Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling/Chapter 13

CHAPTER XIII
PROVERBS REFERRING TO WITCHES, GYPSIES, AND FAIRIES Of Fairies, Witches, Gypsies, My nourrice sang to me , Sua Gypsies, Fairies, Witches, I alsua synge to thee."        ("Denham Tract.")

DR. KRAUSS has in his work, "Sreca, Gluck und Schicksal im Volksglauben der Südslaven," collected a number of sayings in reference to his subject, from which I have taken some, and added more from other sources. Of an evil woman one says, as in all languages, "To ie vila"--that is, "a witch"; or it is uttered or muttered as, "To je vila ljutica"--that is, "a biting (or bitter) witch"; or to a woman whom one dislikes, "Idi vilo!"--"Begone, witch!" as in gypsy, "Jasa tu chovihani!"

Also, as in German, "Ako i je baba, nje vjestica"--"Though she is an old woman she is no witch"; while, on the other hand, we have, "Svake baba viestica, a djed vjestac"--"Every old woman is a witch, and every old man a wizard."

The proverb, "Bizi ko vistica od biloga luka"--"she runs from it like a witch from white garlic"--will be found fully explained in the chapter on "The Cure of Children," in which it is shown that from early times garlic has been a well-known witch-antidote.

Another saying is, "Uzkostrsila se ko vistica"--"Her hair is as tangled, or twisted, as that of a witch"; English gypsy, "Lâkis balia shan risserdi sâr i chovihanis." But this has a slightly different meaning, since in the Slavonian it refers to matted, wild-looking locks, while the Romany is according to a belief that the hair of a witch is curled at the ends only.

Allied to this is the proverb, "Izgleda kao aa su ga coprnice doniele sa Ivanjscica"--"He looks as if the witches had done for him (or brought him away, 'fetched' him) on Saint John's Eve"; English Romany, "Yuv dikela sá soved a lay sar a chovihani"--"He looks as if he had lain with a witch."

"Svaka vracara s vrazje strane"--"Every witch belongs to the devil's gang"--that is, she has, sold her soul to him and is in his interests. This is allied to the saying, "Kud ce vjestica do u svoj rod?"--"Where should a witch go if not to her kin or, "Birds of a feather flock together."

"Jasa ga vjestice"--"The witches ride him"--refers to the ancient and world-wide belief that witches turn men into animals and ride them in sleep.

The hazel tree and nut are allied to the supernatural or witchly in many lands. For the divining rod, which--is, according to "La Grande Bacchetta Divinatoria O Verga rivelatrice" of the Abbate Valmont, the great instrument for all magic and marvels, must be made of "un ramo forcuto di nocciuòlo"--a forked branch of hazel-nut"--whence a proverb, "Vracarice, coprnjice, kuko ljeskova!"--"Sorceress, witch, hazel-stick." This is a reproach or taunt to a woman who pays great attention to magic and witchcraft. "This reveals a very ancient belief of the witch as a wood-spirit or fairy who dwells in the nut itself." More generally it is the bush which, in old German ballads, is often addressed as Lady Hazel. In this, as in Lady Nightingale, we have a relic of addressing certain animals or plants as if they were intelligences or spirits. In one very old song in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," a girl, angry at the hazel, who has reproached her for having loved too lightly or been too frail, says that her brother will come and cut the bush down. To which Lady Hazel replies:--

"Although he comes and cuts me down,   I'll grow next spring, 'tis plain, But if a virgin wreath should fade,    'Twill never bloom again."

To keep children from picking unripe hazel-nuts in the Canton of Saint Gall they cry to them, "S' Haselnussfràuli chumt"--"The hazel-nut lady is coming!" Hence a rosary of hazel-nuts or a hazel rod brings luck, and they may be safely hung up in a house. The hazel-nut necklaces found in prehistoric tombs were probably amulets as well as ornaments.

Among popular sayings we may include the following from the Gorski Vijenac:--

"A eto si udrijo vladiko, U nekakve smućene vjetrove, Ko u marču što udre yještice."

