol he who bears the left eye of a bat may become invisible,\nand in Hesse he who wears the heart of a bat bound to his arm with\nred thread will always win at cards. The manes of the horses which\nhave been tangled and twisted by the Chagrin must not be cut off or\ndisentangled unless these words are spoken:--\n\n\n   \"Cin tu jid', cin \u00e1d\u00e1 b\u00e1l\u00e1 jiden.\"\n\n   \"So long live thou, long as these hairs shall live.\"\n\n\nIt is an European belief that knots of hair made by witches must not\nbe disentangled. The belief that such knots are made intentionally\nby some intelligence is very natural. I have often been surprised to\nfind how frequently knots form themselves in the cord of my eye-glass,\neven when pains are taken at night to lay it down so as to be free of\nthem. Apropos of which I may mention that this teasing personality\nof the eye-glass and cord seems to have been noted by others. I was\nonce travelling on the Nile in company with a Persian prince, who\nbecame convinced that his eye-glass was very unlucky, and therefore\nthrew it into the river.\n\nThe Chagrin specially torments mares which have recently foaled;\ntherefore it is held needful, soon after the birth, to put into the\nwater which the mother drinks glowing hot coals, which are thrice taken\nfrom the fire. With these are included pieces of iron, such as nails,\nknives, &c., and the following words are solemnly murmured:--\n\n\n   \"Piy\u00e1 tu te \u00f1a ac sovnibnast\u00e1r!\"\n\n   \"Drink, and do not be sleepy!\"\n\n\nMany readers may here observe that charcoal and iron form a real tonic,\nor very practical strengthening dose for the enfeebled mare. But here,\nas in many cases medicine makes a cure and the devil or the doctor\ngets the credit. The Chagrin is supposed to attack horses only while\nthey are asleep. Its urine often causes swellings or sores. These\nare covered by day with a patch of red cloth, which is stuck at night\ninto a hole in a tree, which is closed with a cork, while these words\nare pronounced:--\n\n\n   \"Ac tu k\u00e1the\n    Cin \u00e1ul\u00e1 t\u00e1v ped\u00e1\n    Cin ped\u00e1 yek ruk\n    Cin ruk yek m\u00e1nush\n    Ko mudarel tut.\"\n\n   \"Remain thou here\n    Till the rag become an animal,\n    Till the animal, a tree,\n    Till the tree, a man,\n    Who will destroy thee!\"\n\n\nDr. Wlislocki suggests that \"the idea of the tree's becoming a man,\nis derived from the old gypsy belief that the first human beings\nwere made from the leaves of trees,\" and refers to what he has\nelsewhere written on a tradition of the creation of the world, as\nheld by Transylvanian gypsies. The following is a children's song,\nin which the belief may be traced:--\n\n\n   \"Amaro d\u00e1d j\u00e1l \u00e1ndro bes\n    Cingerel odoy caves,\n    Del d\u00e1y\u00e1kri andre p\u00e1d\u00e1\n    Yek cavoro \u00e1d\u00e1 \u00e1vla.\"\n\n   \"Our father went into a wood,\n    There he cut a boy,\n    Laid it in mother's bed,\n    So a boy comes.\"\n\n\nThe Greeks believed that man was made from an ash-tree, and the\nNorsemen probably derived it from the same source with them. In\n1862 I published in The Continental Magazine (New York) a paper on\nthe lore connected with the ash, in which effort was made to show\nthat in early times in India the Banyan was specially worshipped,\nand that the descendants of men familiar with this cult had, after\nmigrating to the Far West, transferred the worship and traditions\nof the banyan to the ash. It has been observed that the ash-tree\nsometimes--like the banyan--sends its shoots down to the ground,\nwhere they take root. The Algonkin Indians seem to have taken this\nbelief of man's origin from the ash from the Norsemen, as a very\nlarge proportion of their myths correspond closely to those of the\nEdda. But, in brief, if the Greeks and Norsemen were of Aryan origin,\nand had ever had a language in common, they probably had common myths.\n\nThe following is the remedy for the so-called W\u00fcrmer, or worms, i.e.,\nexternal sores. Before sunrise wolf's milk (Wolfsmilch, rukeskro t\u00e7ud)\nis collected, mixed with salt, garlic, and water, put into a pot,\nand boiled down to a brew. With a part of this the afflicted spot is\nrubbed, the rest is thrown into a brook, with the words:--\n\n\n   \"Kirmora j\u00e1nen \u00e1ndre t\u00e7ud\n    Andr\u00e1l t\u00e7ud, andr\u00e9 sir\n    Andr\u00e1l sir, andr\u00e9 p\u00e1\u00f1i,\n    Panens\u00e1 kiy\u00e1 d\u00e1deske,\n    Kiy\u00e1 Niv\u00e1seske\n    P\u00e7\u00e1ndel tumen sheleh\u00e1\n    E\u00f1\u00e1v\u00e1rdesh te\u00f1\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Worms go in the milk,\n    From the milk into the garlic,\n    From the garlic into the water,\n    With the water to (your) father,\n    To the Nivasi,\n    He shall bind you with a rope,\n    Ninety-nine (yards long).\"\n\n\nA common cure of worms in swine among the Transylvanian tent-gypsies\nis to stand ere the sun rises before a \u00e7adcerli, or nettle, and while\npouring on it the urine of the animal to be cured, repeat:--\n\n\n   \"L\u00e1ce, l\u00e1ce deteh\u00e1r\u00e1!\n    Hin m\u00e1nge m\u00e1y bute tr\u00e1sha\n    Kirmora hin [b\u00e1leceske],\n    Te me pen\u00e1v, pen\u00e1v tute!\n    K\u00e1les hin yon, loles, p\u00e1rnes,\n    Deisisl\u00e1 hin yon mul\u00e1nes!\"\n\n   \"Good, good morrow!\n    I have much sorrow.\n    Worms are in [my swine to-day]\n    And I say, to you I say,\n    Black are they or white or red\n    By to-morrow be they dead!\"\n\n\nThe nettle has its own peculiar associations. According to the gypsies\nit grows chiefly in places where there is a subterranean passage\nto the dwellings of the P\u00e7uvus, or Earth-fairies, therefore it is\nconsecrated to them and called K\u00e1sta P\u00e7uvasengr\u00e9, Pcuvus-wood. Hence\nthe gypsy children while gathering nettles for pigs sing:--\n\n\n   \"C\u00e1dcerli n\u00e1 p\u00e7\u00e1buv\u00e1!\n    Andr\u00e9 ker me n\u00e1 ji\u00e1v,\n    Kiy\u00e1 P\u00e7uvus n\u00e1 ji\u00e1v,\n    Tr\u00e1den, tr\u00e1den kirmor\u00e1!\"\n\n   \"Nettle, nettle do not burn,\n    In your house no one shall go,\n    No one to the Pcuvus goes,\n    Drive, drive away the worms!\"\n\n\n\"The nettle,\" says Friedrich (\"Symbolik der Natur,\" p. 324), \"because\nit causes a burning pain is among the Hindoos a demoniac symbol, for,\nas they say, the great serpent poured out its poison on it. But as evil\nis an antidote for evil, the nettle held in the hand is a guard against\nghosts, and it is good for beer when laid upon the barrel.\" \"From its\nemployment as an aphrodisiac, and its use in flagellation to restore\nsexual power, it is regarded as sacred to Nature by the followers of a\nsecret sect or society still existing in several countries, especially\nPersia\" (MS. account of certain Secret Societies). The gypsies believe\nthat the Earth-fairies are the foes of every kind of worm and creeping\ninsect with the exception of the snail, which they therefore call\nthe \"gr\u00e1y P\u00e7uvusengr\u00e9,\" the P\u00e7uvus-horse. Gry-puvusengree would\nin English gypsy mean the earthy-horse. English gypsies, and the\nEnglish peasantry, as well as gypsies, call snails \"cattle, because\nthey have horns.\" Snails are a type of voluptuousness, because they\nare hermaphrodite, and exceedingly giving to sexual indulgence, so\nthat as many as half a dozen may be found mutually giving and taking\npleasure. Hence in German Schnecke, a snail, is a term applied to\nthe pudendum muliebre. And as anything significant of fertility,\ngeneration, and sexual enjoyment was supposed to constitute a charm\nor amulet against witchcraft, i.e., all evil influences, which are\nallied to sterility, chastity, and barrenness, a snail's shell forms\na powerful fetish for a true believer. The reference to white, black,\nor red in the foregoing charm, or rather the one before it, refers,\nsays Dr. Wlislocki, to the gypsy belief that there are white, black,\nand red Earth-fairies. A girl can win (illicit) love from a man by\ninducing him to carry a snail shell which she has had for some time\nabout her person. To present a snail shell is to make a very direct\nbut not very delicate declaration of love to any one. I have heard\nof a lady who caused an intense excitement in a village by collecting\nabout a hundred large snails, gilding their shells, and then turning\nthem loose in several gardens, where their discovery excited, as may\nbe supposed, great excitement among the finders.\n\nIf pigs lose their appetites a brew is made of milk, charcoal dust,\nand their own dung, which is put before them with the words: \"Friss\nHexe und verreck!\"\n\n\"In this place I must remark that the Transylvanian tent-gypsies use\nfor grumus merdoe also the expression Hirte (feris)\" (Wlislocki). To\ncure a cough in animals one should take from the hoofs of the first\nriding horse, dirt or dust, and put it into the mouth of the suffering\nanimal with the words:--\n\n\n   \"Preji\u00e1l te n\u00e1\u00f1i yov \u00e1vel!\"\n\n   \"May he go away and never return!\"\n\n\nTo have a horse always in good spirits and lively during the waning\nmoon his spine is rubbed with garlic, while these words are uttered:--\n\n\n   \"Mise\u00e7 \u00e1ndre tut,\n    O beng the \u00e7al but!\n    Laces \u00e1ndre tut\n    Acel \u00e1ndre tut!\"\n\n   \"(What is) evil in thee,\n    May the devil eat it much!\n    (What is) good in thee,\n    May it remain in thee!\"\n\n\nBut it is far more effective when the garlic is put on a rag of the\nclothes of one who has been hanged, and the place rubbed with it: in\nwhich we have a remnant of the earliest witchcraft, before Shamanism,\nwhich had recourse to the vilest and most vulgar methods of exciting\nawe and belief. This is in all probability the earliest form in which\nmagic, or the power of controlling invisible or supernatural influences\nmanifested itself, and it is very interesting to observe that it still\nsurvives, and that the world still presents every phase of its faiths,\nab initio.\n\nThere is a very curious belief or principle attached to the use of\nsongs in conjuring witches, or in averting their own sorcery. It\nis that the witch is obliged, willy nilly, to listen to the end\nto what is in metre, an idea founded on the attraction of melody,\nwhich is much stronger among savages and children than with civilized\nadults. Nearly allied to this is the belief that if the witch sees\ninterlaced or bewildering and confused patterns she must follow them\nout, and by means of this her thoughts are diverted or scattered. Hence\nthe serpentine inscriptions of the Norsemen and their intertwining\nbands which were firmly believed to bring good luck or avert evil\ninfluence. A traveller in Persia states that the patterns of the\ncarpets of that country are made as bewildering as possible \"to avert\nthe evil eye.\" And it is with this purpose that in Italian, as in\nall other witchcraft, so many spells and charms depend on interwoven\nbraided cords.\n\n\n   \"Twist ye, twine ye, even so,\n    Mingle threads of joy and woe.\"\n\n\nThe basis for this belief is the fascination, or instinct, which\nmany persons, especially children, feel to trace out patterns, to\nthread the mazes of labyrinths or to analyze and disentangle knots and\n\"cat's cradles.\" Did space permit, nor inclination fail, I could point\nout some curious proofs that the old belief in the power of long and\ncurling hair to fascinate was derived not only from its beauty but\nalso because of the magic of its curves and entanglements.\n\nThe gypsies believe that the Earth-spirits are specially interested\nin animals. They also teach women the secrets of medicine and\nsorcery. There are indications of this in the negro magic. Miss\nMary Owen, an accomplished Folk-lorist of St. Joseph, Missouri, who\nhas been deeply instructed in Voodooism, informs me that a woman to\nbecome a witch must go by night into a field and pull up a weed by\nthe roots. From the quantity of soil which clings to it, is inferred\nthe degree of magic power which the pupil will attain. I am not\nastonished to learn that when this lady was initiated, the amount\nof earth collected was unusually great. In such cases the Pchuvus\n(or Poovus in English gypsy), indicate their good-will by bestowing\n\"earth,\" which, from meaning luck or good-fortune, has passed in\npopular parlance to signifying money.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nOF PREGNANCY AND CHARMS, OR FOLK-LORE CONNECTED WITH IT--BOARS'\nTEETH AND CHARMS FOR PREVENTING THE FLOW OF BLOOD.\n\n\nLike all Orientals the gypsy desires intensely to have a\nfamily. Superstition comes in to increase the wish, for a barren woman\nin Eastern Europe is generally suspected of having had intercourse with\na vampire or spirit before her marriage, and she who has done this,\nwillingly or unconsciously, never has children. They have recourse\nto many magic medicines or means to promote conception; one of the\nmost harmless in Hungary is to eat grass from the grave in which a\nwoman with child has been buried. While doing this the woman repeats:--\n\n\n   \"Dui rik\u00e1 hin mire minc,\n    Dui yar\u00e1 hin leskro kor,\n    Avn\u00e1s dui yek jelo,\n    Keren \u00e1k\u00e1na yek jeles.\"\n\n\nOr else the woman drinks the water in which the husband has cast hot\ncoals, or, better still, has spit, saying:--\n\n\n   \"K\u00e1y me y\u00e1kh som\n    Ac tu \u00e1ng\u00e1r,\n    K\u00e1y me brishind som,\n    Ac tu pani!\"\n\n   \"Where I am flame\n    Be thou the coals!\n    Where I am rain\n    Be thou the water!\"\n\n\nOr at times the husband takes an egg, makes a small hole at each end,\nand then blows the yolk and white into the mouth of his wife who\nswallows them.\n\nThere are innumerable ways and means to ensure pregnancy, some of which\nare very dangerous. Faith in the so-called \"artificial propagation\" is\nextensively spread. \"Will der Zigeuner einen Sohn erzielen, so g\u00fcrtet\ner sich mit dem Halfterzaume eines m\u00e4nnlichen Pferdes und umgekehrt\nmit dem einer Stute, will er eine Tochter erzeugen.\" (\"Gebr\u00e4uche\nd. Trans. Zig.\" Dr. H. von Wlislocki. \"Ill. Zeitschrift. Band,\"\n51. No. 16.)\n\nIf a gypsy woman in Transylvania wishes to know whether she be with\nchild, she must stand for nine evenings at a cross-road with an\naxe or hammer, which she must wet with her own water, and then bury\nthere. Should it be dug up on the ninth morning after, and found rusty,\nit is a sign that she is \"in blessed circumstances.\"\n\nTo bring on the menses a gypsy woman must, while roses are in bloom,\nwash herself all over with rose-water, and then pour the water over\na rose-bush. Or she takes an egg, pours its contents into a jug, and\nmakes water on it. If the egg swims the next morning on the surface\nshe is enceinte; if the yolk is separate from the white she will bear\na son, if they are mingled a daughter. In Tuscany women wishing for\nchildren go to a priest, get a blessed apple and pronounce over it an\nincantation to Santa Anna, which was probably addressed in Roman days\nto Lucina, who was very probably, according to the Romagna dialect,\nlu S'anna--Santa Anna herself. I have several old Roman spells from\nMarcellus, which still exist word for word in Italian, but fitted to\nmodern usage in this manner like old windows to new houses.\n\nShould a woman eat fish while pregnant the child will be slow in\nlearning to speak, but if she feed on snails it will be slow in\nlearning to walk. The proverbs, \"Dumb as a fish,\" and \"Slow as a\nsnail,\" appear here.\n\nTo protect a child against the evil eye it is hung with amulets,\ngenerally with shells (die eine Aehnlichkeit mit der weiblichen\nScham haben). And these must be observed on all occasions, and\nfor everything, ceremonies, of which there are literally hundreds,\nshowing that gypsies, notwithstanding their supposed freedom from\nconventionalisms, are, like all superstitious people, harassed and\nvexed to a degree which would seem incredible to educated Europeans,\nwith observances and rites of the most ridiculous and vexatious\nnature. The shells alluded to are, however, of great interest,\nas they indicate the transmission of the old belief that symbols\ntypical of generation, pleasure, and reproductiveness, are repugnant\nto witchcraft which is allied to barrenness, destruction, negation,\nand every kind of pain and sterility.\n\nHence a necklace of shells, especially cowries or snail shells,\nor the brilliant and pretty conchiglie found in such abundance near\nVenice, are regarded as protecting animals or children from the evil\neye, and facilitating love, luxury, and productiveness. I have read\nan article in which a learned writer rejects with indignation the\n\"prurient idea\" that the cowrie, which gave its name porcellana to\nporcelain, derived it from porcella, in sensu obsceno; porcella being\na Roman word not only for pig but for the female organ. But every\ndonkey-boy in Cairo could have told him that the cowrie is used in\nstrings on asses as on children because the shell has the likeness\nwhich the writer to whom I refer rejects with indignation. The pig,\nas is well known, is a common amulet, the origin thereof being that\nit is extremely prolific. It has within a few years been very much\nrevived in silver as a charm for ladies, and may be found in most\nshops where ornaments for watch-chains are sold. The boar's tooth,\nas I have before mentioned, has been since time immemorial a charm; I\nhave found them attached to chatelaines and bunches of keys, especially\nin Austria, from one to four or five centuries past. They are found\nin prehistoric graves. The tusk is properly a male emblem; a pig is\nsometimes placed on the base. These are still very commonly made and\nsold. I saw one worn by the son of a travelling basket-maker, who spoke\nRomany, and I purchased several in Vienna (1888), also in Copenhagen\nin 1889. In Florence very large boars' tusks are set as brooches, and\nmay be found generally in the smaller jewellers' shops and on the Ponte\nVecchio. They are regarded as protective against malocchio--a general\nterm for evil influences--especially for women during pregnancy, and\nas securing plenty, i.e., prosperity and increase, be it of worldly\ngoods, honour, or prosperity. There is in the museum at Budapest\na boar's tusk, mounted or set as an amulet, which is apparently of\nCeltic origin, and which certainly belongs to the migration of races,\nor a very early period. And it is in this eastern portion of Europe\nthat it is still most generally worn as a charm.\n\nIn connection with pregnancy and childbirth there is the profluvium,\nexcessive flow of blood, or menses or hemorrhages, for which there\nexist many charms, not only among gypsies but all races. This includes\nthe stopping any bleeding--an art in which Scott's Lady of Deloraine\nwas an expert, and which many practised within a century.\n\n\n   \"Tom Potts was but a serving man,\n      And yet he was a doctor good,\n    He bound a handkerchief on the wound,\n      And with some kind of words he staunched the blood.\"\n\n\nWhat these same kind of words were among old Germans and Romans may\nbe learned from the following: Jacob Grimm had long been familiar\nwith a German magic spell of the eleventh century--ad stringendum\nsanguinem, or stopping bleeding--but, as he says, \"noch nicht zu\ndeuten vermochte,\" could not explain them. They were as follows:--\n\n\n   \"Tumbo saz in berke,\n    Mit tumbemo kinde in arme,\n    Tumb hiez der berc\n    Tumb hiez daz kint,\n    Der heiligo Tumbo\n    Versegne dise wunta.\"\n\n   \"Tumbo (i.e., dumm or stupid) sat in the hill\n    With a stupid child in arms,\n    Dumb (stupid) the hill was called\n    Dumb was called the child,\n    The holy Tumbo (or dumb).\n    Heal (bless) this wound!\"\n\n\nSome years after he found the following among the magic formulas of\nMarcellus Burdigalensis:--\n\n\n   \"Carmen utile profluvio mulieri:--\n\n       \"Stupidus in monte ibat,\n        Stupidus stupuit,\n        Adjuro te matrix\n        Ne hoc iracunda suscipias.\n\n   \"Pari ratione scriptum ligabis.\"\n\n\nI.e.: \"A song useful for a flow of blood in woman:--\n\n\n   \"The stupid man went into the mountain,\n    The stupid man was amazed;\n    I adjure thee, oh womb,\n    Be not angry!\"\n\n\n\"Which shall also be bound as a writing,\" i.e., according to a\nprevious direction that it shall be written on virgin parchment,\nand bound with a linen cord about the waist of him or of her--qu\u00e6\npatietur de qualibet parte corporis sanguinis fluxum--who suffers\nanywhere from flow of blood.\n\nIt is possible that the Stupidus and his blessing of women has here\nsome remotely derived reference to the reverence amounting to worship\nof idiots in the East, who are described as being surrounded in some\nparts of India by matrons seeking for their touch and benediction,\nand soliciting their embraces. This is effected very often in an\nalmost public manner; that is to say, by a crowd of women closely\nsurrounding the couple, i.e., the idiot or lunatic and one of their\nnumber are joined, so that passers-by cannot see what is going on. The\nchildren born of these casual matches are not unusually themselves\nof weak mind, but are considered all the more holy. This recalls the\nallusion in the charm:--\n\n\n   \"Stupid sat in the hill\n    With a stupid child in arms.\"\n\n\nThis obscure myth of the stupid god appears to be very ancient.\n\n\n   \"This Tritas is called intelligent. How then does he appear\n    sometimes stupid? The language itself supplies the explanation. In\n    Sanskrit b\u00e2las means both child and stolid, and the third\n    brother is supposed to be stolid because, at his first appearance\n    especially, he is a child. (Tritas is one of the three brothers\n    or gods, i.e., the trinity).\" (\"Zoological Mythology,\" by Angelo\n    de Gubernatis, 1872).\n\n\nI am indebted to the as yet unpublished collection of Gypsyana made\nby Prof. Anton Herrmann for the following:--\n\nThere is a superstition among our gypsies that if the shadow of a cross\non a grave falls on a woman with child she will have a miscarriage, and\nthis seems to be peculiarly appropriate to girls who have \"anticipated\nthe privileges of matrimony.\" The following rhyme seems to describe\nthe hesitation of a girl who has gone to a cross to produce the result\nalluded to, but who is withheld by love for her unborn infant:--\n\n\n   \"Cigno trussul pal handako\n    Hin ada usalinako;\n    The ziav me pro usalin,\n    Ajt' mange lasavo na kin.\n\n    Sar e praytin kad' chasarel,\n    Save sile barval marel,\n    Pal basavo te prasape,\n    Mre cajori mojd kamale.\"\n\n   \"Cross upon a grave so small\n    Here I see thy shadow fall,\n    If it fall on me they say\n    All my shame will pass away.\n\n    As the autumn leaf is blown,\n    By the wind to die alone,\n    Yet in shame and misery,\n    My baby will be dear to me!\"\n\n\nThere is a belief allied to this of the power of the dead in graves\nto work wonders, to the effect that if any one plucks a rose from a\ngrave, he or she will soon die. In the following song a gypsy picks\na rose from the grave of the one he loved, hoping that it will cause\nhis death:--\n\n\n   \"Cignoro hrobosa\n    Hin sukares rosa\n    Mange la pchagavas,\n    Doi me na kamavas.\n\n    Bes'las piranake,\n    Hrobas hin joy mange,\n    Pchgavas, choc zanav\n    Pal lele avava\n    Te me ne brinzinav.\n    The me pocivinav.\"\n\n   \"On her little tomb there grows\n    By itself a lovely rose,\n    All alone the rose I break,\n    And I do it for her sake.\n\n    I sat by her I held so dear,\n    Now her grave and mine are near,\n    I break the rose because I know\n    That to her I soon must go,\n    Grief cannot my spirit stir,\n    Since I know I go to her!\"\n\n\nM. Kounavine (contribution by Dr. A. Elysseeff, Gypsy-Lore Journal,\nJuly, 1890), gives the following as a Russian gypsy spell against\nbarrenness:--\n\n\n   \"Laki, thou destroyest and dost make everything on earth; thou\n    canst see nothing old, for death lives in thee, thou givest birth\n    to all upon the earth for thou thyself art life. By thy might\n    cause me ---- to bear good fruit, I who am deprived of the joy\n    of motherhood, and barren as a rock.\"\n\n\nAccording to Dr. Elysseeff, Laki is related to the Indian goddess\nLakshmi, although differing from her in character. Another incantation\nof the same nature is as follows:--\n\n\n   \"Thou art the mother of every living creature and the distributor\n    of good: thou doest according to thy wisdom in destroying what is\n    useless or what has lived its destined time; by thy wisdom thou\n    makest the earth to regenerate all that is new.... Thou dost\n    not seek the death of any one, for thou art the benefactress\n    of mankind.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE RECOVERY OF STOLEN PROPERTY--LOVE-CHARMS--SHOES AND LOVE-POTIONS,\nOR PHILTRES.\n\n\nWhen a man has lost anything, or been robbed, he often has in his\nown mind, quite unconsciously, some suspicion or clue to it. A clever\nfortune-teller or gypsy who has made a life-long study of such clues,\ncan often elicit from the loser, hints which enable the magician to\nsurmise the truth. Many people place absolute confidence in their\nservants, and perhaps suspect nobody. The detective or gypsy has no\nsuch faith in man, and suspects everybody. Where positive knowledge\ncannot be established there is, however, another resource. The thief\nis often as superstitious as his victim. Hence he fears that some\nmysterious curse may be laid on him, which he cannot escape. In\nthe Pacific Islands, as among negroes everywhere, a man will die if\ntaboo or voodoo attaches to the taking of objects which have been\nconsecrated by a certain formula. Therefore such formulas are commonly\nemployed. Among the Hungarian gypsies to recover a stolen animal,\nsome of its dung is taken and thrown to the East and the West with\nthe words:--\n\n\n   \"Kay tut o kam dikhel:\n    Odoy \u00e1v\u00e1 kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge!\"\n\n   \"Where the sun sees thee,\n    Hence return to me!\"\n\n\nBut when a horse has been stolen, they take what is left of his\nharness, bury it in the earth and make a fire over it, saying:--\n\n\n   \"K\u00f3 tut cordy\u00e1s\n    Nasvales th' \u00e1vl\u00e1s\n    Leske sor n\u00e1 \u00e1vl\u00e1s,\n    Tu n\u00e1 ac kiy\u00e1 leske\n    Av\u00e1 s\u00e1stes kiy\u00e1 m\u00e1nge!\n    Leskro sor k\u00e1the pashlyol\n    S\u00e1r e t\u00e7uv avriur\u00e1l!\"\n\n   \"Who stole thee\n    Sick may he be\n    May his strength depart!\n    Do not thou remain by him,\n    Come (back) sound to me,\n    His strength lies here\n    As the smoke goes away!\"\n\n\nTo know in which direction the stolen thing lies, they carry a sucking\nbabe to a stream, hold it over the water and say:--\n\n\n   \"Pen m\u00e1nge, oh Nivaseya\n    Caveskro v\u00e1steh\u00e1\n    Kay hin m'ro gr\u00e1y,\n    Ujes hin cavo,\n    Ujes s\u00e1r o kam\n    Ujes s\u00e1r p\u00e1ni\n    Ujes s\u00e1r cumut\n    Ujes s\u00e1r legujes?\n    Pen m\u00e1nge, oh Niv\u00e1sey\u00e1,\n    C\u00e1veskro vasteh\u00e1\n    Kay hin m'ro gr\u00e1y!\"\n\n   \"Tell me, oh Nivaseha,\n    By the child's hand!\n    Where is my horse?\n    Pure is the child\n    Pure as the sun,\n    Pure as water,\n    Pure as the moon,\n    Pure as the purest.\n    Tell me, oh Nivaseha,\n    By the child's hand!\n    Where is my horse?\"\n\n\nIn this we have an illustration of the widely spread belief that an\ninnocent child is a powerful agent in prophecy and sorcery. The oath\n\"by the hand\" is still in vogue among all gypsies. \"Apo miro dadeskro\nvast!\" (\"By my father's hand!\") is one of their greatest oaths in\nGermany, (\"Die Zigeuner,\" von Richard Liebich), and I have met with\nan old gypsy in England who knew it.\n\nIf a man who is seeking for stolen goods finds willow twigs grown\ninto a knot, he ties it up and says:--\n\n\n   \"Me avri p\u00e7\u00e1nd\u00e1v coreskro b\u00e1\u00e7ht!\"\n\n   \"I tie up the thief's luck!\"\n\n\nThere is also a belief among the gypsies that these knots are twined\nby the fairies, and that whoever undoes them undoes his own luck,\nor that of the person on whom he is thinking. (Vide Rocholz,\n\"Alemannisches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel aus der Schweiz,\"\np. 146). These willow-knots are much used in love-charms. To win\nthe love of a maid, a man cuts one of them, puts it into his mouth,\nand says:--\n\n\n   \"T're b\u00e1\u00e7t me \u00e7\u00e1v,\n    T're ba\u00e7t me piy\u00e1v,\n    D\u00e1v tute m're ba\u00e7t,\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 tu m\u00e1nge s\u00e1l.\"\n\n   \"I eat thy luck,\n    I drink thy luck;\n    Give me that luck of thine,\n    Then thou shalt be mine.\"\n\n\nThen the lover, if he can, secretly hides this knot in the bed of\nthe wished-for bride. It is worth noting that these lines are so much\nlike English Gypsy as it was once spoken that there are still men who\nwould, in England, understand every word of it. Somewhat allied to\nthis is another charm. The lover takes a blade of grass in his mouth,\nand turning to the East and the West, says:--\n\n\n   \"Kay o k\u00e1m, avri\u00e1vel,\n    Kiya m\u00e1nge lele beshel!\n    Kay o k\u00e1m tel' \u00e1vel,\n    Kiya lel\u00e1kri me beshav.\"\n\n   \"Where the sun goes up\n    Shall my love be by me!\n    Where the sun goes down\n    There by her I'll be.\"\n\n\nThen the blade of grass is cut up into pieces and mingled with\nsome food which the girl must eat, and if she swallow the least bit\nof the grass, she will be gewogen und treugesinnt--moved to love,\nand true-hearted. On which Dr. Wlislocki remarks on the old custom\n\"also known to the Hindoos,\" by which any one wishing to deprecate\nthe wrath of another, or to express complete subjection, takes a\nblade of grass in his mouth. Of which Grimm writes: \"This custom\nmay have sprung from the idea that the one conquered gave himself\nup like a domestic animal to the absolute power of another. And with\nthis appears to be connected the ancient custom of holding out grass\nas a sign of surrender. The conquered man took the blade of grass in\nhis mouth and then transferred it to his conqueror.\"\n\nIf a gypsy girl be in love she finds the foot-print of her \"object,\"\ndigs out the earth which is within its outline and buries this under\na willow-tree, saying:--\n\n\n   \"Upro p\u00e7uv hin but p\u00e7uv\u00e1;\n    K\u00e1s k\u00e1m\u00e1v, mange th' \u00e1vl\u00e1!\n    B\u00e1rvol, b\u00e1rvol, s\u00e1lciye,\n    Brig\u00e1 n\u00e1 hin m\u00e1nge!\n    Yov tover, me pori,\n    Yov kokosh, me c\u00e1tr\u00e1,\n    \u00c1d\u00e1, \u00e1d\u00e1 me kamav!\"\n\n   \"Many earths on earth there be,\n    Whom I love my own shall be,\n    Grow, grow willow tree!\n    Sorrow none unto me!\n    He the axe, I the helve,\n    He the cock, I the hen,\n    This, this (be as) I will!\"\n\n\nAnother love-charm which belongs to ancient black witchcraft, and is\nknown far and wide, is the following: When dogs are coupling (Wenn Hund\nund H\u00fcndin bei der Paarung zusammenh\u00e4ngen) the lover suddenly covers\nthem with a cloth, if possible, one which is afterwards presented to\nthe girl whom he seeks, while he says:--\n\n\n   \"Me jiuklo, yoy jiukli,\n    Yoy tover, me pori,\n    Me kokosh, yoy c\u00e1tr\u00e1,\n    \u00c1d\u00e1, \u00e1d\u00e1 me kam\u00e1v!\"\n\n   \"I the dog, she the bitch,\n    I the helve, she the axe,\n    I the cock (and) she the hen,\n    That, that I desire.\"\n\n\nHe or she who finds a red ribbon, tape, or even a piece of red stuff\nof any kind, especially if it be wool, will have luck in love. It\nmust be picked up and carried as an amulet, and when raising it from\nthe ground the finder must make a wish for the love of some person,\nor if he have no particular desire for any one, he may wish for luck\nin love, or a sweetheart. This is, I believe, pretty generally known\nin some form all over the world. A yellow ribbon or flower, especially\nif it be floating on water, presages gold; a white object, silver,\nor peace or reconciliation with enemies.\n\nIt is also lucky for love to find a key. In Tuscany there is a special\nformula which must be spoken while picking it up. Very old keys are\nvaluable amulets. Those who carry them will learn secrets, penetrate\nmysteries, and succeed in what they undertake.\n\nIf you can get a shoe which a girl has worn you may make sad havoc\nwith her heart if you carry it near your own. Also hang it up over\nyour bed and put into it the leaves of rue.\n\nDuring November, 1889, not a few newspaper commentators busied\nthemselves with conjectures as to why a Scotch constable buried the\nboots of a murdered man. That it was done through some superstitious\nbelief is conceded; but what the fashion of the superstition is\nseems unknown. It originated, beyond question, in the old Norse\ncustom of always burying the dead in their shoes or with them. For\nthey believed that the deceased would have, when he arrived in the\nother world, to traverse broad and burning plains before he could\nreach his destination, be it Valhalla or the dreary home of Hel;\nand to protect his feet from the fire his friends bound on them the\n\"hell-shoon.\" Other cares were also taken: and in the saga of Olof\nTryggvasen we are told that one monarch was thoughtfully provided\nwith a cow; while the Vikings were buried in their ships, so that\nthey could keep on pirating \"for ever and ever.\"\n\nThe superstition of the burial of the boots probably survives in\nEngland. It is about seventeen years since the writer heard from an\nold gypsy that when another gypsy was \"p\u00fbvado,\" or \"earthed,\" a very\ngood pair of boots was placed by him in the grave. The reason was not\ngiven; perhaps it was not known. These customs often survive after\nthe cause is forgotten, simply from some feeling that good or bad\nluck attends their observance or the neglect of it. Many years since\na writer in an article on shoes in The English Magazine stated that,\n\"according to an Aryan tradition, the greater part of the way from\nthe land of the living to that of death lay through morasses and vast\nmoors overgrown with furzes and thorns. That the dead might not pass\nover them bare-foot, a pair of shoes was laid with them in the grave.\"\n\nThe shoe was of old in many countries a symbol of life, liberty, or\nentire personal control. In Ruth we are told that \"it was the custom\nin Israel concerning changing, that a man plucked off his shoe and\ndelivered it to his neighbour.\" So the bride, who was originally\nalways a slave, transferred herself by the symbol of the shoe. When\nthe Emperor Waldimir made proposals of marriage to the daughter of\nRagnald, she replied scornfully that she would not take off her shoes\nto the son of a slave. Gregory of Tours, in speaking of wedding, says:\n\"The bridegroom, having given a ring to the bride, presents her with\na shoe.\"\n\nAs regards the Scandinavian hel-shoe, or hell-shoon, Kelley, in his\n\"Indo-European Folk-lore,\" tells us that a funeral is still called\na dead shoe in the Henneberg district; and the writer already cited\nadds that in a MS. of the Cotton Library, containing an account of\nCleveland in Yorkshire, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there is a\npassage which illustrates this curious custom. It was quoted by Sir\nWalter Scott in the notes to \"Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,\"\nand runs thus:--\n\n\n   \"When any dieth certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie,\n    reciting the journey that the partye deceased must goe; and they\n    are of beliefe that once in their lives it is goode to give a\n    pair of new shoes to a poor man; forasmuch as before this life\n    they are to pass bare-foote through a great lande, full of thornes\n    and furzen--excepte by the meryte of the almes aforesaid they have\n    redeemed the forfeyte--for at the edge of the launde an oulde man\n    shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the partie\n    when he was lyving, and after he hath shodde them dismisseth them\n    to go through thick and thin without scratch or scalle.\n\n\nThis must be a very agreeable reflection to all gentlemen who have\nbestowed their old boots on waiters, or ladies who have in like\nfashion gifted their maids. It is true, the legend specifies new\nshoes; but surely a pair of thirty-shilling boots only half worn count\nfor as much as a new pair of half a sovereign chaussures. However,\nif one is to go \"through thick and thin without scratch or scalle,\"\nit may be just as well to be on the safe side, and give a good new\nextra stout pair to the gardener for Christmas. For truly these\nsuperstitions are strange things, and no one knows what may be in them.\n\nThere are one or two quaint shoe stories of the olden time which\nmay be of value to the collector. It befell once in the beginnings\nof Bohemia, that, according to Schafarik (\"Slawische Alterth\u00fcmer,\"\nvol. ii. p. 422), L\u00efbussa, queen of that land, found herself compelled\nby her council to wed. And the wise men, being consulted, declared that\nhe who was to marry the queen would be found by her favourite horse,\nwho would lead the way till he found a man eating from an iron table,\nand kneel to him. So the horse went on, and unto a field where a man\nsat eating a peasant's dinner from a ploughshare. This was the farmer\nPrschemischl. So they covered him with the royal robes and led him to\nthe queen expectant. But ere going he took his shoes of willow-wood\nand placed them in his bosom and kept them to remind him ever after\nof his low origin. It will, of course, at once strike the reader,\nas it has the learned, that this is a story which would naturally\noriginate in any country where there are iron ploughshares, horses,\nqueens, and wooden shoes: and, as Schafarik shrewdly suggests, that\nit was all \"a put-up job;\" since, of course, Prschemischl was already\na lover of the queen, the horse was trained to find him and to kneel\nbefore him, and, finally, that the ploughshare and wooden shoes were\nthe prepared properties of the little drama. The only little flaw in\nthis evidence is the name Prschemischl, which, it must be admitted,\nis extremely difficult to get over.\n\nThe Seven League Boots and the shoes of Peter Schlemihl, which take\none over the world at will, have a variation in a pair recorded\nin another tale. There was a beautiful and extremely proud damsel,\nwho refused a young man with every conceivable aggravation of the\noffence, informing him that when she ran after him, and not before\nthat, he might hope to marry her; and at the same time meeting a poor\nold gypsy woman who begged her for a pair of old shoes. To which the\nproud Princess replied:--\n\n\n   \"Shoes here, shoes there;\n    Give me a couple, I'll give thee a pair.\"\n\n\nTo which the old gypsy, who was a witch, grimly muttered, \"I'll give\nthee a pair which----\" The rest of the expression was really too\nunamiable to repeat. Well, the youth and the witch met, and, going to\nthe lady's shoemaker, \"made him make\" a superbly elegant pair of shoes,\nwhich were sent to the damsel as a gift. Such a gift! No sooner were\nthey put on than off they started, carrying the Princess, malgr\u00e9 elle,\nover hill and dale. By and by she saw that a man--the man, of course,\nwhom she had refused--was in advance of her. As in the song of the\nCork Leg, \"the shoes never stopped, but kept on the pace.\" And the\nyoung man led her to a lonely castle and reasoned with her. And as\nshe had promised to marry should she ever run after him, and as she\nhad pursued him a whole day, she kept her word. The shoes she sent\nto the witch filled with gold; and they were wedded, and all went as\nmerry as a thousand grigs in a duck-pond.\n\nThe shoe, as has been shown by a Danish writer in a book chiefly\ndevoted to the subject, is a type of life, especially as shown in\nproductiveness and fertility. Hence old shoes and grain are thrown\nafter a bride, as people say, for luck; but the Jews do it crying,\n\"Peru urphu\"--\"Increase and multiply.\" For this, and much more, the\nreader may consult that wonderful treasury of Folk-lore, \"Die Symbolik\nund Mythologie der Natur,\" J. B. Friedrich, W\u00fcrzburg, 1859. To which\nwe would add our mite by remarking as a curious confirmation of this\ntheory, that--\n\n\n    There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,\n    Who had so many children she didn't know what to do.\n\n\nThis passes now for a mere nursery-rhyme; but doubtless there are\nthose who will trace it back to the early morning of mythology,\nand prove that it was once a Himaritic hymn, sung to some Melitta\nwho has long passed away down the back entry of time.\n\nFor several additional Hungarian gypsy love-charms and spells,\ncollected by Dr. Wlislocki, published in Ethnographia, and subsequently\nin The Gipsy-Lore Journal for June, 1890, I am greatly indebted to\nthe kindness of Mr. D. MacRitchie:--\n\n\n   \"The gypsy girls of Transylvania believe that spells to 'know\n    your future husband' can be best carried out on the eves of\n    certain days, such as New Year, Easter, and Saint George. 'On\n    New Year's Eve they throw shoes or boots on a willow tree, but\n    are only allowed to throw them nine times.' Compare this with the\n    throwing of the old shoe after the bride in many countries. 'If\n    the shoe catches in the branches the girl who threw it will be\n    married within a year.'\n\n   \"On the same eve they go to a tree and shake it by turns,\n    singing:--\n\n      \"'Per de, per de pr\u00e1jtina,\n        Varekaj hin, h\u00e1sz kamav?\n        Bas\u00e1, p\u00e1rro dzsiuklo,\n        Pirano dzsal mai szigo.'\n\n      \"'Scattered leaves around I see,\n        Where can my true lover be?\n        Ah, the white dog barks at last!\n        And my love comes running fast!'