Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling: Illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes and talesLeland, Charles Godfrey
History
Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling: Illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes and tales
Leland, Charles Godfrey
Fortune-telling; Magic, Romani; Romanies
"I the dog, she the bitch,
I the helve, she the axe,
I the cock (and) she the hen,
That, that I desire."
He or she who finds a red ribbon, tape, or even a piece of red stuff
of any kind, especially if it be wool, will have luck in love. It
must be picked up and carried as an amulet, and when raising it from
the ground the finder must make a wish for the love of some person,
or if he have no particular desire for any one, he may wish for luck
in love, or a sweetheart. This is, I believe, pretty generally known
in some form all over the world. A yellow ribbon or flower, especially
if it be floating on water, presages gold; a white object, silver,
or peace or reconciliation with enemies.
It is also lucky for love to find a key. In Tuscany there is a special
formula which must be spoken while picking it up. Very old keys are
valuable amulets. Those who carry them will learn secrets, penetrate
mysteries, and succeed in what they undertake.
If you can get a shoe which a girl has worn you may make sad havoc
with her heart if you carry it near your own. Also hang it up over
your bed and put into it the leaves of rue.
During November, 1889, not a few newspaper commentators busied
themselves with conjectures as to why a Scotch constable buried the
boots of a murdered man. That it was done through some superstitious
belief is conceded; but what the fashion of the superstition is
seems unknown. It originated, beyond question, in the old Norse
custom of always burying the dead in their shoes or with them. For
they believed that the deceased would have, when he arrived in the
other world, to traverse broad and burning plains before he could
reach his destination, be it Valhalla or the dreary home of Hel;
and to protect his feet from the fire his friends bound on them the
"hell-shoon." Other cares were also taken: and in the saga of Olof
Tryggvasen we are told that one monarch was thoughtfully provided
with a cow; while the Vikings were buried in their ships, so that
they could keep on pirating "for ever and ever."
The superstition of the burial of the boots probably survives in
England. It is about seventeen years since the writer heard from an
old gypsy that when another gypsy was "pûvado," or "earthed," a very
good pair of boots was placed by him in the grave. The reason was not
given; perhaps it was not known. These customs often survive after
the cause is forgotten, simply from some feeling that good or bad
luck attends their observance or the neglect of it. Many years since
a writer in an article on shoes in The English Magazine stated that,
"according to an Aryan tradition, the greater part of the way from
the land of the living to that of death lay through morasses and vast
moors overgrown with furzes and thorns. That the dead might not pass
over them bare-foot, a pair of shoes was laid with them in the grave."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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