But behold, O Vladika, Thou hast thrown thyself into every storm, As witches throw or change themselves to cattle." And with these we may include the curse, "Izjele te viestice"--"May the witches eat you!" which has its exact parallel in Romany. Also the Scottish saying, "Witches, warlocks, and gypsies soon ken ae the ither":--

"Witches and warlocks without any bother, Like gypsies on meeting well know one another."

I may appropriately add to these certain proverbs which are given in an extremely rare "Denham Tract," of which only fifty copies were printed by JOHN BELL RICHMOND, "in. Com. Ebor." This quaint little work of only six pages is entitled, "A Few Popular Rhymes, Proverbs, and Sayings relating to Fairies, Witches, and Gypsies," and bears the dedication, "To every individual Fairy, Witch, and Gypsy from the day of the Witch of Endor down to that of Billy Dawson, the Wise Man of Stokesley, lately defunct, this tract is inscribed."

WITCHES.

Vervain and Dill Hinder witches from their will.

The following refers to rowan or mountain-ash wood, which is supposed to be a charm against witchcraft:--

If your whipstick's made of rowan You can ride your nag thro' any town.

Much about a pitch, Quoth the devil to the witch.

A hairy man's a geary man, But a hairy wife's a witch.

Woe to the lad Without a rowan-tree god.

A witch-wife and an evil Is three-halfpence worse than the devil. Hey-how for Hallow-e'en! When all the witches are to be seen, Some in black and some in green, Hey-how for Hallow-e'en! Thout! tout! a tout, tout! Throughout and about.

Cummer goe ye before, cummer goe ye, Gif ye will not goe before, cummer let me!

"These lines are said to have been sung by witches at North Berwick in Lothian, accompanied by the music of a Jew's harp or trump, which was played by Geilles Duncan, a servant girl, before two hundred witches, who joined hands in a short daunce or reel, singing (also) these lines with one voice:--

"'Witchy, witchy, I defy thee, Four fingers round my thumb, Let me go quietly by thee.'

"It will be seen that this is a phallic sign, and as such dreaded by witches. It is difficult to understand why these verses with the sign should have been given by witches."

The anti-witch rhyme used in Tweedesdale some sixty or seventy years ago was:--

"'Black-luggie, lammer bead, Rowan-tree and reed thread, Put the witches to their speed.'

The meaning of 'black-luggie' I know not. 'Lammer bead' is a corruption of 'amber-bead.' They are still worn by a few old people in Scotland as a preservative against a variety of diseases, especially asthma, dropsy, and toothache. They also preserve the wearer from, the effects of witchcraft, as stated in the text. I have seen a twig of rowan-tree, witch-wood, quick-bane, wild ash, wicken-tree, wicky, wiggy, witchen, witch-bane, royne-tree, mountain-ash, whitty, wiggin, witch-hazel, roden-quicken, roden-quicken-royan, roun, or ran-tree, which had been gathered on the second of May (observe this), wound round with some dozens of yards of red thread, placed visible in the window to act as a charm in keeping witches and Boggle-boes from the house. So also we have--

"'Rowan-ash and reed thread Keep the devils from their speed,"'

Ye brade o' witches, ye can do no good to yourself.

Fair they came, Fair they go, And always their heels behind them.

Neither so sinful as to sink, nor so godly as to swim.

Falser than Waghorn, and he was nineteen times falser than the devil.

Ingratitude is worse than witchcraft.

Ye're as mitch As half a witch.

To milk the tether (i.e., the cow-tie).

This refers to a belief that witches can carry off the milk from any one's cow by milking at the end of the tether.

Go in God's name--so you ride no witches.

"Rynt, you witch" quoth Bess Lockit to her mother.

Rynt, according to Skeat, is the original Cumberland word for aroint," i.e., "aroint thee, get thee gone." Icelandic ryma--"to make room, to clear the way"--given, however, only as a guess. It seems to have been specially applied to witches.