\n\n   \"If during the singing the bark of a dog should be heard, the\n    damsel will be 'wedded and bedded ere New Year comes again. This\n    is virtually the same with a charm practised in Tuscany, which from\n    other ancient witness I believe to be of Etruscan origin. Allied to\n    this is the following: On the night of Saint George's Day (query,\n    Saint George's Eve?) gypsy girls blindfold a white dog, then,\n    letting it loose, place themselves quietly in several places. She\n    to whom the dog runs first will be the first married. Blindman's\n    buff was anciently an amorous, semi-magical, or witches' game,\n    only that in place of the dog a man was blindfolded.\n\n  \"'Or the girl pulls a hair from her head, fastens a ring to it,\n    and dangles it in a jug. The ring vibrates or swings, and so\n    often as it touches the side of the jug so many years will it\n    be before she marries.' This is an ancient spell of Eastern\n    origin. As performed according to old works the thread must be\n    wound around the ring-finger and touch the pulse. On the edge of a\n    bowl the letters of the alphabet, or numerals, are marked, and the\n    ring swinging against these spells words or denotes numbers. The\n    touching of the latter indicates the number of lovers a girl is\n    to have.\n\n   \"Early on Whitsunday morning the girls go out, and if they see\n    clouds in the East they throw twigs in that direction, saying:--\n\n      \"'Predzsia, csirik leja,\n        Te n\u00e1 tr\u00e1da m're p\u00edranes.'\n\n      \"'Fly my bird--fly, I say,\n        Do not chase my love away.'\n\n   \"For they think that if on Whitsun-morn there are many clouds in\n    the East few girls will be married during the coming year. This\n    peculiar, seemingly incomprehensible, custom of the gypsies\n    originated in an old belief, the germ of which we find in\n    the Hindoo myth, according to which the spring morning which\n    spreads brightness and blessings descends from the blue bird\n    of heaven, who, on the other hand, also represents night or\n    winter. Special preparations are made so that the predictions shall\n    be fulfilled. On the days mentioned the girls are neither allowed\n    to wash themselves, nor to kiss any one, nor go to church. At\n    Easter, or on the Eve of Saint George, the girl must eat fish,\n    in order to see the future in her dreams.\n\n   \"On Easter morning the girls boil water, in the bubbles of which\n    they try to make out the names of their future husbands.\n\n   \"To find out whether the future husband is young or old the girl\n    must take nine seeds of the thorn-apple, ploughed-up earth of\n    nine different places, and water from as many more. With these\n    she kneads a cake, which is laid on a cross-road on Easter or\n    Saint George's morning. If a woman steps first on the cake her\n    husband will be a widower or an old man, but if a man the husband\n    will be single or young.\n\n   \"To see the form of a future husband a girl must go on the night\n    of Saint George to a cross-road. Her hair is combed backwards,\n    and, pricking the little finger of the left hand, she must let\n    three drops of blood fall on the ground while saying:--\n\n      \"'Mro rat dav piraneszke,\n        K\u00e1sz dikhav, avava adaleske.'\n\n      \"'I give my blood to my loved one,\n        Whom I shall see shall be mine own!'\n\n   \"Then the form of her future husband will rise slowly out of the\n    blood and fade as slowly away. She must then gather up the dust,\n    or mud-blood, and throw it into a river, otherwise the Nivashi,\n    or Water-spirits, will lick up the blood, and the girl be drowned\n    within the year. It is said that about twenty years ago the\n    beautiful Roszi (Rosa), the daughter of Peter Danku, the waywode,\n    or chief of the Kukuja tribe, was drowned during the time of\n    her betrothal because when she performed this ceremony she had\n    neglected to gather up the sprinkled blood.\n\n   \"If a girl wishes to see the form of her future husband, and\n    also to know what luck awaits her love, she goes on any of the\n    fore-named nights to a cross-road, and sits down on the ground,\n    putting before her a fried fish and a glass of brandy. Then the\n    form of her future husband will appear and stand before her for\n    a time, silent and immovable. Should he then take the fish the\n    marriage will be happy, but if he begin with the brandy it will\n    be truly wretched. But if he takes neither, one of the two will\n    die during the year.\n\n   \"That the laying of cards, the interpretation of dreams, the\n    reading of the future in the hand, and similar divinations are\n    constantly practised is quite natural, but it would lead us too\n    far to enlarge on all these practices. But there are charms to\n    win or cause love which are more interesting. Among these are\n    the love-potions or philtres, for preparing which gypsies have\n    always been famed.\n\n   \"The simplest and least hurtful beverage which they give unknown to\n    persons to secure love is made as follows:--On any of the nights\n    mentioned they collect in the meadows gander-goose (Rom\u00e1n\u00ed, vast\n    bengeszkero--devil's hand; in Latin, Orchis maculata; German,\n    Knabenkraut), the yellow roots of which they dry and crush and\n    mix with their menses, and this they introduce to the food of\n    the person whose love they wish to secure.\"\n\n\nOf the same character is a potion which they prepare as follows:\nOn the day of Saint John they catch a green frog and put it in a\nclosed earthen receptacle full of small holes, and this they place\nin an ant-hill. The ants eat the frog and leave the skeleton. This is\nground to powder, mixed with the blood of a bat and dried bath-flies\nand shaped into small buns, which are, as the chance occurs, put\nsecretly into the food of the person to be charmed.\n\nThere is yet another charm connected with this which I leave in\nthe original Latin in which it is modestly given by Dr. Wlislocki:\n\"Qualibet supradictarum noctium occiduntur duo canes nigri, mas et\nfemina, quorum genitalia exstirpata ad condensationem coquntur. Hujus\nmateri\u00e6 particula consumpta quemvis invincibili amore facit exardescare\nin eam eamve, qui hoc medio prodigioso usus est.\"\n\nIt may be remarked that these abominable charms are also not only\nknown to the Tuscan witches of the present day, but are found in Voodoo\nsorcery, and are indeed all over the world. To use revolting means in\nblack sorcery may be, or perhaps certainly is, spontaneous-sporadic,\nbut when we find the peculiar details of the processes identical,\nwe are so much nearer to transmission or history that the burden of\ndisproving must fall on the doubter.\n\n\n   \"To the less revolting philtres belongs one in which the girl\n    puts the ashes of a burnt piece of her dress which had been wet\n    with perspiration and has, perhaps, hair adhering to it, into a\n    man's food or drink (also Tuscan).\n\n   \"To bury the foot of a badger (also Voodoo), or the eye of a crow,\n    under one's sleeping-place is believed to excite or awaken love.\n\n   \"According to gypsy belief one can spread love by transplanting\n    blood, perspiration, or hair into the body of a person.\n\n   \"By burning the hair, blood, or saliva of any one, his or her\n    love can be extinguished.\n\n   \"The following is a charm used to punish a faithless lover. The\n    deceived maid lights a candle at midnight and pricks it several\n    times with a needle, saying:--\n\n      \"'Pchagerav momely\n        Pchagera tre vodyi!'\n\n      \"'Thrice the candle's broke by me\n        Thrice thy heart shall broken be!'\n\n   \"If the faithless lover marries another, the girl mixes the broken\n    shell of a crab in his food or drink, or hides one of her hairs\n    in a bird's nest. This will make the marriage unhappy, and the\n    husband will continually pine for his neglected sweetheart.\"\n\n\nThis last charm is allied to another current among the Slavonians,\nand elsewhere mentioned, by which it is believed that if a bird gets\nany of a man's hair and works it into a nest he will suffer terribly\ntill it is completely decayed.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nROUMANIAN AND TRANSYLVANIAN SORCERIES AND SUPERSTITIONS, CONNECTED\nWITH THOSE OF THE GYPSIES.\n\n\nIn her very interesting account of Roumanian superstitions,\nMrs. E. Gerard (\"The Land Beyond the Forest\"), finds three distinct\nsources for them: firstly, the indigenous, which seems to have been\nformed by or adapted to the wild and picturesque scenery and character\nof the country; secondly, those derived from the old German customs\nand beliefs brought by the so-called Saxon, in reality Lower Rhenish\ncolonists; and thirdly, the influence of the gypsies, \"themselves a\nrace of fortune-tellers and witches.\" All these kinds of superstition\nhave twined and intermingled, acted and reacted upon one another so\nthat in many cases it becomes a difficult matter to determine the\nexact parentage of some particular belief or custom.\n\nIt may be often difficult to ascertain in what particular country or\namong what people a superstition was last found, but there is very\nlittle trouble when we compare the great body of all such beliefs\nof all races and ages and thereby find the parent sources. It is\nnot many years since philologists, having taken up some favourite\nlanguage--for instance, Irish--discovering many words in many\ntongues almost identical with others in \"Earse,\" boldly claimed\nthat this tongue was the original of all the others. Now we find the\nroots of them all in the Aryan. So when we examine Folk-lore, it is\ndoubtless of great importance that we should learn where a tradition\nlast lived; but we must not stop there--we must keep on inquiring\ntill we reach the beginning. As a rule, with little exception, when\nwe find anywhere the grosser forms of fetish and black witchcraft,\nwe may conclude that we have remains of the world's oldest faith,\nor first beginning of supernaturalism in suffering and terror, a fear\nof mysterious evil influences. For with all due respect to the fact\nthat such superstitions might have sprung up sporadically wherever\nsimilar causes existed to create them, it is, in the first place, a\nvery rare chance that they should assume exactly like forms. Secondly,\nwe must consider that as there are even now millions of people who\nreceive with ready faith and carefully nurse these prim\u00e6val beliefs,\nso there has been from the beginning of time abundant opportunity\nfor their transmission and growth. Thirdly, nothing is so quickly\ntransmitted as Folk-lore, which in one sense includes myths and\nreligion. If jade was in the prehistoric stone age carried from Iona\nor Tartary all over Europe, it is even more probable that myths went\nwith it quite as far and fast.\n\nIt is not by loose, fanciful, and careless guess-work as to how the\nresemblance of Greek or Norse legends to those of the Red Indians is\ndue to similar conditions of climate and life, that we shall arrive\nat facts; neither will the truth be ascertained by assuming that there\nwas a certain beginning of them all in a certain country, or that they\nwere all developed out of one mythology, be it solar or Shemitic,\nHindoo or Hebrew. What we want is impartial examination--comparison\nand analysis. On this basis we find that all the Folk-lore or magic\nof Europe, and especially of its Eastern portion, has a great deal\nwhich is derived from black witchcraft, or from the succeeding\nShamanism. When we find that a superstition is based on fertility,\nthe \"mystery of generation,\" or \"Phallic worship\"--as, for instance,\nwearing boars' teeth or a little pig for a charm--we may conclude\nthat it is very ancient, but still not older than the time when\nwise men had begun to reflect on the mysteries of birth and death\nand weave them into myths. The exorcism of diseases as devils, and\nthe belief that they, in common with other evils, may be drummed, or\nsmoked, or incanted away into animals, trees, and streams, belongs\nin most cases to Shamanism. In all probability the oldest sorcery\nof all was entirely concerned with driving out devils and injuring\nenemies--just as most of the play of small boys runs to fighting or\nthe semblance of it, or as the mutual relations of most animals in\nthe lower stages consist of devouring one another. This was the very\nbeginning of the beginnings, and it would be really marvellous that so\nmuch of it has survived were it not that to the one who is not quite\ndazzled or blinded by modern enlightenment there is still existent\na great outer circle of human darkness, and that this darkness may\nbe found in thousands of intermittent varying shadows or marvellous\nchiaroscuro, even in the brightest sun-pictures of modern life. As I\nwrite I have before me a copy of the Philadelphia Press, of April 14,\n1889, in which a J. C. Batford, M.D., advertises that if any one will\nsend him two two-cent postage stamps--i.e., twopence--\"with a lock of\nyour hair, name, age, and sex,\" he will send a clairvoyant diagnosis of\nyour disease. This divining by the lock of hair is extremely ancient,\nand had its origin in the belief that he who could obtain one from an\nenemy could reach his soul and kill him. From communicating a disease\nby means of such a lock, and ascertaining what was the matter with\na man, in the same manner, was a very obvious step forward.\n\nOf all people living in Europe the peasantry of Italy and Sicily\nand the gypsies seem to have retained most of this Shamanism and\nwitchcraft, and as the latter have been for centuries its chief\npriests, travelling here and there disseminating it, we may conclude\nthat even where they did not originate it they have been active in\nkeeping the old faith alive. In Roumania, where the gypsy is called\nin to conjure on all occasions, \"people believe themselves to be\nsurrounded by whole legions of devils, witches, and goblins.\" There\nis scarcely a day or hour in which these bad spirits have not power,\n\"and a whole complicated system, about as laborious as the mastering\nan unknown language, is required in order to teach an unfortunate\npeasant to steer clear of the dangers by which he supposes himself\nto be beset.\"\n\nOn Wednesday and Friday no one should use needle or scissors, bake\nbread, or sow flax. No bargain should ever be concluded on a Friday,\nand Venus, here called Paraschiva, to whom this day is sacred,\npunishes all infractions of the law. There was among the Wends a\nflax-goddess, Pscipolnitza, and the shears as emblematic of death are\nnaturally antipathetic to Venus, the source of life. Whether Mars\nhas anything in common with Mors I know not, but in Roumania he is\ndecidedly an evil spirit of death, whence Marti, or Tuesday, is one,\nwhen spinning is positively prohibited (here we have Venus again),\nand washing the hands and combing the hair are not unattended with\ndanger. Whence it appears that the devil agrees with not a few saints\nin detesting neatness of the person. And as it is unlucky to wash\nanything on Saturday, or to spin on Thursday, or to work in the fields\non Thursday between Easter and Pentecost, it will be seen that Laziness\nand Dirt have between them a fine field in Roumania. Add to this that,\nas in Russia, more than half the days in the year are Saints' days,\nor fast days or festivals on which it is \"unlucky\" to work at all,\nand we find that industry cannot be said to be much encouraged by Faith\nin any of its forms. This belief in holy days which bring ill-luck to\nthose who work on them, which is still flourishing in every country\nin the world, goes back to time whereof the memory of man hath naught\nto the contrary. A distinct difference is here to be observed however\nbetween naturally resting from work on certain days, which is of course\nan inherent instinct in all mankind, and the declaring such rest to be\nobligatory, and its infraction punishable by death, disaster, and bad\nluck, and still more the increasing such Sabbaths to such an extent\nas to interfere with industry, or the turning them into fast days\nor Saints' days with \"observances.\" Here the old Shamanism comes in,\nif not the evil witchcraft itself which exacted penance and fasting,\nand ceremonies to exorcise the devils. The first belief was that evil\nspirits inflicted pain on man, and that man, by efforts which cost\nhim suffering, could repel or retaliate on them. This was simple\naction and reaction, and the repulsion was effected with starving,\nenduring smoke, or using repulsive and filthy objects. Out of this\nin due time came penance of all kinds.\n\nThe Oriental or Greek Church is found at every turn, even more\nthan the Catholic, interchanged, twined, and confused with ancient\nsorcery. Theodore, like Saint Simeon and Anthony in Tuscany, is\nvery much more of a goblin than a holy man. His weakness is young\nwomen, and sometimes in the shape of a beautiful youth, at others\nof a frightful monster, he carries off those who are found working\non his day--that is the 23rd of January. Theodore, according to the\nSolar mythologists personifies the sun. (De Gubernatis, \"Zoological\nMythology,\" vol. ii. p. 296). In any case the saint who seizes girls\nis the Hindoo Krishna or his prototype, and therefore may have come\nthrough the gypsies. The overworked solar myth derives some support\nfrom the fact that among the Serbs on Theodore's day the Sintotere--or\ncentaur, as the name declares--who is half horse and half man, rides\nover the people who fall in his power. The Centaurs were connected\nwith the \"rape of maidens,\" as shown in the legend of the Lapith\u00e6,\nand it is very probable that Theodore himself is, in the language\nof the Western Americans, \"half a horse,\" which they regard as the\ngreatest compliment which can be paid to a man. [15]\n\n\"Wonderful potions and salves,\" says Mrs. Gerard, \"composed of the\nfat of bears, dogs, snakes, and snails, with the oil of rain-worms,\nspiders, and midges, rubbed into a paste, are concocted by these\nBohemians (i.e., gypsies). Saxon and Roumanian mothers are often\nin the habit of giving a child to be nursed for nine days to some\nTzigane women supposed to have power to undo the spell.\"\n\nThese revolting ingredients are not the result of modern invention, but\nrelics of the primitive witchcraft or Ur-religion, which was founded\non pain, terror, and the repulsive. Among other Roumanian-Romany\ntraditions are the following:--\n\nSwallows here as elsewhere are luck-bringing birds, and termed\nGaliniele lui Dieu--fowls of the Lord. So in England we hear that:--\n\n\n   \"The robin and the wren\n    Are God Almighty's cock and hen.\"\n\n\nThere is always a treasure to be found where the first swallow is\nseen. Among the Romans when it was observed one ran to the nearest\nfountain and washed his eyes, and then during the whole year to come,\ndolorem omnem oculorum tuorum hirundines auferant--the swallows will\ncarry away all your complaints of the eyes.\n\nThe skull of a horse over the gate of a courtyard, or the bones\nof fallen animals buried under the doorstep are preservatives\nagainst ghosts. In Roman architecture the skulls of oxen, rams,\nand horses continually occur as a decoration, and they are used\nas charms to-day in Tuscany. Black fowls are believed to be in the\nservice of witches. The skull of a ram placed at the boundary of a\nparish in Roumania keeps off disease from cattle; it was evidently\na fetish in all ages. In Slavonian, Esthonian, and Italian tales\nblack poultry occur as diabolical--to appease the devil a black cock\nmust be sacrificed. But in Roumania the (black) Brahmaputra fowl is\nbelieved, curiously enough, to be the offspring of the devil and a\nJewish girl--truly an insignificant result of such clever parentage.\n\nA cow that has wandered away will be safe from witches if the owner\nsticks a pair of scissors or shears in the centre crossbeam of\nthe dwelling-room. The Folk-lore of shears is extensive; Friedrich\nderives it from the cutting of the threads of life by the Fates. Thus\nJuno appears on a Roman coin (Eckhel, \"Numis. Vet.\" viii. p. 358)\nas holding the shears of death. The swallow is said in a Swedish\nfairy tale to have been the handmaid of the Virgin Mary, and to have\nstolen her scissors, for which reason she was turned into a bird--the\nswallow's tail being supposed to resemble that article. Gypsies in\nEngland use the shears in incantations.\n\nA whirlwind denotes that the devil is dancing with a witch, and he\nwho approaches too near it may be carried off bodily to hell (as has\nindeed happened to many a wicked Pike in a cyclone or blizzard in\nWestern America), though he may escape by losing his cap.\n\nIt is very dangerous to point at a rainbow or an approaching\nthunderstorm. Probably the devil who here guides the whirlwind or\ndirects the storm regards the act as impolite. He punishes those who\nthus indicate the rainbow by a gnawing disease. Lightning is averted\nby sticking a knife in a loaf of bread and spinning the two on the\nfloor of the loft of the house while the storm lasts. The knife appears\nnot only in many gypsy spells, but in the Etruscan-Florentine magic.\n\nThe legends of Domdaniel and the College of Sorcery in Salamanca appear\nin the gypsy Roumanian Scholomance, or school which exists somewhere\nfar away deep in the heart of the mountains, \"where the secrets of\nnature, the language of animals, and all magic spells are taught by the\ndevil in person.\" Only ten scholars are admitted at a time, and when\nthe course of learning has expired nine are dismissed to their homes,\nbut the tenth is detained by the professor in payment. Henceforth,\nmounted on an ismeju, or dragon, he becomes the devil's aide-de-camp,\nand assists him in preparing thunderbolts and managing storms and\ntempests. \"A small lake, immeasurably deep, high up in the mountains,\nsouth of Hermanstadt, is supposed to be the caldron in which the\ndragon lies sleeping and where the thunder is brewed.\"\n\n\"Whoever turns three somersaults the first time he hears thunder\nwill be free from pains in the back during the twelvemonth.\" Of this\nprescription--which reads as if it had originated with Timothy, in\n\"Japhet in Search of a Father,\" when he practised as a mountebank--it\nmay be said that it is most unlikely that any person who is capable\nof putting it in practice should suffer with such pains.\n\nTo be free from headache rub the forehead with a piece of iron or\nstone. This may be a presage of the electric cure or of that by\n\"metallic tractors.\"\n\nIt is unfortunate in all Catholic countries to meet with a priest\nor nun, especially when he or she is the first person encountered\nin the morning. In Roumania this is limited to the Greek popa. But\nto be first met by a gypsy on going forth is a very fortunate omen\nindeed. According to a widely-spread and ancient belief it is also\nvery lucky to meet with any woman of easy virtue--the easier the\nbetter. This is doubtless derived from the ancient worship of Venus,\nand the belief that any thing or person connected with celibacy\nand chastity, such as a nun, is unlucky. It would appear from this\nthat the Roumanians, or their gypsy oracles, have formed an opinion\nthat their own popas are strictly abstinent as regards love, while\nProtestant priests marry and are accordingly productive. Why the\nCatholic clergy are included with the latter is not at all clear. It\nis lucky also to meet a gypsy at any time, and doubtless this belief\nhas been well encouraged by the Romany.\n\n\n   \"It's kushti bak to well\u00e1n a Rom,\n    When tute's a pirryin pr\u00e9 the drom.\"\n\n   \"When you are going along the street\n    It's lucky a gypsy man to meet.\"\n\n\nLikewise, it is lucky to meet with a woman carrying a jug full of\nwater, &c., but unlucky if it be empty. So in the New Testament the\nvirgins whose lamps were full of oil received great honour. The lamp\nwas an ancient symbol of life; hence it is very often found covered\nwith aphrodisiac symbols or made in Phallic forms. It is barely\npossible that common old popular simile of \"Not by a jug-full\"--meaning\n\"not by a great deal\"--is derived from this association of a full\nvessel with abundance.\n\nIt is a Roumanian gypsy custom to do homage to the Wodna zena, or\n\"Water-woman\" (Hungarian gypsy, Nivashi), by spilling a few drops of\nwater on the ground after filling a jug, and it is regarded as an\ninsult to offer drink without observing this ceremony. A Roumanian\nwill never draw water against the current (also as in the Hungarian\ngypsy charms), as it would provoke the water-spirit. If water is\ndrawn in the night-time, whoever does so must blow three times over\nthe brimming jug, and pour a few drops on the coals.\n\nThe mythology of the Roumanians agrees with that of the gypsies. It\nis sylvan, and Indian. In deep pools of water lurks the dreadful\nbalaur or Wodna muz--i.e., the Waterman (Muz is both gypsy and\nSlavonian)--who lies in wait for victims. In every forest lives the\nmama padura, or weshni dye--\"the forest mother\"--who is believed to\nbe benevolent to human beings, especially towards children who have\nlost their way in the wood. But the Panusch is an amorous spirit who,\nlike the wanton satyrs of old, haunts the silent woodland shades,\nand lies in wait for helpless maids. \"Surely,\" observes Mrs. Gerard,\n\"this is a corruption of 'great Pan,' who is not dead after all,\nbut merely banished to the land beyond the forest.\" What a find this\nwould have been for Heine when writing \"The Gods in Exile\"!\n\n\"In deep forests and lonely mountain gorges there wanders about a\nwild huntsman of superhuman size.\" He appears to be of a mysterious\nnature, and is very seldom seen. Once he met a peasant who had shot\nninety-nine bears, and warned him never to attempt to kill another. But\nthe peasant disregarded his advice, and, missing his aim, was torn\nin pieces by the bear.\n\nVery singular is the story that this Lord of the Forest once taught a\nhunter--that if he loaded his gun on New Year's Night with a live adder\nhe would never miss a shot during the ensuing year. It is not probable\nthat he was told to put a live and \"wiggling\" snake into his gun. The\nstory of itself suggests the firing out the ramrod for luck. It has\nbeen observed by C. Lloyd Morgan that if a drop of the oil of a foul\ntobacco pipe be placed in the mouth of a snake the muscles instantly\nbecome set in knotted lumps and the creature becomes rigid. If much is\ngiven the snake dies, but if only a small amount is employed it may be\nrestored. This, as Mr. Oakley has suggested, may explain the stories\nof Indian snake-charmers being able to turn a snake into a stick. It is\nperformed by spitting into the snake's mouth and then placing the hand\non its head till it becomes stiffened. \"The effect may be produced by\nopium or some other narcotic.\" And it may also occur to the reader that\nthe jugglers who performed before Pharaoh were not unacquainted with\nthis mystery. It is probable that the hunter in the gypsy Roumanian\nstory first gave his adder tobacco before firing it off.\n\nThe Om ren, or wild man, is a malevolent forest spectre, the terror\nof hunters and shepherds. He is usually seen in winter, and when he\nfinds an intruder on his haunts, he tears up pine trees by the roots\nwith which he slays the victim, or throws him over a precipice, or\noverwhelms him with rocks. In every detail he corresponds to a being\ngreatly feared by the Algonkin Indians of America.\n\nThe oameni micuti, or \"small men,\" are grey-bearded dwarfs, dressed\nlike miners. They are the kobolds or Bergm\u00e4nnchen of Germany. They\nseldom harm a miner, and when one has perished in the mine they make\nit known to his family by three knocks on his door. They may be heard\nquarrelling among themselves and hitting at one another with their\naxes, or blowing their horns as a signal of battle. These \"horns of\nElf-land blowing\" connect them with the Korriagan of Brittany, who are\nfairies who always carry and play on the same instrument. Pr\u00e6torius\ndevotes a long chapter to all the learning extant on the subject of\nthese Bergm\u00e4nnrigen, or Subterraneans.\n\nThe mountain monk is the very counterpart of Friar Rush in English\nfairy-lore, and is also of Indian origin. He delights in kicking over\nwater-pails, putting out lamps, and committing mischief, merry, mad, or\nsad. Sometimes he has been known to strangle workmen whom he dislikes,\nthough, on the other hand, he often helps distressed miners by filling\ntheir empty lamps or guiding those who have lost their way. But he\nalways bids them keep it a secret, and if they tell they suffer for it.\n\nGana is queen of the witches, and corresponds to the Diana of the\nItalians. Gana is probably only a variation of the word Diana. Among\nthe Wallachians this goddess is in fact known as Dina and Sina. She,\nlike the wilde J\u00e4ger, rushes in headlong hunt over the heavens or\nthrough the skies followed by a throng of witches and fairies. \"People\nshow the places where she has passed, and where the grass and\nleaves are dry\" (Friedrich). She is a powerful enchantress, and is\nstrongest in her sorcery about Easter-tide. To guard against her the\nWallachians at this time carry a piece of lime-tree or linden wood. She\nis a beautiful but terrible enchantress, who presides over the evil\nspirits who meet on May eve. She was the ruler of all Transylvania\n(a hunting country) before Christianity prevailed there. Her beauty\nbewitched many, but whoever let himself be lured into drinking mead\nfrom her urus (or wild ox) drinking-horn perished. She is like the\nNorse Freya, a cat goddess, and seems to be allied to the Chesme,\nor cat, or fountain-spirit of the Turks. According to ancient Indian\nmythology the moon is a cat who chases the mice (stars) of night,\nand in the fifth book of Ovid's \"Metamorphoses,\" when the gods fled\nfrom the giants Diana took the form of a cat:--\n\n\n   \"Fele soror Phoebi, nivea Saturni a vacca\n    Pisce Venus latuit.\"\n\n                                    (V. 325, 332.)\n\n\n\"According to the Hellenic cosmogony the sun and moon created\nthe animals--the sun creating the lion and the moon the cat\" (De\nGubernatis, \"Zoological Mythology,\" ii. 58). Gertrude, the chief\nsorceress or queen of the witches in old German lore, appears when dead\nas surrounded by mice; she is, in fact, a cat. The Turkish Chesme,\nor fountain-cat, inveigles youths to death like the Gana, Diana,\nor Lorelei, who does the same, and is also a water-sprite.\n\nThe Dschuma is a fierce virgin, or sometimes an old witch, who is\nincarnate disease, such as the cholera. She is supposed to suffer from\ncold and nakedness, and may be heard at night when disease is raging,\nwailing for want. Then the maidens make garments and hang them out;\nbut it is a most effective charm when seven old women spin, weave,\nand sew for her a scarlet shirt all in one night without once speaking.\n\nA curious book might be written on the efficacy of nakedness in\nwitch-spells. In some places in Roumania there is a spirit always naked\n(at least appearing such), who requires a new suit of clothes every\nyear. These are given by the inhabitants of the district haunted\nby such an elf, who on New Year's Night lay them out in some place\nsupposed to be frequented by him or her.\n\nIn 1866, in a Wallachian village in the district of Bihar, to avert\nthe cholera, six youths and maidens, all quite naked, traced with\na ploughshare a furrow round their village to form a charmed circle\nover which the disease could not pass.\n\nWhen the land is suffering from long droughts the Roumanians ascribe\nit to the gypsies, who by occult means make dry weather in order to\nfavour their own trade of brickmaking. When the necessary rain cannot\nbe obtained by beating the guilty Tziganes, the peasants resort to\nthe Papaluga, or Rain-maiden. For this they strip a young gypsy girl\nstark-naked, and then cover her up in flowers and leaves, leaving only\nthe head visible. Thus adorned the Papaluga, or Miss Jack-in-the-Green,\nis conducted with music round the village, every person pouring water\non her as she passes. When a gypsy girl cannot be had, or the Tziganes\nare supposed to be innocent, a Roumanian maiden may be taken. This\ncustom is very widely spread.\n\nForty years ago there was a strange mania in the northern cities of\nthe United States for \"fast\" girls of the most reckless kind to go out\nnaked very late by night into the street to endeavour to run around\na public square or block of houses and regain their homes without\nbeing caught by the police. I suspect that superstition suggested\nthis strange risk. It is an old witch-charm that if a girl can,\nwhen the moon is full, go forth and run around a certain enclosure,\ngroup of trees, or dwelling, without being seen, she will marry the\nman whom she loves. There are also many magical ceremonies which,\nto ensure success, must be performed in full moonlight and when quite\nnaked. \"Among the Saxons in Transylvania when there is a very severe\ndrought it is customary in some places for several girls, led by an\nold woman, and all of them absolutely naked, to go at midnight to the\ncourtyard of some peasant and steal his harrow. With this they walk\nacross fields to the nearest stream, where the harrow is put afloat\nwith a burning light on each corner\" (Mrs. Gerard, \"Land Beyond,\"\n&c.). This is evidently the old Hindoo floating of lamps by maidens\non the Ganges, and in all probability of gypsy importation.\n\nShe who will pronounce a certain spell, strip herself quite naked,\nand can steal into the room where a man is lying sound asleep and\ncan clip from his head a lock of hair and escape without awakening\nhim or meeting any one will obtain absolute mastery over him, or at\nleast over his affections. The hair must be worn in a bag or ring on\nthe person. But woe unto her who is caught, since in that case the\nenchantment \"all goes the other way.\" Once a beautiful but very poor\nHungarian maid gave all she had to a young gypsy girl for a charm to\nwin the love of a certain lord, and was taught this, which proved to\nbe a perfect success. Having clipped the lock of hair she wove it in a\nring and wedded him. After a time she died, and the gypsy being called\nin to dress the corpse found and kept the ring. Then the lord fell in\nlove with the gypsy and married her. But ere long she too died, and\nwas buried, and the ring with her. And from that day the lord seemed\nas if possessed to sit by her grave, and finally built a house there,\nand never seemed happy save when in it.\n\n\"If a Roumanian maid,\" says Mrs. Gerard, \"desires to see her future\nhusband's face in the water she has only to step naked at midnight\ninto the nearest lake or river, or, if she shrink from this, let her\ntake a stand on the more congenial dung-hill with a piece of Christmas\ncake in her mouth, and as the clock strikes twelve listen attentively\nfor the first sound of a dog's bark. From whichever side it proceeds\nwill also come the expected suitor.\"\n\nA naked maid standing on a \"congenial dung-hill\" with a piece of\nChristmas cake in her mouth would be a subject for an artist which\nshould be eagerly seized in these days when \"excuses for the nude in\nart\" are becoming so rare. It is worth observing that this conjuration\nis very much like one observed in Tuscany, in which Saint Anthony is\ninvoked to manifest by a dog's barking at night, as by other sounds,\nwhether the applicant, or invoker, shall obtain her desire.\n\nAt the birth of a child in Wallachia every one present takes a stone\nand throws it behind him, saying, \"This into the jaws of the Streghoi\"\n[16]--\"a custom,\" says Mrs. Gerard, \"which would seem to suggest\nSaturn and the swaddled up stones.\" It is much more suggestive of\nthe stones thrown by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Strigoi is translated as\n\"evil spirits\"--it is evidently, originally at least, the streghe,\nor witches of Italy, from the Latin strix, the dreaded witch-bird\nof Ovid. \"Festus derives the word \u00e0 stringendo from the opinion that\nthey strangle children.\" Middle Latin strega (Paulus Grillandus). For\nmuch learning on this subject of the Strix the reader may consult De\nGubernatis, \"Myth of Animals,\" vol. ii. p. 202.\n\n\"As long as the child is unbaptized it must be carefully watched for\nfear lest it be changed or stolen away.\" This is common to Christians,\nheathen, and gypsies to watch it for several days. \"A piece of iron,\nor a broom laid beneath the pillow will keep spirits away.\" So in\nRoumania and Tuscany. Quintus Serenus, however, recommends that when\nthe striga atra presses the infant, garlic be used, the strong odour\nof which (to their credit be it said) is greatly detested by witches.\n\n\"The Romans used to cook their coena demonum for the house-spirits,\nand the Hindoos prepared food for them.\" From them it has passed\nthrough the gypsies to Eastern Europe, and now the Roumanian, who\nhas by a simple ceremony made a contract with the devil, receives\nfrom him an attendant spirit called a spiridsui or spiridush which will\n\n\n   \"Serve his master faithfully\n    For seven long year,\"\n\n\nbut in return expecting the first mouthful of every dish eaten by\nhis master.\n\n\n   \"So many differing fancies have mankind,\n    That they the master-sprites may spell and bind.\"\n\n\nNearly connected with the Roumanian we have the beliefs in magic of\nthe Transylvanian Saxons, all of them shared with the gypsies and\nprobably partially derived from them. Many people must have wondered\nwhat could have been the origin of the saying in reference to a very\nsmall place that \"there was not room to swing a cat in it.\" \"But I\ndon't want to swing a cat in it,\" was the very natural rejoinder\nof a well-known American litterateur to this remark applied to\nhis house. It is possible that we may find the origin of this odd\nsaying in a superstition current in Transylvania, whither it in all\nprobability was carried by the gypsies, whose specialty it is to\nbear the seeds of superstitions about here and there as the winds\ndo those of plants. In this country it is said that if a cat runs\naway, when recovered she must be swung three times round to attach\nher to the dwelling. The same is done by a stolen cat by the thief\nif he would retain it. Truly this seems a strange way to induce an\nattachment--or pour encourager les autres. It is evident, however,\nthat to the professional cat-stealer the size of his room must be a\nmatter of some importance. It is a pity that this saying and faith\nwere unknown to Moncrief-Maradan, \"the Historiogriffe of Cats,\"\n(\"OEuvres,\" Paris, 1794), who would assuredly have made the most of it.\n\nAs regards entering new houses in Transylvania the rule is not \"Devil\ntake the hindmost,\" but the foremost. The first person or being who\nenters the maiden mansion must die, therefore it is safe to throw in\na preliminary dog or cat. The scape-cat is, however, to be preferred.\n\nI can remember once, when about six years of age, looking down into\na well in Massachusetts and being told that the reflection which I\nsaw was the face of a little boy who lived there. This made a deep\nimpression on me, and I reflected that it was very remarkable that\nthe dweller in the well could assume the appearance of every one who\nlooked at him. In Transylvania it is, says Mrs. E. Gerard, \"dangerous\nto stare down long into a well, for the well-dame who dwells at the\nbottom is easily offended. But children are often curious, and so,\nbending over the edge, they call out mockingly, 'Dame of the Well,\npull me down into it!' and then run away rapidly.\"\n\nWhoever has been robbed and wishes to find the thief should take a\nblack hen, and for nine Fridays must with the hen fast strictly; the\nthief will then either bring back the plunder or die. This is called\n\"taking up the black fast\" against any one. It is said that a peasant\nof Petersdorf returned one day from Bistritz with 200 florins, which\nhe had received for oxen. Being very tipsy he laid down to sleep,\nhaving first hidden his money in a hole in the kitchen wall. When he\nawoke he missed his coin, and having quite forgotten what he had done\nwith it believed it had been stolen. So he went to an old Wallachian,\nprobably a gypsy, and induced him to take up the black fast against\nthe thief. But as he himself had the money the spell worked against\nhim and he grew weaker and pined away as it went on. By some chance\nat the last moment he found his money, but it was too late, and\nhe died. Pages of black hen-lore may be gathered from the works of\nFriedrich, De Gubernatis and others; suffice it to say that Bubastis,\nthe Egyptian moon-goddess, appears to have been the original mistress\nof the mysterious animal, if not the black hen as well as cat herself,\nand mother of all the witches.\n\nMagic qualities are attached in Hungary as in Germany to the lime\nor linden tree; in some villages it is usual to plant one before a\nhouse to prevent witches from entering. From very early times the\nlime tree was sacred to Venus among the Greeks, as it was to Lada\namong the Slavonians. This, it is said, was due to its leaves being\nof the shape of a heart. In a Slavonian love-song the wooer exclaims:--\n\n\n   \"As the bee is drawn by the lime-perfume (or linden-bloom)\n    My heart is drawn by thee.\"\n\n\nThis was transmitted to Christian symbolism, whence the penance laid\nby Christ on Mary Magdalen was that \"she should have no other food\nsave lime-tree leaves, drink naught except the dew which hung on\nthem, and sleep on no other bed save one made of its leaves\" (Menzel,\n\"Christliche Symbolik,\" vol. ii. p. 57). \"For Magdalena had loved much,\ntherefore her penance was by means of that which is a symbol of love.