In addition to the chiromantic deception of the Gipsey women, they also—though not exclusively, as the men likewise often profess the same talent—cure bewitched cattle, discover thefts, and possess nostrums of various kinds, to which they ascribe great virtues. These nostrums consist principally of roots, and amulets made of unfermented dough, marked with strange figures, and dried in the air. Griselini says, that, in the Banat of Temeswar, they sell certain small stones, chiefly a kind of scoriæ, which they say possess the quality of rendering the wearer fortunate in love, play, &c. Were that true, why deliver to others what they have so much occasion for themselves? Why do they beg and steal, when, with the assistance of these stones, they might honourably acquire riches, and good fortune? Yet these stones are purchased with avidity, not only in the Banat, but in Germany. People use their quack medicines; call the Gipsey woman into the stable, to exorcise their bewitched cattle, without suspecting any trick or deception. So the open-hearted farmer, in Suabia and Bavaria, has recourse to the Gipseys on many occasions, employing them as doctors for man and beast; and constantly, in cases of supposed enchantment, flies to the Gipsey: this circumstance happens most frequently among those of the common people who pretend to have the least belief in witches and witchcraft. Whenever a cow does not feed kindly, something is immediately suspected; and the Gipsey woman is called, who is often so successful as to remove the impediment. She goes into the stable, orders the cow to be shewn to her, and, after desiring every one else to go out, remains a few minutes alone with it: having finished her operations, she calls in the master, acquaints him with the beast’s recovery, and behold it eats heartily! How happens this? Was it not a piece of enchantment, wherein the Gipsey really acted the magician? Certainly not. The fraud is this:—When the cattle are feeding abroad, the Gipsey woman takes advantage of the keepers absence to entice some of them, with a handful of fodder, to follow her; she then smears them, over the nose and mouth, with some filthy composition, which she has ready in the other hand. From that moment the creature loaths all kinds of food and drink. When the Gipsey is called in to apply a remedy, the whole skill required, is to cleanse the animal’s nose and mouth from the stuff she had put on a day or two before: by this means the true smell is restored, and the cow being hungry, it is not surprising she should fall-to greedily. From this single instance, a judgment may be formed of other cases.