What these same kind of words were among old Germans and Romans may be learned from the following: Jacob Grimm had long been familiar with a German magic spell of the eleventh century--ad stringendum sanguinem, or stopping bleeding--but, as he says, "noch nicht zu deuten vermochte," could not explain them. They were as follows:-- "Tumbo saz in berke, Mit tumbemo kinde in arme, Tumb hiez der berc Tumb hiez daz kint, Der heiligo Tumbo Versegne dise wunta." "Tumbo (i.e., dumm or stupid) sat in the hill With a stupid child in arms, Dumb (stupid) the hill was called Dumb was called the child, The holy Tumbo (or dumb). Heal (bless) this wound!" Some years after he found the following among the magic formulas of Marcellus Burdigalensis:-- "Carmen utile profluvio mulieri:-- "Stupidus in monte ibat, Stupidus stupuit, Adjuro te matrix Ne hoc iracunda suscipias. "Pari ratione scriptum ligabis." I.e.: "A song useful for a flow of blood in woman:-- "The stupid man went into the mountain, The stupid man was amazed; I adjure thee, oh womb, Be not angry!" "Which shall also be bound as a writing," i.e., according to a previous direction that it shall be written on virgin parchment, and bound with a linen cord about the waist of him or of her--quæ patietur de qualibet parte corporis sanguinis fluxum--who suffers anywhere from flow of blood. It is possible that the Stupidus and his blessing of women has here some remotely derived reference to the reverence amounting to worship of idiots in the East, who are described as being surrounded in some parts of India by matrons seeking for their touch and benediction, and soliciting their embraces. This is effected very often in an almost public manner; that is to say, by a crowd of women closely surrounding the couple, i.e., the idiot or lunatic and one of their number are joined, so that passers-by cannot see what is going on. The children born of these casual matches are not unusually themselves of weak mind, but are considered all the more holy. This recalls the allusion in the charm:-- "Stupid sat in the hill With a stupid child in arms." This obscure myth of the stupid god appears to be very ancient. "This Tritas is called intelligent. How then does he appear sometimes stupid? The language itself supplies the explanation. In Sanskrit bâlas means both child and stolid, and the third brother is supposed to be stolid because, at his first appearance especially, he is a child. (Tritas is one of the three brothers or gods, i.e., the trinity)." ("Zoological Mythology," by Angelo de Gubernatis, 1872). I am indebted to the as yet unpublished collection of Gypsyana made by Prof. Anton Herrmann for the following:--