\"\n\nMrs. Gerard tells us that \"a particular growth of vine leaf, whose\nexact definition I have not succeeded in rightly ascertaining, is\neagerly sought by Saxon girls in some villages. Whoever finds it,\nputs it in her hair, and if she then kisses the first man she meets on\nher way home she will soon be married. A story is related of a girl,\nwho having found this growth, meeting a nobleman in a carriage stopped\nthe horses and begged leave to kiss him.\" To which he consented. This\nparticular growth, unknown to Mrs. Gerard, is when the leaves or\ntendrils or shoots form a natural knot. Among the gypsies in Hungary,\nas may be elsewhere read, such knots in the willow are esteemed as\nof great magic efficacy in love. A knot is a symbol of true love in\nall countries.\n\n\n   \"This knot I tie, this knot I knit,\n    For that true love whom I know not yet.\"\n\n\nOn Easter Monday in Transylvania the lads run about the towns and\nvillages sprinkling with water all the girls or women whom they\nmeet. This is supposed to cause the flax to grow well. On the following\nday the girls return the attention by watering the boys. \"This\ncustom, which appears to be a very old one,\" says Mrs. Gerard, \"is\nalso prevalent among various Slav races, such as Poles and Serbs. In\nPoland it used to be de rigeur that water be poured over a girl who\nwas still asleep, so in every house a victim was selected who had\nto feign sleep and patiently receive the cold shower-bath, which was\nto ensure the luck of the family during the year. The custom has now\nbecome modified to suit a more delicate age, and instead of formidable\nhorse-buckets of water, dainty little perfume squirts have come to\nbe used in many places.\" As the custom not only of sprinkling water,\nbut also of squirting or spraying perfumes is from ancient India (as\nit is indeed prevalent all over the East), it is probable that the\ngypsies who are always foremost in all festivals may have brought this\n\"holi\" custom to Eastern Europe. Of late it has extended to London,\nas appears by the following extract from The St. James's Gazette,\nApril, 1889.\n\n\n   \"The newest weapon of terror in the West End is the 'scent\n    revolver.' Its use is simple. You dine--not wisely but the other\n    thing--and then you stroll into the Park, with your nickel-plated\n    scent revolver in your pocket. Feeling disposed for a frolic,\n    you walk up to a woman, present your weapon, pull the trigger,\n    and in a moment she is drenched, not with gore but with scent,\n    which is nearly as unpleasant if not quite so deadly. Mr. Andrew\n    King, who amused himself in that way, has been fined 10s. at\n    Marlborough Street. Let us hope that the 'revolver' was confiscated\n    into the bargain.\"\n\n\nOne way of interrogating fate in love affairs is to slice an apple in\ntwo with a sharp knife; if this can be done without cutting a seed\nthe wish of the heart will be fulfilled. Of yore, in many lands the\napple was ever sacred to love, wisdom, and divination. Once in Germany\na well-formed child became, through bewitchment, sorely crooked and\ncramped; by the advice of a monk the mother cut an apple in three\npieces and made the child eat them, whereupon it became as before. In\nIllzach, in Alsace, there is a custom called \"Andresle.\" On Saint\nAndrew's Eve a girl must take from a widow, and without returning\nthanks for it, an apple. As in Hungary she cuts it in two and must\neat one half of it before midnight, and the other half after it; then\nin sleep she will see her future husband. And there is yet another\nlove-spell of the split apple given by Scheible (\"Die gute alte Zeit,\"\nStuttgart, 1847, p. 297) which runs as follows:--\n\n\n   \"On Friday early as may be,\n    Take the fairest apple from a tree,\n    Then in thy blood on paper white\n    Thy own name and thy true love's write,\n    That apple thou in two shalt cut,\n    And for its cure that paper put,\n    With two sharp pins of myrtle wood\n    Join the halves till it seem good,\n    In the oven let it dry,\n    And wrapped in leaves of myrtle lie,\n    Under the pillow of thy dear,\n    Yet let it be unknown to her;\n    And if it a secret be\n    She soon will show her love for thee.\"\n\n\nSimilar apple sorceries were known to the Norsemen. Because the apple\nwas so nearly connected with love and luxury--\"Geschlechtsliebe und\nZeugungslust\"--those who were initiated in the mysteries and vowed to\nchastity were forbidden to eat it. And for the same reason apples,\nhares, and Cupids, or \"Amorets,\" were often depicted together. In\nGenesis, as in the Canticles of Solomon, apples, or at least the fruit\nfrom which the modern apple inherited its traditions are a symbol of\nsexual love. In Florence women wishing for children go to a priest and\nget from him a blessed apple, over which they pronounce an incantation\nto Santa Anna--la San' Na--who was the Lucina of the Latins.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE RENDEZVOUS OR MEETINGS OF WITCHES, SORCERERS, AND VILAS.--A\nCONTINUATION OF SOUTH SLAVONIAN GYPSY-LORE.\n\n\nIn Eastern Europe witches and their kin, or kind, assemble on\nthe eve of Saint John and of Saint George, Christmas and Easter,\nat cross-roads on the broad pustas, or prairies, and there brew\ntheir magic potions. This, as Dr. Krauss observes, originated in\nfeasts held at the same time in pre-Christian times. \"So it was\nthat a thousand years ago old and young assembled in woods or on\nplains to bring gifts to their gods, and celebrated with dances,\ngames, and offerings the festival of spring, or of awaking and\nblooming Nature. These celebrations have taken Christian names, but\ninnumerable old heathen rites and customs are still to be found in\nthem.\" It may be here observed that mingled with these are many of\na purely gypsy-Oriental origin, which came from the same source and\nwhich it remains for careful ethnologists and critical Folk-lorists\nto disentangle and make clear. The priestesses of prehistoric times\non these occasions performed ceremonies, as was natural, to protect\ncattle or land from evil influences. To honour their deities the \"wise\nwomen\" bore certain kinds of boughs and adorned animals with flowers\nand wreaths. The new religion declared that this was all sorcery and\ndevil-work, but the belief in the efficacy of the rites continued. The\npriestesses became witches, or Vilas, the terms being often confused,\nbut they were still feared and revered.\n\nIn all the South Slavonian country the peasants on Saint George's\nDay adorn the horns of cattle with garlands, in gypsy Indian style,\nto protect them from evil influences. I have observed that even in\nEgypt among Mahometans Saint George is regarded with great reverence,\nand I knew one who on this day always sacrificed a sheep. The cow or ox\nwhich is not thus decorated becomes a prey in some way to witches. The\ngarlands are hung up at night over the stable door, where they remain\nall the ensuing year. If a peasant neglects to crown his cow, he not\nonly does not receive a certain fee from its owner, but is in danger\nof being beaten. On the same day the shepherdess, or cow-herd, takes\nin one hand salt, in the other a potsherd containing live coals. In\nthe coals roses are burned. By this means witches lose all power over\nthe animal. Near Karlstadt the mistress of the family merely strikes\nit with a cross to produce the same effect.\n\nAmong the Transylvanian Hungarian gypsies there is a magical\nceremony performed on Saint George's Day, traces of which may be\nfound in England. Then the girls bake a peculiar kind of cake, in\nwhich certain herbs are mixed, and which Dr. von Wlislocki declares\nhas an agreeable taste. This is divided among friends and foes, and it\nis believed to have the property of reconciling the bitterest enemies\nand of increasing the love of friends. But it is most efficient as a\nlove-charm, especially when given by women to men. The following gypsy\nsong commemorates a deed of this kind by a husband, who recurred to\nit with joy:--\n\n\n   \"K\u00e1s\u00e1ve rom\u00f1i n\u00e1 jidel,\n    Ke k\u00e1s\u00e1vo maro the del;\n    Sar m're gule lele pekel\n    K\u00e1n\u00e1 Sv\u00e1to Gordye \u00e1vel.\n\n   \"Furmuntel bute luludya\n    Furmuntel yoy bute charma\n    Andre petrel but k\u00e1m\u00e1be\n    Ko chal robo avla bake.\"\n\n   \"No one bakes such bread as my wife, such as she baked me on\n    St. George's Day. Many flowers and dew were kneaded into the cake\n    with love. Whoever eats of it will be her slave.\"\n\n\nIn England I was told by an old gypsy woman named Lizzie Buckland,\nthat in the old time gypsy girls made a peculiar kind of cake, a Romany\nmorriclo, which they baked especially for their lovers, and used to\nthrow to them over the hedge by night. To make it more acceptable,\nand probably to facilitate the action of the charm, they would put\nmoney into the cake. It was observed of old among the Romans that\nfascinatio began with flattery, compliments, and presents!\n\nOn the night of Saint John the witch climbs to the top of the hurdle\nfence which surrounds the cow-yard, and sings the following spell:--\n\n\n   \"K meni sir,\n    K meni maslo,\n    K meni puter,\n    K meni mleko\n    Avam pak kravsku kozu!\"\n\n   \"To me the cheese,\n    To me the tallow (or meat),\n    To me the butter,\n    To me the milk,\n    To you only the cowhide.\"\n\n\nOr, as it may be expressed in rhyme:--\n\n\n   \"The cheese, meat, butter, and milk for me,\n    But only the cowhide left for thee.\"\n\n\nThen the cow will die, the carcass be buried, and the skin sold. To\nprevent all this the owner goes early on St. John's Day to the\nmeadow and gathers the morning dew in a cloak. This he carries home,\nand after binding the cow to a beam washes her with it. She is then\nmilked, and it is believed that if all has gone right she will yield\nfour bucketsful.\n\nIn the chapter on \"Conjurations and Exorcisms among the Hungarian\nGypsies,\" I have mentioned the importance which they attach to the\nbeing born a seventh or twelfth child. This is the same throughout\nSouth Slavonia, where the belief that such persons in a series of\nbirths are exceptionally gifted is \"shared by both gypsies, with whom\nit probably originated, and the peasants. What renders this almost\ncertain is that Dr. Krauss mentions that the oldest information as to\nthe subject among the Slavs dates only from 1854, while the faith is\nancient among the gypsies. He refers here to the so-called Kerstniki,\nwho on the eve of St. John do battle with the witches. Krstnik is\na Greek word, meaning, literally, one who has been baptized. But the\nKrstnik proper is the youngest of twelve brothers, all sons of the same\nfather. There appears to be some confusion and uncertainty among the\nSlavs as to whether all the twelve brothers or only the twelfth are\n\"Krstnik\"--according to the gypsy faith it would be the latter. These\n\"twelvers\" are the great protectors of the world from witchcraft. [17]\nBut they are in great danger on Saint John's Eve, for then the witches,\nhaving most power, assail them with sticks and stakes, or stumps of\nsaplings, for which reason it is usual in the autumn to carefully\nremove everything of the kind from the ground.\n\nA krstnik is described by Miklosic as \"Clovek kterega vile\nobljubiju\"--\"A man who has won the love of a Vila.\" The Vila ladies,\nor a certain class of them, are extremely desirous of contracting the\nclosest intimacy--in short, of becoming the mistresses, of superior\nmen. The reader may find numerous anecdotes of such amours in the\n\"Curiosa\" of Heinrich Kornmann, 1666, and in my \"Egyptian Sketch Book\"\n(Tr\u00fcbner & Co., London, 1874). In the heathen days, as at present among\nall gypsies and Orientals, it was believed to be a wonderfully lucky\nthing for a man to get the love of one of these beautiful beings. What\nthe difficulties were which kept them from finding lovers is not very\nclear, unless it were that the latter must be twelfth sons, or, what\nis far more difficult to find, young men who would not gossip about\ntheir supernatural sweethearts to other mortals, who would remain\ntrue to them, and who finally would implicitly obey all their commands\nand follow their advice. There is a vast array of tales--Gypsy, Arab,\nProven\u00e7al, Norman, German, and Scandinavian, which show that on these\npoints the Vila, or forest-maiden, or spirit of earth or air, or fairy,\nwas absolutely exacting and implacable, being herself probably allowed\nby occult laws to contract an intimacy only with men of a high order,\nor such as are--\n\n\n    \"Few in a heap and very hard to find.\"\n\n\nOn the other hand, the Vila yearns intensely for men and their\nnear company, because there is about those who have been baptized a\ncertain perfume or odour of sanctity, and as the unfortunate nymph is\nnot immortal herself, she likes to get even an association or sniff\nof it from those who are. According to the Rosicrucian Mythology,\nas set forth in the \"Undine\" of La Motte Fouqu\u00e9, she may acquire a\nsoul by marrying a man who will be faithful to her--which accounts\nfor the fact that so few Undines live for ever. However this may be,\nit appears that the Krstniki are specially favoured, and frequently\ninvited by the Vilas to step in--generally to a hollow tree--and make\na call. The hollow tree proves to be a door to Fairyland, and the\ncall a residence of seven days, which on returning home the caller\nfinds were seven years, for--\n\n\n    \"When we are pleasantly employed, time flies.\"\n\n\nThese spirits have one point in common with their gypsy friends--they\nsteal children--with this difference, that the Vila only takes those\nwhich have been baptized, while the gypsy--at present, at least--is\nprobably not particular in this respect. But I have very little\ndoubt that originally one motive, and perhaps the only one which\ninduced these thefts, was the desire of the gypsies, as heathens\nand sorcerers, to have among them, \"for luck,\" a child which had\nreceived the initiation into that mysterious religion from which\nthey were excluded, and which, as many of their charms and spells\nprove, they really regarded as a higher magic. It is on this ground\nonly, or for this sole reason, that we can comprehend many of the\nchild-stealings effected by gypsies; for it is absolutely true that,\nvery often when they have large families of their own, they will,\nfor no apparent cause whatever, neither for the sake of plunder,\nprofit, or revenge, adopt or steal some poor child and bring it up,\nkindly enough after their rough fashion; and in doing this they are\ninfluenced, as I firmly believe, far more by a superstitious feeling\nof bak, or luck, and the desire to have a Mascot in the tent, than any\nother. That children have been robbed or stolen for revenge does not\nin the least disprove what I believe--that in most cases the motive\nfor the deed is simply superstition.\n\nOn the eve of Saint George old women cut thistle-twigs and bring them\nto the door of the stall. This is only another form of the nettle\nwhich enters so largely into the Hungarian gypsy incantations, and\nthey also make crosses with cowdung on the doors. This is directly\nof Indian origin, and points to gypsy tradition. Others drive large\nnails into the doors--also a curious relic of a widely-spread ancient\ncustom, of which a trace may be found in the Vienna Stock im Eisen,\nor trunk driven full of nails by wandering apprentices, which may be\nseen near the church of Saint Stephen. But the thistle-twigs are still\nheld to be by far the most efficacious. In Vinica, or near it, these\ntwigs are cut before sunset. They are laid separately in many places,\nbut are especially placed in garlands on the necks of cattle. If\na witch, in spite of these precautions, contrives to get into the\nstable, all will go wrong with the beasts during the coming year.\n\nNow there was once a man who would have none of this thistle work--nay,\nhe mocked at those who believed in it. So it came to pass that all\nthrough the year witches came every night and milked his cows. And\nhe reflected, \"I must find out who does this!\" So he hid himself in\nthe hay and kept sharp watch. All at once, about eleven o'clock,\nthere came in a milk-pail, which moved of its own accord, and the\ncows began to let down their milk into it. The farmer sprang out and\nkicked it over. Then it changed into a tremendous toad which turned\nto attack him, so that in terror he took refuge in his house. That\nproved to be a lucky thing for him. A week after came the day of Saint\nGeorge. Then he hung thistle-twigs on his stable door, and after that\nhis cows gave milk in plenty.\n\nWitches may be seen on Saint George's Day, and that unseen by them if\na man will do as follows: He must rise before the sun, turn all his\nclothes inside out and then put them on. Then he must cut a green\nturf and place it on his head. Thus he becomes invisible, for the\nwitches believe he is under the earth, being themselves apparently\nbewitched by this.\n\nVery early on the day of Saint George, or before sunrise, the witches\nclimb into the church belfry to get the grease from the axle on which\nthe bell swings, and a piece of the bell-rope, for these things are\nessential to them. Dr. Krauss observes that in the MS. from which\nhe took this, schmierfetet or axle-grease, is indicated by the word\nsvierc, \"in which one at once recognizes the German word schwartz,\na black.\" It is remarkable that the Chippeway and other Algonkin\nIndians attach particular value to the black dye made from the grease\nof the axle of a grindstone.\n\nThe extraordinary pains which they took to obtain this had attracted\nthe attention of a man in Minnesota, who told me of it. It required\na whole day to obtain a very little of it. The Indians, when asked by\ncurious white people what this was for, said it was for dyeing baskets,\nbut, as my informant observed, the quantity obtained was utterly\ninadequate to any such purpose, and even better black dyes (e.g.,\nhickory bark and alum) are known to, and can be very easily obtained\nby, them. The real object was to use the grease in \"medicine,\" i.e.,\nfor sorcery. The eagerness of both witches in Europe and Indians in\nAmerica to obtain such a singular substance is very strange. However,\nthe idea must be a recent one among the Indians, for there were\ncertainly no grindstones among them before the coming of the white men.\n\n\n   \"For all that I can tell, said he,\n    Is that it is a mystery.\"\n\n\nHeathens though they be, many gypsies have a superstitious belief in\nthe efficacy of the sacramental bread and wine, and there are many\ninstances of their stealing them for magical purposes. So in the\nMiddle Ages witches and sorcerers used these objects for the most\nsingular purposes, Paulus Grillandus, in his \"Tractatus de Hereticis\net Sortilegiis,\" &c. (Lyons, 1547), assuring his readers that he had\nknown a witch who had two holy wafers inscribed with magical characters\nwhich she used for debauching innocent girls and betraying them to men,\nand that it was a belief that if a woman had the sacred oil fresh on\nher lips no man could refrain from kissing her. This is the union of\ntwo kinds of magic; a view which never once occurred to theological\nwriters. And here I may appropriately mention that while the proofs of\nthis work were passing through my hands accident threw into my way an\nextremely rare work, which illustrates to perfection the identity of\npopular and ecclesiastical sorcery. This is entitled \"De Effectibus\nMagicis, ac de Nuce Maga Beneventana,\" \"Six Books of Magic Effects\nand of the Witch Walnut-tree of Benevento. A work necessary, joyous,\nand useful to Astrologists, Philosophers, Physicians, Exorcists,\nand Doctors, and Students of Holy Scriptures. By the Chief Physician,\nPeter Piperno.\" It appears to have been privately printed at Naples\nin 1647, and came from a conventual library. It bore, written on a\nfly-leaf, the word Proibito.\n\nIn it every kind of disorder or disease is declared to be caused\nby devils and witches. The author believes with Delrio that disease\nentered into the world as a consequence of sin (referenda sit ad prim\u00e6\nnostr\u00e6 matris peccatum)--a view held by John Milton; hence, of course,\nall disease is caused solely by the devil. In his volume of two hundred\nlarge and close pages, our Peter Piperno displays a vast erudition on\nthe origin of devils and diseases, is bitter on the rival school of\nmagical practitioners who use cures and incantations unlike his own,\nand then gives us the name and nature of all diseases, according to the\ndifferent parts of the body, &c., the medical prescriptions proper for\nthem, and what is, in his opinion, most needful of all, the incantation\nor exorcism to be pronounced. Sometimes there are several of these,\nas one for making up a pill, another on taking it, &c. There are also\ngeneral conjurations--I mean benedictions--for the medicines altogether\nor in particular, such as the Benedictio Syruporum, \"The Blessing of\nthe Syrups,\" and there is a very affecting and appropriately moving one\nfor making or taking Castor Oil, and oils of all kinds, as follows:--\n\n\n   \"Benedictio Olei.\n\n   \"This begins with the In nomine Patris, &c., and Adjutorium\n    nostrum, &c., and then:\n\n   \"I exorcise you all aromatics, herbs, roots, seeds, stones, gums,\n    and whatever is to be compounded with this oil, by God the Father,\n    God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, by the God triune yet one,\n    by the holy and single Trinity, that the impure Spirit depart from\n    you, and with it every incursion of Satan, every fraud of the\n    Enemy, every evil of the Devil, and that mixed with oil you may\n    free the subject from all infirmities, incantations, bindings,\n    witchcrafts, from all diabolical fraud, art, and power, by the\n    merits of our Lord Jesus Christ and the most beloved Virgin Mary,\n    and of all the saints. Amen.\"\n\n\nThe curses for the devils of colds, fevers, rheumatisms, gouts,\nstomach-aches, &c., are awful, both in number, length, and quality;\nenough to frighten a cowboy or \"exhort an impenitent mule\" into\ndocility. There is the Exorcismus terribilis, or \"Terrible Exorcism\"\nof Saint Zeno, in which the disorder is addressed literally as \"A\ndirty, false, heretical, drunken, lewd, proud, envious, deceitful,\nvile, swindling, stupid devil\"--with some twenty more epithets which,\nif applied in these our days to the devil himself, would ground an\naction for libel and bring heavy damages in any court. It is to be\nremarked that in many prescriptions the author adds to legitimate\nremedies, ingredients which are simply taken from popular necromancy,\nor witchcraft, as for instance, rue--fug\u00e6 d\u00e6monum--verbena, and\nartemisia, all of which are still in use in Tuscany against sorcery\nand the evil eye.\n\nThe really magical character of these exorcisms is shown by the vast\narray of strange words used in them, many of which have a common\nsource with those used by sorcerers of the Cabalistic or Agrippa\nschool, such as Agla, Tetragrammaton, Adonai, Fons, Origo, Serpens,\nAvis, Leo, Imago, Sol, Floy, Vitis, Mons, Lapis, Angularis, Ischyros,\nPantheon, all of which are old heathen terms of incantation. These\nare called in the exorcism \"words by virtue of which\"--per virtutem\nistorum verborum--the devils are invited to depart. The whole is as\nmuch a work of sorcery as any ever inscribed in a catalogue of occulta,\nand it was as a specimen of occulta that I bought it.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nOF THE HAUNTS, HOMES, AND HABITS OF WITCHES IN THE SOUTH SLAVIC\nLANDS.--BOGEYS AND HUMBUGS.\n\n\nThe witches in Slavonian gipsy-lore have now and then parties which\nmeet to spin, always by full moonlight on a cross-road. But it is not\nadvisable, says Krauss, to pass by on such occasions, as the least they\ndo to the heedless wayfarer is to bewitch and sink him into a deep\nsleep. But they are particularly fond of assembling socially in the\ntops of trees, especially of the ash, walnut, and linden or lime kinds,\npreferring those whose branches grow in the manner here depicted.\n\nIt is but a few days ago, as I write, that I observed all along the\nroute from Padua to Florence thousands of trees supporting vines,\nwhich trees had been trained to take this form, the farmers being as\nmuch influenced by \"luck\" in so doing as utility; for it is not really\nessential that the tree shall so exactly receive this shape, to hold\na vine, as is proved by the fact that there are plantations here and\nthere where this method of training the trees is not observed. It is\nvery suggestive of the tri\u00e7ula or trident of Siva, which originated\nthe trushul, or cross of the gypsies. As regards the properties of\nthe ash tree Krauss remarks that \"roots with magic power grew under\nash trees,\" and quotes a song of a maiden who, having learned that\nher lover is untrue, replies:--\n\n\n   \"Ima trava u okolo Save,\n    I korenja okolo jasenja,\"\n\n   \"There are herbs by the Save,\n    And roots around ash trees,\"\n\n\n--meaning that she can prepare a love-potion from these. There is\nin the Edda a passage in which we are also told that there are magic\npowers in the roots of trees, the reference being probably to the ash,\nand possibly to the alraun, or images made of its roots, which are\nsometimes misnamed mandrakes.\n\nOther resorts of Slavonian gypsy witches are near or in deep woods and\nravines, also on dung-hills, or places where ashes, lye, or rubbish\nis thrown, or among dense bushes. Or as soon as the sun sets they\nassemble in orchards of plum trees, or among ancient ruins, while on\nsummer nights they hold their revels in barns, old hollow trees, by\ndark hedges or in subterranean caverns. The peasants greatly dread\ndung-hills after dark, for fear of cruel treatment by them. When\na wild wind is blowing the witches love dearly to dance. Then they\nwhirl about in eddying figures and capers, and when the sweat falls\nfrom them woe to the man who treads upon it!--for he will become at\nonce dumb or lame, and may be called lucky should he escape with only\nan inflammation of the lungs. In fact, if a man even walks in a place\nwhere witches have been he will become bewildered or mad, and remain\nso till driven homeward by hunger. But such places may generally be\nrecognized by their footprints in the sand; for witches have only four\ntoes--the great toe being wanting. These mysterious four toe-tracks,\nwhich are indeed often seen, are supposed by unbelievers to be made\nby wild geese, swans, or wild ducks, but in reply to this the peasant\nor gypsy declares that witches often take the form of such fowl. And\nthere is, moreover, much Rabbinical tradition which proves that the\ndevil and his friends have feet like peacocks, which are notoriously\nbirds of evil omen, as is set forth by a contributor to The St. James's\nGazette, November 16, 1888:--\n\n\n   \"Again, take peacocks. Nobody who has not gone exhaustively into\n    the subject can have any adequate idea of the amount of general\n    inconvenience diffused by a peacock. Broken hearts, broken limbs,\n    pecuniary reverses, and various forms of infectious disease have\n    all been traced to the presence of a peacock, or even a peacock\n    feather, on the premises.\"\n\n\nThe evil reputation of the peacock is due to his having been the only\ncreature who was induced to show Satan the way into Paradise. (For a\npoem on this subject, vide \"Legends of the Birds,\" by C. G. Leland,\nPhiladelphia, 1864).\n\nIf any one should by chance pop in--like Tam O'Shanter--to an assembly\nof witches, he must at once quickly cover his head, make the sign of\nthe cross, take three steps backwards and a fourth forwards. Then the\nwitches cannot injure him. Should a gentleman in London or Brighton\nabruptly intrude into a five o'clock tea, while Peel or Primrose\nwitches are discussing some specially racy scandal, he should,\nhowever, make instantly so many steps backwards as will take him to\nhis overcoat or cane, and then, after a turn, so many down-stairs as\nwill bring him into the street.\n\nIf any man should take in his hand from the garden fence anything\nwhich a witch has laid there, he will in the same year fall sick,\nand if he has played with it he must die. There be land-witches and\nwater-witches--whoever goes to swim in a place where these latter\nare found will drown and his body never be recovered. Sometimes in\nthese places the water is very deep, but perfectly clear, in others\nit is still and very muddy, to which no one can come within seven\npaces because of an abominable and stifling vapour. And, moreover,\nas a dead cat is generally seen swimming on the top of such pools,\nno one need be endangered by them.\n\nThe fact that the gypsy and South Slavonian or Hungarian Folklore\nis directly derived from classic or Oriental sources is evident from\nthe fact that the Shemitic-Persian devil, who is the head and body of\nall witchcraft in Western Europe, very seldom appears in that of the\nEastern parts. The witches there seem invariably to derive their art\nfrom one another; even in Venice they have no unusual fear of death\nor of a future state. A witch who has received the gift or power of\nsorcery cannot die till she transfers it to another, and this she\noften finds it difficult to do, as is illustrated by a story told me\nin Florence in 1886 by the same girl to whom I have already referred.\n\n\n   \"There was a girl here in the city who became a witch against her\n    will. And how? She was ill in a hospital, and by her in a bed was\n    una vecchia, ammalata gravamente, e non poteva morire--an old\n    woman seriously ill, yet who could not die. And the old woman\n    groaned and cried continually, 'Oim\u00e9! muoio! A chi lasci\u00f3? non\n    diceva che.' 'Alas! to whom shall I leave?'--but she did not say\n    what. Then the poor girl, thinking of course she meant property,\n    said: 'Lasciate \u00e0 me--son tanto povera!' ('Leave it to me--I am\n    so poor.') At once the old woman died, and 'La povera giovana\n    se \u00e9 trovato in eredita delta streghoneria'--the poor girl found\n    she had inherited witchcraft.\n\n   \"Now the girl went home, where she lived with her brother and\n    mother. And having become a witch she began to go out often by\n    night, which the mother observing, said to her son, 'Qualche volta\n    tu troverai tua sorella colla pancia grossa.' ('Some day you will\n    find your sister with child.') 'Don't think such a thing, mamma,'\n    he replied. 'However, I will find out where it is she goes.'\n\n   \"So he watched, and one night he saw his sister go out of the\n    door, sullo punto delta mezza notte--just at midnight. Then he\n    caught her by the hair, and twisted it round his arm. She began\n    to scream terribly, when--ecco! there came running a great number\n    of cats--e cominciarono a miolare, e fare un gran chiasso--they\n    began to mew and make a great row, and for an hour the sister\n    struggled to escape--but in vain, for her hair was fast--and\n    screamed while the cats screeched, till it struck one, when the\n    cats vanished and the sorella was insensible. But from that time\n    she had no witchcraft in her, and became a buona donna, or good\n    girl, as she had been before--'come era prima.'\"\n\n\nIt is very evident that in this story there is no diabolical agency,\nand that the witchcraft is simply a quality which is transferred like a\ndisease, and which may be removed. Thus in Venice--where, as is evident\nfrom the works of Bernoni, the witches are of Gypsy-Slavic-Greek\norigin--a witch loses all her power if made to shed even one drop of\nblood, or sometimes if she be defeated or found out to be a witch. In\nnone of these countries has she received the horrible character of\na mere instrument of a stupendous evil power, whose entire will and\nwork is to damn all mankind (already full of original sin) to eternal\ntorture. For this ne plus ultra of horror could only result from\nthe Hebrew-Persian conception of perfect malignity, incarnate as an\nanti-god, and be developed by gloomy ascetics who begrudged mankind\nevery smile and every gleam of sunlight. In India and Eastern Europe\nthe witch and demon are simply awful powers of nature, like thunder\nand pestilence, darkness and malaria, they nowhere appear as aiming at\ndestroying the soul. For such an idea as this it required a theology\nand mythology emanating from the basis of an absolutely perfect\nmonotheos, which gave birth to an antithesis; infinite good, when\nconcentrated, naturally suggesting a shadow counterpart of evil. In\nEastern Europe the witch is, indeed, still confused with the Vila,\nwho was once, and often still is, a benevolent elementary spirit,\nwho often punishes only the bad, and gladly favours the good. It is\nas curious as it is interesting to see how, under the influence of\nthe Church, everything which was not directly connected with the\ncurrent theology was made to turn sour and bitter and poisonous,\nand how darkness and frost stole over flowery fields which once were\ngay in genial sunshine. It is a necessary result that in attaining\nhigher ideals the lesser must fade or change. Devilism, or the dread\nof the child and savage of the powers of darkness and mysterious evil,\nends by incarnating all that is painful or terrible in evil spirits,\nwhich suggest their opposites. From Devilism results Polytheism,\nwith one leading and good spirit, who in time becomes supreme. Then\nwe have Monotheism. But as evil still exists, it is supposed that\nthere are innately evil powers or spirits who oppose the good. By\nfollowing the same process the leader of these becomes an anti-type,\nLucifer, or Satan, or arch-devil, the result being Dualism. In this\nwe have a spirit endowed with incredible activity and power, who\nis only not omnipotent, and whose malignity far transcends anything\nattributed to the gods or devils of Polytheism. His constant aim is\nto damn all mankind to all eternity, and his power is so great that\nto save even a small portion of mankind from this fate, God himself,\nor His own Son, must undergo penance as a man--an idea found in the\nBuddhism of India. This is all the regular and logical sequence of\nFetishism and Shamanism. Witchcraft, and the tales told of it, follow\nin the path of the religion of the age. In the earliest time women were\napparently the only physicians--that is to say magicians--and as man\nwas in his lowest stage the magic was a vile witchcraft. Then came the\nShaman--a man who taught in Animism a more refined sorcery, which was,\nhowever, as yet the only religion. But the witch still existed, and\nso she continued to exist, pari passu, through all the developments\nof religion. And to this, day every form and phase of the magician\nand witch exist somewhere, it sometimes happening that traces of the\nearliest and most barbarous sorcery are plain and palpable in the\nmost advanced faith. There may be changes of name and of association,\nbut in simple truth it is all \"magic\" and nothing else.\n\nGypsy, Hungarian, Slavonian, Indian, and Italian witches, however\nthey may differ from those of Western Europe on theological grounds,\nagree with them in meeting for the purposes of riotous dancing and\ndebauchery. It has been observed that this kind of erotic dancing\nappears to have been cultivated in the East, and even in Europe,\nfrom the earliest times, by a class of women who, if not absolutely\nproved to be gypsies, had at any rate many points of resemblance with\nthem. \"The Syrian girl who haunts the taverns round,\" described by\nVirgil, suggests the Syrian and Egyptian dancer, who is evidently of\nIndo-Persian--that is to say of Nuri, or gypsy--origin. The Spanish\ndancing girls of remote antiquity have been conjectured to have\ncome from this universal Hindoo Romany stock. I have seen many of\nthe Almeh in Egypt--they all seemed to be gypsyish, and many were\nabsolutely of the Helebi, Nauar, or Rhagarin stocks. This is indeed\nnot proved--that all the deliberately cultivated profligate dancing\nof the world is of Indo-Persian, or gypsy origin, but there is a\ngreat deal, a very great deal, which renders it probable. And it\nis remarkable that it occurred to Pierre Delancre that the Persian\nballerine had much in common with witches. Now the dancers of India\nare said to have originated in ten thousand gypsies sent from Persia,\nand who were of such vagabond habits that they could not be persuaded\nto settle down anywhere. Of these Delancre says:--\n\n\n   \"The Persian girls dance at their sacrifices like witches at\n    a Sabbat--that is naked--to the sound of an instrument. And\n    the witches in their accursed assemblies are either entirely\n    naked or en chemise, with a great cat clinging to their back,\n    as many have at divers times confessed. The dame called Volta\n    is the commonest and the most indecent. It is believed that the\n    devil taught three kinds of dances to the witches of Ginevra, and\n    these dances were very wild and rude, since in them they employed\n    switches and sticks, as do those who teach animals to dance.\n\n   \"And there was in this country a girl to whom the devil had given\n    a rod of iron, which had the power to make any one dance who\n    was touched with it. She ridiculed the judges during her trial,\n    declaring they could not make her die, but they found a way to\n    blunt her petulance.\n\n   \"The devils danced with the most beautiful witches, in the form of\n    a he-goat, or of any other animal, and coupled with them, so that\n    no married woman or maid ever came back from these dances chaste\n    as they had gone. They generally dance in a round, back to back,\n    rarely a solo, or in pairs.\n\n   \"There are three kinds of witch-dances; the first is the trescone\n    alia Boema, or the Bohemian rigadoon\" (perhaps the polka), \"the\n    second is like that of some of our work-people in the country,\n    that is to say by always jumping\" (this may be like the Tyrolese\n    dances), \"the third with the back turned, as in the second\n    rigadoon, in which all are drawn up holding one another by the\n    hand, and in a certain cadence hustling or bumping one another,\n    deretano contro deretano. These dances are to the sound of a\n    tambourine, a flute, a violin, or of another instrument which\n    is struck with a stick. Such is the only music of the Sabbat,\n    and all witches assert that there are in the world no concerts\n    so well executed.\"\n\n\n\"A tambourine, a violin, a flute,\" with perhaps a zimbel, which\nis struck with a stick. Does not this describe to perfection gypsy\nmusic, and is not the whole a picture of the wildest gypsy dancing\nwherever found? Or it would apply to the Hindoo debauches, as still\ncelebrated in honour of Sakktya, \"the female principle\" in India. In\nany case the suggestion is a very interesting one, since it leads to\nthe query as to whether the entire sisterhood of ancient strolling,\nlicentious dancers, whether Syrian, Spanish, or Egyptian, were not\npossibly of Indian-gypsy origin, and whether, in their character as\nfortune-tellers and sorceresses, they did not suggest the dances said\nto be familiar to the witches.\n\nMr. David Ritchie, the editor, with Mr. Francis Groome, of the\nJournal of the Gypsy-Lore Society, has mentioned (vol. i. No. 2)\nthat Klingsohr, a reputed author of the \"Nibelungen Lied,\" was\ndescribed as a \"Zingar wizard\" by Dietrich the Thuringian. Like Odin,\nthis Klingsohr rode upon a wolf--a kind of steed much affected by\nwitches and sorcerers. There is an old English rhyming romance in\nwhich a knight is represented as disguising himself as an Ethiopian\nminstrel. These and other stories--as, for instance, that of Sir\nEstmere--not only indicate a connection between the characters of\nminstrel and magician, but suggest that some kind of men from the\nfar East first suggested the identity between them. Of course there\nhave been wild dancers and witches, and minstrel-sorcerers, or vates,\nprophet-poets, in all countries, but it may also be borne in mind\nthat nowhere in history do we find the female erotic dancer and\nfortune-teller, or witch, combined in such vast numbers as in India\nand Persia, and that these were, and are, what may be truly called\ngypsies. Forming from prehistoric times a caste, or distinct class,\nit is very probable that they roamed from India to Spain, possibly here\nand there all over Europe. The extraordinary diplomatic skill, energy,\nand geographic knowledge displayed by the first band of gypsies who,\nabout 1417, succeeded in rapidly obtaining permits for their people\nto wander in every country in Europe except England, indicate great\nunity of plan and purpose. That these gypsies, as supposed sorcerers,\nappearing in every country in Europe, should not have influenced\nand coloured in some way the conceptions of witchcraft seems to be\nincredible. If a superstitious man had never before in his life thought\nof witches dancing to the devil's music, it might occur to him when\nlooking on at some of the performances of Spanish and Syrian gypsy\nwomen, and if the man had previously been informed--as everybody was in\nthe fifteenth century or later--that these women were all witches and\nsorceresses, it could hardly fail to occur to him that it was after\nthis fashion that the sisters danced at the Sabbat. Of which opinion\nall that can be said is, that if not proved it is extremely possible,\nand may be at least probed and looked into by those of the learned\nwho are desirous of clearly establishing all the grounds and origins\nof ancient religious beliefs and superstitions, in which pies it may\nbe found that witches and gypsies have had fingers to a far greater\nextent than grave historians have ever imagined.