Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling
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or even thought of, all practical devotion being paid to spirits who are really their saints. By close examination the Gypsy religion, like that of the country-folk in India, appears to be absolutely identical in spirit with that of American Indians. And I should say that the monk mentioned by PRÆTORIUS, who declared that though God and Christ should damn him, yet he could be saved by appealing to Saint Joseph, was not very far removed from being a Shamanist. The Hungarian gypsies are divided into tribes, and one of these, the Kukaya, believes itself to be descended from the Pçuvushi, or earth-fairies, according to the following story, narrated by Dr. H. von WLISLOCKI in his paper on the genealogy and family relations of the Transylvanian Tent Gypsies:-- "Many thousand years ago there were as yet in the world very few Pchuvushi. These are beings of human form dwelling under the earth. There they have cities, but they very often come to the world above. They are ugly, and their men are covered with hair. (All of this indicates a prehistoric subterranean race like the Eskimo, fur-clad. 1) They carry off mortal girls for wives. Their life is hidden in the egg of a black hen." This is the same as that of the Orco or Ogre in the Italian tale, "I Racconti delle Fate, Cesare da Causa," Florence, 1888. Whoever kills the hen and throws the egg into a running stream, kills the pchuvush. "Once a young Pchûvush woman came up to the world and sat in a fair green forest. She saw a very beautiful youth sleeping in the shade, and said: 'What happiness it must be to have such a husband. Mine is so ugly!' Her husband, who had stolen silently after her, heard this, and reflected 'What a good idea it would be to lend my wife to this young man till she shall have borne a family of beautiful children! Then I could sell them to my rich Pchuvûs friends.' So he said to his wife: 'You may live with this youth for ten. years if you will promise to give me either the boys or the girls which you may bear to him.' She agreed to this. Then the Pchûvûs began to sing:-- p. 71 "'Kuku, kukáya Kames to adala? Kuku, kukaya.'
Do you want this (one) here Kuku, kukaya.'
Ada kin jirklá! Kuku, kukaya!'
These are dogs here! Kuku, kukaya!'
Lest the witches should make it a boat, my dear. For over the sea away from home, Far by night the witches roam.' "Then the girl said: 'I don't see why the poor witches should not have boats as well as other people.' And saying this she threw the shell of an egg which she had been eating as far as she could, and cried, 'Chovihani, lav tro bero!' ('Witch--there is your boat!') But what was her amazement to see the shell caught up by the wind and whirled away on high till it became invisible, while a voice cried, 'Paraka!' ('I thank you!') "Now it came to pass some time after that the gypsy girl was on an island, where she remained some days. And when she wished to return, behold a great flood was rising, and it had washed her boat away, she could see nothing of it. But the water kept getting higher and higher, and soon there was only a little bit of the island above the flood, and the girl thought she must drown. just then she saw a white boat coming; there sat in it a woman p. 73 with witch eyes; she was rowing with a broom, and a black cat sat on her shoulder. 'Jump in!' she cried to the girl, and then rowed her to the firm land. "When she was or. the shore the woman said: 'Turn round three times to the right and look every time at the boat.' She did so, and every time she looked she saw the boat grow smaller till it was like an egg. Then the woman sang:-- "'That is the shell you threw to me, Even a witch can grateful be.' "Saying this she vanished, cat, broom, shell, and all. "Now my story is fairly done, I beg you to tell a better one." As regards these boats which grow large or small at will we find them in the Norse ship Skidbladner, which certain dwarfs made and gave to Frey. It is so large that all the gods and their army can embark in it. But when not in use it may be so contracted that one may hava i pungi sino--put it in his purse or pocket. The Algonkin god Glooskap has not only the counterpart of Skidbladnir, but the hammer of Thor and his belt of strength. He has also the two attendant birds which bring him news, and the two wolves which mean Day and Night. Another legend given by Dr. KRAUSS, relative to witches and eggshells is as follows-- "By the Klek lived a rich tavern-keeper and his wife. He was thin and lean--hager und mager--while she was as fat as a well-fed pig. "One day there came a gypsy woman by. She began to tell his fortune by his hand. And as she studied it seriously she became herself serious, and then said to him, 'Listen, you good-natured dolt (moré)! Do you know why you are so slim and your wife so stout?' 'Not I.' 'My good friend (Latcho pral), your wife is a witch. Every Friday when there is a new moon (mladi petak) she rides you up along the Klek to the devil's dance' (Uraze kolo). 