Charles Godfrey Leland

“ We have three chains, Three very good fairies Who protect us."
If the swine find the hole and root it up--as they will be tolerably certain to do owing to their fondness for salt and charcoal--they will not be stolen or run away.
The Urmen, or Fairies, are supposed to be very favourable to cattle, therefore children who torment cows are told "Urme tute ná bica somnakune pçábáy"--"The fairies will not send you any golden apples!" If the English gypsies had the word Urme (and it may be that it exists among them even yet) , this would be, "I Urme ná bitcher tute sonnakai pábya!" ”

“ Hercules suffered from epilepsy, for which disease the ancients thought the brain of a quail was a specific. The placing pieces of a quail, by the gypsies, in the corners of a field when corn is sown, connects the bird with spring. Artemis, a goddess of spring and life, was called by the Romans Ortygyia, from ορτυξ {Greek ortuks}, a quail. Therefore, as signifying new life, the quail became itself a cure for many diseases. And it seems to be like the Wren, also a bird of witchcraft and sorcery, or a kind of witch itself. ”

“ Every new tent is therefore sprinkled by the gypsies with a few drops of a child's blood to protect it from magic or any other accident." So in prehistoric times, and through the Middle Ages, a human being was often walled up alive in the foundations of a castle to insure its durability. ”

“ The transposition of letters in a word is extremely common among the Hindu gypsies. The Chagrin specially torments horses, by sitting on their backs and making water on their bodies. The next day they appear to be weary, sad, sick, and weak, bathed in sweat, with their manes tangled. When this is seen the following ceremony is resorted to: The horse is tied to a stake which has been rubbed with garlic juice, then a red thread is laid in the form of a cross on the ground, but so far from the heels of the horse that he cannot disturb it. ”

“ The blood of the bat may be derived from an Oriental belief that the bat being the most perfect of birds, because it has breasts and suckles its young, it is specially adapted to magical uses. In the Tyrol he who bears the left eye of a bat may become invisible, and in Hesse he who wears the heart of a bat bound to his arm with red thread will always win at cards. The manes of the horses which have been tangled and twisted by the Chagrin must not be cut off or disentangled unless these words are spoken:-- "Čin tu jid', cin ádá bálá jiden." ”

“ The gypsies believe that the Earth-spirits are specially interested in animals. They also teach women the secrets of medicine and sorcery. There are indications of this in the negro magic. Miss MARY OWEN, an accomplished Folk-lorist of St. Joseph, Missouri, who has been deeply instructed in Voodooism, informs me that a woman to become a witch must go by night into a field and pull up a weed by the roots. From the quantity of soil which clings to it, is inferred the degree of magic power which the pupil will attain. ”

“ The gypsies believe that. the Earth-fairies are the foes of every kind of worm and creeping insect with the exception of the snail, which they therefore call the "gráy Pçuvusengré," the Pçuvus-horse. Gry-puvusengree would in English gypsy mean the earthy-horse. English gypsies, and the English peasantry, as well as gypsies, call snails "cattle, because they have horns." Snails are a type of voluptuousness, because they are hermaphrodite and exceedingly giving to sexual indulgence, so that as many as half a dozen may be found mutually giving and taking pleasure. ”

“ According to the gypsies, horses, especially black ones, can see beings which are invisible to human eyes. I have known an old English gypsy who believed that dogs could see ghosts when men could not. ”

“ Hence in German Schnecke, a snail, is a term applied to the pudendum muliebre. And as anything significant of fertility, generation, and sexual enjoyment was supposed to constitute a charm or amulet against witchcraft, i.e., all evil influences, which are allied to sterility, chastity, and barrenness, a snail's shell forms a powerful fetish for a true believer. ”

“ WLISLOCKI suggests that "the idea of the tree's becoming a man, is derived from the old gypsy belief that the first human beings were made from the leaves of trees, and refers to what he has elsewhere written on a tradition of the creation of the world, as held by Transylvanian gypsies. ”

“ The gypsies are hardly to be regarded as Christians, but when they wish to contend against the powers of darkness they occasionally invoke Christian influences. If a cow gives bloody milk it is thought to be caused by her eating Wachtelkraut, or quail weed, which is a poison. ”

“ If two roll into the space between a, i, it is lucky for a woman, between i and f for a man. But if nearly all fall outside of b, c, g, h, all is unfavourable. The same divination is used to know whether animals will get well, and where stolen property is concealed. All of this corresponds exactly to the use of the same instrument by the Laplanders for the same purposes. The thorn-apple is a very poisonous plant, and the gypsies are said to have first brought it to England. ”

“ If pigs lose their appetites a brew is made of milk, charcoal dust, and their own dung, which is put before them with the words: "Friss Hexe und verreck!"
"In this place I must remark that the Transylvanian tent-gypsies use for grumus merdæ also the expression Hirte (feris) " (WLISLOCKI) . To cure a cough in animals one should take from the hoofs of the first riding horse, dirt or dust, and put it into the mouth of the suffering animal with the words
"Prejiál te náñi yov ável!" ”

“ It is an European belief that knots of hair made by witches must not be disentangled. The belief that such knots are made intentionally by some intelligence is very natural. I have often been surprised to find how frequently knots form themselves in the cord of my eye-glass, even when pains are taken at night to lay it down so as to be free of them. ”

“ When the wandering, or tent-gypsies, find that cattle are ill and do not know the nature of the disease, they take two birds--if possible quails, called by them bereçto or füryo--one of which is killed, but the other, besprinkled with its blood, is allowed to fly away. ”

“ The Algonkin Indians seem to have taken this belief of man's origin from the ash from the Norsemen, as a very large proportion of their myths correspond closely to those of the Edda. But, in brief, if the Greeks and Norsemen were of Aryan origin, and had ever had a language in common, they probably had common myths. The following is the remedy for the so-called Würmer, or worms, i.e., external sores. Before sunrise wolf's milk (Wolfsmilch, rukeskro tçud) is collected, mixed with salt, garlic, and water, put into a pot, and boiled down to a brew. ”

“ Many readers may here observe that charcoal and iron form a real tonic, or very practical strengthening dose for the enfeebled mare. But here, as in many cases medicine makes a cure and the devil or the doctor gets the credit. The Chagrin is supposed to attack horses only while they are asleep. ”

“ A is turned towards the fortuneteller; nine seeds are now thrown on the drum, and with the left hand, or with a hammer held in it, the tambourine is tapped. Should all the seeds come within the four lines all will go well, especially if three come within a, d, e, f. ”