\n\nThe English gypsies believe in witches, among their own people, and\nit is very remarkable that in such cases at least as I have heard of,\nthey do not regard them as \u00e2mes damn\u00e9es or special limbs of Satan,\nbut rather as some kinds of exceptionally gifted sorceresses or\nmagicians. They are, however, feared from their supposed power to make\nmischief. Such a witch may be known by her hair, which is straight\nfor three or four inches and then begins to curl--like a waterfall\nwhich comes down smoothly and then rebounds roundly on the rocks. It\nmay be here remarked that all this gypsy conception of the witch is\ndistinctly Hindoo and not in the least European or of Christians, with\nwhom she is simply a human devil utterly given over to the devil's\ndesires. And it is very remarkable that even the English gypsies do\nnot associate such erring sisters--or any other kind--with the devil,\nas is done by their more cultivated associates.\n\nThe witch, in gypsy as in other lore, is a haunting terror of the\nnight. It has not, that I am aware, ever been conjectured that the\nword Humbug is derived from the Norse hum, meaning night, or shadows\n(tenebr\u00e6) (Jon\u00e6o, \"Icelandic Latin glossary in Niall's Saga\"), and\nbog, or bogey, termed in several old editions of the Bible a bug, or\n\"bugges.\" And as bogey came to mean a mere scarecrow, so the hum-bugges\nor nightly terrors became synonymes for feigned frights. \"A humbug,\na false alarm, a bug-bear\" (\"Dean Milles MS.\" Halliwell). The fact\nthat bug is specially applied to a nocturnal apparition, renders the\nreason for the addition of hum very evident.\n\nThere is a great deal that is curious in this word Bogey. Bug-a-boo\nis suggestive of the Slavonian Bog and Buh, both meaning God or a\nspirit. Boo or bo is a hobgoblin in Yorkshire, so called because\nit is said to be the first word which a ghost or one of his kind\nutters to a human being, to frighten him. Hence, \"he cannot say bo\nto a goose.\" Hence boggart, bogle, boggle, bo-guest, i.e., bar-geist,\nboll, boman, and, probably allied, bock (Devon), fear. Bull-beggar is\nprobably a form of bu and bogey or boge, allied to boll (Northern),\nan apparition.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nGYPSY WITCHCRAFT.--THE MAGICAL POWER WHICH IS INNATE IN ALL MEN\nAND WOMEN--HOW IT MAY BE CULTIVATED AND DEVELOPED--THE PRINCIPLES\nOF FORTUNE-TELLING.\n\n\nWomen excel in the manifestation of certain qualities which are\nassociated with mystery and suggestive of occult influences or\npower. Perhaps the reader will pardon me if I devote a few pages to\nwhat I conceive to be, to a certain degree, an explanation of this\nmagic; though, indeed, it may be justly said that in so doing we\nonly pass the old boundary of \"spiritual\" sorcery to find ourselves\nin the wider wonderland of Science.\n\nWhether it be the action of a faculty, a correlative action of physical\nfunctions, or a separate soul in us, the fact is indisputable that\nwhen our ordinary waking consciousness or will goes to sleep or rest,\nor even dozes, that instant an entirely different power takes command\nof the myriad forces of memory, and proceeds to make them act, wheel,\nevolute, and perform dramatic tricks, such as the Common Sense of\nour daily life would never admit. This power we call the Dream,\nbut it is more than that. It can do more than make Us, or Me, or the\nWaking Will, believe that we are passing through fantastic scenes. It\ncan remember or revive the memory of things forgotten by us; it can,\nwhen he is making no effort, solve for the geometrician problems which\nare far beyond his waking capacity--it sometimes teaches the musician\nairs such as he could not compose. That is to say, within ourself\nthere dwells a more mysterious Me, in some respects a more gifted\nSelf. There is not the least reason, in the present state of Science,\nto assume that this is either a \"spiritual\" being or an action of\nmaterial forces. It puzzled Wigan as the dual action of the brain;\nand a great light is thrown on it by the \"Physiology\" of Carpenter\nand the \"Memory\" of David Kay (one of the most remarkable works of\nmodern times), as well as in the \"Psycho Therapeutics\" of Dr. Tuckey.\n\nThis power, therefore, knows things hidden from Me, and can do what\nI cannot. Let no one incautiously exclaim here that what this really\nmeans is, that I possess higher accomplishments which I do not use. The\npower often actually acts against Me--it plays at fast and loose with\nme--it tries to deceive me, and when it finds that in dreams I have\ndetected a blunder in the plot of the play which it is spinning, it\nbrings the whole abruptly to an end with the convulsion of a nightmare,\nor by letting the curtain fall with a crash, and--scena est deserta--I\nam awake! And then \"how the phantoms flee--how the dreams depart!\" as\nWestwood writes. With what wonderful speed all is washed away clean\nfrom the blackboard! Our waking visions do not fly like this. But--be\nit noted, for it is positively true--the evanescence of our dreams is,\nin a vast majority of instances, exactly in proportion to their folly.\n\nI am coming to my witchcraft directly, but I pray you have patience\nwith my proeme. I wish to narrate a dream which I had a few years\nago (September 5, 1887), which had an intensity of reality. Dreams,\nyou know, reader, vary from rainbow mist to London fog, and so on to\nclouds, or mud. This one was hard as marble in comparison to most. A\nfew days previously I had written a letter to a friend, in which I\nhad discussed this subject of the dual-Me, and it seemed as if the\nDream were called forth by it in answer.\n\nI thought I was in my bed--a German one, for I was in Homburg vor der\nH\u00f6he--yet I did not know exactly where I was. I at once perceived the\nanomaly, and was in great distress to know whether I was awake or in a\ndream. I seemed to be an invalid. I realized, or knew, that in another\nbed near mine was a nurse or attendant. I begged her to tell me if I\nwere dreaming, and to awake me if I were. She tried to persuade me that\nI was in my ordinary life, awake. I was not at all satisfied. I arose\nand went into the street. There I met with two or three common men. I\nfelt great hesitation in addressing them on such a singular subject,\nbut told them that I was in distress because I feared that I was in\na dream, and begged them to shake or squeeze my arm. I forget whether\nthey complied, but I went on and met three gentlemen, to whom I made\nthe same request. One at once promptly declared that he remembered\nme, saying that we had met before in Cincinnatti. He pressed my arm,\nbut it had no effect. I began to believe that I was really awake. I\nreturned to the room. I heard a child speaking or murmuring by the\nnurse. I asked her again to shake my hand. This she did so forcibly\nthat I was now perfectly convinced that it was no dream. And the\ninstant it came home to me that it was a reality, there seized me\nthe thrill or feeling as of a coming nightmare--and I awoke!\n\nReviewing my dream when awake, I had the deepest feeling of having\nbeen jou\u00e9 or played with by a master-mocker. I recalled that, when\nI rose in my night-robe from the bed, I did not dress--and yet found\nmyself fully dressed when in the street. Then I remembered that when\nI returned to America, in 1879, I was in great apprehension lest\nI should have trouble and delay with our sixteen trunks, because\nthere was under my charge a lady who was dying. To my great relief\nand amazement, the officer whose duty it was to search claimed me as\nan old acquaintance, who had met me and T. Buchanan Read, the poet,\nin Cincinnatti in 1864. But what impressed me most of all, at once,\nwas that the whole was caused by, and was a keen and subtle mockery\nof my comments in my letter, of the other Ego, and of its sarcastic\npower. For I had been led, step by step, through the extremest doubt,\nto a full conviction of being awake, and then dismissed, as it were,\nwith a snap or sneer into wakefulness itself!\n\nNow this Dream Artist is, to judge by his works, a very different\nkind of a person from Me. We are not sympathetic, and herein lies a\ngreat and serious subject of study. \"Dreams,\" says a writer, \"are the\nnovels which we read when we are fast asleep,\" and, at the risk of\nreceiving punishment, I declare that my writer belongs to a school of\nnovelists with which I have no feelings in common. If, as everybody\nassumes, it is always I who dream--only using other material--how\nis it that I always invariably disagree with, thwart, contradict,\nvex, and mock myself? I had rather be hanged and be done with it,\nbefore I would wrong my worst enemy with such pitiful, silly, degrading\ndreams and long-forgotten follies, as I am called on to endure. If this\nalter-ego were a lunatic, he could not be a more thoroughly uncongenial\ninmate of my brain than he often is. Our characters are radically\ndifferent. Why has he a mind so utterly unlike mine? His tastes,\nhis thoughts, dispositions, and petty peculiarities are all unlike\nmine. If we belonged to the same club, I should never talk with him.\n\nNow we are coming to our Witchcraft. This alter-ego does not confine\nhimself to dreams. A lunatic is a man who dreams wide-awake. He\nhas lost his will or the controlling power resulting from the just\nco-relation of brain forces. Then the stored-up images stray out\nand blend. I have dreamed of telling or seeing things and of acting\nthem at the same time. A fish and a watch and a man may seem to be\nthe same thing at once in a dream, as they often are to a waking\nlunatic. A poet is a man who dreams wide-awake; but he can guide\nhis dreams or imaginings to symmetrical form, and to a logical\nconclusion or coherence. With the painter and sculptor it is the\nsame. When the alter-ego works harmoniously with the waking will,\nwe call it Imagination.\n\nBut when the alter-ego draws decidedly on latent forces, or powers\nunknown to the waking Me, I am amazed. He does it often enough,\nthat is certain. Then we have Mystery. And it is out of this that\nmen have drawn the conclusion that they have two or three souls--an\nastral spirit, a power of prophecy, the art of leaving the body,\nand the entire machinery of occultism. Physiology is probably on the\nhigh road to explain it all, but as yet it is not explained.\n\nMeanwhile it steals into our waking life in many ways. It comes\nin emotions, presentiments, harp tones, mystical conceptions, and\nminglings of images or ideas, and incomprehensible deductions, which\nare sometimes, of course, prophetic. It has nothing in common with\ncommon sense; therefore it is to some un-common sense, or to others\nnon-sense. Sometimes it is one or the other. Agreeable sensations and\ntheir harmony become the Beautiful. These blend and produce a general\n\u00e6sthetic sense. It becomes mystical, and is easily worked on by the\nalter-ego. The most inspired passages of every poet on the beauty of\nNature betray clearly the influence and hidden power of the Dream\nin waking life. Shelley, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, were all waking\ndreamers de la premi\u00e8re force.\n\nHe who has heard an \u00c6olian harp play--and I have heard the seven\nof Justinus Kerner in the old castle of Weibertreu when I was his\nguest--if he be a \"tone-artist,\" has often caught series of chords\nwhich were almost melodies. This music has the same relation to\ndefinite composition which the dream has to waking common sense. There\nare two things which I do not understand. One is, why composers of\nmusic make so little use of the suggestive \u00c6olian harp; the second\nis, why decorative designers never employ the folding mirror [18]\nto produce designs. The one is an exact counterpart of the other,\nand both are capable of revealing inexhaustible harmonies, for both\nare deeply in accordance with the evolving processes of Nature.\n\nThe poetic or artistic faculty is, we therefore assume, the action\non the myriad cells of memory by a strange--sometimes apparently\ninvoluntary--fantastic power, which is at the same time higher and\nlower than common sense or waking consciousness. Every image which\nman has received from sensation lies stored away in a cell, and is,\nin fact, a memory by itself. There is a faculty of association or\nsympathy by which groups of these images are called up, and there\nis perception which receives them, more or less vividly, like a\nphotographic plate. When awake, Will, or coherent Common Sense,\nregulates all this machinery. When asleep, the Images seem to steal\nout and blend and frisk about by themselves in quaint dances, guided\napparently by a kind of power whom I have conventionally called the\nalter-ego. This power throws open brain or memory-cells, which waking\nCommon Sense has forgotten; in their chaotic or fantastic searches\nand mingling they produce poetry; they may chance on prophecy, for\nif our waking self had at command the immense latent knowledge in\nwhich these elves revel, it would detect sequences and know to what\nmany things would lead, now unto us all unknown.\n\nI once knew a nobleman who inherited in Italy a palace which he had\nnever seen. There were in it three hundred rooms, and it had belonged\nto a family which had for six hundred years collected and handed\ndown to their descendants every kind of object, as if they had been\nmagpies or ravens. The heir, as a grave, earnest man, only concerned\nhimself with the armoury and picture gallery and principal rooms. But\nhis young daughter Bertha ranged all over the place and made hundreds\nof the most singular discoveries. One day she came to me very much\ndelighted. She had found an obscure room or garret, in which there\nwere ranged about on shelves, \"sitting up and all looking at her,\"\nseveral hundred old dolls and marionettes. For two hundred years or\nmore the family had kept its old dolls. In this case the father was\nthe waking reason, the rooms the brain cells, and Bertha the sprite who\nranges over all and knows where to find forgotten images in store. Many\nof those whom we meet in dreams are like the ghosts of dolls.\n\nThis is the only true Night side of Nature, but its shadows and dusky\ntwilight, and strangely-hued chiaroscuros and long pauses of gloom,\ncome constantly into the sunlight of our waking life. Some lives\nhave too much of it, some too little. Some receive it in coarse and\nevil forms, as lunatics, and sufferers from mania \u00e0 potu; some canny\npeople--happy Scotchmen, for instance--succeed in banishing it from\nlife as nearly as is possible for a human being to do. Now to speak\nclearly, and to recapitulate distinctly, I set forth the following\npropositions:--\n\nI. We have a conscious will which, whether it be an independent\nincomprehensible spirit, or simply the correlative result or action of\nall our other brain powers, exists, and during our waking hours directs\nour thoughts and acts. While it is at work in the world with social\ninfluences, its general tendency is towards average common sense.\n\nII. This conscious will sleeps when we sleep. But the collective images\nwhich form memory, each being indeed a separate memory, as an aggregate\nof bees' cells form a comb, are always ready to come forth, just as\nhoney is always sweet, limpid, and fluid. There is between them all\nan associative faculty, or a strange and singular power, which begins\nto act when the will sleeps. Whether it be also an independent Self\nwhich plays capriciously while conscious will sleeps, or a result of\ncorrelated forces, it is not as yet possible to determine. What we know\nis, that it calls forth the images by association, and in a fantastic,\ncapricious manner, imitates and combines what we have experienced,\nor read, or thought, during our waking hours.\n\nIII. Our waking will can only realize or act on such images as it\nhas kept familiarly before it, or such as have been so often recalled\nthat they recur spontaneously. But all the treasures of memory seem\nto be available to the dream ruler, and with them a loose facile\npower of grouping them into kaleidoscopic combinations. Thus, if one\ncould imagine a kaleidoscope which at every turn made varied groups\nof human or other figures in different attitudes, with changing\nscenery; and then suppose this to be turned round by some simple\nvital or mechanical action, he would have an idea of the action of\ndreams. It is probable that the radical function of the dream-power\nis to prevent images from becoming utterly forgotten or rusty; and by\nexercising the faculty of facile or chance combination to keep awake\nin man originality and creativeness. For it is almost certain that,\nbut for the intrusion of this faculty into our waking thoughts, man\nwould become a mere animal, without an idea beyond the joint common\nappetites, instincts, and emotions of the lowest of his kind.\n\nIV. The dream-power intrudes more or less into all waking life. Then it\nacts, though irregularly, yet in harmony, with conscious will. When it\nis powerful and has great skill in forming associations of images--and\nby images I mean, with Kay, \"ideas\"--and can also submit these to\nwaking wisdom, the result is poetry or art. In recalling strange,\nbeautiful images, and in imagining scenes, we partly lapse into\ndreaming; in fact, we do dream, though conscious will sits by us\nall the time and even aids our work. And most poets and artists,\nand many inventors, will testify that, while imagining or inventing,\nthey abstract the \"mind\" from the world and common-place events,\nseek calm and quiet, and try to get into a \"brown study,\" which is a\nwaking dream. That is to say, a condition which is in some respects\nanalogous to sleep is necessary to stimulate the flow and combination\nof images. This brown study is a state of mind in which images flow\nand blend and form new shapes far more easily than when Will and Reason\nhave the upper hand. For they act only in a conventional beaten track,\nand deal only with the known and familiar.\n\nV. Magic is the production of that which is not measured by the\ncapacity of the conscious working will. The dream spirit, or that\nwhich knows all our memories, and which combines, blends, separates,\nscatters, unites, confuses, intensifies, beautifies, or makes terrible\nall the persons, scenes, acts, events, tragedies, or comedies known\nto us, can, if it pleases, by instantaneous reasoning or intuition,\nperceive what waking common sense does not. We visit a sick man, and\nthe dream spirit, out of the inexhaustible hoards of memory aided by\nassociation, which results in subtle, occult reasoning, perceives that\nthe patient will die in a certain time, and this result is served up\nin a dramatic dream. The amount of miracles, mysteries, apparitions,\nomens, and theurgia which the action of these latent faculties cause,\nor seem to cause, is simply illimitable, for no man knows how much he\nknows. Few, indeed, are the ordinary well-educated Europeans of average\nexperience of life, whose memories are not inexhaustible encyclop\u00e6dias,\nand whose intellects are not infinite; if all that is really in them\ncould be wakened from slumber, \"know thyself\" would mean \"know the\nuniverse.\" Now, there are people who, without being able to say why,\nare often inspired by this power which intuitively divines or guesses\nwithout revealing the process to common sense. They look into the\neye of a person--something in glances and tones, gestures, mien, and\naddress, suggests at once an assertion or a prediction which proves to\nbe true. Considering that the dream-power has millions of experiences\nor images at its command, that it flits over them all like lightning,\nthat it can combine, abstract, compare, and deduct, that it being,\nso to speak, more of a thaumaturgical artist than anything else,\nexcels waking wisdom in subtle trickery, the wonder is, not that we\nso often hear of marvellous, magical, inexplicable wonders, but that\nthey are not of daily or hourly occurrence. When we think of what we\nmight be if we could master ourselves, and call on the vast sea of\nknowledge which is in the brain of every one who reads these lines,\nto give strict reckoning of its every wave and every drop of water,\nand every shell, pebble, wreck, weed, or grain of sand over which it\nrolls, and withal master the forces which make its tides and storms,\nthen we may comprehend that all the wonder-working power attributed\nto all the sorcerers of olden time was nothing compared to what we\nreally have within us.\n\nIt is awful, it is mysterious, it is terrible to learn this tremendous\ntruth that we are indeed within ourselves magicians gifted with\ninfinite intellectual power--which means the ability to know and do\nall things. In the past men surmised the existence of this infinite\nmemory, this power of subtle research and combination, but between\nthem and the truth in every land and time interposed the idea of\nobjective spiritual or supernatural existences whose aid or medium\nwas necessary to attain to wisdom. Outside of us was always Somebody\nElse to be invoked, conciliated, met in vision or trance, united to\nin spiritual unity or syncope. Sometimes they hit upon some form of\nhypnotism or mesmerism, opiates or forced swoons and convulsions,\nand so extorted from the nerves and dream-power some of their secrets\nwhich were all duly attributed to the \"spirits.\" But in the whole\nrange of occult literature from Hermes Trismegistus down to Madame\nBlavatsky there is not a shade of a suspicion that all the absolutely\nauthentic marvels of magic began and ended with man himself.\n\nLeast of all did any speculator yet conjecture how to set forth\non the path which leads us to this wonderland. For there is a way\nto it, and a power to master the infinite stores of memory and\nrender the dream-power a willing servant, if we take the pains to\ndo it. Firstly--as may be found asserted, and I think fairly proved,\nin my work on \"Practical Education,\" and in the \"Memory of David Kay\"\n(London, 1888)--every child by a very easy gradual process, simply that\nof learning by heart, and reviewing, can develope its memory to such a\ndegree that all which that child reads, hears, or sees can be literally\nretained for life. Secondly, quickness of perception, which is allied\nto memory, can be taught so as to develope intuitive observation\nand intelligence to an equally incredible extent. Thirdly--and for\nthis I have had abundant personal experience--every child can learn\nDesign and the Minor Arts or develope the Constructive faculties,\nand by doing this alone a pupil becomes exceptionally clever in all\nstudies. The proof of this is that the 200 pupils who attended an\nindustrial or art school in Philadelphia took precedence in studies\namong 110,000 others in the public schools.\n\nIf all the stores of our memory were distinctly cognized by our waking\nwill when they first came into our possession, we should have the first\ngreat element of power beyond all our present dreams of greatness. That\nthis can be done has been recognized by many of the most advanced\nthinkers of the day. If a child be trained to exercise quickness of\nperception so that at last it observes and remembers everything--and\nexperiment has proved this also--it will make the Dream Power a\nwaking power absolutely in harmony and accordance with waking wisdom\nor conscious will. For the reason why the capricious, wild, strange\nfitful faculty has always remained foreign to us, is because in all\nour culture we have never sought to subdue and train the powers allied\nto it. Catch and tame one water-fairy, says the Red Indian legend,\nand you may get all her sisters. Waking quickness of perception is\na wonderful ability. It can be trained to flit like lightning over\nillimitable fields of thought (supplied by a vast memory), and with\nthem it spontaneously developes comparison and deduction. Now all of\nthis is marvellously akin to the habitual action of the dream power\nplus that of reflection. And it is not possible to conceive that with\nwaking quickness of perception, or voluntary subtlety of thought,\ncultivated in infancy to the highest power, its twin which sports in\nsleep should not feel its influence and act under it.\n\nThe result of this culture would inevitably be that the marvels,\nmysteries, and magic as they seem to us of the dream, or intuitive\npower, would be perfectly under our waking control, or to such an\nextent that we could secure all that is profitable in them. It is a\nvery curious fact that while Reflection or Waking Wisdom slumbers,\nQuickness of Perception or Perception and Association seem to\nbe always awake--in dreams or waking. A very extended series of\nobservations has convinced me that the acquisition of a very great\ndegree of Observation itself, or of Attention, is as possible as to\nlearn French, and no harder; yet as a branch of study it literally\ndoes not exist. As a writer in the New York Tribune remarks: \"In fact,\nobservation is almost an atrophied faculty, and when a writer practises\nit for the purposes of his art, we regard the matter as in some sense\nwonderful.\" Interest, as Maudsley has shown, is a natural result of\nAttention, and the two generate Will. Whether we can actually control\nthe Dream-power is not as yet proved by experiment. All that we can\nsay is that it is probable. But that this power manifests itself in\nwaking hours when it submits to Reflection, is an established fact. It\nshows itself in all imagination, in all originality, brave art or\n\"fantasy.\" Therefore it is no extravagant deduction to conclude that\nall of its action which now seems so wonderful, and which has furnished\nthe ground-work for what we call magic, is perfectly within our grasp,\nand may be secured by simple methods of training which require only\nperseverance to perfect them.\n\nThe gypsy fortune-teller is accustomed for years to look\nkeenly and earnestly into the eyes of those whom she dukkers or\n\"fortune-tells.\" She is accustomed to make ignorant and credulous\nor imaginative girls feel that her mysterious insight penetrates\n\"with a power and with a sign\" to their very souls. As she looks into\ntheir palms, and still more keenly into their eyes, while conversing\nvolubly with perfect self-possession, ere long she observes that she\nhas made a hit--has chanced upon some true passage or relation to the\ngirl's life. This emboldens her. Unconsciously the Dream Spirit, or the\nAlter-Ego, is awakened. It calls forth from the hidden stores of Memory\nstrange facts and associations, and with it arises the latent and often\nunconscious quickness of Perception, and the gypsy actually apprehends\nand utters things which are \"wonderful.\" There is no clairvoyance,\nillumination or witchcraft in such cases. If such powers existed\nas they are generally understood to do, we should for one case of\ncurious prediction hear of twenty thousand. But the Dream-power is\nat best fitful, irregular and fantastic in its action; it is at all\ntimes untrustworthy, for it has never been trained unless of yore by\nChald\u00e6an priests and magi. In some wonderful way facts do, however,\nmanifest themselves, evoked out of the unknown by \"occult,\" though\npurely material, mental faculties; and the result is that wonder at the\ninexplicable--which makes miracles--until we are accustomed to them.\n\nThat gypsy women often do surmise or arrive at very curious and\nstartling truths I know by my own experience, and also know that I\nmyself when reading character in people's hands according to the laws\nlaid down in books on chiromancy, when I have felt deeply interested,\nor as one may say excited or inspired, and have gone a little beyond\nmere description into conjecture and deduction, have been amazed at\nmy own successes. It happened once that when in company with several\nladies it was proposed after lunch to go to a gypsy camp on the\nThames, and have fortunes told. Among these ladies was one of a very\nimaginative temperament, who had not only lived many years in the East,\nbut had resided several winters as a guest in Arab families. As she\nwas very much disappointed at not finding the gypsies, I offered to\ntell her fortune by onomancy, i.e., by taking the letters of her name\naccording to numbers, and deducing from them her past and future. This\nI did in a most reckless manner, freely setting down whatever came into\nmy mind. It seems to me now that a kind of inspiration suggested what\nI wrote and predicted. What was my amazement to hear the lady declare\nthat all which had been written as to her past life was literally true,\nand I saw that she was simply awed at my supposed power of prediction,\nand had the fullest faith in what I had declared as regarded the\nfuture. What I had intended for a jest or mere entertainment turned\nout to be serious enough. And reflecting on the evil consequences\nof such belief on a person who naturally attributed it all to magic,\nI deeply regretted what I had done, and have not since attempted any\nrenewal of such oracle-work. It had previously occurred that I wrote\nout such a prediction for another lady which I did not clearly explain\nto her, but in which there was a regular recurrence and repetition\nof something unfortunate. This was shown in after years, and the\ntroubles all came to pass as I had written. Now the more I studied\nthis case the more I was convinced that it was based on unconscious\nobservation, comparison, and deduction. Fichte has said that no bird\ncan fly beyond itself, but the mind sometimes does actually precede\nits own conscious reasoning and throw back facts to it.\n\nIt may be urged by those who still cling to the old-fashioned fetish\nof a distinction between Spirit and Matter, that this explanation of\npredictions, oracles, and insight, is simply materialistic and utterly\ndestructive of all the poetry, grandeur, and beauty which is associated\nwith mysterious divination. But for those who believe with Maudsley,\net sui generis, that all such distinctions are not seriously worth\nconsidering, and to him who can rise to the great philosophy now\ndawning on the world, there is perceptible in it something far more\nwonderful and poetical, beautiful and even awful, than ever was known\nto any occultist of old--for it is scientific and true. It is also true\nthat man can now talk across the world and hear all sounds conveyed\nto him through the depths of ocean. He can catch these sounds and\nkeep them for centuries. How long will it be before sights, scents,\nand tastes will be thus transferred, and the man sitting in London\nwill see all things passing in Asia, or wherever it pleases him or an\nagent to turn a mirror on a view? It will be. [19] Or how long before\nthe discovery of cheap and perfect aerial navigation will change all\nsociety and annihilate national distinctions? That, too, will be. These\nand a thousand stranger discoveries will during the ensuing century\nburst upon the world, changing it utterly. We go on as of old in our\nlittle petty narrow grooves, declaring that this will be, and that will\nnever come to pass, and that this or that kind of hop-scotch lines,\nand tip-cat and marbles rules, are the eternal laws of humanity,\nand lo! all the while in his study some man whom you regard as a\ndreamer or dolt is preparing that which will be felt forever.\n\nOne of these great discoveries, and that not the least, will be the\ndevelopment and mastery of memory and perception, attention, interest,\nand will in children, with the constructive faculty which stimulates\nthe whole by means of easy gradual series of instructions. When\nthis system shall be perfected, we shall advance to understanding,\ncontrolling, and disciplining the subtler and stranger powers of the\nbrain, which now puzzle us as dreams, intuitions, poetic inspiration,\nand prophecy. But this prophecy comes not from it, nor from any vague\nguessing or hoping. It is based on facts and on years of careful\nstudy of a thousand children's minds, and from a conviction derived\nfrom calm observation, that the powers of the human mind are infinite\nand capable of being developed by science. And they will be!\n\nThere is very little knowledge among gypsies of real chiromancy, such\nas is set forth in the literature of occult or semi-occult science. Two\ncenturies ago, when chiromancy was studied seriously and thoroughly\nby learned and wise men, the latter compared thousands of hands,\nand naturally enough evolved certain truths, such as you, reader,\nwould probably evolve for yourself if you would do the same. Firstly\nthey observed, as you may do, that the hand of a boor is not marked\nlike that of a gentleman, nor that of an ignoramus like the palm of\nan artist or scholar. The line which indicates brain is on an average\nshorter in women than in men; in almost every instance certain signs\ninfallibly indicate great sensuality, Others show a disposition to\ndreaminess, sentimentalism, the occult. Now as Love, Wisdom, Strength\nof Will, or Inertness, are associable with Venus, Apollo, Jupiter,\nor Saturn, and as astrology was then seriously believed in, it came\nto pass that the signs of chiromancy were distributed to the seven\nplanets, and supposed to be under their dominion. It was an error, but\nafter all it amounts to a mere classification. Properly considered,\nthe names Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are only\nsynonymes of qualities, meaning masculine virtue and character,\naptitude, art, cleverness, sexual passion, and combativeness. He\nwho would, without a trace of superstition, analyze and describe\nmany hands compared with the characters of their owners, would adopt\neffectively the same arrangement.\n\nWhen we remember the age in which they lived and the popular yearning\nfor wonders and marvels which then characterized even the wisest men,\nthe old chiromancers were singularly free from superstition. There\nwere many among them who would have regarded with supreme contempt\na Desbarolles, with his fortune-telling for twenty francs.\n\nTo these truly honest men, the gypsies, with their pretended\nchiromancy, were at first a great puzzle. The learned Pr\u00e6torius, in\nhis vast work on Chiromancy and Physiognomy, devotes seventy-five\npages to this \"foreign element in our midst,\" and comes to the\nconclusion that they are humbugs. They do not know the lines--they\nknow nothing. The intrusion of the latent powers of the mind had no\nplace in the philosophy of Pr\u00e6torius, therefore he did not perceive\nthe back door by which the Romany slipped into the oracle. Yet\nthere is abundant evidence even in his own valuable collection of\nthe works of his predecessors, that many of them when tempted from\nmerely describing character to straying into prophecy, were guided by\nsomething more mysterious than the laws of the lines of life, of the\nhead, heart, the circle of Venus, the \"hepatic,\" and vi\u00e2 lactea. The\nHungarian gypsies have a system of chiromancy of their own which the\nreader may find in the book \"Vom Wandernden Zigeunervolke,\" by Dr. von\nWlislocki, Hamburg, 1890. I had translated this and more of the kind\nfor this chapter, but omitted it, thinking, firstly, that its place\nis supplied by more important matter; and, secondly, because it is,\nsave as perhaps indicative of Indian origin, quite valueless, being\nmerely of the prophetic kind.\n\nI have more than once known gypsies to tell me things of my past life\nwhich were certainly remarkable, bewildering, or inexplicable. And for\nthe ordinary seeker of \"voonders oopon voonders\" it is all-sufficient\nthat a thing shall be beyond clear intelligence. \"How do you explain\nthat?\" is their crucial question, and their cry of triumph when\nrelating some case of an authentic apparition, a spiritual feat\nof thaumaturgy, or a dream fulfilled. In fact they would rather\nnot have it explained. I well remember how Professor Joseph Henry,\nwhen lecturing on natural science, narrated to us, his hearers, how\nwhen he told certain people how certain tricks of a common conjuror\nwere executed, they all protested that it could not be the way it\nwas done. They did not wish to be disillusioned. Raise a man from\nthe dead, make him fly through the air, and it is for everybody a\nmiracle. Give them the power to do the same, and in a month's time\nit will be no longer miraculous, but something \"in the due course of\nnature.\" And what single fact is there in the due course of nature\nwhich is not as inexplicable if we seek for a full explanation of\nit? Consider this thing every day till you are penetrated with it,\nbear it in mind constantly, and in due time all phenomena will\nbe miracles. We can apparently get a little nearer to the causes\nand give our discoveries names, but the primal causes as constantly\nrecede and are continually buried in deeper mystery. But with most\npeople names pass for explanations.\n\n\"Can you tell me what a hypothesis is?\" asked a young gentleman at a\ndinner party of a friend who passed for being well-informed. \"Hush,\"\nwas the reply. \"Not now--ladies present.\"\n\n\"Mon caporal,\" asked a French soldier, \"can you tell me what is\nmeant by an equilateral?\" \"Certainly--mais d'abord--do you know\nHebrew?\" \"No.\" \"Ah, then it would be impossible to explain it to you.\"\n\n\"What is it that makes people's heads ache?\" inquired an old lady\nof a youth who had just begun his medical studies. \"Oh, it is only\nthe convolution of the anomalies of the ellipsoid,\" replied the\nstudent. \"Just see now what it is to git larnin!\" commented the\ndame. \"He knows it all in a straight line?\"\n\nThe one is satisfied that a hypothesis is something improper, the\nother that an equilateral is a matter which he might understand if\nhe were as learned as his corporal, and the third is pleased to find\nthat the mystery has at least a name. And human beings are satisfied\nin the same way as to the mysteries of Nature. Give them a name and\nassure them that the learned understand it, and they are satisfied.\n\nIt is a fundamental principle of human folly to assume that any\nalleged marvel is a \"violation of the laws of Nature,\" or the work of\nsupernatural influences, until it is proved not to be such. Nature\ncannot be violated. She is ever virgin. And \"how do you account for\nthat?\" is always assumed to be a test question. It cannot be denied\nthat in almost every case, the narrator assumes the absolute truth\nof all which he states, when, as is well known, even in the most\ncommonplace incidents of ordinary life, such truth can very rarely be\nobtained. Secondly, he assumes that all the persons who were cognizant\nof the miracle, or were concerned in it, were not only perfectly\ntruthful, but endowed with perfect perfections, and absolutely sound\njudgments. If there is the least shadow of a possibility that one\nof them could have erred in the least particular, the whole must\nfall to the ground as a proof or test--for we must have irrefragible\nand complete evidence before we adopt a faith on which all our life\nmay depend. But, thirdly, by asking any one to account for a marvel,\nhe assumes that the one thus called on knows everything short of the\nsupernatural or Infinite, which is simply silly.\n\nBut there is a higher source of admiration and wonder than could\never be established by vulgar fetish, Animism, or supernaturalism,\nand this is to be found in the mysteries of Nature which man has never\npenetrated, and which, as soon as they are overcome, reveal others far\ngrander or deeper. Thus as Alps rise beyond Alps, and seas of stars\nand solar systems spread in proportions of compound multiplication,\nour powers of vision increase. And it often happens to him who looks\ndeeply into causes, that one of the myriad test cases of so-called\n\"supernaturalism,\" when it has ignominiously broken down--as all do\nsooner or later--often reveals a deeper marvel or mystery than it\nwas intended to support. Thus some Red Indians in North America,\non being told how certain juggling tricks which they had accepted\nfor magic were performed, calmly replied that it did not make the\nleast difference--that a man must have been a magician (or divinely\ninspired) to be able to find out such tricks. And I myself knew an\nIndian trader named Ross, who, being once among a wild tribe, put on\na mask of papier mach\u00e9, which caused tremendous excitement and awe,\nwhich was not in the least diminished when he took it off and put it\ninto their hands and explained its nature, for they maintained that\nthe thing which could cause such terror indicated the existence of\nsuperior mental power, or magic, in the maker. In which there is,\nas it seems to me, indications of a much higher wisdom or sagacity\nthan is to be found in the vulgar spiritualist who takes the event or\nthing itself for the miracle, and who, when found out in his tricks,\nignominiously collapses.\n\nThe conclusion from all this is, that I have seen and heard of much\nin gypsy witchcraft and fortune-telling which, while it was directly\nallied to humbug of the shallowest kind, also rested on, or was\ninspired by, mental action or power which, in our present state of\nknowledge, must be regarded as strangely mysterious and of the deepest\ninterest. And this is indeed weird, in the fullest and truest sense,\nsince it is used for prophecy. I will now endeavour to illustrate this.