'How can that be?' 'Simply enough. As soon as you fall asleep, she slips a magic halter over your head. Then you become a horse, and she rides you over the hills and far away over mountains and woods, cities and seas, to the witches' gathering. "Little you know where you have been, Little you think of what you have seen, "For when you awake it is all forgotten, but the ride is hard for you, and you are p. 74 wasting away, and dying. Take great care of yourself on the next Friday when there is a new moon!' "So the gypsy went her way, and he thought it over. On the next Friday when the moon was new he went to bed early, but only pretended to sleep. Then his wife came silently as a cat to the bed-side with the magic halter in her hand. As quick as lightning he jumped up, snatched it from her, and threw it over her head. Then she became, in a second, a mare. He mounted her, and away she flew through the air-over hills and dales like the wind, till they came to the witches' meeting. "He dismounted, bound the mare to a tree, and, unseen by the company, watched them at a little distance. All the witches carried pots or jars. First they danced in a ring, then every one put her pot on the ground and danced alone round it. And these pots were egg-shells. "While he watched, there came flying to him a witch in whom he recognized his old godmother. 'How did you come here?' she inquired. 'Well, I came here on my mare, I know not how.' 'Woe to you--begone as soon as possible. If the witches once see you it will be all up with you. Know that we are all waiting for one' (this one was his wife), 'and till she comes we cannot begin.' Then the landlord mounted his mare, cried 'Home!' and when he was there tied her up in the stable and went to bed. "In the morning his servant-man said to him: 'There is a mare in the stable.' 'Yes,' replied the master; 'it is mine.' So he sent for a smith, and made him shoe the mare. Now, whatever is done to a witch while she is in the form of an animal remains on or in her when she resumes her natural shape. "Then he went out and assembled a judicial or legal commission. He led the members to his house, told them all his story, led forth the mare, and took off the halter. She became a woman as before, but horse-shoes were affixed to her feet and hands. She began to weep and wail, but the judge was pitiless. He had her thrown into a pit full of quicklime, and thus she was burnt to death. And since that time people break the shells of eggs after eating their contents, lest witches should make jars or pots of them." The following story on the same subject is from a different source:-- "There was once a gypsy girl who was very clever, and whenever she heard people talk about witches she remembered it well. One day she took an egg-shell and made a small round hole in it very neatly, and are the yolk and white, but the shell she put on a heap of white sand by a stream, where it was very likely to be seen. Then she hid herself behind a bush. By and by, when it was night, there came a witch, who, seeing the shell, pronounced a word over it, when it changed to a beautiful boat, into which the witch got and sailed on the water, over the sea. "The girl remembered the word, and soon ate another egg and turned it into a p. 75 boat. Whenever she willed it went over the world to places where fruit and flowers abounded, or where people gave her much gold for such things as knives and scissors. So she grew rich and had a fine house. The boat she hid away carefully in a bush. "There was a very envious, wicked woman, whom the girl had befriended many a time, and who hated her all the more for it. And this creature set to work, spying and sneaking, to find out the secret of the girl's prosperity. And at last she discovered the boat, and, suspecting something, hid herself in the bush hard by to watch. "By and by the girl came with a basket full of wares for her trade, and, drawing out the boat, said, 'To Africa!'--when off it flew. The woman watched and waited. After a few hours the girl returned. Her boat was full of fine things, ostrich feathers and gold, fruit and strange flowers, all of which she carried into her house. "Then the woman put the boat on the water, and said, 'To Africa!' But she did not know the word by means of which it was changed from an egg-shell, and which made it fly like thought. So as it went along the woman cried, 'Faster!', but it never heeded her. Then she cried again in a great rage, and at last exclaimed, 'In God's name get on with you!' Then the spell was broken, and the boat turned into an egg-shell, and the woman was drowned in the great rolling sea." Egg-lore is inexhaustible. The eggs of Maundy Thursday (Witten Donnertag), says a writer in The Queen, protect a house against thunder and lightning, but, in fact, an egg hung up is a general protection, hence the ostrich eggs and cocoanuts of the East. Some other very interesting items in the communication referred to are as follows:-- "WITCHES AND EGGS.