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!" But the mighty charm of charms to protect cattle from theft is the following: Three drops of blood are made to fall from the finger of a little child on a piece of bread which is given to the animal to eat, with these words:-- "Dav tute trinen rátá Ternes te láces ávná! Ko tut corel, ádáleske Hin rát te más shutyárdye! Káná rátá te rátá Paltire per ávná, Yákh te yákh te báre yákh Sikoves çál te çál Ko kámel tut te çál!" "I give three (drops of) blood To become young and good; Who steals thee to him Shall be (is) blood and flesh dried up! When blood and blood Pass into thy belly, Fire and fire and great fire Shall devour and devour all Who will eat thee!" This incantation takes us back to grim old heathenism with hints of human sacrifice. When the thief was suspected or privately detected it is probable that a dose of some burning poison made good the prediction. "The word young" remarks Dr. Wlislocki, "may be here understood to mean innocent, since, according to ancient belief, there was a powerful magic virtue in the blood of virgins and of little children. 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. (Vide P. Cassel, "Die Symbolik des Blutes," p. 157.) 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. With what remains of the blood they sprinkle some fodder, which is put before the animal, with the words:-- "So ándre tu miseç hin Avri ává! Káthe ker ná ávlá, Miseçeske! Káná rátá ná ávná, Násvályipen ná ávná! Miseç, tu ávri ává, Ada ker ná láce; Dáv rátá me káthe!" "What in thee is evil Come forth! Here is no home For the evil one! When (drops of) blood come not, Sickness comes not, Thou evil one, come forth!' "Trin párne, trin kále, Trin tçule páshlajen káthe, Ko len hádjinel Ac kivá mánge!"