\n\nIt is but natural that there should be \"something in\" gypsy\nfortune-telling. If the reader were to tell ten fortunes a day for\ntwenty years it would be very remarkable indeed if in that time he had\nnot learned some things which would seem wonderful to the world. He\nwould detect at a glance the credulous, timid, bold, doubtful, refined\nor vulgar nature, just as a lawyer learns to detect character by\ncross-examination. Many experiments of late years have gone very far\nto establish the existence of a power of divining or reading thought;\nhow this is really done I know not; perhaps the experts in it are as\nignorant as I am, but it is very certain that certain minds, in some\n(as yet) marvellous way, betray their secrets to the master. That\nthere are really gypsies who have a very highly cultivated faculty of\nreading the mind by the eye is certainly true. Sometimes they seem to\nbe themselves uncertain, and see as through a glass darkly, and will\nreveal remarkable facts doubtfully. I remember a curious illustration\nof this. Once I was walking near Bath, and meeting a tinker asked him\nif there were any gypsies in the vicinity. He gave me the address\nof a woman who lived in a cottage at no great distance. I found it\nwith some trouble, and was astonished on entering at the abominably\nmiserable, reckless, squalid appearance of everything. There was a\nhalf or quarter-bred gypsy woman, ragged, dirty, and drunk, a swarm\nof miserable children, and a few articles of furniture misplaced\nor upset as if the inmates had really no idea of how a room should\nbe lived in. I addressed the woman civilly, but she was too vulgar\nand degraded to be capable of sensible or civil conversation with\na superior. Such people actually exist among the worst class of\nvagabonds. But as I, disgusted, was about to leave, and gave her a\nsmall gratuity, she offered to tell my fortune, which I declined,\nwhereupon she cried, \"You shall see that I know something;\" and\ncertainly told me something which astonished me, of an event which\nhad taken place two years before at a great distance. To test her I\ncoolly denied it all, at which she seemed astonished and bewildered,\nsaying, \"Can I have made a mistake? You are certainly the person.\" All\nof this may be explained by causes which I shall set forth. But it\ncannot be too earnestly insisted on to people who habitually doubt,\nthat because a thing can be explained in a certain way (i.e., by\nhumbug) that it necessarily follows that that is the only explanation\nof it. Yet this is at the present day actually and positively the\npopular method, and it obtains very largely indeed with the small\ncritics of the \"safe school.\" Mrs. Million has diamonds; she may have\nstolen them--a great many people have stolen diamonds--therefore she\nis probably a thief. The Icelandic sagas describe journies to America;\nbut the writers of the sagas were often mythical, exaggerative, and\ninaccurate--therefore all they narrate as regards America must be,\nof course, untrue.\n\n\n    Jack Stripe\n    Eats tripe,\n    It is therefore credible\n    That tripe is edible;\n    And it follows perforce,\n    As a matter of course,\n    That the devil will gripe\n    All who do not eat tripe.\n\n\nBut I do not insist that there is anything \"miraculous\" in gypsy\nfortune-telling. It may be merely the result of great practical\nexperience and of a developed intuition, it may be mind or\n\"thought-reading\"--whatever that really is--or it may result from\nfollowing certain regular rules. This latter method will be pronounced\npure humbug, but of that I will speak anon. These rules followed by\nanybody, even the feeblest dilettante who has only read Desbarolles\nfor drawing-room entertainment, will often astonish the dupe. They are,\n\"in few,\" as follows:--\n\n\n    1. It is safe in most cases with middle-aged men to declare that\n    they have had a law-suit, or a great dispute as to property, which\n    has given them a great deal of trouble. This must be impressively\n    uttered. Emphasis and sinking the voice are of great assistance\n    in fortune-telling. If the subject betray the least emotion,\n    or admit it, promptly improve the occasion, express sympathy,\n    and \"work it up.\"\n\n    2. Declare that a great fortune, or something greatly to the\n    advantage of the subject, or something which will gratify him,\n    will soon come in his way, but that he must be keen to watch his\n    opportunity and be bold and energetic.\n\n    3. He will have three great chances, or fortunes, in his life. If\n    you know that he has inherited or made a fortune, or had a good\n    appointment, you may say that he has already realized one of\n    them. This seldom fails.\n\n    4. A lady of great wealth and beauty, who is of singularly\n    sympathetic disposition, is in love with him, or ready to be,\n    and it will depend on himself to secure his happiness. Or he will\n    soon meet such a person when he shall least expect it.\n\n    5. \"You had at one time great trouble with your relations (or\n    friends). They treated you very unkindly.\" Or, \"They were prepared\n    to do so, but your resolute conduct daunted them.\"\n\n    6. \"You have been three times in great danger of death.\" Pronounce\n    this very impressively. Everybody, though it be a schoolboy\n    believes, or likes to believe, that he has encountered perils. This\n    is infallible, or at least it takes in most people. If the subject\n    can be induced to relate his hairbreadth escapes, you may foretell\n    future perils.\n\n    7. \"You have had an enemy who has caused you great trouble. But\n    he--or she--it is well not to specify which till you find out the\n    sex--will ere long go too far, and his or her effort to injure you\n    will recoil on him or her.\" Or, briefly, \"It is written that some\n    one, by trying to wrong you, will incur terrible retribution.\" Or,\n    \"You have had enemies, but they are all destined to come to\n    grief.\" Or, \"You had an enemy but you outlived him.\"\n\n    8. \"You got yourself once into great trouble by doing a good act.\"\n\n    9. \"Your passions have thrice got you into great trouble. Once\n    your inconsiderate anger (or pursuit of pleasure) involved you in\n    great suffering which, in the end, was to your advantage.\" Or else,\n    \"This will come to pass; therefore be on your guard.\"\n\n    10. \"You will soon meet with a person who will have a great\n    influence on your future life if you cultivate his friendship. You\n    will ere long meet some one who will fall in love with you,\n    if encouraged.\"\n\n    11. \"You will find something very valuable if you keep your eyes\n    open and watch closely. You have twice passed over a treasure\n    and missed it, but you will have a third opportunity.\"\n\n    12. \"You have done a great deal of good, or made the fortune or\n    prosperity of persons who have been very ungrateful.\"\n\n    13. \"You have been involved in several love affairs, but your\n    conduct in all was really perfectly blameless.\"\n\n    14. \"You have great capacity for something, and before long\n    an occasion will present itself for you to exert it to your\n    advantage.\"\n\n\nBy putting these points adroitly, and varying or combining them,\nstartling cases of conviction may be made. Yet even into this deception\nwill glide intuition, or the inexplicable insight to character,\nand the deceiver himself be led to marvel, so true is it that he who\nflies from Brama goes towards him, let him do what he will, for Truth\nis everywhere, and even lies lead to it.\n\nThe reader has often seen in London Italian women who have small birds,\ngenerally parrakeets, or paraquitos, which will for a penny pick out\nfor her or for him slips of paper on which is printed a \"fortune.\" If\nhe will invest his pence in these he will in most instances find\nthat they \"fit his case\" exactly, because they are framed on these\nor other rules, which are of very general application. There was,\nin 1882, an Italian named Toricelli. Whether he was a descendant of\nthe great natural philosopher of the same name who discovered the law\nof the vacuum I do not know, but he certainly exhibited--generally\nin Piccadilly--an ingenious application of it. He had a long glass\ncylinder, filled with water, in which there was a blown glass image\nof an imp. By pressing his hand on the top of the cover of the tube\nthe folletto or diavoletto was made to rise or fall--from which the\nprediction was drawn. It will hardly be believed, but the unfortunate\nToricelli was actually arrested by the police and punished for\n\"fortune-telling.\" [20] After this he took to trained canaries or\nparrakeets, which picked out printed fortunes, for a living. Whether\nthe stern arm of British justice descended on him for this latter\nform of sorcery and crime I do not know.\n\n\n   \"Forse fu dal demonio trasportato,\n    Fiancheggiandosi del' autorita\n    Di Origene o di San Girolamo.\"\n\n\nNow it may be admitted that to form such rules (and there are many\nmore far more ingenious and generally applicable) and to put them into\npractice with tact, adapting them to intuitions of character, not only\nas seen in the face but as heard in the voice or betrayed by gestures\nand dress and manner, must in the end develop a power. And, further\nstill, this power by frequent practice enables its possessor to perform\nfeats which are really marvellous and perhaps inexplicable, as yet,\nto men of science. I have, I think, indicated the road by which they\ntravel to produce this result, but to what they arrived I do not know.\n\nNor do they all get there. What genius is, physiology, with all the\nvast flood of light spread by Francis Galton on hereditary gifts,\ncannot as yet explain. It is an absolute thing of itself, and a\n\"miracle.\" Sometimes this wonderful power of prediction and of reading\nthought and quickly finding and applying rules falls into the hands\nof a genius. Then all our explanations of \"humbug\" and \"trickery\"\nand juggling fall to the ground, because he or she works what are\nabsolutely as much miracles as if the artist had raised the dead. Such\ngeniuses are the prophets of old; sometimes they are poets. There\nare as many clearly-defined and admirable predictions as to events\nin art and politics in the works of Heine, which were fulfilled,\nas can be found anywhere.\n\nBy the constant application of such rules, promptly and aptly,\nor boldly, the fortune-teller acquires a very singular quickness of\nperception. There are very few persons living who really know what this\nmeans and to what apparently marvellous results constant practice in it\nmay lead. Beginning with very simple and merely mechanical exercises\n(\"Practical Education,\" p. 151. London: Whittaker & Co.), perception\nmay be gradually developed until not only the eye and ear observe\na thousand things which escape ordinary observation, and also many\n\"images\" at once, but finally the mind notes innumerable traits of\ncharacter which would have once escaped it, combines these, and in a\nsecond draws conclusions which would amuse those who are ignorant--as\nindeed all men are as yet--of the extraordinary faculties latent in\nevery man.\n\nI beg the reader to pay special attention to this fact. There is\nnothing in all the annals of prophecy, divination, fortune-telling, or\nprediction, which is nearly so wonderful as what we may all do if we\nwould by practice and exercise bring out of ourselves our own innate\npower of perception. This is not an assertion based on metaphysical\ntheory; it is founded on fact, and is in strict accordance with the\nsoundest conclusions of modern physiology. By means of it, joined\nto exercises in memorizing, all that there is in a child of ordinary\nintellect may be unerringly drawn out; and when in due time knowledge\nor information is gradually adduced, there is perhaps no limit to\nwhat that intellect may become. The study, therefore, of quickness\nof perception, as set forth or exercised in gypsy fortune-telling,\nis indeed curious; but to the far-reaching observer who is interested\nin education it is infinitely more useful, for it furnishes proof of\nthe ability latent in every mind to perform what appear to be more than\nfeats of intelligence or miracles, yet which often are all mere trifles\ncompared to what man could effect if he were properly trained to it.\n\nSorcery! We are all sorcerers, and live in a wonderland of marvel\nand beauty if we did but know it. For the seed sprouting from the\nground is as strange a truth as though we saw the hosts of heaven\nsweeping onward in glory, or could commune with fairies, or raise\nfrom his grave the master magician of song who laid a curse on all\nwho should dig his dust. But like children who go to sleep in the\ngrand opera, and are wild with delight at Punch, we turn aside from\nthe endless miracle of nature to be charmed and bewildered with the\npetty thaumaturgy of guitars in the dark, cigarettes, and rope-tying,\nbecause it corresponds to and is miracle enough for us. And perhaps it\nis as well; for much thought on the Infinites made Jean Paul Richter\nand Thomas Carlyle half mad and almost unfit for common life. Seek\ntruth in Science and we shall be well balanced in the little as well\nas the great.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nFORTUNE-TELLING (continued).--ROMANCE BASED ON CHANCE, OR HOPE, AS\nREGARDS THE FUTURE--FOLK- AND SORCERY-LORE--AUTHENTIC INSTANCES OF\nGYPSY PREDICTION.\n\n\nIt would seem to all who now live that life would be really\nintolerably dry were it utterly deprived of mystery, marvel, or\nromance. This latter is the sentiment of hopeful chance allied to\nthe beautiful. Youth is willing or eager to run great risks if the\nroad to or through them passes by dark ravines, under castled rocks--\n\n\n          \"o'er dewy grass\n    And waters wild and fleet\"\n\n\n--and ever has been from the beginning. Now, it is a matter of serious\nimportance to know whether this romance is so deeply inherent in\nman that it can never be removed. For, rightly viewed, it means\ncurrent religion, poetry, and almost all art--as art at least was\nonce understood--and it would seem as if we had come, or are coming,\nto a time when science threatens to deprive us of it all. Such is\nthe hidden fear of many a priest and poet--it may be worth while to\nconsider whether it is all to pass away into earnest prose or assume\nnew conditions. Has the world been hitherto a child, or a youth,\nwere poetry and supernaturalism its toys, and has the time come when\nit is to put away childish things?\n\nWe can only argue from what we are, and what we clearly know or\nunderstand. And we know that there are in Nature, though measured\nby the senses alone, phenomena which awake delightful or terrible,\nsublime or beautiful, grave or gay feelings, or emotions, which inspire\ncorresponding thoughts. There is for us \"an elf-home glory-land,\"\nfar over setting suns, mysterious beauty in night and stars in\ntheir eternal course, grandeur of God in the ocean, loveliness in\nwoman, chiaroscuro in vapoury valleys and the spray of waterfalls\nby moonlight, exciting emotions which are certainly not within the\ndomain of science--as yet--and which it is impossible for us, as we\nare at present constituted, to imagine as regarded entirely from the\nstandpoint of chemical and physical analysis. To see in all this--as we\nare--only hydro-carbons, oxygen, silex and aluminium, atoms, molecules,\nand \"laws\"--that is to say, always the parts and combinations and no\nsense as regards man that he is, with his emotional sense of beauty,\nanywhere in the game or of any account--is going far too far. Setting\nteleology and theology entirely aside, Man, as the highest organism,\nhas a right to claim that, as the highest faculties which have been\nas yet developed in him were caused by natural phenomena, therefore\nthere is in the phenomena a certain beauty which is far more likely\nto lead to more advanced enjoyment of form, colour, or what we call\nthe \u00e6sthetic sense, than to shrink away and disappear. And it seems\nto me that the most extended consideration of science leads to the\nresult or conclusion that under its influence we shall find that the\nchemical and physical analyses of which I have spoken are only the\ndry A B C of a marvellously grand literature, or of a Romance and\nPoetry and Beauty--perhaps even of a wondrous \"occult\" philosophy,\nof whose beginning even we have, as yet, no idea.\n\nBut, great as it may be, those who will make it must derive their\nsummary of facts or bases of observation from the past, and therefore\nI urge the importance of every man who can write doing what he can\nto collect all that illustrates Humanity as it is and as it was in\nby-gone ages. It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive\nwhat a Folk-lore or ethnological society in ancient Greece, Rome,\nor Egypt might not have collected and preserved for the delight of\nevery civilized human being of the present day. It is very true\nthat the number of persons, as yet, who understand this--still\nless of those who take a real interest in it--is extremely limited,\nand they do not extend in England, America, or any other country, to\nmore than a few hundreds. To the vast multitude, even of learned men,\nFolk-lore is only a \"craze\" for small literary bric-\u00e0-brac, a \"fancy\"\nwhich will have its run, and nothing more. To its earnest devotees\nit is the last great development of the art of learning and writing\nhistory, and a timely provision for future social science. It sets\nforth the most intimate inner life of people as they were, and the\norigins of our life as it is. In Folk-lore, Philology, Ethnology,\nand the study of Mythology or Religion find their greatest aid.\n\nThe amount of Red Indian Folk-lore which has been suffered to perish\nin the United States without exciting the least interest is beyond\nall belief. Thoreau could find in the Algonkin legends of New\nEngland nothing but matter for feeble-minded ridicule. But there\nare men coming, or a generation rising, to whom every record of\nthe past will be of value, for they are beginning to perceive that\nwhile the collector is doing work of value the mere theorist, who\ngenerally undervalues if he does not actually oppose the collector,\nwill with his rubbish be swept away \"down the back-entry of time,\"\nto be utterly forgotten.\n\nGypsy sorcery-lore is of great value because all over the Aryan\nworld gypsies have in ancient or modern times been, so to speak, the\nwandering priests of that form of popular religion which consists\nof a faith in fortune-telling. This is really a very important\npart in every cult; the most remarkable thing connected with it;\nas with charms, fetishes, incantations and protective spells,\nbeing the extraordinary success with which the more respectable\nmagi have succeeded in convincing their followers that their own\nsorcery was not \"magic\" at all, and that the world-old heathen rites,\nwhich are substantially the same, are mere modern thieveries from the\n\"established religion.\" Prediction and prophecy were the cornerstones\nof the classic mythology and of the Jewish law; they were equally\ndear to the Celtic races, and all men seem from the earliest times to\nhave believed that coming events cast their shadows before. How this\nbegan and grew requires no deep study. Many disorders are prefaced\nby uneasy dreams or unaccountable melancholy, even as the greatest\ndisaster which befel the gods of Valhalla was preceded by the troubled\ndreams of Balder. Sometimes the first symptom of gout is a previous\nirritability. But if diseases are believed to be caused by the literal\noccupation of the body by evil spirits these presages will be ascribed\nto occult spiritual influences. A man in excellent health feels gay--he\ngoes hunting and has luck--of course his guardian spirit is believed to\nhave inspired him to go. Then comes the priest or the gypsy to predict,\nand the hits are recorded and the misses are promptly forgotten.\n\nThe following instance has been related to me in good faith by a\nlearned friend, whose books are well known to all Folk-lorists:--\n\n\n   \"I can quote from my own experience a strange event founded on\n    a prediction made to me by a gypsy in 1863. This was before I\n    had learned the language of the Romany or had begun to take any\n    interest in them. At the time of which I speak, I met one day here,\n    in T----, one or two gypsy women bearing as usual babies on their\n    shoulders, when the oldest as I was passing by pointed me out to\n    the bystanders, saying in German, 'Der Herr hat viel Kummer gehabt'\n    ('That gentleman has had much trouble'--or sorrow).\n\n   \"This was true enough, as I was suffering greatly at the time\n    from a previous bereavement, though I was no longer in mourning,\n    nor was there at the instant any indication of gloom in my looks,\n    for I was in a cheerful humour. So I stopped to ask her why she had\n    made her remark. She replied, 'Ja, geben Sie mir die linke Hand und\n    legen Sie drei Silberm\u00fcnze darauf, wenn Sie weiteres h\u00f6ren wollen'\n    ('Yes, give me your hand, and put three silver coins on it, if\n    you would hear more'). I did so, when she repeated her assertion\n    as to my sorrow, and added, 'Aber eine Gr\u00e4finn steht f\u00fcr Ihnen'\n    ('But there is a countess awaiting you').\n\n   \"I laughed at myself for listening to this, and for the strange\n    feeling of interest or faith which I felt in it, and which my\n    common sense told me was ridiculous. And yet the prediction,\n    strangely enough, was fulfilled, though not in the sense in which I\n    suppose most people would have taken it. Soon after I lost another\n    relative, and was overwhelmed with that and other troubles when\n    Providence sent me a friend in that most amiable and remarkable\n    woman the Countess B----, who, with that noble and gracious\n    affability which distinguishes her, as well as her husband,\n    Sir ----, relieved my mind and cheered my depressed spirits.\n\n   \"I add to this a marvellous story of a gypsy prediction which was\n    uttered here in T---- and published last year in a small biography,\n    but which is worth consideration because I have heard it apparently\n    well authenticated by trustworthy people. A very great disgrace to\n    our town--I am happy to say he was the only one--was a Mr. M----,\n    of very good family. This man kept a mistress named R. M----,\n    who became acquainted with a young man who was employed as a\n    clerk at the Credit Anstalt, and who always at night carried on\n    his person its keys. This M---- learned, and formed the following\n    plot: The victim was to be enticed by the woman to her room, where\n    she proposed to cut his throat, take the keys, and with the aid of\n    M---- to rob the bank and escape. It succeeded so far as that the\n    young man was brought to her room, but when she began to attempt\n    to kill him he struggled, and was overpowering her when M----\n    entered the room and shot him dead.\n\n   \"The precious pair were subsequently arrested and tried, and\n    in the report of the proceedings there appears the following\n    curious statement:--\n\n  \"'It is a singular thing (cosa piu singolare) that to this woman\n    (M----'s mistress, Miss R----), a gypsy woman who pretended to\n    palmistry predicted that she would come to a bad end (ch'essa\n    finirebbe assai male).' Which she effectually did, being condemned\n    to fourteen years' hard labour, and would have been hung had not\n    her \"interesting state\" inclined the judge to mercy.\n\n   \"There is the following addition in the pamphlet to what has\n    been quoted: 'Being begged by the said Maria R---- to look more\n    closely into the hand, the Zingara refused to do so, and went away\n    muttering strange or foreign words.' (Borbottanda strane parole).\"\n\n\nTo this my informant adds:--\n\n\n   \"I know of a more cheerful case of gypsy prediction, and of quite\n    another kind, and which happened to a friend's friend of mine,\n    also here in T----. The 'subject' was a young lady, who was\n    'intended' or betrothed, to an Italian actor, who had gone to\n    play at Madrid; but for two months she heard nothing from him,\n    and, believing that he had neglected her, was in despair.\n\n   \"One morning she was passing through one of the main streets,\n    and was talking with my friend, when a dark gypsy girl going by,\n    whispered to her in a hurried manner: 'Domani avrai una lettera\n    e sarai felice' ('To-morrow you will receive a letter and be\n    happy'). Having said this and nothing more, without asking for\n    money, she went away. The promised letter was in fact received,\n    all went well, and the lady is now married to the gentleman. This\n    is all simply true. I leave the comments on the case to\n    investigators. Can it be that gypsies are sometimes clairvoyant?\"\n\n\nMy own comment on the case is that, admitting that the gypsy knew\nbeforehand all the circumstances or even the \"parties\" in the affair,\nshe had divined or \"intuited\" a result, and risked, as some might call\nit, or else uttered from a real conviction, her prophecy. How the mind,\nwithout any miracle--as miracles are commonly regarded--often arrives\nquite unconsciously to such conclusions, I have already considered in\nanother chapter. Making every allowance for unconscious exaggeration\nand the accretive power of transmission, I am willing to believe that\nthe story is actually true.\n\nThe following is also perfectly authentic: An English lady of excellent\nfamily, meeting a gypsy, was told by the latter that in six months the\nmost important event of her life would come to pass. At the end of the\ntime she died. On her death-bed she said, \"I thought the gypsy meant\na marriage, but I feel that something far more important is coming,\nfor death is the great end of life.\"\n\nThe following was told me by a Hungarian gentleman of Szegedin:--\n\n\n   \"There was in Arad a lady who went to a ball. She had a necklace\n    to which were attached four rings. During the evening she took\n    this from her neck, and doubling it, wore it on her arm as a\n    bracelet. In the house where she lived was a young gentleman\n    who came to accompany her home from the ball. All at once, late\n    at night, she missed her necklace and the rings, which were of\n    great value.\n\n   \"The next day she sent for a gypsy woman, who, being consulted,\n    declared that the collar had been stolen by some one who was very\n    intimate in her house. Her suspicions rested on the young man\n    who had accompanied her home. He was arrested, but discharged\n    for want of evidence.\n\n   \"Three months after there came a kellner, a waiter, from some\n    other city, to Arad. The lady, being in a caf\u00e9 or some such place\n    of resort, was waited on by this man, and saw one of her rings\n    on his hand. He was arrested, and before the police declared\n    that he held the ring in pledge, having advanced money upon it\n    to a certain gentleman. This gentleman was the lady's betrothed,\n    and he had stolen her necklace and rings. The gypsy had truly\n    enough said that the articles had been taken by some one who was\n    intimate in her house.\"\n\n\nThe gentleman who told me this story also said that the death of his\nfather had been foretold by a gypsy--that is, by a lady who was of\nhalf-gypsy blood.\n\nIt should be borne in mind, though few realize its truth, that in\nstages of society where people believe earnestly in anything--for\nexample, in witchcraft or the evil eye--there results in time a state\nof mind or body in which they are actually capable of being killed\nwith a curse, or a fear of seeing what is not before them in the body,\nand of many nervous conditions which are absolutely impossible and\nincomprehensible to the world of culture at the present day. But there\nare still places where witchcraft may be said to exist literally,\nfor there the professors of the art to all intents work miracles,\nbecause they are believed in. There is abundance of such faith\nextant, even in England. I have heard the names of three \"white\"\nwitch doctors in as many towns in the West of England, who are paid\na guinea a visit, their specialty being to \"unlock,\" or neutralize,\nor defeat the evil efforts of black witches. This, as is indeed true,\nindicates that a rather high class of patients put faith in them. In\nHungary, in the country, the majority, even of the better class, are\nvery much influenced by gypsy-witches. Witness the following, which is\ninteresting simply because, while there is very little indeed in it,\nit was related to me as a most conclusive proof of magic power:--\n\n\n   \"In a suburb of Szegedin, inhabited only by peasants, there is\n    a school with a farm attached to it. The pay of the teacher is\n    trifling, but he can make a comfortable living from the land. This\n    was held by an old man, who had a young assistant. The old man\n    died; the youth succeeded him, and as he found himself doing\n    well, in due time he took a wife. They lived happily together\n    for a year and had a daughter. In the spring the teacher had to\n    work very hard, not only in school but on his farm, and so for\n    the first time contracted the habit of going to the tavern to\n    refresh himself, and what was worst, of concealing it from his\n    wife under plausible tales, to which she gave no trust. She began\n    to be very unhappy, and, naturally enough, suspected a rival.\n\n   \"Of course she took advice from a gypsy woman, who heard all the\n    story and consulted her cards. 'There is,' she said, 'no woman\n    whatever in the way. There is no sign of one for good or evil, na\n    latchi na misec, in the cards. But beware! for there is a great\n    and unexpected misfortune coming, and more than this I cannot\n    see.' So she took her pay and departed. Suddenly her child fell\n    ill and died after eight days. Then the husband reformed his ways,\n    and all went well with them. So, you see, the gypsy foretold it\n    all, wonderfully and accurately.\"\n\n\nIt requires no sorcery to conjecture that the gypsy already knew\nthe habits of the schoolmaster, as the Romany is generally familiar\nwith the tavern of every town. To predict a misfortune at large is\na sure card for every prophetess. What is remarkable is that a man\nof the world and one widely travelled, as was my informant, attached\ngreat importance to the story. It is evident that where so much of\nthe sherris sack of faith accompanies such a small crust of miracle\nthere must be a state of society in which miracles in their real\nsense are perfectly capable of being worked.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nPROVERBS REFERRING TO WITCHES, GYPSIES, AND FAIRIES.\n\n\n                               \"Of Fairies, Witches, Gypsies,\n                                My nourrice sang to me,\n                                Sua Gypsies, Fairies, Witches,\n                                I alsua synge to thee.\"\n\n                                                       (\"Denham Tract.\")\n\n\nDr. Krauss has in his work, \"Sreca, Gluck und Schicksal im Volksglauben\nder S\u00fcdslaven,\" collected a number of sayings in reference to his\nsubject, from which I have taken some, and added more from other\nsources.\n\nOf an evil woman one says, as in all languages, \"To je vila\"--that is,\n\"a witch\"; or it is uttered or muttered as, \"To je vila ljutica\"--that\nis, \"a biting (or bitter) witch\"; or to a woman whom one dislikes,\n\"Idi vilo!\"--\"Begone, witch!\" as in gypsy, \"Jasa tu chovihani!\"\n\nAlso, as in German, \"Ako i je baba, nije vjestica\"--\"Though she is\nan old woman she is no witch\"; while, on the other hand, we have,\n\"Svake baba viestica, a djed vjestac\"--\"Every old woman is a witch,\nand every old man a wizard.\"\n\nThe proverb, \"Bizi ko vistica od biloga luka\"--\"she runs from it\nlike a witch from white garlic\"--will be found fully explained in\nthe chapter on \"The Cure of Children,\" in which it is shown that from\nearly times garlic has been a well-known witch-antidote.\n\nAnother saying is, \"Uzkostrsila se ko vistica\"--\"Her hair is as\ntangled, or twisted, as that of a witch\"; English gypsy, \"Lakis balia\nshan risserdi sar i chovihanis.\" But this has a slightly different\nmeaning, since in the Slavonian it refers to matted, wild-looking\nlocks, while the Romany is according to a belief that the hair of a\nwitch is curled at the ends only.\n\nAllied to this is the proverb, \"Izgleda kao aa su ga coprnice doniele\nsa Ivanjscica\"--\"He looks as if the witches had done for him (or\nbrought him away, 'fetched' him) on Saint John's Eve\"; English Romany,\n\"Yuv dikela s\u00e1 soved a lay sar a chovihani\"--\"He looks as if he had\nlain with a witch.\"\n\n\"Svaka vracara s vrazje strane\"--\"Every witch belongs to the\ndevil's gang\"--that is, she has, sold her soul to him and is in his\ninterests. This is allied to the saying, \"Kud ce vjestica do u svoj\nrod?\"--\"Where should a witch go if not to her kin?\" or, \"Birds of a\nfeather flock together.\"\n\n\"Jasa ga vjestice\"--\"The witches ride him\"--refers to the ancient\nand world-wide belief that witches turn men into animals and ride\nthem in sleep.\n\nThe hazel tree and nut are allied to the supernatural or witchly in\nmany lands. For the divining rod, which is, according to \"La Grande\nBacchetta Divinatoria O Verga rivelatrice\" of the Abbate Valmont,\nthe great instrument for all magic and marvels, must be made of \"un\nramo forcuto di nocciu\u00f2lo\"--\"a forked branch of hazel-nut\"--whence a\nproverb, \"Vracarice, coprnjice, kuko ljeskova!\"--\"Sorceress, witch,\nhazel-stick.\" This is a reproach or taunt to a woman who pays great\nattention to magic and witchcraft. \"This reveals a very ancient\nbelief of the witch as a wood-spirit or fairy who dwells in the nut\nitself.\" More generally it is the bush which, in old German ballads,\nis often addressed as Lady Hazel. In this, as in Lady Nightingale,\nwe have a relic of addressing certain animals or plants as if they\nwere intelligences or spirits. In one very old song in \"Des Knaben\nWunderhorn,\" a girl, angry at the hazel, who has reproached her for\nhaving loved too lightly or been too frail, says that her brother\nwill come and cut the bush down. To which Lady Hazel replies:--\n\n\n   \"Although he comes and cuts me down,\n      I'll grow next spring, 'tis plain,\n    But if a virgin wreath should fade,\n      'Twill never bloom again.\"\n\n\nTo keep children from picking unripe hazel-nuts in the Canton of Saint\nGall they cry to them, \"S' Haselnussfr\u00e0uli chumt\"--\"The hazel-nut lady\nis coming!\" Hence a rosary of hazel-nuts or a hazel rod brings luck,\nand they may be safely hung up in a house. The hazel-nut necklaces\nfound in prehistoric tombs were probably amulets as well as ornaments.\n\nAmong popular sayings we may include the following from the Gorski\nVijenac:--\n\n\n   \"A eto si udrijo vladiko,\n    U nekakve smucene vjetrove,\n    Ko u marcu sto udre vjestice.\"\n\n   \"But behold, O Vladika,\n    Thou hast thrown thyself into every storm,\n    As witches throw or change themselves to cattle.\"\n\n\nAnd with these we may include the curse, \"Izjele te viestice\"--\"May\nthe witches eat you!\" which has its exact parallel in Romany. Also\nthe Scottish saying, \"Witches, warlocks, and gypsies soon ken ae\nthe ither\":--\n\n\n   \"Witches and warlocks without any bother,\n    Like gypsies on meeting well know one another.\"\n\n\nI may appropriately add to these certain proverbs which are given in\nan extremely rare \"Denham Tract,\" of which only fifty copies were\nprinted by John Bell Richmond, \"in. Com. Ebor.\" This quaint little\nwork of only six pages is entitled, \"A Few Popular Rhymes, Proverbs,\nand Sayings relating to Fairies, Witches, and Gypsies,\" and bears the\ndedication, \"To every individual Fairy, Witch, and Gypsy from the day\nof the Witch of Endor down to that of Billy Dawson, the Wise Man of\nStokesley, lately defunct, this tract is inscribed.\"\n\n\n\n\nWITCHES.\n\n\n    Vervain and Dill\n    Hinder witches from their will.\n\n\nThe following refers to rowan or mountain-ash wood, which is supposed\nto be a charm against witchcraft:--\n\n\n    If your whipstick's made of rowan\n    You can ride your nag thro' any town.\n\n        Much about a pitch,\n        Quoth the devil to the witch.\n\n        A hairy man's a geary man,\n        But a hairy wife's a witch.\n\n        Woe to the lad\n        Without a rowan-tree god.\n\n    A witch-wife and an evil\n    Is three-halfpence worse than the devil.\n\n        Hey-how for Hallow-e'en!\n        When all the witches are to be seen,\n        Some in black and some in green,\n        Hey-how for Hallow-e'en!\n        Thout! tout! a tout, tout!\n        Throughout and about.\n\n    Cummer goe ye before, cummer goe ye,\n    Gif ye will not goe before, cummer let me!\n\n\n\"These lines are said to have been sung by witches at North Berwick\nin Lothian, accompanied by the music of a Jew's harp or trump, which\nwas played by Geilles Duncan, a servant girl, before two hundred\nwitches, who joined hands in a short daunce or reel, singing (also)\nthese lines with one voice:--\n\n\n  \"'Witchy, witchy, I defy thee,\n    Four fingers round my thumb,\n    Let me go quietly by thee.'\n\n\n\"It will be seen that this is a phallic sign, and as such dreaded by\nwitches. It is difficult to understand why these verses with the sign\nshould have been given by witches.\"\n\n\n\n\"The anti-witch rhyme used in Tweedesdale some sixty or seventy years\nago was:--\n\n\n  \"'Black-luggie, lammer bead,\n    Rowan-tree and reed thread,\n    Put the witches to their speed.'\n\n\n\"The meaning of 'black-luggie' I know not. 'Lammer bead' is a\ncorruption of 'amber-bead.' They are still worn by a few old people in\nScotland as a preservative against a variety of diseases, especially\nasthma, dropsy, and toothache. They also preserve the wearer from\nthe effects of witchcraft, as stated in the text. I have seen a twig\nof rowan-tree, witch-wood, quick-bane, wild ash, wicken-tree, wicky,\nwiggy, witchen, witch-bane, royne-tree, mountain-ash, whitty, wiggin,\nwitch-hazel, roden-quicken, roden-quicken-royan, roun, or ran-tree,\nwhich had been gathered on the second of May (observe this), wound\nround with some dozens of yards of red thread, placed visible in the\nwindow to act as a charm in keeping witches and Boggle-boes from the\nhouse. So also we have--\n\n\n  \"'Rowan-ash and reed thread\n    Keep the devils from their speed.'\"\n\n    Ye brade o' witches, ye can do no good to yourself.\n\n    Fair they came,\n    Fair they go,\n    And always their heels behind them.\n\n    Neither so sinful as to sink, nor so godly as to swim.\n\n    Falser than Waghorn, and he was nineteen times falser than\n    the devil.\n\n    Ingratitude is worse than witchcraft.\n\n    Ye're as mitch\n    As half a witch.\n\n    To milk the tether (i.e., the cow-tie).\n\n\nThis refers to a belief that witches can carry off the milk from any\none's cow by milking at the end of the tether.\n\n\n        Go in God's name--so you ride no witches.\n\n    \"Rynt, you witch!\" quoth Bess Lockit to her mother.\n\n\nRynt, according to Skeat, is the original Cumberland word for \"aroint,\"\ni.e., \"aroint thee, get thee gone.\" Icelandic ryma--\"to make room,\nto clear the way\"--given, however, only as a guess. It seems to have\nbeen specially applied to witches.\n\n\n    \"'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cried.\"\n\n                                                 (\"Macbeth\").\n\n\nHalliwell gives the word as rynt, and devotes a column to it,\nwithout coming to any satisfactory conclusion. I think it is simply\nthe old word rynt or wrynt, another form of writhe, meaning to twist\nor strangle, as if one should say, \"Be thou strangled!\" which was\nindeed a frequent malediction. Halliwell himself gives \"wreint\"\nas meaning \"awry,\" and \"wreith destordre\"--\"to wring or wreith\"\n(\"Hollyband's Dictionarie,\" 1593). The commonest curse of English\ngypsies at the present day is \"Beng tasser tute!\" \"May the devil\nstrangle you\"--literally twist, which is an exact translation of\nwrinthe or rynt.\n\n\n   \"The gode man to hys cage can goo\n    And wrythed the pye's neck yn to.\"\n\n                             (\"MS. Cantab.\" ap. H.)\n\n\nRynt may mean twist away, i.e., begone, as they say in America,\n\"he wriggled away.\"\n\n\n    They that burn you for a witch lose all their coals.\n\n    Never talk of witches on a Friday.\n\n    Ye're ower aude ffarand to be fraid o' witches.\n\n    Witches are most apt to confess on a Friday.\n\n    Friday is the witches' Sabbath.\n\n    To hug one as the devil hugs a witch.\n\n                      As black    }\n                      As cross    }\n                      As ugly     } as a witch.\n                      As sinful   }\n\n  Four fingers and a thumb--witch, I defy thee.\n\n\nIn Italy the signs are made differently. In Naples the gettatura\nconsists of throwing out the fore and middle fingers, so as to imitate\nhorns, with the thumb and fingers closed. Some say the thumb should\nbe within the middle and third fingers. In Florence the anti-witch\ngesture is to fare la fica, or stick the thumb out between the fore\nand middle fingers.\n\n\n    You're like a witch, you say your prayers backward.\n\n    Witch-wood (i.e., the mountain ash).\n\n    You're half a witch--i.e., very cunning.\n\n    Buzz! buzz! buzz!\n\n\n\"In the middle of the sixteenth century if a person waved his hat\nor bonnet in the air and cried 'Buzz!' three times, under the belief\nthat by this act he could take the life of another, the old law and\nlaw-makers considered the person so saying and acting to be worthy of\ndeath, he being a murderer in intent, and having dealings with witches\"\n(\"Denham Tract\"). Very doubtful, and probably founded on a well known\nold story.\n\n\n    \"I wish I was as far from God as my nails are free from dirt!\"\n\n\nSaid to have been a witch's prayer whilst she was in the act of\ncleaning her nails. In logical accuracy this recalls the black boy\nin America, who on being asked if he knew the way to a certain place,\nreplied, \"I only wish I had as many dollars as I know my way there.\"\n\n\n    A witch is afraid of her own blood.