--'To hang an egg laid on Ascension Day in the roof of a house,' says Reginald Scot in 1584, 'preserveth the same from all hurts.' Probably this was written with an eye to the 'hurts' arising from witchcraft, in connection with which eggs were supposed to possess certain mysterious powers. In North Germany, if you have a desire to see the ladies of the broomstick on May Day, their festival, you must take an egg laid on Maundy Thursday, and stand where four roads meet; or else you must go into church on Good Friday, but come out before the blessing. It was formerly quite an article of domestic belief that the shells must be broken after eating eggs, lest the witches should sail out to sea in them; or, as Sir Thomas Browne declared, lest they 'should draw or prick their names therein, and veneficiously mischief' the person who had partaken of the egg. North Germans, ignoring this side of the question, say, "Break the shells or you will get the ague;" and Netherlanders advise you to secure yourself against the attacks of this disagreeable visitor by eating on Easter Day a couple of eggs which were laid on Good Friday. "SCOTTISH SUPERSTITIONS.--Scotch fishers, who may be reckoned among the most superstitious of folks, believe that contrary winds and much consequent vexation of p. 76 spirit will be the result of having eggs on board with them; while in the west of England it is considered very unlucky to bring birds' eggs into the house, although they may be hung up with impunity outside. Mr. Gregor, in his 'Folklore of the North-East of Scotland,' gives us some curious particulars concerning chickens, and the best methods of securing a satisfactory brood. The hen, it seems, should be set on an odd number of eggs, or the chances are that most, if not all, will be addled--a mournful prospect for the henwife; also they must be placed under the mother bird after sunset, or the chickens will be blind. If the woman who performs this office carries the eggs wrapped up in her chemise, the result will be hen birds; if she wears a man's hat, cocks. Furthermore, it is as well for her to repeat a sort of charm, 'A' in thegeethir, A oot thegeethir.' "UNLUCKY EGGS.--There are many farmers' wives, even in the present day, who would never dream of allowing eggs to be brought into the house or taken out after dark--this being deemed extremely unlucky. Cuthbert Bede mentions the case of a farmer's wife in Rutland who received a setting of ducks' eggs from a neighbour at nine o'clock at night. 'I cannot imagine how she could have been so foolish,' said the good woman, much distressed, and her visitor, upon inquiry, was told that ducks' eggs brought into a house after sunset would never be hatched. A Lincolnshire superstition declares that if eggs are carried over running water they will be useless for setting purposes; while in Aberdeen there is an idea prevalent among the country folks that should it thunder a short time before chickens are hatched, they will die in the shell. The same wiseacres may be credited with the notion that the year the farmer's gudewife presents him with an addition to his family is a bad season for the poultry yard. 'Bairns an' chuckens,' say they, 'dinna thrive in ae year.' The probable explanation being that the gudewife, taken up with the care of her bairn, has less time to attend to the rearing of the 'chuckens.' "FORTUNE-TELLING IN NORTHUMBERLAND.--Besides the divination practised with the white of an egg, which certainly appears of a vague and unsatisfactory character, another species of fortune-telling with eggs is in vogue in Northumberland on the eve of St. Agnes. A maiden desirous of knowing what her future lord is like, is enjoined to boil an egg, after having spent the whole day fasting and in silence, then to extract the yolk, fill the cavity with salt, and eat the whole, including the shell. This highly unpalatable supper finished, the heroic maid must walk backwards, uttering this invocation to the saint:-- "'Sweet St. Agnes, work thy fast, If ever I be to marry man, Or man be to marry me, I hope him this night to sec.'" FRIEDRICH and others assert that the saying in Luke xi. 12--"Or if he shall ask an egg shall he give him a scorpion?"--is a direct p. 77 reference to ancient belief that the egg typified the good principle, and the scorpion evil, and which is certainly supported by a cloud of witnesses in the form of classic folk-lore. The egg, as a cosmogenic symbol, and indicating the origin of all things, finds a place in the mythologies of many races. These are indicated with much erudition by FRIEDRICH, "Symbolik der Natur," p. 686. In Lower Alsatia it is believed that if a man will take an Easter egg into the church and look about him, if there be any witches in the congregation he may know them by their having in their hands pieces of pork instead of prayer-books, and milk-pails on their heads for bonnets;(WOLF, "Deutsche Mährchen und Sagen," p. 270). There is also an ancient belief that an egg built into a new building will protect it against evil and witchcraft. Such eggs were found in old houses in Altenhagen and Iserlohen, while in the East