Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling: Illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes and talesLeland, Charles Godfrey
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Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling: Illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes and tales
Leland, Charles Godfrey
Fortune-telling; Magic, Romani; Romanies
It may be here observed that the knife forms a special feature in all
witch-lore, and occurs frequently among the Hungarian and Italian gypsy
charms, or spells. It is sometimes stuck into a table, while a spell
is muttered, protesting that it is not the wood which one wishes to
hurt, but the heart of an enemy. Here the knife is supposed in reality
to have an indwelling spirit which will pass to the heart or health
of the one hated. In Tam O'Shanter there is a knife on the witches'
table, and in Transylvania, as in Tuscany, a new knife, not an old
one, is used in divers ceremonies. Sometimes an old and curious knife
becomes an amulet and is supposed to bring luck, although the current
belief is that any pointed gift causes a quarrel.
But to return to the fetish or pocket-deity which is worn in so many
forms, be they written scrolls, crosses, medals or relics--c'est
tout un. Continental gypsies are notable believers in amulets. Being
in a camp of very wild Cigany in Hungary a few years ago, I asked
them what they wore for bakt, or luck; whereupon they all produced
small seashells, which I was assured were potent against ordinary
misfortunes. But for a babe which was really ill they had provided an
"appreciable" dose in the form of three Maria Theresa silver dollars,
which were hung round its neck, but hidden under its clothes. And I
may here remark that all through many lands, even into the heart of
Africa, this particular dollar is held in high esteem for magical
purposes. From one to another the notion has been transferred, and
travellers and traders are often puzzled to know why the savages
will have no coin save this. From Russia to the Cape it is the same
story, and one to be specially studied by those ethnologists who do
not believe in transmission, and hold that myths and legends are of
local growth and accounted for by similar local conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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