\n\n    A Pendle forest witch.\n\n    A Lancashire witch.\n\n    A witch cannot greet (i.e., weep).\n\n    To be hog, or witch-ridden.\n\n\n\n\nGYPSIES.\n\n\n    So many gypsies, so many smiths.\n\n    The gypsies are all akin.\n\n    One of the Faw gang,\n    Worse than the Faw gang.\n\n\nThe Faws or Faas are a gypsy family whose head-quarters are at\nYetholme. I have been among them and knew the queen of the gypsies\nand her son Robert, who were of this clan or name.\n\n\"It is supposed the Faws acquired this appellation from Johnnie Faw,\nlord and earl of Little Egypt; with whom James the Fourth and Queen\nMary, sovereigns of Scotland, saw not only the propriety, but also\nthe necessity of entering into special treaty\" (\"Denham Tract\").\n\n\"Francis Heron, king of the Faws, bur. (Yarrow) xiii. Jan., 1756\"\n(Sharp's \"Chron. Mir\").\n\n\n\n\nFAIRIES.\n\n\n        Where the scythe cuts and the sock rives,\n        No more fairies and bee-hives.\n\n    Laugh like a pixy (i.e., fairy).\n\n    Waters locked! waters locked! (A favourite cry of fairies.)\n\n    Borram! borram! borram! (The cry of the Irish fairies after\n    mounting their steeds. Equivalent to the Scottish cry,\n   \"Horse! horse and hattock!\")\n\n    To live in the land of the Fair family. (A Welsh fairy saying.)\n\n    God grant that the fairies may put money in your shoes and keep\n    your house clean. (One of the good wishes of the old time.)\n\n    Fairies comb goats' beards every Friday.\n\n    He who finds a piece of money will always find another in the\n    same place, so long as he keeps it a secret. (In reference to\n    fairy gifts.)\n\n    It's going on, like Stokepitch's can.\n\n\nA pixey or fairy saying, used in Devonshire. The family of Stokespitch\nor Sukespic resided near Topsham, and a barrel of ale in their\ncellars had for many years run freely without being exhausted. It\nwas considered a valuable heirloom, and was esteemed accordingly,\ntill an inquisitive maidservant took out the bung to ascertain the\ncause why it never run dry. On looking into the cask she found it\nfull of cobwebs, but the fairies, it would seem, were offended,\nfor on turning the cock, as usual, the ale had ceased to flow.\n\nIt was a common reply at Topsham to the inquiry how any affair wen on:\n\"It's going on like Stokepitch's can,\" or proceeding prosperously.\n\n\n    To laugh like Robin Goodfellow.\n\n        To laugh like old Bogie;\n        He caps Bogie.\n\n    (Amplified to \"He caps Bogie, and Bogie capped old Nick.\")\n\n    To play the Puck. (An Irish saying, equivalent to the English one,\n   \"To play the deuce or devil.\" Keightley's \"Fairy Mythology.\")\n\n    He has got into Lob's pound or pond. (That is, into the fairies'\n    pinfold. Keightley's \"Fairy Mythology.\")\n\n    Pinch like a fairy. (\"Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders,\n    sides, and shins.\" \"Merry Wives of Windsor.\")\n\n    To be fairy-struck. (The paralysis is, or rather perhaps was,\n    so called. Keightley's \"Fairy Mythology.\")\n\n    There has never been a merry world since the Phynoderee lost\n    his ground. [A Manx fairy saying. See Train's \"Isle of Man,\"\n    ii. p. 148. \"Popular Rhymes of the Isle of Man,\" pp. 16, 17.]\n\n    To be pixey-led.\n\n\nLed astray by fairies or goblins. \"When a man has got a wee drap ower\nmuckle whuskey, misses his way home, and gets miles out of his direct\ncourse, he tells a tale of excuse and whiles lays the blame on the\ninnocent pixies\" (see Keightley's \"Fairy Mythology\"). Also recalling\nFeufollet, or the Will o' the Wisp, and the traveller who\n\n\n              \"thro' bog and bush\n    Was lantern-led by Friar Rush.\"\n\n\nGypsies have from their out of doors life much familiarity with these\n\"spirits\" whom they call mullo dudia, or mullo doods, i.e., dead or\nghost lights. For an account of the adventure of a gypsy with them,\nsee \"The English Gypsies and their Language,\" by C. G. Leland. London:\nTr\u00fcbner & Co. \"Pyxie-led is to be in a maze, to be bewildered as if\nled out of the way by hobgoblins or puck, or one of the fairies. The\ncure is to turn one of your garments the inside outward; some say that\nis for a woman to turn her cap inside outward, and for a man to do the\nsame with some of his clothes\" (MS. \"Devon Glimpses\"--Halliwell). \"Thee\npixie-led in Popish piety\" (Clobery's \"Divine Glimpses,\" 1659).\n\n\n    The fairies' lanthorn.\n\n\nThat is the glow-worm. In America a popular story represents an\nIrishman as believing that a fire-fly was a mosquito \"sakin' his prey\nwid a lanthorn.\"\n\n\n    God speed you, gentlemen!\n\n\n\"When an Irish peasant sees a cloud of dust sweeping along the road,\nhe raises his hat and utters this blessing in behoof of ye company of\ninvisible fairies who, as he believes, caused it\" (\"Fairy Mythology\").\n\n\n    The Phooka have dirtied the blackberries.\n\n\nSaid when the fruit of the blackberry is spoiled through age or covered\nwith dust at the end of the season. In the North of England we say\n\"the devil has set his foot on the Bumble-Kites\" (\"Denham Tract\").\n\n\n    Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop,\n    And I'll give ye a spintle off my god end.\n\n\n\"This is spoken three times by the Clydesdale peasant when ploughing,\nbecause he believes that on getting to the end of the fourth furrow\nthose good things will be found spread out on the grass\" (Chambers'\n\"Popular Rhymes, Scotland,\" 3rd ed. p. 106).\n\n\n    Turn your clokes (i.e., coats),\n    For fairy folkes\n    Are in old oakes.\n\n\n\"I well remember that on more occasions than one, when a schoolboy,\nI have turned and worn my coat inside out in passing through a wood\nin order to avoid the 'good people.' On nutting days, those glorious\nred-letter festivals in the schoolboy's calendar, the use pretty\ngenerally prevailed. The rhymes in the text are the English formula\"\n(\"Denham Tract\").\n\n\n    He's got Pigwiggan.\n\n\n\"Vulgarly called Peggy Wiggan. A severe fall or somerset is so termed\nin the B'prick. The fairy Pigwiggan is celebrated by Drayton in his\nNymphidia\" (\"Denham Tract\"). To which may be added a few more from\nother sources.\n\n\n    Do what you may, say what you can,\n    No washing e'er whitens the black Zingan.\n\n                                        (\"Firdusi.\")\n\n    For every gypsy that comes to toon,\n    A hen will be a-missing soon,\n    And for every gypsy woman old,\n    A maiden's fortune will be told.\n\n    Gypsy hair and devil's eyes,\n    Ever stealing, full of lies,\n    Yet always poor and never wise.\n\n    He who has never lived like a gypsy does not know how to enjoy\n    life as a gentleman.\n\n\nI never enjoyed the mere living as regards all that constitutes\nordinary respectable life so keenly as I did after some weeks of\ngreat hunger, exposure, and misery, in an artillery company in 1863,\nat the time of the battle of Gettysburg.\n\n\n    Zigeuner Leben Greiner Leben. (Gipsy life a groaning life. Korte's\n   \"Sprichw\u00f6rter d. D.\")\n\n    Er taugt nicht zum Zigeuner. Spottisch vom L\u00fcgner gesagt weil er\n    nicht wahr-sagt. (Korte, \"Sprichw\u00f6rter.\")\n\n\n\"He would not do for a gypsy.\" Said of a liar because he cannot tell\nthe truth. In German to predict or tell fortunes also means to speak\ntruly, i.e., wahr = true, and sprechen = to speak.\n\n\n    Gypsy repentance for stolen hens is not worth much. (Old German\n    Saying.)\n\n        The Romany chi\n        And the Romany chal\n        Love luripen\n        And lutchipen\n        And dukkeripen\n        And huknipen\n        And every pen\n        But latchipen\n        And tatchipen.\n\n        The gypsy woman\n        And gypsy man\n        Love stealing\n        And lewdness\n        And fortune telling\n        And lying\n        And every pen\n        But shame\n        And truth.\n\n    Pen is the termination of all verbal nouns.\n\n                                (George Borrow, Quoted from memory.)\n\n    It's a winter morning.\n\n\nMeaning a bad day, or that matters look badly. In allusion to the\nWinters, a gypsy clan with a bad name.\n\n\n    As wild as a gypsy.\n\n    Puro romaneskoes. (In the old gypsy fashion.)\n\n    Sie hat 'nen Kobold. (\"She has a brownie, or house-fairy.\")\n\n\n\"Said of a girl who does everything deftly and readily. In some\nplaces the peasants believe that a fairy lives in the house, who\ndoes the work, brings water or wood, or curries the horses. Where\nsuch a fairy dwells, all succeeds if he or she is kindly treated\"\n(Korte's \"German Proverbs\").\n\n\n    \"Man siehet wohl wess Geisters Kind Sie (Er) ist.\"\n\n\n\"One can well see what spirit was his sire.\" In allusion to men of\nsingular or eccentric habits, who are believed to have been begotten\nby the incubus, or goblins, or fairies. There are ceremonies by which\nspirits may be attracted to come to people in dreams.\n\n\"There was a young man who lived near Monte Lupo, and one day he found\nin a place among some old ruins a statue of a fate (fairy or goddess)\nall naked. He set it up in its shrine, and admiring it greatly\nembraced it with love (ut semen ejus profluit super statuam). And\nthat night and ever after the fate came to him in his dreams and lay\nwith him, and told him where to find treasures, so that he became a\nrich man. But he lived no more among men, nor did he after that ever\nenter a church. And I have heard that any one who will do as he did\ncan draw the fate to come to him, for they are greatly desirous to\nbe loved and worshipped by men as they were in the Roman times.\"\n\nThe following are Hungarian or Transylvanian proverbs:--\n\n\n    False as a Tzigane, i.e., gypsy.\n\n    Dirty as a gypsy.\n\n    They live like gypsies (said of a quarrelsome couple).\n\n    He moans like a guilty Tzigane (said of a man given to useless\n    lamenting).\n\n    He knows how to plow with the gypsies (said of a liar). Also:\n    \"He knows how to ride the gypsies' horse.\"\n\n    He knows the gypsy trade (i.e., he is a thief).\n\n    Tzigane weather (i.e., a showery day).\n\n    It is gypsy honey (i.e., adulterated).\n\n    A gypsy duck i.e., a poor sort of wild duck.\n\n    \"The gypsy said his favourite bird would be the pig if it had\n    only wings\" (in allusion to the gypsy fondness for pork).\n\n\nMrs. Gerard gives a number of proverbs as current among Hungarian\ngypsies which appear to be borrowed by them from those of other\nraces. Among them are:--\n\n\n    Who would steal potatoes must not forget the sack.\n\n    The best smith cannot make more than one ring at a time.\n\n    Nothing is so bad but it is good enough for somebody.\n\n    Bacon makes bold.\n\n    \"He eats his faith as the gypsies ate their church.\"\n\n\nA Wallach proverb founded on another to the effect that the gypsy\nchurch was made of pork and the dogs ate it. I shall never forget how\nan old gypsy in Brighton laughed when I told her this, and how she\nrepeated: \"O Romani kangri sos kerdo ballovas te i juckli hawde lis.\"\n\n\n    \"No entertainment without gypsies.\"\n\n\nIn reference to gypsy musicians who are always on hand at every\nfestivity.\n\n\n    The Hungarian wants only a glass of water and a gypsy fiddler to\n    make him drunk.\n\n\nIn reference to the excitement which Hungarians experience in listening\nto gypsy music.\n\n\n    With a wet rag you can put to flight a whole village of gypsies\n    (Hungarian).\n\n\nIt would not be advisable to attempt this with any gypsies in Great\nBritain, where they are almost, without exception, only too ready to\nfight with anybody.\n\n\n    Every gypsy woman is a witch.\n\n   \"Every woman is at heart a witch.\"\n\n\nIn the \"Materials for the Study of the Gypsies,\" by M. I. Kounavine,\nwhich I have not yet seen, there are, according to A. B. Elysseeff\n(Gypsy-Lore Journal, July, 1890), three or four score of gypsy\nproverbial sayings and maxims. These refer to Slavonian or far Eastern\nRussian Romanis. I may here state in this connection that all who\nare interested in this subject, or aught relating to it, will find\nmuch to interest them in this journal of the Gypsy-Lore Society,\nprinted by T. & A. Constable, Edinburgh. The price of subscription,\nincluding membership of the society, is \u00a31 a year--Address: David\nMac Ritchie, 4, Archibald Place, Edinburgh.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV. [21]\n\nA GYPSY MAGIC SPELL.--HOKKANI BASO--LELLIN DUDIKABIN, OR THE GREAT\nSECRET--CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND INCANTATIONS--TEN LITTLE INDIAN BOYS\nAND TEN LITTLE ACORN GIRLS OF MARCELLUS BURDIGALENSIS.\n\n\nThere is a meaningless rhyme very common among children. It is repeated\nwhile \"counting off\"--or \"out\"--those who are taking part in a game,\nand allotting to each a place. There are many versions of it, but\nthe following is exactly word for word what I learned when a boy\nin Philadelphia:--\n\n\n    Ekkeri (or ickery), akkery, u-k\u00e9ry an,\n    Fillisi', follasy, Nicholas John,\n    Queebee-quabee--Irishman (or, Irish Mary),\n    Stingle 'em--stangle 'em--buck!\n\n\nWith a very little alteration in sounds, and not more than children\nmake of these verses in different places, this may be read as\nfollows:--\n\n\n    Ek-keri (yekori) akairi, you kair an,\n    Fillissin, follasy, N\u00e1kelas jan\n    Kivi, k\u00e1vi--Irishman,\n    Stini, stani--buck!\n\n\nThis is, of course, nonsense, but it is Romany or gypsy nonsense,\nand it may be thus translated very accurately:--\n\n\n    First--here--you begin!\n    Castle, gloves. You don't play!\n                Go on!\n    Kivi--a kettle. How are you?\n    St\u00e1ni, buck.\n\n\nThe common version of the rhyme begins with--\n\n\n    \"One--ery--two--ery, ickery an.\"\n\n\nBut one-ery is an exact translation of ek-keri; ek, or yek, meaning\none in gypsy. (Ek-orus, or yek-korus, means once). And it is remarkable\nthat in--\n\n\n   \"Hickory dickory dock,\n    The rat ran up the clock,\n    The clock struck one,\n    And down he run,\n    Hickory dickory dock.\"\n\n\nWe have hickory, or ek-keri, again followed by a significant one. It\nmay be observed that; while my first quotation abounds in what are\nunmistakably Romany words, I can find no trace of any in any other\nchild-rhymes of the kind. I lay stress on this, for if I were a great\nCeltic scholar I should not have the least difficulty in proving that\nevery word in every rhyme, down to \"Tommy, make room for your uncle,\"\nwas all old Irish or Gaelic.\n\nWord for word every person who understands Romany will admit the\nfollowing:--\n\n\n    Ek, or yek, means one. Yekorus, ekorus, or yeckori, or ekkeri,\n    once.\n\n    U-kair-an. You kair an, or begin. Kair is to make or do, ankair\n    to begin. \"Do you begin?\"\n\n    Fillissin is a castle, or gentleman's country seat (H. Smith).\n\n    Follasi, or follasy, is a lady's glove.\n\n    Nakelas. I learned this word from an old gypsy. It is used\n    as equivalent to don't, but also means n\u00e1 (k\u00e9las), you don't\n    play. From kel-ava, I play.\n\n    J\u00e1n, Ja-an, Go on. From java, I go. Hindu, j\u00e1na, and j\u00e1o.\n\n    Kivi, or keevy. No meaning.\n\n    Kavi, a kettle, from kekavi, commonly given as kavi. Greek,\n    kekkabos. Hindu, kal, a box.\n\n    Stini. No meaning that I know.\n\n    St\u00e1ni. A buck.\n\n    Of the last line it may be remarked that if we take from ingle\n    'em (angle 'em), which is probably added for mere jingle, there\n    remains st\u00e1n, or st\u00e1ni, \"a buck,\" followed by the very same word\n    in English.\n\n\nWith the mournful examples of Mr. Bellenden Kerr's efforts to show\nthat all our old proverbs, saws, sayings, and tavern signs are Dutch,\nand Sir William Betham's Etruscan-Irish, and the works of an army of\n\"philologists,\" who consider mere chance resemblance to be a proof of\nidentical origin, I should be justly regarded as one of the seekers\nfor mystery in moonshine if I declared that I positively believed\nthis to be Romany. But it certainly contains words which, without any\nstretching or fitting, are simply gypsy, and I think it not improbable\nthat it was some sham charm used by some Romany fortune-teller\nto bewilder Gorgios. Let the reader imagine the burnt-sienna,\nwild-cat-eyed old sorceress performing before a credulous farm-wife\nand her children, the great ceremony of hakkni p\u00e1nki--which Mr. Borrow\ncalls hokkani baro, but for which there is a far deeper name--that of\n\"the great secret\"--which even my best Romany friends tried to conceal\nfrom me. This is to lel dudikabin--to \"take lightment.\" In the oldest\nEnglish canting, lightment occurs as an equivalent for theft--whether\nit came from Romany, or Romany from it, I cannot tell.\n\nThis feat--which is described by almost every writer on Gypsies--is\nperformed by inducing some woman of largely magnified faith to believe\nthat there is hidden in her house a magic treasure, which can only be\nmade \"to come to hand\" by depositing in the cellar another treasure,\nto which it will come by natural affinity and attraction. \"For gold,\nas you sees, draws gold, my deari, and so if you ties up all your money\nin a pocket-handkercher, an' leaves it, you'll find it doubled. An'\nwasn't there the Squire's lady--you know Mrs. Trefarlo, of course--and\ndidn't she draw two hundred old gold guineas out of the ground where\nthey'd laid in an old grave--and only one guinea she gave me for all\nmy trouble; an' I hope you'll do better than that for the poor old\ngypsy, my deari----.\"\n\nThe gold and the spoons are all tied up--for, as the enchantress\nsagely observes, \"there may be silver to\"--and she solemnly repeats\nover it magical rhymes, while the children, standing around in awe,\nlisten to every word. It is a good subject for a picture. Sometimes\nthe windows are closed, and candles lighted--to add to the effect. The\nbundle is left or buried in a certain place. The next day the gypsy\ncomes and sees how the charm is working. Could any one look under\nher cloak, he might find another bundle precisely resembling the one\ncontaining the treasure. She looks at the precious deposit, repeats\nher rhyme again solemnly and departs, after carefully charging the\nhouse-wife that the bundle must not be touched, looked at, or spoken\nof for three weeks. \"Every word you tell about it, my deari, will\nbe a guinea gone away.\" Sometimes she exacts an oath on the Bible,\nwhen she chivs o manzin apr\u00e9 laatti--that nothing shall be said.\n\nBack to the farmer's house never again. After three weeks another\nExtraordinary Instance of Gross Credulity appears in the country\npaper, and is perhaps repeated in a colossal London daily, with a\nreference to the absence of the schoolmaster. There is wailing and\nshame in the house--perhaps great suffering--for it may be that the\nsavings of years, and bequeathed tankards, and marriage rings, and\ninherited jewellery, and mother's souvenirs have been swept away. The\ncharm has worked.\n\n\"How can people be such fools!\" Yea--how can they? How can fully\nninety-nine out of one hundred, and I fear me nine hundred and\nninety-nine out of a thousand, be capable of what amounts to precisely\nthe same thing--paying out their cash in the hopes that the Invisible\nInfluences in the Inscrutable Cellar or Celestial Garret will pay it\nback to them, cent. per cent.? Oh, reader, if you be of middle age\n(for there are perhaps some young agnostics beginning to appear to\nwhom the cap does not fit), and can swear on your hat that you never\nin your life have been taken in by a dudikabin in any form--send me\nyour name and I will award you for an epitaph that glorious one given\nin the Nug\u00e6 Venales:\n\n\n    \"Hic jacet ille qui unus fuit inter mille!\"\n\n\nThe charm has worked. But the little sharp-eared children remember it,\nand sing it over, and the more meaningless it sounds in their ears,\nthe more mysterious does it become. And they never talk about the\nbundle--which when opened was found to contain only stones, sticks,\nand rags--without repeating it. So it goes from mouth to mouth, until,\nall mutilated, it passes current for even worse nonsense than it was\nat first. It may be observed, however--and the remark will be fully\nsubstantiated by any one who knows the gypsy language--that there\nis a Romany turn to even the roughest corners of these rhymes. Kivi,\nstingli, stangli, are all gypsyish. But, as I have already intimated,\nthis does not appear in any other nonsense verses of the kind. There\nis nothing of it in--\n\n\n    \"Intery, mintery, cutery corn,\"\n\n\nor in anything else in \"Mother Goose.\" It is alone in its sounds\nand sense--or nonsense. But there is not a wanderer on the roads in\nEngland who on hearing it would not exclaim, \"There's a great deal\nof Romanes in that ere!\" And if any one doubts it let him try it on\nany gypsy who has an average knowledge of Romany.\n\nI should say that the word Na-Kelas, which means literally \"Do\nnot play,\" or, \"You do not play,\" was explained to me by a gypsy\nas signifying not speaking, or keeping quiet. Nicholas John has\nreally no meaning, but \"You don't play--go on,\" fits exactly into a\ncounting-out game.\n\nThe mystery of mysteries in the Romany tongue--of which I have\nspoken--is this: The hokkani baro, or huckeny boro, or great trick,\nconsists of three parts. Firstly, the getting into a house or into the\nconfidence of its owner, which is effected in England by offering small\nwares for sale, or by begging for food, but chiefly by fortune-telling,\nthe latter being the usual pretence in America. If the gypsy woman be\nat all prepared, she will have learned enough to amaze \"the lady of\nthe house,\" who is thereby made ready to believe anything. The second\npart of the trick is the conveying away the property, which is, as I\nhave said, to lel dudikabin, or \"take lightning,\" possibly connected\nwith the old canting term for conveyance of bien lightment. There is\nevidently a confusion of words here. And third is to \"chiv o manzin\napr\u00e9 lati\" to put the oath upon her--the victim--by which she binds\nherself not to speak of the affair for some weeks. When the deceived\nare all under oath not to utter a word about the trick, the gypsy\nmother has a safe thing of it.\n\nThe hakkani boro, or great trick, or dudikabin, was brought by\nthe gypsies from the East. It has been practised by them all over\nthe world, and is still played every day somewhere. And I have\nread in the Press of Philadelphia that a Mrs. Brown--whom I sadly\nand reluctantly believe is the wife of an acquaintance of mine who\nwalks before the world in other names--was arrested for the same old\ngame of fortune-telling, and persuading a simple dame that there was\ntreasure in the house, and all the rest of the \"grand deception.\" And\nMrs. Brown--\"good old Mrs. Brown\"--went to prison, where she doubtless\nlingered until a bribed alderman, or a purchased pardon, or some one of\nthe numerous devices by which justice is easily evaded in Pennsylvania,\ndelivered her.\n\nYet it is not a good country on the whole for hakkani boro, since\nthe people, especially in the rural districts, have a rough and ready\nway of inflicting justice, which sadly interferes with the profits of\naldermen and other politicians. Some years ago, in Tennessee, a gypsy\nwoman robbed a farmer of all he was worth. Now it is no slander to say\nthat the rural folk of Tennessee resemble Indians in several respects,\nand when I saw thousands of them during the Civil War, mustered out\nin Nashville, I often thought, as I studied these dark brown faces,\nhigh cheek-bones, and long, straight, wiry hair, that the American\nis indeed reverting to the aboriginal type. The Tennessee farmer and\nhis friends reverted to it at any rate with a vengeance, for they\nturned out altogether, hunted the gypsies down, and having secured\nthe sorceress, burned her alive at the stake. Which has been, as I\nbelieve, \"an almighty warning\" to the Romany in that sad section of\nthe world. And thus in a single crime, and its consequence, we have\ncuriously combined a world-old Oriental offence, an European Middle\nAge penalty for witchcraft, and the fierce torture of the Red Indian.\n\nIn the United States there is often to be found in a gypsy camp a\nnegro or two who has with no great trouble adopted a life of perfect\nlaziness. I infer that these men and brothers have not improved much\nin their morals, since a few years ago a coloured sorcerer appeared in\nPhiladelphia, who, as I was assured, \"persuaded half the niggers in\nLombard Street to dig up their cellars to find treasure--and carried\noff all the treasures they had.\" He had been, like Matthew Arnold's\nscholar, among the tents of the Romany, and had learned their peculiar\nwisdom, and turned it to profit.\n\nIn Germany the Great Sorcery is practised with variations, and indeed\nin England or America or anywhere it is modified in many ways to\nsuit the victims. The following methods are described by Dr. Richard\nLiebich, in \"Die Zigeuner in ihrem Wesen und in ihrer Sprache\"\n(Leipzig, 1863):--\n\n\n   \"When a gypsy has found some old peasant who has the reputation of\n    being rich or very well-to-do he sets himself to work with utmost\n    care to learn the disposition of the man with every possible detail\n    as to his house and habits.\" (It is easy and congenial work to\n    people who pass their lives in learning all they can of other\n    folks' affairs to aid in fortune-telling, to find out the soft\n    spots, as Sam Slick calls the peculiarities by which a man may be\n    influenced.) \"And so some day, when all the rest of the family are\n    in the fields, the gypsy--man or woman--comes, and entering into\n    a conversation, leads it to the subject of the house, remarking\n    that it is a belief among his people that in it a treasure lies\n    buried. He offers, if he may have permission to take it away,\n    to give one-fourth, a third, or a half its value. This all seems\n    fair enough, but the peasant is greedy and wants more. The gypsy,\n    on his side, also assumes suspicion and distrust. He proves that\n    he is a conjuror by performing some strange tricks--thus he takes\n    an egg from under a hen, breaks it, and apparently brings out a\n    small human skull or some strange object, and finally persuades the\n    peasant to collect all his coin and other valuables in notes, gold,\n    or silver, into a bundle, cautioning him to hold them fast. He\n    must go to bed and put the packet under his pillow, while he, the\n    conjuror, finds the treasure. This done--probably in a darkened\n    room--he takes a bundle of similar appearance which he has quickly\n    prepared, and under pretence of facilitating the operation and\n    putting the man into a proper position, takes the original package\n    and substitutes another. Then the victim is cautioned that it is\n    of the utmost importance for him to lie perfectly still;\"\n\n       \"Nor move his hand nor blink his 'ee\n        If ever he hoped the goud to see;\n        For aye aboot on ilka limb,\n        The fairies had their 'een on him.\"\n\n\nThe gypsy is over the hills and far far away ere the shades of evening\nfall, and the family returning from their fields find the father in\nbed refusing to speak a word; for he has been urgently impressed with\nthe assertion that the longer he holds his tongue and keeps the affair\na secret the more money he will make. And the extreme superstition of\nthe German peasant is such that when obliged to tell the truth he often\nbelieves that all his loss is due to a premature forced revelation of\nwhat he has done--for the gypsy in many cases has the cheek to caution\nthe victim that if he speaks too soon the contents of the package\nwill be turned to sand or rags--accordingly as he has prepared it.\n\nAnother and more impudent manner of playing this pretended sorcery,\nis to persuade the peasant that he must have a thick cloth tied\naround his head, and if any one addresses him to reply only by what\nin German is called brummen--uttering a kind of growl. This he does,\nwhen the entire party proceed to carry off everything portable--\n\n\n   \"Chairs and tables knives and forks,\n    Tankards and bottles and cups and corks,\n    Beds and dishes and boots and kegs,\n    Bacon and puddings and milk and eggs,\n    The carpet lying on the floor,\n    And the hams hung up for the winter store,\n    Every pillow and sheet and bed,\n    The dough in the trough and the baken bread,\n    Every bit of provant or pelf;\n    All that they left was the house itself.\"\n\n\nOne may imagine what the scene is like when the rest return and find\nthe house plundered, the paterfamilias sitting in the ruins with his\nhead tied up, answering all frantic queries with brum--brum--brum! It\nmay recall the well-known poem--I think it is by Peter Pindar\nWolcott--of the man who was persuaded by a bet to make the motion\nof a pendulum, saying, \"Here she goes--there she goes!\" while the\ninstigator \"cleared out the house and then cleared out himself.\" I\nhave little doubt that this poem was drawn from a Romany original.\n\nOr yet, again, the gypsy having obtained the plunder and substituted\nthe dummy packet, persuades the true believer to bury it in the barn,\ngarden, field, or a forest, performs magic ceremonies and repeats\nincantations over it, and cautions him to dig it up again, perhaps\nsix months later on a certain day, it may be his saint's or birth\nday, and to keep silence till then. The gypsy makes it an absolute\ncondition--nay, he insists very earnestly on it--that the treasure\nshall not be dug up unless he himself is on the spot to share the\nspoil. But as he may possibly be prevented from coming, he tells the\npeasant how to proceed: he leaves with him several pieces of paper\ninscribed with cabalistic characters which are to be burnt when the\nmoney is removed, and teaches him what he is to repeat while doing\nit. With sequence as before.\n\nIt might be urged by the gypsy that the taking a man's money\nfrom him under the conditions that he shall get it all back with\nimmense interest six months after, does not differ materially from\npersuading him to give his property to Brahmins, or even priests,\nwith the understanding that he is to be amply rewarded for it in a\nfuture state. In both cases the temptation to take the money down\nis indeed great--as befel a certain very excellently honest but\nextremely cautious Scotch clergyman, to whom there once came a very\nwicked and wealthy old reprobate who asked him, \"If I gie a thousand\npuns till the kirk d'ye think it wad save my soul?\" \"I'm na preparit\nto preceesely answer that question,\" said the shrewd dominie, \"but\nI would vara urgently advise ye to try it.\"\n\nOh thou who persuadest man that for money down great good shall result\nto him from any kind of spiritual incantation--twist and turn it as\nye will--mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur:\n\n\n   \"With but a single change of name,\n    The story fits thee quite the same.\"\n\n\nAnd few and far between are the Romanys--or even the Romans--who\nwould not \"vara earnestly advise ye to try it.\"\n\nSince I wrote that last line I have met, in the Journal of American\nFolk-Lore, with a very interesting article on the Counting-out Rhymes\nof Children, in which the writer, H. Carrington Bolton, avows his\nbelief that these doggerel verses or rhymes are the survivals of\nsortileges or divination by lot, and that it was practised among the\nancient heathen nations as well as the Israelites:--\n\n\n   \"The use of the lot at first received divine sanction, as in the\n    story of Achan related by Joshua, but after this was withheld\n    the practice fell into the hands of sorcerers--which very name\n    signifies lot-taker. The doggerels themselves I regard as a\n    survival of the spoken charms used by sorcerers in ancient times\n    in conjunction with their mystic incantations. There are numerous\n    examples of these charms, such as--\n\n      \"'Huat Hanat Huat ista pista sista domiabo damnaustra.'\n\n                                                    (Cato, 235 B.C.)\n\n   \"And--\n\n      \"'Irriori, ririori essere rhuder fere.'\n\n   \"And--\n\n      \"'Meu, treu, mor, phor\n        Teux, za, zor\n        Phe, lou, chri,\n        Ge, ze, on.'\n\n                        (Alexander of Tralles.)\n\n   \"Tylor in his 'Primitive Culture' holds that things which occupy an\n    important place in the life-history of grown men in a savage state\n    become the playthings of children in a period of civilization;\n    thus the sling and the bow and arrow, which formed the weapons\n    of mankind in an early stage of its existence, and are still\n    the reliance of savage tribes, have become toys in the hands of\n    all civilized children at the present day. Many games current in\n    Europe and America are known to be sportive imitations of customs\n    which formerly had a significant and serious aspect.\n\n   \"Adopting this theory, I hold that counting-out is a survival of\n    the practice of the sorcerer, using this word in its restricted\n    and etymological meaning, and that the spoken and written charms\n    originally used to enforce priestly power have become adjuncts to\n    these puerile games, and the basis of the counting-out doggrels\n    under consideration.\n\n   \"The idea that European and American children engaged in\n   'counting-out' for games, are repeating in innocent ignorance\n    the practices and language of a sorcerer of a dark age, is\n    perhaps startling, but can be shown to have a high degree of\n    probability. The leader in 'counting out' performs an incantation,\n    but the children grouped round him are free from that awe and\n    superstitious reverence which characterized the procedure in\n    its earlier state. Many circumstances make this view plausible,\n    and clothe the doggrels with a new and fascinating interest.\"\n\n\nMr. Bolton remarks, however, that \"in only one instance have I been\nable to directly connect a child's counting-out rhyme with a magic\nspell. According to Leland the rhyme beginning with\n\n\n    'One-ery, two-ery, ickery, Ann,'\n\n\nis a gypsy magic spell in the Romany language.\"\n\nIt occurred to me long, long ago, or before ever the name \"Folk-lore\"\nexisted, that children's rhymes were a survival of incantations, and\nthat those which are the same backward and forward were specially\nadapted to produce marvellous effects in lots. But there was one\nform of counting-out which was common as it was terrible. This was\nused when after a victory it was usual to put every tenth captive\nto death--whence the greatly abused word to \"decimate\"--or any\nother number selected. When there was a firm belief in the virtues\nof numbers as set forth by Pythagoras, and Plato in the Tim\u00e6us,\nand of cabalistic names inspired by the \"Intelligences,\" it is not\nremarkable that the diviners or priests or sorcerers or distributors\nof sortes and sortileges should endeavour to prove that life and\ndeath lay bound up in mystic syllables. That there were curious and\noccult arithmetical means of counting-out and saving elected persons\nis shown in certain mystic problems still existent in Boys Own Books,\nand other handbooks of juvenile sports. It was the one on whom the\nfatal word of life or death fell who was saved or condemned, so\nthat it was no wonder that the word was believed to be a subtle,\nmysterious existence: an essence or principle, yea, a spirit or\nall in one--diversi aspetti in un, confuse e misti. He who knew\nthe name of Names which, as the Chald\u00e6an oracles of old declared,\n\"rushes into the infinite worlds,\" knew all things and had all power;\neven in lesser words there lingered the fragrance of God and some\nre-echo of the Bath Kol--the Daughter of the Voice who was herself\nthe last echo of the divine utterance. So it went down through the\nages--coming, like C\u00e6sar's clay, to base uses--till we now find the\nsacred divination by words a child's play: only that and nothing more.\n\nTruly Mr. Bolton spoke well when he said that such reflection clothes\nthese doggerels with a new and fascinating interest. Now and then some\nlittle thing awakens us to the days of old, the rosy, early morning\nof mankind, when the stars of magic were still twinkling in the sky,\nand the dreamer, hardly awake, still thought himself communing with\nGod. So I was struck the other day when a gypsy, a deep and firm\nbeliever in the power of the amulet, and who had long sought, yet\nnever found, his ideal, was deeply moved when I showed him the shell\non which Nav, or the Name, was mystically inscribed by Nature. Through\nthe occult and broken traditions of his tribe there had come to him\nalso, perhaps from Indian or Chald\u00e6an sources, some knowledge of the\nancient faith in its power.\n\nI think that I can add to the instance of a child's counting-out game\nbased on a magic spell, yet another. Everybody knows the song of John\nBrown who had\n\n\n   \"Ten little, nine little, eight little, seven little, Six little\n    Indian boys;\n    Five little, four little, three little, two little, One little\n    Indian boy, [22]\n\n\nAnd of the fate which overtook them all, one by one, inevitable as\nthe decrees of Nemesis. This song is in action a game. I have heard\nit in Romany from a gypsy, and have received from a gypsy scholar\nanother version of it, though I am sure that both were versions from\nthe English. But in Romany, as in all languages, there have existed\nwhat may be called additional and subtractive magic songs, based on\nsome prim\u00e6val Pythagorean principle of the virtues of numbers, and,\nas regards form, quite like that of the ten little Indians. In the\ncharms of Marcellus Burdigalensis (third century), it appears as a\ncure for pains or disorders in the jaws (remedium valde certum et\nutile faucium doloribus), in the Song of the Seven Acorn Sisters,\nwhich the Latin-Gaul doctor describes as carmen mirum, in which\nopinion the lover of Folk-lore will heartily concur.\n\n\n   \"Carmen mirum ad Glandulas.\n\n   \"Glandulas mane carminabis, si dies minuetur, si nox ad vesperam,\n    et digito medicinali ac pollice continens eas dices:--\n\n       \"Novem glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Octo glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Septem glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Sex glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Quinque glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Quatuor glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Tres glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Du\u00e6 glandul\u00e6 sorores,\n        Una glandula soror!\n\n        Novem fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Octo fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Septem fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Sex fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Quinque fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Quattuor fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Tres fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Du\u00e6 fiunt glandul\u00e6,\n        Una fit glandula,\n        Nulla fit glandula!\"\n\n    (I.e., \"Nine little acorn sisters (or girls), Eight little acorn\n    sisters,\" &c.)\n\n\nThis is simply the same count, forwards and backwards.\n\nIt rises before us as we read--a chorus of rosy little Auluses and\nMarcellas, Clodias, and Manliuses, screaming in chorus:--\n\n\n   \"Ten little, nine little, eight little, seven little, Six little\n    acorn girls!\"\n\n\nUntil it was reduced to una glandula et nulla fit--\"then there was\nnone.\" They too had heard their elders repeat it as a charm against\nthe jaw-ache--and can any man in his senses doubt that they applied\nit in turn to the divine witchcraft of fun and the sublime sorcery\nof sport, which are just as magical and wonderful in their way as\nanything in all theurgia or occultism, especially when the latter\nis used only to excite marvels and the amazement which is only a\nsynonym for amusement. But it is not credible that such a palpable\n\"leaving out\" song as that of the Ten Little Acorn Girls should not\nhaving been utilized by such intelligent children as grew up into\nbeing the conquerors of the world--\"knowing Latin at that.\"\n\nThere is yet another old Roman \"wonderful song to the Acorns,\"\napparently for the same disorder, given by the same author.\n\n\n   \"Albula glandula,\n    Nec doleas nec noceas.\n    Nec paniculas facias,\n    Sed liquescas tanquam salis (mica) in aqua!\n\n   \"Hoc ter novies dicens spues ad terram et glandulas ipsas pollice\n    et digito medicinali perduces, dum carmen dices, sedante solis\n    ortum et post occasum facies id, prout dies aut nox minuetur.\"\n\n\nThere appears in these formulas to be either a confusion or affinity\nas regards glandulas, the tonsils, and the same word signifying small\nacorns. As is very often the case, the similarity of name caused an\nopinion that there must be sympathetic curative qualities. Perhaps\nacorns were also used in this ceremony. In a comment on this Grimm\nremarks: \"Die Glandula wird angeredet, die Glandul\u00e6 gelten fur\nSchwestern, wie wenn das alt hoch-deutsch druos glandula (Graff 5,\n263) personification ank\u00fcndigte? Alt Nordisch ist dr\u00f4s, femina.\"\n\nThere is another child's rhyme which is self-evidently drawn from\nan exorcism, that is to say an incantation. All my readers know the\nnursery song:--\n\n\n   \"Snail, snail, come out of your hole,\n    Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal!\n    Snail, snail, put out your head,\n    Or else I'll beat you till you are dead!