there is a proverb, "the egg of the chamber" ("Hamasa" of ABU TEMMAN, v. RÜCKERT, Stuttgart, 1846), which seems to point to the same practice. The Romans expressed a disaster by saying "Ovum ruptum est" ("The egg is smashed"). Among other egg-proverbs I find the following:-- His eggs are all omelettes (French); i.e., broken up. Eggs in the pan give pancakes but nevermore chicks (Low German). Never a chicken comes from broken eggs (Low German). Bad eggs, bad chickens. Hence in America "a bad egg" for a man who is radically bad, and "a good egg" for the contrary. Eggs not yet laid are uncertain chickens; i.e., "Do not count your chickens before they are hatched." Tread carefully among eggs (German). The egg pretends to be cleverer than the hen. He waits for the eggs and lets the hen go. He who wants eggs must endure the clucking of the hen (Westphalian). He thinks his eggs are of more account than other people's hens. One rotten egg spoils all the pudding. Rotten eggs and bad butter always stand by one another; or "go well together." Old eggs, old lovers, and an old horse, Are either rotten or for the worse. p. 78 (Original: Alte Eyer Alte Freier Alter Gaul Sind meistens faul.) "All eggs are of the same size" (Eggs are all alike), he said, and grabbed the biggest. As like as eggs (Old Roman). As sure as eggs. His eggs all have two yolks. If you have many eggs you can have many cakes. He who has many eggs scatters many shells. To throw an egg at a sparrow. To borrow trouble for eggs not yet hatched. Half an egg is worth more than all the shell. A drink after an egg, and a leap after an apple. A rotten egg in his face. In the early mythology, the egg, as a bird was hatched from it, and as it resembled seeds, nuts, &c., from which new plants come, was regarded as the great type of production. This survives in love-charms, as when a girl in the Tyrol believes she can secure a man's love by giving him a red Easter egg. This giving red eggs at Easter is possibly derived from the ancient Parsees, who did the same at their spring festival. Among the Christians the reproductive and sexual symbolism, when retained, was applied to the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul. Hence Easter eggs. And as Christ by His crucifixion caused this, or originated the faith, we have the ova de crucibus, the origin of which has puzzled so many antiquaries; for the cross itself was, like the egg, a symbol of life, in earlier times of reproduction, and in a later age of life eternal. These eggs are made of a large size of white glass by the Armenian Christians. Footnotes 66:1 "Sudslavische Hexensagen, Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien." xiv. Bande, 1884. "Medizinische Zauberspruche aus Slavonien, Bosnien, der Hercegovina und Dalmatien," Wien, 1887. "Sreča, Gluck und Schicksal im Volksglauben der Südslaven." Wien, 1886. "Sudslavische Pestsagen." Wien, 1883. 66:2 "Witch. Mediaeval English wicche, both masculine and feminine, a wizard, a witch. Anglo-Saxon wicca, masculine, wice, feminine. Wicca is a corruption of wítga, commonly used as a short form of witega, a prophet, seer, magician, or sorcerer. Anglo-Saxon witan, to see, allied to wítan, to know. Similarly Icelandic vitki, a wizard, is from vita, to know. Wizard, Norman-French wischard, the original Old French being guiscart, sagacious. Icelandic, vizkr, clever or knowing, . . . with French suffix ard as German hart, hard, strong" (SKEAT, "Etymol. Dictionary"). That is wiz-ard, very wife. Wit and wisdom here are near allied to witchcraft, and thin partitions do the bounds divide. 70:1 For a very interesting account of the mysterious early dwarfs of Great Britain the reader may consult "Earth Houses and their Inhabitants," by David MacRitchie, in "The Testimony of Tradition." London: Trübner and Co., 1890. 71:1 The many superstitions relating to cutting nails may be referred in part to the very wild legend of the ship Naglfara given in STURLESON'S "Edda." "Then in that Twilight of the Gods (the Norse Day of judgment) will come the ship Naglfara, which is made of dead men's nails. In that sea it will go forth. Hrymer steereth it. And for this cause no man should die with his nails unshorn, for so the ship is made, and the gods would fain put that off as long as possible" ("Edda, Gylfesgynning," 26th tale). CHAPTER V Charms or Conjurations to Cure or Protect Animals FROM the earliest ages a drum or tambourine has formed such an indispensable adjunct of Shamanic sorcery among Tartars, Lapps, Samoyedes, Eskimo, and Red Indians, that, taking it with other associations, I can hardly believe that it has not been transmitted from one to the other. In Hungary the gypsies when they wish to know if an invalid will recover, have recourse to the cováçanescro buçlo (chovihanescro bûklo) or "witch-drum." This is a kind of rude tambourine covered with the skin of an animal, and marked with stripes which have a special meaning. On this are placed from nine to twenty-one seeds of the thorn-apple (stramomium).
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