\"\n\n\nIt is very remarkable that in Folk-lore the mole and the snail are\nidentified, and, as De Gubernatis states, both are the same with\nthe grey mouse, or, as he might more accurately have declared with\nthe mouse in general. A critic objects to this simply because it\noccurs in the work of De Gubernatis, among his \"fanciful theories,\"\nbut it need not follow that every citation or opinion in his book is\nfalse. Friedrich, who certainly is not a fanciful theorist, asserted\nnearly thirty years ago that the mouse, owing to its living underground\nand in dark places as well as to its gnawing and destroying everything,\nis a chthonisches Thier, one of the animals of darkness and evil. Also\n\"the mole, because it is of subterranean life, has received a chthonic,\ndemoniac, misanthropic reputation.\" In support of these statements he\ncites a great array of authorities. The connection between the mole and\nmouse is evident enough, that between both and the snail is also clear:\nfirstly, from the fact that \"the snail of popular superstition is\ndemoniacal,\" or evil; and secondly, from the rhyme which I now quote,\nwhich is applied to both moles and snails. According to Du Cange it\nwas usual in the Middle Ages for children to go about carrying poles,\non the ends of which was straw, which they lighted, and going round\nthe gardens and under the trees shouted:--\n\n\n   \"Taupes et mulots,\n    Sortez de vos clos,\n    Sinon je vous brulerai la barbe et les os!\"\n\n\nBut in Germany there are two and in Italy five versions of the same\nsong addressed to snails. It is evidently a Roman Catholic formula,\nbased on some early heathen incantation. Thus in Tuscany they sing:--\n\n\n   \"Chiocciola marinella\n    Tira fuori le tue cornelle,\n    E se tu non le tirerai\n    Calcie pugni tu buscherai.\"\n\n\nBoth the snail and mole and mouse were, as I have said, chthonic,\nthat is diabolical or of darkness. The horns of the former were\nsupposed to connect it with the devil. \"In Tuscany it is believed\nthat in the month of April the snail makes love with serpents.\"\n\nThere is another nursery counting-out rhyme whose antiquity and\nconnection with sorcery is very evident. It is as follows:--\n\n\n   \"One, two, three, four, five,\n    I caught a hare all alive.\n    Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,\n    I let her go again.\"\n\n\nThe following from the medical spells and charms of Marcellus\nBurdigalensis manifestly explains it:--\n\n\n   \"Lepori vivo talum abstrahes, pil\u00f3sque ejus de subventre tolles\n    atque ipsum vivum dimittes. De illis pilis, vel lana filum validum\n    facies et ex eo talum leporis conligabis corpusque laborantis\n    pr\u00e6cinges; miro remedio subvenies. Efficacius tamen erit remedium,\n    ita ut incredibile sit, si casu os ipsum, id est talum leporis\n    in stercore lupi inveneris, quod ita custodire debes, ne aut\n    terram tangat aut a muliere contingatur, sed nec filum illud\n    de lana leporis debet mulier ulla contigere. Hoc autem remedium\n    cum uni profuerit ad alias translatum cum volueris, et quotiens\n    volueris proderit. Filum quoque, quod ex lana vel pilis, quos de\n    ventre leporis tuleris, solus purus et nitidus facies, quod si\n    ita ventri laborantis subligaveris plurimum proderit, ut sublata\n    lana leporem vivum dimmittas, et dicas ei dum dimittis eum:\n\n      \"'Fuge, fuge, lepuscule, et tecum aufer coli dolorem!'\"\n\n\nThat is to say, you must \"first catch your hare,\" then pluck\nfrom it the fur needed ad dolorem coli, then \"let it go again,\"\nbidding it carry the disorder with it. In which the hare appears as a\nscape-goat. It may be observed that all this ceremony of catching the\nhare, letting it go and bidding it run and carry away the disorder,\nis still in familiar use in Tuscany.\n\nIt has been observed to me that \"any nursery rhyme may be used as a\ncharm.\" To this we may reply that any conceivable human utterance may\nbe taken for the same purpose, but this is an unfair special pleading\nnot connected with the main issue. Mr. Carrington Bolton admits that he\nhas only found one instance of coincidence between nursery rhymes and\nspells, and I have compared hundreds of both with not much more result\nthan what I have here given. But those who are practically familiar\nwith such formulas recognize this affinity. On asking the Florentine\nfortune-teller if she knew any children's counting-out rhymes which\ndeemed to her to be the same with incantations, she at once replied:--\n\n\"In witchcraft you sometimes call on people one by one by name to\nbewitch them. And the little girls have a song which seems to be like\nit.\" Then she sang to a very pretty tune:--\n\n\n   \"Ecco l'imbasciatore,\n    Col tra le vi la lera,\n    Ecco l'imbasciatrice,\n    Col tra la li ra la!\n    Cosa volete col tua la li la,\n    Col tra le li va la,\n    Voglio Giuseppina,\n    Col tra le li va le va.\n    Voglio la Cesarina,\n      Col tra le li ra le ra.\n    Voglio la Armida, &c.\n    Voglio la Gesualda,\n    Voglio la Barbera,\n    Voglio la Bianca,\n    Voglio la Fortunata,\n    Voglio la Uliva,\n    Voglio la Filomena,\n    Voglio la Maddalena,\n    Voglio la Pia,\n    Voglio la Gemma,\n    Voglio la Ida,\n    Voglio la Lorenzina,\n    Voglio la Carolina,\n    Voglio la Annunciatina,\n    Voglio la Margo,\" &c.\n\n\nThere is one thing of which those who deny the identity of any\ncounting-out rhymes with spells are not aware. These incantations\nare very much in vogue with the Italian peasantry, as with the\ngypsies. They are repeated on all occasions for every disorder,\nfor every trifle lost, for every want. Every child has heard them,\nand their jingle and even their obscurity make them attractive. They\nare just what children would be likely to remember and to sing over,\nand the applying them to games and to \"counting-out\" would follow as\na matter of course. In a country where every peasant, servant-girl and\nchild knows at least a few spells, the wonder would be if some of these\nwere not thus popularized or perverted. It is one thing to sit in one's\nlibrary and demonstrate that this or that ought not to be, because it\nis founded on a \"theory\" or \"idea,\" and quite another to live among\npeople where these ideas are in active operation. Washington Irving\nhas recorded that one of the Dutch governors of New York achieved a\nvast reputation for wisdom by shrugging his shoulders at everything\nand saying, \"I have my doubts as to that.\" And truly the race of Wouter\nvan Twiller is not extinct as yet by any means among modern critics.\n\nIt is worth noting in this connection that in Mrs. Valentine's Nursery\nRhymes (Camden edition) there are fifteen charms given which are all\nof a magical nature.\n\nSince the foregoing chapter was written I have obtained in Florence\nseveral additional instances of children's rhymes which were\nspells. Nearly allied to this subject of sorcery in the nursery is\nThe Game of the Child-stealing Witch, which, as W. Wells Newell has\nshown in a very interesting and valuable contribution to the American\nFolk-Lore Journal, vol. iii., April, 1890, is found in many languages\nand lands.\n\nIn connection with divination, deceit, and robbery, it may be observed\nthat gypsies in Eastern Europe, as in India, often tell fortunes\nor answer questions by taking a goblet or glass, tapping it, and\npretending to hear a voice in the ring which speaks to them. This\nmethod of divination is one of the few which may have occurred\nsporadically, or independently in different places, as there is so\nmuch in a ringing, vibrating sound which resembles a voice. The custom\nis very ancient and almost universal; so Joseph (Genesis xliv. 5)\nsays (\"Vulgate\"), \"Scyphus quam furati estis, ipse est, in quo bibit\nDominus meus, et in quo augurari solet.\" \"The goblet which ye have\nstolen, is it not this wherein my lord drinketh and in which he is\nwont to divine?\" Joseph says again (ver. 15), \"Know ye not that such\na man as I can certainly divine.\" A great number of very orthodox\nscholars have endeavoured to show that \"divine\" here means merely \"to\nconjecture wisely,\" or \"to see into,\" in order to clear Joseph from\nthe accusation of fortune-telling: but the cup and his interpretation\nof dreams tell another story. In those days in the East, as now,\nclever men made their way very often by fortune-telling and theurgia\nin different forms in great families, just as ladies and gentlemen are\n\"invited out\" in London and Paris to please the company with palmistry.\n\nThis divining by goblets is still common in the East. In Norden's\n\"Reise nach Egypten,\" &c., we are told that a native said to the\ntravellers that he had interrogated his coffee-cup, and it had replied\nthat the travellers were those of whom the Prophet had predicted\nthey would come as spies and lead the way for a great immigration of\nFranks. In an Arabic commentary of the twelfth century the replies\nwhich the goblet gave to Joseph when it tapped on it are given in\nfull. As coffee-drinking is very ancient it is probable that divination\nby means of the grounds grew out of foretelling with the cup.\n\nHorst (\"D\u00e6monomagie,\" vol. ii.) remarks that \"prediction by means of\ndrinking or coffee-cups,\" &c., is called in magic, Scyphomancy, and\nthat the reader may judge how common it was in Germany in the first\nhalf of the eighteenth century by consulting the famous humorous poem\nof the \"Renomist,\" Song iii. ver. 47. Certain goblets of thin glass\nwill give out quite a loud ring if only blown upon, and by blowing\nor breathing in a peculiar way the sound may be greatly increased\nor modified, so as to sound like the human voice. This was shown me\nby an old custode in the museum at the Hague. It is a curious trick\nworth trying--especially by those who would pass for magicians!\n\nThere is yet another kind of magic cup known only by tradition,\nthe secret of which, I believe, I was the first to re-discover. It\nis said that the Chinese knew of old how to make bottles, &c., which\nappeared to be perfectly plain, but on which, when filled with wine,\ninscriptions or figures appeared, and which were used in divination\nas to answer questions. In the winter of 1886-87, Sir Henry Austin\nLayard went with me through his glass factory at Venice. [23] As we\nwere standing by the furnace watching the workmen it flashed upon me\nquite in a second how the mysterious old goblets of the Chinese could\nbe made. This would be by blowing a bottle, &c., of thin white glass\nand putting on the interior in all parts except the pattern, a coating\nof glass half an inch in thickness. The outside should then be lightly\nground, to conceal the heavy portion. If red wine or any dark fluid\nshould then be poured into the bottle the pattern would appear of the\nsame colour. Sir Austin Layard at once sent for his very intelligent\nforeman, Signor Castellani, who said that he had indeed read of such\ngoblets, but that he regarded it as a fable. But when I explained to\nhim what had occurred to me, he said that it was perfectly possible,\nbut that the great expense of making such objects would probably\nmake the manufacture practically impossible. Apropos of which I may\nmention that those who would investigate the curiosities of glass,\nespecially the art of making it malleable, may find a great deal in\nA. Nevi, \"De Arte Vitraria\" (Amsterdam), and its German translation\nof 1678 (which contains a chapter, \"Wie die Malleabilit\u00e4t dem Glase\nbeygebracht werden k\u00f6nne\").\n\nIt is probable that the celebrated cup of Djemschid, in Persian story,\nwhich showed on its surface all that passed in the world, owed its\norigin to these Chinese bottles.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nGYPSY AMULETS.\n\n\n                   \"Knew many an amulet and charm\n                    Which would do neither good nor harm,\n                    In Rosicrucian lore as learned\n                    As he that ver\u00e9 adeptus earned.\"--Hudibras.\n\n\nWith pleasant plausibility Heine has traced the origin of one kind of\nfairy-lore to the associations and feelings which we form for familiar\nobjects. A coin, a penknife, a pebble, which has long been carried\nin the pocket or worn by any one, seems to become imbued with his or\nher personality. If it could speak, we should expect to hear from it\nan echo of the familiar voice of the wearer; as happened, indeed, in\nThuringia in the year 1562, when a fair maid, Adelhait von Helbach,\nwas carried into captivity by certain ill-mannered persons. \"Now her\nfriends, pursuing, knew not whither to go, when they heard her voice,\nalbeit very small and feeble, calling to them; and, seeking, they\nfound in the bush by the road a silver image of the Virgin, which she\nhad worn: and this image told them which road to take. Following the\ndirection, they recovered her; the Raubritter who bore her away being\nbroken on the wheel, and the image hung up for the glory of the Virgin,\nwho had spoken by it, in the Church of our Lady of Kalbrunn.\" Again,\nthese objects have such strange ways of remaining with one that we\nend by suspecting that they have a will of their own. With certain\npersons these small familiar friends become at last fetishes, which\nbring luck, giving to those who firmly believe in them great comfort\nand endurance in adversity.\n\nWho has not been amazed at the persistency with which some button\nor pebble picked up, or placed perchance in the pocket, remains\nin all the migrations of keys and pencils and coins, faithful to\nthe charge? How some card or counter will lurk in our pocket-book\n(misnamed \"purse\") or porte-monnaie, until it becomes clear as\ndaylight that it has a reasonable intelligence, and stays with us\nbecause it wants to. As soon as this is recognized--especially by\nsome person who is accustomed to feel mystery in everything, and who\ndoubts nothing--the object becomes something which knows, possibly,\na great deal which we do not. Therefore it is to be treated with care\nand respect, and in due time it becomes a kind of god, or at least\nthe shrine of a small respectable genius, or fairy. I have heard of\na gentleman in the Western United States who had a cane in which,\nas he seriously believed, a spirit had taken up its abode, and he\nreverenced it accordingly. The very ancient and widely-spread belief\nin the efficiency of magic wands probably came from an early faith in\nsuch implements as had been warranted to have magic virtues as weapons,\nor to aid a pedestrian in walking. Hence it happened that swords which\nhad been enchanted, or which had taken lives, were supposed to have\nsome indwelling intelligence. Hence also the names given to swords,\nand indeed to all weapons, by the Norsemen. It was believed that the\nsword of an executioner, after it had beheaded a certain number of\nmen, pined for more victims, and manifested its desire by unearthly\nrattling or ringing. Apropos of which I have in my possession such a\ngruesome implement, which if experience in death could give it life,\nor make it ring in the silent watches of the night, would be a ghastly,\nnoisy guest indeed. I once told the story in \"The Gypsies\" (Boston,\n1881)--now I have something to add to it. I had met in London with an\nIndian gypsy named Nano, who informed me that in India he had belonged\nto a wandering tribe or race who called themselves Rom, or Romani,\nwho spoke Romani jib, and who were the Gypsies of the Gypsies. I have\nin my possession a strange Hindu knife with an enormously broad blade,\nsix inches across towards the end, with a long handle richly mounted\nin bronze with a little silver. I never could ascertain till I knew\nNano what it had been used for. Even the old king of Oude, when he\nexamined it, went wrong and was uncertain. Not so the gypsy. When he\nwas in my library, and his keen black eyes rested on it, he studied\nit for a moment, and then said: \"I know well enough that knife. I\nhave seen it before; it is very old, and it was long in use--it was\nthe knife used by the public executioner in Bhotan. It is Bhotani.\"\n\nNano had volunteered the explanation, and whatever his moral character\nmight be, he was not given to romantic invention. Time passed, I went\nto America, stayed there four years, and returned. In 1888 I became\na member of the National Association for the Advancement of Art,\nand was on the Central Committee. One day we had a meeting at the\nhouse of a distinguished architect. When it was over, my host showed\nme his many treasures of art, or arch\u00e6ology. While examining these,\nmy attention was attracted by an Indian knife. It was precisely\nlike mine, but smaller. I asked what it was, and learned that it had\nlong been used in some place in the East for the express purpose of\nsacrificing young girls. And in all respects it was what we might call\nthe feminine counterpart of my knife. And if I ever had any lingering\ndoubt as to the accuracy of Nano's account, it disappeared when I\nsaw the one whose history was perfectly authentic. A few years ago in\nHeidelburg there were sold at auction a great number of executioners'\nswords, some of which had been used for centuries. A gentleman who\nhad a special fondness for this kind of bric-\u00e0-brac, had for many\nyears collected them.\n\nIt may be here observed that the knife forms a special feature in all\nwitch-lore, and occurs frequently among the Hungarian and Italian gypsy\ncharms, or spells. It is sometimes stuck into a table, while a spell\nis muttered, protesting that it is not the wood which one wishes to\nhurt, but the heart of an enemy. Here the knife is supposed in reality\nto have an indwelling spirit which will pass to the heart or health\nof the one hated. In Tam O'Shanter there is a knife on the witches'\ntable, and in Transylvania, as in Tuscany, a new knife, not an old\none, is used in divers ceremonies. Sometimes an old and curious knife\nbecomes an amulet and is supposed to bring luck, although the current\nbelief is that any pointed gift causes a quarrel.\n\nBut to return to the fetish or pocket-deity which is worn in so many\nforms, be they written scrolls, crosses, medals or relics--c'est\ntout un. Continental gypsies are notable believers in amulets. Being\nin a camp of very wild Cigany in Hungary a few years ago, I asked\nthem what they wore for bakt, or luck; whereupon they all produced\nsmall seashells, which I was assured were potent against ordinary\nmisfortunes. But for a babe which was really ill they had provided an\n\"appreciable\" dose in the form of three Maria Theresa silver dollars,\nwhich were hung round its neck, but hidden under its clothes. And I\nmay here remark that all through many lands, even into the heart of\nAfrica, this particular dollar is held in high esteem for magical\npurposes. From one to another the notion has been transferred, and\ntravellers and traders are often puzzled to know why the savages\nwill have no coin save this. From Russia to the Cape it is the same\nstory, and one to be specially studied by those ethnologists who do\nnot believe in transmission, and hold that myths and legends are of\nlocal growth and accounted for by similar local conditions.\n\nThe gypsies were very desirous to know what my charm was. Fortunately\nI had in my pocket a very fine fossil shark's tooth which I had\npurchased in Whitby, and this was greatly admired by the learned of\nthe tribe. Mindful of good example, I obtained for myself specimens\nof the mystic shells, foreseeing that they would answer as passes and\nsigns among the fraternity in Germany and elsewhere. Which, indeed,\ncame to pass a few days ago in the town of Homburg, when looking from\nmy window in the Schwedenpfad I saw two very honest-looking gypsies\ngo by. Walking forth, I joined them, and led them into a garden, where\nover beer and cigars we discussed \"the affairs of Egypt.\" These Romanys\nwere from the Tyrol, and had the frank bold manner of the mountain-men\nblended with the natural politeness of the better class of gypsy. I had\ntaken with me in my pocket, foreseeing its use, a small bag or purse,\ncontaining an assortment of objects such as would have puzzled anybody\nexcept a Red Indian, a negro, or any believer in medaolin or Voodoo,\nor my new acquaintance; and after a conversation on d\u00farkepen (in\nAnglo-gypsy, dukkerin) or fortune-telling, I asked the men what they\nwore. They wished to see my amulets first. So I produced the shells;\nwhich were at once recognized and greatly admired, especially one,\nwhich is something of a curiosity, since in its natural markings\nis the word NAV very plainly inscribed: Nav, in gypsy, meaning \"the\nname.\" The elder gypsy said he had no charm; he had long been seeking\na good one, but had not as yet met with the correct article. And then\nhe begged me--gracious powers, how he did beg!--to bestow on him one\nof my shells. I resolved to do so--but at another time.\n\nThe younger gypsy, who was a pasche-paskero, a musician, and had with\nhim a rare old violin in a wonderfully carved wooden case at least\ntwo centuries old, was \"all right\" on the fetish question. He had his\nshell, sewn up in a black leather bag, which he wore by a cord round\nhis neck. Then I exhibited my small museum. Every object in it was\ncarefully and seriously examined. My shark's tooth was declared to be\na very good fetish, a black pebble almost equal to the shell, and an\nAmerican Indian arrow-head of quartz passed muster as of possible\nthough somewhat doubtful virtue. But an English sixpence with a\nhole in it was rejected as a very petty and contemptible object. I\noffered it in vain as a present to my friends: they would not accept\nit. Neither did they want money: my dross might perish with me. It\nwas the shell--the precious beautiful little shell on which the Romany\nin search of a fetish had set his heart; the shell which would bring\nhim luck, and cause him to be envied, and ensure him admiration in the\ntents of the wanderers from Paris to Constantinople. He admitted that\nit was the very shell of shells--a baro ser\u00e9skeri sharkuni, or famous\nsea-snail. I believe the gypsies would have given me their fine old\nStainer violin and the carved case for it. Failing to get the shell,\nhe implored me to give him the black pebble. I resolved to give him\nboth in free gift the next time we met, or as a parting souvenir. Alas\nfor the Romany chal!--we never met again. The police allow no gypsies\nin Homburg, and so they had to move on. I sought them that night and I\nsought them next day; but they were over the hills and far away. But I\nhave no doubt that the fame of the shell on which Nature has written\nthe Name--the very logos of magic itself--spread ere the summer was\npast even to the Carpathians. Something tells me that it is not played\nout yet, and that I shall hear anon something regarding it.\n\nThe cult of the shell is widely spread. One day in a public-house, in\nthe West End of London, I, while taking my glass of bitter, entered\ninto conversation with a rather tall, decently-attired brunette\nAlsatian girl, who spoke French and German, and who knew a few words\nof Romany, which she said she had picked up by accident--at least\nshe professed not to be gypsy, and to know no more. Being minded to\ntest the truth of this, I casually exhibited one of my shells and\nsaid it was a Hungarian gypsy amulet for la bonne fortune. She began\nto beg earnestly for it, without getting it. On several occasions at\nlong intervals, when I met her in the street, she again implored me\nfor the treasure, saying that she believed \"if she had it, her luck\nwould turn to good.\" And, being convinced of her gypsyism, I said,\n\"It will do you no good unless you have faith.\" To which she replied,\nin a tone which indicated truth itself: \"But I have faith--absolute,\nentire faith in it.\" Which seeing, and finding that she was a true\nconvert to the power of the holy shell, I gave it to her with my\nblessing, knowing that it would be a joy and comfort to her in all\nthe trials of life.\n\nThis reminds me that I have seen, and indeed possess, a pearl-shell\nbearing the image of Saint Francis of Assisi, such as is sold by\nthousands at his shrine, and which are supposed to possess certain\nmiraculous innate or intrinsic virtues. Thus, if worn by children,\nthey are a cure for croup. \"Ah--but that is a very different thing,\nyou know.\"\n\nAn idol is an object, generally an image, worshipped for its own\nsake--being supposed to not only represent a god, but to have some\nimmanent sanctity. The Catholic priest, and for that matter all\nBrahmins or bonzes, assure us that their sacred images are \"only\nsymbols, not regarded as really dwelling-places of divinity.\" They\nare not, so to speak, magnified amulets. Yet how is it that, if this\nbe true, so many images and pictures are regarded and represented by\npriests as being able of themselves by the touch to cure tooth-ache,\nand all other ills which flesh and bones are heirs to. Why is one image\nespecially good for tooth-ache, while another of the same person cures\ncramp? Why, if they are all only \"symbols,\" is one more healing or\nholy than another? How can our Lady of Embrun be of greater aid than\nour Lady of Paris? The instant we ascribe to an image or a shell real\npower to act, we make of it an inspired being in itself, and all the\nsophistry in the world as to its being a means of faith, or a symbol,\nor causing a higher power to act on the suppliant, is rubbish. The\ndevotee believes tout bonnement that the image works the cure, and if\nhe did not, any other image of the Virgin or Saint would answer the\nsame purpose. This chaff has been thrashed out a thousand times--or\nmany tens of thousand times in vain,--as vain so far as effects go\nas is the remarkably plain First Commandment. And it will last, while\none fetish endures, that the hierophant will call it a mere \"symbol,\"\nand the ignorant worshipper, absolutely unable to comprehend him, will\nworship the symbol as the thing itself--as he is really expected to do.\n\nAccording to J. B. Friedrich, \"Symbolik der Natur,\" the sea-shell, on\naccount of its being a product of the sea, or of the all-generating\nmoisture; and much more probably from its shape, is an emblem\nof woman herself. Therefore as \"Venus, Love's goddess, was born\nof the sea,\" shells are dedicated to her. (\"Museo Bourbonico,\"\nvol. vi. p. 10. Kugler, \"Handbuch Geschichte der Malerei,\"\nBerlin, 1837, vol. iv. p. 311. Also translated by Sir H. Austin\nLayard). Being one of the great emblems of productive Nature, or\nof life and light, and opposed to barrenness, absence of pleasure,\ndarkness, or negation, it was of course a charm against witchcraft\nor evil. That the gypsies have retained it as a powerful agent for\n\"luck,\" is extremely interesting, showing to what a degree they are\nstill influenced by the early symbolism which effectively formed not\none but many mythologies. Among the Hungarian gypsies the virtue or\nmagical power of a shell is in proportion to the degree of resemblance\nabove mentioned, which it possesses, as Wlislocki expressly declares.\n\nThis association of shells, with the mysterious and magical, is to\nbe found among gypsies in the East, as is shown by the following:\nfrom my work entitled \"The Gypsies.\" It describes something which I\nsaw many times in Cairo:--\n\n\n   \"Beyond the door which, when opened, gave this sight, was a dark,\n    ancient archway, twenty yards long, which opened on the glaring,\n    dusty street, where camels with their drivers, and screaming sa\u00efs\n    or carriage-runners and donkey-boys and crying venders kept up the\n    wonted Oriental din. But in the archway, in its duskiest corner,\n    there sat in silence and immovable, a living picture--a dark,\n    handsome woman, of thirty years, who was unveiled. She had\n    before her on the gateway floor, a square of cloth and a few\n    shells. Sometimes an Egyptian of the lower class stopped, and\n    there would be a grave consultation. She was a fortune-teller,\n    and from the positions which the shells assumed when thrown she\n    predicted what would come to pass. And then there would be a\n    solemn conference and a thoughtful stroking of the beard, if the\n    applicant was a man, and then the usual payment to the oracle,\n    and a departure. And it was all world-old prim\u00e6val Egyptian,\n    as it was Chald\u00e6an, for the woman was a Rhagarin, or gypsy, and\n    as she sat so sat the diviners of ancient days by the wayside,\n    casting shells for auspices, even as arrows were cast of old,\n    to be cursed by Israel.\n\n   \"It is not remarkable that among the myriad manteias of olden\n    days there should have been one by shells. The sound of the sea\n    when heard in a nautilus or conch is marvellously \"like that of\n    ocean surges murmuring far.\"\n\n       \"Shake me and it awakens--then apply\n        Its polished lips to your attentive ear,\n        And it remembers its august abodes\n        And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.\"\n\n\nAll of this is very strange to children and not less so to all\nunsophisticated folk, and I can remember how in boyhood I was\ntold and listened with perfect faith to the distant roaring, and\nmarvelled at the mystery of the ocean song being thus for ever kept\nalive inland. The next step to this is to hear in the sea-murmuring\nsomething like voices, and this is as curious as it is true--that if\nthe mind be earnestly given to it, and the process be continued for\na long time during several days, many persons, and probably all in\ntime, will come to distinguish or hear human utterances and eventually\nwords. There is no special faith required here; the mind even of the\nmost sceptical or unimaginative will often turn back on itself, and\nby dint of mere perseverance produce such effects. An old pitcher or\njug of a peculiar shape is also declared to be admirably adapted for\nthis purpose, and I have one of Elizabeth's time which was trawled\nup from the sea near Lowestoft which would fulfil every requisition.\n\nIn 1886 I was by moonlight in a camp of gypsies in the old Roman\namphitheatre near Budapest. It was a very picturesque sight, what\nwith the blazing fire, the strangely-dressed men, the wild shrieking,\nsinging, and dancing women. And when, as I have before mentioned, they\nshowed me the shells which they carried for amulets, they exhibited one\nmuch larger of conch-like form, the tip of which had been removed and\nto which there was attached a flexible tube. This was used in a very\nremarkable trick. The shell, or one like it, is put into the hands of\nthe person consulting the oracle, who is directed to listen to the\nvoice of the Nivashi, or spirit of the air. Then he is blindfolded,\nthe tube applied, and through it the gypsy speaks in a trained soft\nvoice. Thus, in conchomanteia, the oracles still live and devotees\nstill hear the fairies talk.\n\nNow, be it observed that hearing is the most deceptive of the\nsenses--as the reader may have seen exemplified by a lecturer,\nwhen the audience were persuaded that he was fiddling on one cane\nwith another, or blowing a flute tune on one, when the music was\nmade by a confederate behind a screen. I myself, a few days since,\nwhen in the K\u00f6ppern Thal, verily believed I heard the murmur and\nmusic of children's voices--when lo! it proved to be the babbling\nbrook. Some years ago--I forget where it happened in England, but I\nguarantee the truth of what I tell--it was found that the children\nin a certain village were in the habit of going to an ancient tomb\nin which there was a round hole, putting their ears to it, and, as\nthey said, of listening to what the dead people were saying. It is\nfacile enough to understand that among them there would be some whose\nunconscious creative faculty would lead them to literally hearing\nwords or songs. There is another ancient and beautiful mystical\nassociation with shells. The conch when pierced formed a trumpet,\nwhose notes seemed to be allied to the murmuring of the wind and\nwaves heard in the shell when applied to the ear. The sea-god Triton\nblew upon a shell--\"meaning thereby the roaring of the waves.\" \"And\nin analogous wise a shell is represented on the Tower of the Winds\nin Athens, to represent Boreas, the north-east wind, and the roaring\nof the storm\" (Millin, \"Gallerie Mythologique\"). The resemblance of\nwind to the human voice has probably occurred to every human being,\nand has furnished similes for every poet. That these voices should be\nthose of spirits is a natural following. So the last Hebrew oracle,\nthe Bath Kol, or Daughter of the Voice, survives in shells and lives\nin gypsy-lore. And so we find in rags and patches on the garments of\nEgyptian fellahin the edges of Pharaoh's garment, which in olden time\nit was an honour for kings to kiss.\n\nDeception of this kind by means of voices, apparently supernatural,\nis of great antiquity. The high priest Savan the Asmunian, of Egypt,\nis said to have used acoustic tubes for this purpose, and it is very\nevident that the long corridors or passages in the stone temples must\nhave suggested it as well as whispering galleries. The Hebrew Cabalists\nare believed to have made one form of the mysterious Teraphim by taking\nthe head of a child and so preparing it by magic ceremonies that when\ninterrogated it would reply. These ceremonies consisted in fact of\nskilfully adjusting a phonetic tube to the head. It is very probable\nthat the widely-spread report of this oracle gave rise to the belief\nthat the Jews slaughtered and sacrificed children. \"Eliphaz Levi,\"\nor the Abb\u00e9 Constant, a writer of no weight whatever as an authority,\nbut not devoid of erudition, and with occasional shrewd insights, gives\nit as his belief that the terrible murders of hundreds of children by\nGilles de Retz--the absurdly so-called original of Blue-beard--were\nsuggested by a recipe for sanguinary sorcery, drawn from some Hebrew\nCabalistical book. Nicephorus (Lib. 7 c. 33) and Cedrenus, as cited\nby Grosius in his \"Magica\" (1597), tell us that when Constantine\nwas ill a number of children were collected to be slain that the\nemperor might bathe in their blood (in quo si se Imperator ablueret,\ncerto recuperaret), and that because he was moved by the tears of\ntheir mothers to spare their lives, was restored to health by the\nsaints. It seems to have escaped the attention of writers that at\nthe very time during the Middle Ages when the Jews were being most\nbitterly persecuted for offering children at the Passover, it was\nreally a common thing among Christians to sacrifice children, maids,\nor grown-up people, by burying them alive under the foundations of\ncastles, &c., to insure their stability--a ghastly sacrifice, which\nin after-times took the form of walling-up a cock and finally an\negg. But from an impartial and common-sense standpoint, there could\nbe no difference between the sacrifice of a child by a Cabalist and\nthe torturing and burning witches and heretics by ecclesiastics,\nunless, indeed, that the latter was the wickeder of the two, since\nthe babes were simply promptly killed, while the Inquisitors put\ntheir victims to death with every refinement of mental and physical\ntorture. Both Cabalist and priest were simply engaged in different\nforms of one and the same fetish-work which had been handed down\nfrom the days of witchcraft. Nor did Calvin, when he burnt Servetus,\ndiffer in anything from a Voodoo sacrificing \"a goat without horns.\"\n\nPunishing a heretic to please or placate the Deity differs in nothing\nfrom killing any victim to get luck. Other sentiments may be mingled\nwith this \"conjuring,\" but the true foundation of black witchcraft\n(and all witchcraft is black which calls for blood, suffering,\nstarvation, and the sacrifice of natural instincts), is the mortar\nof the fear of punishment, and the stones of the hope of reward,\nthe bulk of the latter being immeasurably greater than that of the\nformer, which is a mere Bindemittel, or means of connection.\n\nIt is remarkable that nowhere, not even in England, do the gypsies\nregard the witch as utterly horrible, diabolical, and damnable. She is\nwith them simply a woman who has gained supernatural power, which she\nuses for good or misuses for evil according to her disposition. The\nwitch of the Church--Catholic or Protestant--when closely examined is\na very childish conception. She sets forth personal annoyance without\nany regard whatever as to whether it is really good in disguise or a\nnatural result of our own follies. Thus witches caused thunder-storms,\nwhich, because they were terrifying and more or less destructive,\nwere seriously treated by the Church as unmitigated evils, therefore\nas phenomena directly due to the devil and his servants. Theology the\nomniscient did not know that storms cleared the air. Witches were\nresponsible for all pestilences, and very often for all disorders\nof any kind--as it was very convenient for the ignorant leech to\nattribute to sorcery or moral delinquency or to God, a disease which\nhe could not cure. For \"Theology, the science of sciences,\" had not\nas yet ascertained that plagues and black deaths, and most of the\nills of man are the results of neglect of cleanliness, temperance,\nand other sanitary laws. It is only a few years since a very eminent\nclergyman and president of a college in America attributed to\n\"Divine dispensation\" the deaths of a number of students, which were\ndirectly due to palpable neglect of proper sanitary arrangements by\nthe reverend gentleman himself, and his colleagues. But, admitting\nthe \"divine dispensation,\" according to the medi\u00e6val theory, the\npresident, as the agent, must have been a \"wizard\"--or conjuror--a\ndelusion which the most superficial examination of his works would\nat once dissipate. But to return--there can be no denial whatever\nthat according to what is admitted to be absolutely true to-day by\neverybody, be he orthodox or liberal, witches, had they existed,\nmust have been agents of God, busied in preventing plagues instead\nof causing them--by raising storms which cleared the air. Even the\nAlgonkin Indians knew more than the Church in this respect, for they\nhave a strange old legend to the effect that when the god of Storms,\nWuch-ow-sen, the giant eagle, was hindered by a magician from his\naccustomed work, the sea and air grew stagnant, and people died. [24]\nThe witch was simply another form of the Hebrew Azrael, God's Angel\nof Death.\n\nWhich may all lead to the question: If a belief in witches as utterly\nevil servants of the devil could be held as an immutable dogma of\nthe Church and a matter of eternal truth for eternal belief--to\nprove which there is no end of ingenious argument and an appalling\narray of ecclesiastical authority cited in the black-letter \"Liber\nde Sortilegiis\" of Paulus Grillandus, now lying before me (Lyons,\n1547), as well as in the works of Sprenger, Bodinus, Delrio, and the\nWitch-bull of Pope Innocent--and if this belief be now exploded even\namong the priests, what proof have we that any of the dogmas which\nwent with it are absolutely and for ever true? This is the question\nof dogmatik, versus development or evolution, and witchcraft is its\ngreatest solvent. For when people believe, or make believe, in a thing\nso very much as to torture like devils and put to death hundreds\nof thousands of fellow-beings, mostly helpless and poor old women,\nnot to mention many children, it becomes a matter of very serious\nimport to all humanity to determine once for all whether the system or\ncode according to which this was done was absolutely right for ever,\nor not. For if it was true, these executions and the old theory of\nwitchcraft were all quite right, as the Roman Church still declares,\nsince the Pope has sanctioned of late years several very entertaining\nworks in which modern spiritualists, banjo-twangers, table-turners,\n&c., are declared to be really wizards, who perform their stupendous\nand appalling miracles directly by the aid of devils. And, by the way,\nsomebody might make an interesting work not only on the works in the\nIndex Librum Prohibitorum, which it entails seventy-six distinct kinds\nof damnation to read, but also on those which the Pope sanctions--I\nbelieve, blesses. Among the later of the latter is one which pretends\nto prove that Jews do really still continue to sacrifice Christian\nchildren at the Passover feast--and, for aught I know, to eat them,\nfried in oil, or \"buttered with goose-grease\"--apropos of which, I\nmarvel that the Hebrews, instead of tamely denying it, do not boldly\nretort on the Christians the charge of torturing their own women and\nchildren to death as witches, which was a thousand times wickeder\nthan simply bleeding them with a penknife, as young Hugh of Lincoln\nwas said to have been disposed of by the Jew's daughter.\n\nBut people all say now--that was the age, and the Church was still\nunder the influence of barbarism, and so on. Exactly; but that\nadmission plainly knocks down and utterly destroys the whole platform\nof dogmatism and the immutable and eternal truth of any dogma whatever,\nfor it admits evolution--and to seize on its temporary fleeting forms\nand proclaim that they are immutable, is to mistake the temporal\nfor the eternal, the infinitesimal fraction for the whole. This is\nnot worshipping God, the illimitable, unknown tremendous Source of\nLife, but His minor temporary forms, \"essences,\" or \"angels,\" as the\nCabalists termed the successive off-castings of His manifestations.\n\n\n    In Being's flood, in action's storm\n    I work and weave--above, beneath,\n    Work and weave in endless motion\n    Birth and death, an infinite ocean\n        A seizing and giving\n        The fire of the living.\n    'Tis thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply\n    And weave for God the garment thou seest Him by.\n\n\nNow there are infinite numbers of these garments, but none of them\nare God, though the Church declared that what they had of them were\ntruly Divine. So Oriental princes sent their old clothes to distant\nprovinces to be worshipped, as Gessler sent his hat: it is an old,\nold story, and one which will be long repeated in many lands.\n\nI have, not far back, mentioned a work on witchcraft by Paulus\nGrillandus. Its full title is \"Tractatus de Hereticis et sortilegiis,\nomnifariam Coitio eorumque penis. Item de Questionibus et Tortura ac\nde Relaxatione Carceratorum\"--that is, in brief, a work on Heretics,\nWitches breakers of the Seventh Commandment of all kinds, Examination\nby Torture, and Imprisonment. It was a leading vade mecum, or standard\nguide, in its time for lawyers and the clergy, especially the latter,\nand reads as if it had come from the library of hell, and been written\nby a devil, though composed, according to the preface, to promote\nthe dignity and glory of the Christian Church. I can well believe\nthat a sensitive humane person could be really maddened by a perusal\nand full comprehension of all the diabolical horrors which this book\nreveals, and the glimpses which it gives of what must have been endured\nliterally by millions of heretics and \"witches,\" and all men or women\nmerely accused by anybody of any kind of \"immorality,\" especially of\n\"heresy.\" I say suspected or accused--for either was sufficient to\nsubject a victim to horrible agonies until he or she confessed. What is\nmost revolting is the calm, icy-cold-blooded manner in which the most\nawful, infernal cruelties are carefully discussed--as, for instance,\nif one has already had any limbs amputated for punishment whether\nfurther tortures may then be inflicted? It is absolutely a relief to\nfind that among the six kinds of persons legally exempted from the\nrack, &c.--there are only six and these do not include invalids--are\npregnant women. But such touches of common humanity are rare indeed\nin it. I do not exaggerate in the least when I say that the whole\nspirit of this work--which faithfully reflects the whole spirit of the\n\"justice\" of the Middle Ages--inclines in a ferocious, wolfish manner\nto extend and multiply punishment of the most horrible kinds to every\nsmall offence against the Church--to manufacture and increase crime\nas if it were capital for business, and enlarge the sphere of torture\nso as to create power and awe.\n\nNous avons chang\u00e9 tout cela, say the descendants of those fiends\nin human form. But if it was wrong then why did you do it if you\nwere infallible inspired judges? And if you now believe that to be\natrocious which was once holy, and a vast portion of your whole system,\nhow can you say that the Church does not follow the laws of evolution\nand progress--and if so, where will it stop? It is a curious reflection\nthat if the Pope and Cardinals of 1890 had lived four hundred years\nago they would (with the exception, perhaps, of the Spaniards) have\nall been burned alive for heresy. Which is literally true.\n\nWithin a minute's walk from where I sit, and indeed visible from my\nwindow in this town of Homburg vor der H\u00f6he, are two round towers of\nother days--grim and picturesque relics of the early Middle Ages. One\nis called the Hexenthurm or Witches' Tower. In it gypsies, witches,\nand heretics were confined--it was the hotel specially reserved\nfor them when they visited Homburg, and in its cells which are of\nthe smallest between walls of the thickest, I or you, reader, might\nbe confined to-day, but for one Martin Luther and certain laws of\nevolution or progress of which Paulus Grillandus did not dream.\n\nAs I was sketching the tower, an old woman told me that there were many\nstrange tales about it. That I can well believe but I dare say they\nare all summed up in the following ballad from the German of Heine:--\n\n\n    \"The Witch.\"\n\n   \"Folks said when my granny Eliza bewitched,\n      She must die for her horrid transgression;\n    Much ink from his pen the old magistrate pitched,\n      But he could not extort a confession.\n\n    And when in the kettle my granny was thrown\n      She yelled 'Death' and 'Murder!' while dying;\n    And when the black smoke all around us was blown,\n      As a raven she rose and went flying.\n\n    Little black grandmother, feathered so well,\n      Oh, come to the tower where I'm sitting:\n    Bring cakes and bring cheese to me here in the cell,\n      Through the iron-barred window flitting.\n\n    Little black grandmother, feathered and wise,\n      Just give my aunt a warning,\n    Lest she should come flying and pick out my eyes\n      When I merrily swing in the morning.\"\n\n\nHorst in his \"D\u00e6monomagie,\" a History of the Belief in Magic, Demoniac\nmarvels, Witchcraft, &c., gives the picture of a Witch-tower, at\nLindheim in the Wetterau, with all its terrible history, extracted\nfrom the town archives. It is a horrible history of torturing and\nburning at the stake of innumerable women of all ages, the predominant\nfeature being that any accusation by anybody whatever, or any rumour\nset afloat in any way, amply sufficed to bring an enemy to death,\nor to rob a person who had money. Hysterical women and perverse or\neccentric children frequently originated these accusations merely to\nbring themselves into notice.\n\nThere was till within a few years a Witches' Tower in Heidelberg. It\nwas a very picturesque structure in an out-of-the-way part of the\ntown, in nobody's way, and was therefore of course pulled down by the\ngood Philistine citizens, who have the same mania in Heidelberg as\n\"their ignorant-like\" in London, Philadelphia, or any other town,\nfor removing all relics of the olden time.\n\nIn connection with sorcery and gypsies, it is worth observing that in\n1834 the latter, in Swabia, or South Germany, frequently went about\namong the country-people, with puppet-shows, very much of the Punch\nkind, and that they had a rude drama of Faust, the great wizard,\nwhich had nothing to do with that of Goethe. It was derived from\nthe early sources, and had been little by little gypsified into a\nmelodrama peculiar to the performers. August Zoller, in his \"Bilder\naus Schwaben\" (Stuttgard, 1834), gives the following description of\nit. The book has a place in all Faust libraries, and has been kept\nalive by this single passage:--\n\n\n   \"There is a blast of a trumpet, and the voice of a man proclaims\n    behind the scenes that the play is to begin. The curtain is drawn,\n    and Faust leaning against the background--which represents a\n    city--soliloquizes:\n\n  \"'I am the cleverest doctor in the world, but all my cleverness\n    does not help me to make the beautiful princess love me. I will\n    call up Satan from the under-world to aid me in my plans to win\n    her. Devil--I call thee!'\n\n   \"Meanwhile Faust's servant--the funny man--has entered and amused\n    the public with comical gestures. The appearance of the devil is\n    announced by a firework (Spr\u00fchteufel) fizzing and cracking. He\n    descends from the air, there being no arrangements for his coming\n    up. The servant bursts into a peal of laughter, and the devil asks:\n\n  \"'Faust thou hast called me; now, what is thy wish?'\n\n  \"'I love the lovely princess--canst thou make her love me?'\n\n  \"'Nothing is easier. Cut thy finger and sign to me thy life;\n    then all my devilish art will be at thy service till thou hast\n    committed four murders.'\n\n   \"Faust and the devil fly forth, the servant making sarcastic\n    remarks as to the folly of his master, and the curtain falls.\n\n   \"In the second act the fair princess enters--she is three times as\n    large as Faust, but bewails his absence in a plaintive voice and\n    departs. Faust enters and calls for a Furio who shall carry him\n    to Mantua. Enter three Furios (witches) who boast their power. 'I\n    can carry you as swiftly as a moor-cock flies,' says one. This is\n    not swift enough for Faust. 'I fly as fast as bullet from a gun,'\n    says the second. The master answers:\n\n  \"'A right good pace, but not enough for Faust.' To the third:\n   'How fast art thou?'\n\n  \"'As quick as Thought.'\n\n  \"'That will suffice--there's naught so swift as Thought. Bear me\n    to Mantua, to her I love, the princess of my heart!'\n\n   \"The Furio takes Faust on her back, and they fly through the\n    air. The servant makes, as before, critical and sarcastic remarks\n    on what has passed, and the curtain falls.\n\n   \"In the third act the devil persuades Faust to murder his father,\n    so as to inherit his treasures, 'for the old man has a tough\n    life.' In the fourth, maddened by jealousy, he stabs the princess\n    and her supposed lover. The small sarcastic servant takes the\n    murdered pair by the legs, and drags them about, cracking jokes,\n    and giving the corpses cuffs on their ears to bring them again\n    to life.\n\n   \"In the fifth act, the clock strikes eleven. Faust has now filled\n    to the brim the measure of his iniquity. The devil appears,\n    proves to him that it is time to depart; it strikes twelve; the\n    smoke of a fizzling squib and several diabolical fire-crackers\n    fills the air, and Faust is carried away, while the small servant,\n    as satanical and self-possessed as ever, makes his jokes on the\n    folly of Faust--and the curtain falls.\"\n\n\nThis is the true Faust drama of the Middle Ages, with the\nante-Shakespearian blending of tragedy and ribald fun. But this same\nmixture is found to perfection in the early Indian drama--for instance,\nin \"Sakuntala\"--and it would be indeed a very curious thing should\nit be discovered that the gypsies, who were in all ages small actors\nand showmen of small plays, had brought from the East some rude drama\nof a sorcerer, who is in the end cheated by his fiend. Such is, in\na measure, the plot of the Baital Pachisi or Vikram and the Vampire,\nwhich is borrowed from or founded on old traditions, and the gypsies,\nfrom their familiarity with magic, and as practical actors, would,\nin all probability, have a Faust play of some kind, according to the\nlaws of cause and effect. In any case the suggestion may be of value\nto some investigator.\n\nGypsies in England--that is those \"of the old sort\"--regard a\nshoe-string as a kind of amulet or protection. Many think it is\nunlucky to have one's photograph taken, but no harm can come of it\nif the one who receives the picture gives the subject a shoe-string\nor a pair of laces.\n\nDr. F. S. Krauss in his curious work, \"Sreca, or Fortune and Fate in\nthe popular belief of the South Slavonians\" (Vienna, 1886), draws\na line of distinction between the fetish and amulet. \"The fetish,\"\nhe declares, \"has virtue from being the dwelling of a protecting\nspirit. The amulet, however, is only a symbol of a higher power,\"\nthat is of a power whose attention is drawn by or through it to\nthe believer or wearer. This, however, like the distinction between\nidolatry and worshipping images as symbols of higher beings, becomes\nin the minds of the multitude (and for that matter, in all minds),\na distinction without a dot of difference. The amulet may \"rest upon\na higher range of ideas, while the fetish stands on its own feet,\"\nbut if both are regarded as bringing luck and if, for instance, one\nrosary or image of the same person is believed to bring more luck\nthan another, it is a fetish and nothing else. An amulet may pretend\nto be a genteeler kind of fetish, but they are all of the same family.\n\nThe gypsies prepare among the Bosniacs, \"on the high plains of Malwan,\"\na fetish in the form of a cradle made of nine kinds of wood, to bring\nluck to the child who sleeps in it. But Dr. Krauss falls, I presume,\ninto a very great error, when he attributes to her Majesty the Queen\nof England a belief in fetish, on the strength of the following\nremarkable passage from the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung:--\n\n\n   \"By command of Queen Victoria, Mr. Martin, Director of the\n    Institute for the Blind, has attended to the making a cradle for\n    the newly-born child of the Princess of Battenberg. The cradle\n    is to be made entirely by blind men and women. The Queen firmly\n    believes that objects made by blind people bring luck.\"\n\n\nTruly, if anything could bring luck it ought to be something ordered\nwith a kind and charitable view from poor and suffering people,\nbut it is rather hard to promptly conclude that her Majesty believes\nin fetish because she benevolently ordered a cradle from the blind,\nand that she had no higher motive than to get something which would\nbring luck to her grandchild.\n\nIt may be observed in connection with this superstition that among\nthe Hungarian gypsies several spells depend on using different kinds\nof wood, and that four are said to have been taken for the true cross.\n\nGypsies, in common with the rest of the \"fetishioners\" of all the\nworld, believe in the virtue of a child's caul. Dr. Krauss found in\nKobas on the Save an amulet which contained such a caul with garlic\nand four-leaved clover. This must have been a very strong charm indeed,\nparticularly if the garlic was fresh.\n\nAnother very great magic protector in every country among gypsies\nas well as Gentiles, is the thunderbolt, known in Germany as the\nDonneraxt, Donnerstein, Donnerkeil, Albschoss, Strahlstein, and\nTeufelsfinger. It was called by the Greeks Astropel\u00e1kia, by the Latins\nGemma cerauni\u00e6, by the Spaniards Piedras de rayo, by the dwellers\nin the French High Alps Peyras del tron (pierres de tonerre), by the\nBirmans Mogio (the child of lightning), by the Chinese Rai-fu-seki (the\nbattle-axe of Tengu, the guardian of Heaven), by the Hindoos Swayamphu,\nor \"the self-originated.\" Dr. Krauss, from whom I have taken these\nremarks, adds that in America and Australia it is also regarded as\na charm protective and luck-bringing. But here there is a confusion\nof objects. The thunderbolt described by Dr. Krauss is, I believe,\na petrified shell, a kind of mucro or belemnite. The thunderbolt\nof the Red Indians really resembles it, but is entirely different\nin its nature. The latter results from lightning entering the sand\nfusing it. It sometimes makes in this way a very long tube or rod,\nwith a point. People, finding these, naturally believed that they\nwere thunderbolts. I knew an old Penobscot Indian who, seeing the\nlightning strike the earth, searched and found such a thunderbolt,\nwhich he greatly prized. In process of time people who found mucrones\nin rocks believed them to be the same as the glass-like points of\nfused sand which they so much resembled.\n\nThe so-called thunderbolt is confused with the prehistoric stone\naxe, both bearing the same name in many lands. As this axe is\noften also a hammer it is evident that it may have been sacred to\nThor. \"The South Slavonian\"--or gypsy--\"does not distinguish,\" says\nDr. Krauss, \"between the thunderbolt and prehistoric axe. He calls\nboth strelica.\" The possession of one brings luck and prosperity in\nall business, but it must be constantly carried on the person. Among\nthe \"thirties\" there lived in Gaj in Slavonia a poor Jewish peddler\nnamed David. Once he found a strelica. He always carried it about\nwith him. The peasants envied him greatly its possession. They came\nto him in the market-place and cried, \"Al si sretan, Davide!\" (\"Ha,\nhow lucky thou art, David!\") The Slavonian Jews called him, for a joke,\n\"Strelica.\"\n\nThe prehistoric axe was probably regarded as gifted with fetish power,\neven in the earliest age, especially when it was made of certain\nrare materials. Thus among the Red Indians of Massachusetts stone\n\"tomahawks\" of veined, petrified wood were specially consecrated\nto burial-places, while in Europe axe-heads of jade were the\nmost coveted of possessions. A. B. Meyer has written a large work,\n\"Jade und Nephrit Objecte aus dem Ethnographische Museum zu Dresden,\nAmerica und Europe\" (Leipzig, 1882). It has always been supposed that\nthe objects of true jade came only from Tartary, and I believe that\nI was the first person to discover that it existed in quantities in\nWestern Europe. The history of this \"finding\" is not without interest.\n\nIt has been usual--it is said for a thousand years--for pilgrims to\nIona to bring away with them as souvenirs a few green pebbles of\na peculiar kind, and to this day, as every tourist will remember,\nthe children who come to the steamboat offer handsful of them\nfor sale. When I was there many years ago--in Iona--I also went\naway with perhaps twenty of them. One evening, after returning to\nLondon, there were at my home three Chinese gentlemen attached to the\nLegation. The conversation turned on Buddhist pilgrimages and Fusang,\nand the question, founded on passages in the Chinese annals, as to\nwhether certain monks had really passed from the Celestial Kingdom to\nMexico in the fifth century and returned. This reminded me of Iona,\nand I produced my green pebbles, and told what I knew about them.\n\nMy visitors regarded the stones with great interest and held\nan animated conversation over them in Chinese, which I did not\nunderstand. Observing this I made them presents of the pebbles, and\nwas thanked with an earnestness which seemed to me to be out of all\nproportion to the value of the gifts. Thinking this over the next\nday, I wrote to the clergyman at Iona asking him to be so kind as to\nsend me some of the pebbles, and offering to pay for them. He did so,\nsending me by mail a box of the stones. Two or three were very pretty,\none especially. It is of a dark green colour and slightly transparent.\n\nTwo years after, when in Philadelphia, meeting with an old friend,\nDr. Joseph Leidy, well known as a man of science, and, inter alia, as\na mineralogist. I showed him my pebble and asked him what it was. He\nreplied, \"It is jade.\" To my query whether it might not be nephrite\nhe answered no, that it was true jade of fine quality.\n\nJade is in China a talismanic stone, many occult virtues and\nluck-bringing qualities being ascribed to it. It is very curious,\nand possibly something more than a mere chance coincidence, that\nthe green pebbles of Iona were also carried as charms. It would be\nremarkable if even in prehistoric times, or in the stone age, Iona\nand Tartary had been connected by superstition and tradition.\n\nAmong the gypsies as well as Christians in Servia, nuts, especially\nthose which are heart-shaped (i.e., double), are carried as fetishes\nor amulets. In very early times a nut, as containing like a seed\nthe principle of germination and self-reproduction, was typical of\nlife. Being enclosed in a shell it seemed to be in a casket or box\nwhich was of itself a mystical symbol. Hence nuts are often found in\nancient graves. There are many stories accordingly in all countries in\nwhich a nut or egg is represented as being connected with the life of\nsome particular being or person. The ogre in several tales can live\nuntil a certain egg is broken. In the Graubunden or Grisons there is\nthe following legend:--\n\n\n   \"Once there lived near Fideriseau a rich peasant. To him came a\n    poor beggar, who asked for alms in vain. Then the man replied,\n    'If thou wilt give me nothing yet will I give thee something. Thou\n    shalt keep thy treasure and also thy daughter after thee; yea,\n    and for years after she is dead her spirit shall know no rest for\n    taking care of it. But I give thee this nut. Plant it by yonder\n    great stone, thou stony-hearted fool. From the nut will grow a\n    tree, and from the tree twigs from which a cradle will be made in\n    which a child will be rocked who will redeem thy daughter from\n    her penance.' And after the girl died, a spirit of a pale woman\n    with dark hair was seen flying nightly near Fideris, and that\n    for many years, for it takes a long time for an acorn to grow up\n    into an oak. But as she is no longer seen it is believed that the\n    cradle has been made and the child born who became the deliverer.\"\n\n\nA. B. Elysseeff, in his very interesting article based on Kounavine's\n\"Materials for the Study of the Gypsies,\" gives the representation\nof four gypsy amulets, also \"a cabalistic token\" that brings good\nluck to its wearer.\n\n\n   \"The amulets,\" writes M. Elysseeff, \"are made of wrought iron\n    and belong to M. Kounavine. The cabalistic sign is designed\"\n    (copied?) \"by ourselves, thanks to the amiability of a gypsy\n    djecmas (sorcerer) of the province of Novogorod. The amulet A was\n    found by M. Kounavine among the gypsies who roam with their camps\n    in the Ural neighbourhood; some Bessarabian gypsies supplied B;\n    C was obtained from a gypsy sorcerer of the Persian frontier,\n    and D formed a part of some ornaments placed with their dead by\n    gypsies of Southern Russia.\n\n   \"The cabalistic sign\" (vide illustration at head of chapter)\n   \"represents roughly a serpent, the symbol of Auromori, the evil\n    principle in gypsy mythology. The figure of an arch surrounded\n    with stars is, according to M. Kounavine, held by the gypsies as\n    symbolizing the earth, the meaning of the triangle \u25b3 is not\n    known. The moon and stars which surround the earth and which are,\n    so to speak, enclosed in the serpent's coils, symbolize the world\n    lying in evil. This sign is engraved by gypsies upon the plates of\n    the harness of the horses, of garments, and as designed ornaments.\"\n\n\nIt may be here remarked that the symbolism of M. Kounavine, while\nit may be quite accurate, must be taken with great reserve. If the\n\"arch\" be simply a horse-shoe, all these ornaments, except the serpent,\nmay be commonly found on the trappings of London dray-horses.\n\n\n   \"Amulet A, which also represents the sun, the moon, the stars,\n    earth, and a serpent, can equally serve as a symbol of the\n    universe. According to M. Kounavine, Ononi\" (the Ammon of the\n    Egyptians) \"and Auromori, are symbolized upon this amulet. Amulet\n    B represents a man surrounded by a halo, aided by the moon and the\n    stars, and armed with a sword and arrows. Beneath is represented\n    the horse; the serpent symbolizes Auromori. As a whole this amulet\n    represents the conflict between the good and evil principle,\n    Jandra (Indra) against Auromori.\n\n   \"Amulet C represents a gleaming star and the serpent, and is\n    called Baramy (Brama), symbolizing, according to M. Kounavine,\n    the gypsy proto-divinity.\n\n   \"Or amulet D, which represents a flaming pyre and some\n    hieroglyphics, may also symbolize the prayer addressed to the\n    divinity of the fire.\"\n\n\nIf these explanations were given by gypsy sorcerers the amulets are\nindeed very curious. But, abstractly, the serpent, arrows, stars,\nthe moon, an archer, a fox, and a plant, occur, all the world over,\non coins or in popular art, with or without symbolism, and I confess\nthat I should have expected something very different as illustrating\nsuch a remarkable mythology as that given by M. Kounavine. However, the\nart of a nation--as, for instance, that of the Algonkin Indians--may\nbe very far indeed behind its myths and mental conceptions.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nGYPSIES, TOADS, AND TOAD-LORE.\n\n\n                   \"I went to the toad that lies under the wall,\n                    I charmed him out, and he came at my call.\"\n\n                                      (\"Masque of Queens,\" Ben Johnson.)\n\n\nThe toad plays a prominent part in gypsy (as in other) witchcraft,\nwhich it may well do, since in most Romany dialects there is the same\nword for a toad or frog and the devil. Paspati declares that the toad\nsuggested Satan, but I incline to think that there is some as yet\nundiscovered Aryan word, such as beng, for the devil, and that the\nGerman Bengel, a rascal, is a descendant from it. However, gypsies\nand toads are \"near allied and that not wide\" from one another,\nand sometimes their children have them for pets, which recalls the\nstatements made in the celebrated witch trials in Sweden, where it was\nsaid by those who professed to have been at the Blockula, or Sabbat,\nthat the little witch children were set to play at being shepherds,\ntheir flocks being of toads.\n\nI have been informed by gypsies that toads do really form unaccountable\npredilections for persons and places. The following is accurately\nrelated as it was told me in Romany fourteen years ago, in Epping\nForest, by a girl. \"You know, sir, that people who live out of\ndoors all the time, as we do, see and know a great deal about such\ncreatures. One day we went to a farmhouse, and found the wife almost\ndying because she thought she was bewitched by a woman who came\nevery day in the form of a great toad to her door and looked in. And,\nsure enough, while she was talking the toad came, and the woman was\ntaken in such a way with fright that I thought she'd have died. But\nI had a laugh to myself; for I knew that toads have such ways, and\ncan not only be tamed, but will almost tame themselves. So we gypsies\ntalked together in Romany, and then said we could remove the spell if\nshe would get us a pair of shears and a cup of salt. Then we caught\nthe toad, and tied the shears so as to make a cross--you see!--and\nwith it threw the toad into the fire, and poured the salt on it. So\nthe witchcraft was ended, and the lady gave us a good meal and ten\nshillings.\" (For a Romany poem on this incident vide \"English Gypsy\nSongs,\" Tr\u00fcbner and Co., 1875). And there is a terrible tale told by\nR. H. Stoddard, in a poem, that one day a gentleman accidentally trod\non a toad and killed it. Hearing a scream at that instant in the woods\nat a little distance, followed by an outcry, he went to see what was\nthe matter, and found a gypsy camp where they were lamenting the sudden\ndeath of a child. On looking at the corpse he was horrified to observe\nthat it presented every appearance of having been trampled to death,\nits wounds being the same as those he had inflicted on the toad. This\nstory being told by me to the gypsy girl, she in no wise doubted its\ntruth, being in fact greatly horrified at it; but was amazed at the\nchild chovihani, or witch, being in two places at once.\n\nIn the Spanish Association of Witches in the year 1610 (vide Lorent,\n\"Histoire de l'Inquisition\") the toad played a great part. One who had\ntaken his degrees in this Order testified that, on admission, a mark\nlike a toad was stamped on his eyelid, and that a real toad was given\nto him which had the power to make its master invisible, to transport\nhim to distant places, and change him to the form of many kinds of\nanimals. There is a German interjection or curse \"Kroten-d\u00fcvel!\" or\n\"toad-devil,\" which is supposed to have originated as follows: When\nthe Emperor Charlemagne came into the country of the East Saxons and\nasked them whom they worshipped they replied, \"Krodo is our god;\" to\nwhich the Emperor replied \"Krodo is all the same as Kroten-d\u00fcvel!\" \"And\nhe made them pay bitterly by the sword and the rope for the crime of\ncalling God, according to their language, by a name different from that\nwhich he used; for he put many thousands of them to death, like King\nOlof of Norway, to show that his faith was one of meekness and mercy.\"\n\nIt is bad to have one's looks against one. The personal appearance of\nthe toad is such as to have given it a bad place in the mythology of\nall races. The Algonkin Indians--who, like Napoleon and Slawkenbergius,\nwere great admirers of men with fine bold noses--after having studied\nthe plane physiognomy of the toad, decided that it indicated all the\nvices, and made of the creature the mother of all the witches. Nothing\ncould have been more condemnatory; since in their religion--as in that\nof the Accadians, Laps, and Eskimo--a dark and horrible sorcery, in\nwhich witches conciliated evil spirits, was believed to have preceded\ntheir own nobler Shamanism, by which these enemies of mankind were\nforced or conquered by magic. Once the Great Toad had, as she thought,\nsucceeded in organizing a conspiracy by which Glooskap, the Shamanic\ngod of Nature, was to be destroyed. Then he passed his hand over her\nface and that of her fellow-conspirator the Porcupine; and from that\ntime forth their noses were flat, to the great scorn of all honest\nwell-beaked Indians.\n\nThe old Persians made the toad the symbol and pet of Ahriman, the\nfoe of light, and declared that his Charfester, or attendant demons,\ntook that form when they persecuted Ormuzd. Among the Tyrolese it\nis a type of envy; whence the proverb, \"Envious as a toad.\" In the\nMiddle Ages, among artists and in many Church legends, it appears\nas Greed or Avarice: there is even to this day, in some mysterious\nplace on the right bank of the Rhine between Laufenberg and Binzgau,\na pile of coals on which sits a toad. That is to say, coals they\nseem to the world. But the pile is all pure gold, and the toad is a\ndevil who guards it; and he who knows how can pronounce a spell which\nshall ban the grim guardian. And there is a story told by Menzel\n(\"Christliche Symbolik,\" vol. i. p. 530), that long ago there lived\nin Cologne a wicked miser, who when old repented and wished to leave\nhis money to the poor. But when he opened his great iron chest, he\nfound that every coin in it had turned to a horrible toad with sharp\nteeth. This story being told to his confessor, the priest saw in\nit divine retribution, and told him that God would have none of his\nmoney--nay, that it would go hard with him to save his soul. And he,\nbeing willing to do anything to be free of sin, was locked up in the\nchest with the toads; and lo! the next day when it was opened the\ncreatures had eaten him up. Only his clean-picked bones remained.\n\nBut in the Tyrol it is believed that the toads are themselves poor\nsinners, undergoing penance as Hoetschen or Hoppinen--as they are\nlocally called--for deeds done in human form. Therefore, they are\nregarded with pity and sympathy by all good Christians. And it is\nwell known that in the Church of Saint Michael in Schwatz, on the\nevening before the great festivals, but when no one is present, an\nimmense toad comes crawling before the altar, where it kneels and\nprays, weeping bitterly. The general belief is that toads are for\nthe most part people who made vows to go on pilgrimages, and died\nwith the vows unfulfilled. So the poor creatures go hopping about\nastray, bewildered and perplexed, striving to find their way to\nshrines which have perchance long since ceased to exist. Once there\nwas a toad who took seven years to go from Leifers to Weissenstein;\nand when the creature reached the church it suddenly changed to a\nresplendent white dove, which, flying up to heaven, vanished before\nthe eyes of a large company there assembled, who bore witness to the\nmiracle. And one day as a wagoner was going from Innsbruck to Seefeld,\nas he paused by the wayside a toad came hopping up and seemed to be\ndesirous of getting into the wagon; which he, being a benevolent man,\nhelped it to do, and gave it a place on the seat beside him. There\nit sat like any other respectable passenger, until they came to the\nside-path which leads to the church of Seefeld; when, wonderful to\nrelate! the toad suddenly turned to a maiden of angelic beauty clad\nin white, who, thanking the wagoner for his kindness to her when she\nwas but a poor reptile, told him that she had once been a young lady\nwho had vowed a pilgrimage to the church of Seefeld.\n\nIn common with the frog, the toad is an emblem of productiveness,\nand ranks among creatures which are types of erotic passion. I\nhave in my possession a necklace of rudely made silver toads, of\nArab workmanship, intended to be worn by women who wish to become\nmothers. Therefore the creature, in the Old World as well as in\nthe New, appears as a being earnestly seeking the companionship of\nmen. Thus it happened to a youth of Aramsach, near Kattenberg, that,\nbeing one day in a lonely place by a lake, there looked up at him\nfrom the water a being somewhat like a maid but more like a hideous\ntoad, with whom he entered into conversation; which became at last\nfriendly and agreeable, for the strange creature talked exceeding\nwell. Then she, thinking he might be hungry, asked him if he would\nfain have anything in particular to eat. He mentioned in jest a kind\nof cakes; whereupon, diving into the lake, she brought some up, which\nhe ate. So he met her many times; and whenever he wished for anything,\nno matter what, she got it for him from the waters: the end of it all\nbeing that, despite her appalling ugliness, the youth fell in love\nwith her and offered marriage, to which she joyfully consented. But\nno sooner had the ceremony been performed than she changed to a lady\nof wonderful beauty; and, taking him by the hand, she conducted him\nto the lake, into which she led him, and \"in this life they were seen\nnever more.\" This legend evidently belongs to frog-lore. According to\none version, the toad after marriage goes to a lake, washes away her\nugliness, and returns as a beauty with the bridegroom to his castle,\nwhere they live in perfect happiness.\n\nI have also a very old silver ring, in which there is set a toad\nrudely yet artistically carved in h\u00e6matite, or blood-stone. These\nwere famous amulets until within two or three hundred years.\n\nIf you are a gypsy and have a tame toad it is a great assistance in\ntelling fortunes, and brings luck--that commodity which, as Callot\nobserved, the gypsies are always selling to everybody while they\nprotest they themselves have none. As I tested with the last old gypsy\nwoman whom I met: \"What bak the divvus?\"--\"What luck to-day?\" \"Kekker\nrya\"--\"None, sir,\" was the reply, as usual, \"I never have any luck.\" So\nlike a mirror they reflect all things save themselves, and show you\nwhat they know not.\n\n\n   \"I've seen you where you never were\n      And where you never will be;\n    And yet within that very place\n      You can be seen by me.\n    For to tell what they do not know\n      Is the art of the Romany.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n[1] I was once myself made to contribute, involuntarily, to this kind\nof literature. Forty years ago I published a Folk-lore bock entitled\n\"The Poetry and Mystery of Dreams,\" in which the explanations of\ndreams, as given by Astrampsychius, Artemidorus, and other ancient\noneirologists, were illustrated by passages from many poets and popular\nballads, showing how widely the ancient symbolism had extended. A\nfew years ago I found that some ingenious literary hack had taken my\nwork (without credit), and, omitting what would not be understood by\nservant girls, had made of it a common sixpenny dream-book.\n\n[2] Vide an extremely interesting paper on \"The Origin of Languages\nand the Antiquity of Speaking Man,\" by Horatio Hale. [\"Proceedings of\nthe American Association for the Advancement of Science,\" vol. xxv.] As\nI had, owing to studies for many years of baby-talk and jargons, long\nago arrived at Mr. Hale's conclusions, I was astonished to learn that\nthey have been so recently formed by anybody.\n\n[3] Vide \"Practical Education,\" by C. G. Leland (London: Whittaker\nand Co., 1888), in which this faculty is fully discussed, pp. 184-213.\n\n[4] \"It is said that if the bones of a green frog which has been eaten\nby ants are taken, those on the left side will provoke hatred, and\nthose on the right side excite love\" (\"Div. Cur.,\" c. 23).... \"One\nspecies of frog called rubeta, because it lives among brambles, is\nsaid to have wonderful powers. Brought into an assembly of people it\nimposes silence. If the little bone in its right side be thrown into\nboiling water it chills it at once. It excites love when put into a\ndraught\" (\"Castle Saint Angelo and the Evil Eye,\" by W. W. Story).\n\n[5] According to Pliny, the tooth of a wolf hung to the neck\nof an infant was believed to be an efficient amulet against\ndisease; and a child's tooth caught before it falls to the\nground and set in a bracelet was considered to be beneficial to\nwomen. Nat. Hist. lib. xxvi., cap. 10 (\"Castle Saint Angelo and the\nEvil Eye,\" by W. W. Story).\n\n[6] This cannot fail to remind many readers of the land--\n\n       \"Where the cock never crew,\n        Where the sun never shone and the wind never blew.\"\n\n[7] Of the seventh son, Pipernus remarks in his book, \"De Effectibus\nMagicis\" (1647): \"Est ne sanandi superstitiosus modus eorum, qui orti\nsunt die Parasceves, et quotquot nullo foemines sexu intercedente,\nac ab ortu septimi masculi legitimo thoro sunt nati? memorat Vairus,\nI. de fascinatione, II. Del Rius, lib. i., part 21. Garzonius nel\nSerraglio. J. C\u00e6sar Baricellus secundus scriptor in hort. genial\u00e9.\"\n\n[8] \"\u00dcber Marcellus Burdigalensis, von Jacob Grimm. Gelesen in der\nAcademie der Wissenschaften,\" 28 Juni, 1847 (Berlin. Dummler). In\nthis work, as well as in the German Mythology, by the same author,\nand in Rudolf Roth's \"Litteratur und Geschichte des Veda\" (Stuttgart,\n1846), the reader will find, as also in the works of the elder Cato\nand Pliny, numbers of these incantations.\n\n[9] The divination by the running brook has been known in other\nlands. The Highlanders when they consulted an oracle took their seer,\nwrapped him in the hide of a newly-killed ox or sheep, and left him\nin some wild ravine by a roaring torrent to pass the night. From such\nsights and sounds there resulted impressions which were reflected\nin his dreams (Vide Scott, \"Lady of the Lake,\" and notes). The fact\nthat running water often makes sounds like the human voice has been\nobserved by the Algonkin Indians of Maine and Nova Scotia (Vide\n\"The Algonkin Legends of New England,\" by Charles G. Leland).\n\n[10] \"S\u00fcdslavische Hexensagen, Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen\nGesellschaft in Wien.\" xiv. Bande, 1884. \"Medizinische Zauberspr\u00fcche\naus Slavonien, Bosnien, der Hercegovina und Dalmatien.\" Wien,\n1887. \"Sreca, Gl\u00fcck und Schicksal im Volksglauben der S\u00fcdslaven.\" Wien,\n1886. \"S\u00fcdslavische Pestsagen.\" Wien, 1883.\n\n[11] \"Witch. Medi\u00e6val English wicche, both masculine and feminine, a\nwizard, a witch. Anglo-Saxon wicca, masculine, wicce, feminine. Wicca\nis a corruption of w\u00edtga, commonly used as a short form of witega,\na prophet, seer, magician, or sorcerer. Anglo-Saxon witan, to see,\nallied to w\u00edtan, to know. Similarly Icelandic vitki, a wizard, is\nfrom vita, to know. Wizard, Norman-French wischard, the original\nOld French being guiscart, sagacious. Icelandic, vizkr, clever or\nknowing, ... with French suffix ard as German hart, hard, strong\"\n(Skeat, \"Etymol. Dictionary\"). That is wiz-ard, very wise. Wit and\nwisdom here are near allied to witchcraft, and thin partitions do\nthe bounds divide.\n\n[12] For a very interesting account of the mysterious early\ndwarfs of Great Britain the reader may consult \"Earth Houses and\ntheir Inhabitants,\" by David MacRitchie, in \"The Testimony of\nTradition.\" London: Tr\u00fcbner and Co., 1890.\n\n[13] The many superstitions relating to cutting nails may be referred\nin part to the very wild legend of the ship Naglfara given in\nSturleson's \"Edda.\"\n\n\"Then in that Twilight of the Gods (the Norse Day of Judgment)\nwill come the ship Naglfara, which is made of dead men's nails. In\nthat sea it will go forth. Hrymer steereth it. And for this cause\nno man should die with his nails unshorn, for so the ship is made,\nand the gods would fain put that off as long as possible\" (\"Edda,\nGylfesgynning,\" 26th tale).\n\n[14] \"Geit suer Heidrun heitr stendr uppi a Valholl.... En or spenum\nhennar rennr moilk ... th\u00e1er ero sva miklar at allir einheria verda\nfuldrucknir af.\" (\"A ewe named Heidrun stands up in Valhalla. And\nfrom her udders runs milk; there is so much that all the heroes may\ndrink their fill of it\"). (Snorro Sturleson's \"Edda,\" 20th tale).\n\n[15] Though not connected with this work, I cannot help observing\nthat this extraordinary simile probably originated in a very common\nornament used as a figure-head, or in decorations, on Mississippi\nsteamboats, as well as ships. This is the sea-horse (hippocampus),\nwhich may be often seen of large size, carved and gilt. Its fish tail\nmight be easily confused with that of an alligator. Pr\u00e6torius (1666)\nenumerates, among other monsters, the horse-crocodile.\n\n[16] Schott, \"Wallachische M\u00e4hrchen,\" p. 297. Stuttgart, 1845.\n\n[17] In Northern Sagas it appeared that Berserkers, or desperate\nwarriors, frequently bound themselves together in companies of\ntwelve. Vide the Hervor Saga, Olaf Tryggvason's and the Gautrek\nSaga. So there were the twelve Norse gods and the twelve apostles.\n\n[18] Vide \"Drawing and Designing.\" London: Whittaker & Co., 1888.\n\n[19] This was written long before I heard that the same idea had\noccurred to others.\n\n[20] Another Italian was fined or imprisoned for the same thing in\nLondon in July, 1890--i.e., for telling penny fortunes by the same\nmachine.\n\n[21] This chapter is reproduced, but with much addition, from one\nin my work entitled \"The Gypsies,\" published in Boston, 1881, by\nHoughton and Mifflin. London: Tr\u00fcbner & Co. The addition will be the\nmost interesting portion to the folk-lorist.\n\n[22] This song which, with its air, is very old in the United States,\nhas been vulgarized by being turned into a ballad of ten little nigger\nboys. It is given in Mrs. Valentine's Nursery Rhymes as \"Indian boys.\"\n\n[23] It is not generally known that Sir H. A. Layard and Sir William\nDrake were the true revivers of the glass manufacture of Venice.\n\n[24] See the \"Algonkin Legends of New England,\" by Charles G. Leland.","title":"Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling: Illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes and tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":88956}