"'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cried." ("Macbeth")

Halliwell gives the word as rynt, and devotes a column to it, without coming to any satisfactory conclusion. I think it is simply the old word rynt or wrynt, another form of writhe, meaning to twist or strangle, as if one should say, "Be thou strangled!" which was indeed a frequent malediction. Halliwell himself gives "wreint" as meaning "awry," and "wreith destordre"--"to wring or wreith" ("Hollyband's Dictionarie," 1593). The commonest curse of English gypsies at the present day is, "Beng tasser tute!" "May the devil strangle you"--literally twist, which is an exact translation of wrinthe or rynt.

"The gode man to hys cage can goo And wrythed the pye's neck yn to." ("MS. Cantab." ap. H.)

Rynt may mean twist away, i.e., begone, as they say in America, "he wriggled away."

They that burn you for a witch lose all their coals.

Never talk of witches on a Friday.

Ye're ower aude ffarand to be fraid o' witches.

Witches are most apt to confess on a Friday.

Friday is the witches' Sabbath.

To hug one as the devil hugs a witch.

As black } as a witch. As cross As ugly As sinful

Four fingers and a thumb--witch, I defy thee.

In Italy the signs are made differently. In Naples the gettatura consists of throwing out the fore and middle fingers, so as to imitate horns, with the thumb and fingers closed. Some say the thumb should be within the middle and third fingers. In Florence the anti-witch gesture is to fare la fica, or stick the thumb out between the fore and middle fingers.

You're like a witch, you say your prayers backward.

Witch-wood (ie., the mountain ash).

You're half a witch-i.e., very cunning.

Buzz! buzz! buzz!

In the middle of the sixteenth century if a person waved his hat or bonnet in the air and cried 'Buzz!' three times, under the belief that by this act he could take the life of another, the old law and law-makers considered the person so saying and acting to be worthy of death, he being a murderer in intent, and having dealings with witches" ("Denham Tract"). Very doubtful, and probably founded on a well known old story.

"I wish I was as far from God as my nails are free from dirt!"

Said to have been a witch's prayer whilst she was in the act of cleaning her nails. In logical accuracy this recalls the black boy in America, who on being asked if he knew the way to a certain place, replied, "I only wish I had as many dollars as I know my way there."

A witch is afraid of her own blood.

A Pendle forest witch.

A Lancashire witch.

A witch cannot greet (ie., weep).

To be hog, or witch-ridden.

GYPSIES.

So many gypsies, so many smiths.

The gypsies are all akin.

One of the Faw gang, Worse than the Faw gang.

The Faws or Faas are a gypsy family whose head-quarters are at Yetholme. I have been among them and knew the queen of the gypsies and her son Robert, who were of this clan or name.

"It is supposed the Faws acquired this appellation from Johnnie Faw, lord and earl of Little Egypt; with whom James the Fourth and Queen Mary, sovereigns of Scotland, saw not only the propriety, but also the necessity of entering into special treaty" ("Denham Tract")

"Francis Heron, king of the Faws, bur. (Yarrow) xiii. Jan., 1756 (SHARP'S "Chron. Mir").

FAIRIES

Where the scythe cuts and the sock rives, No more fairies and bee-hives.

Laugh like a pixy (i.e., fairy).

Waters locked! waters locked! (A favourite cry of fairies.)

Borram! borram! borram! (The cry of the Irish fairies after mounting their steeds. Equivalent to the Scottish cry, "Horse! horse and hattock!")

To live in the land of the Fair family. (A Welsh fairy saying.)

God grant that the fairies may put money in your shoes and keep your house clean. (One of the good wishes of the old time.)

Fairies comb goats' beards every Friday.

He who finds a piece of money will always find another in the same place, so long as he keeps it a secret. (In reference to fairy gifts.)

It's going on, like Stokepitch's can.

A pixey or fairy saying, used in Devonshire. The family of Stokespitch or Sukespic resided near Topsham, and a barrel of ale in their cellars had for many years run freely without being exhausted. It was considered a valuable heirloom, and was esteemed accordingly, till an inquisitive maidservant took out the bung to ascertain the cause why it never run dry. On looking into the cask she found it full of cobwebs, but the fairies, it would seem, were offended, for on turning the cock, as usual, the ale had ceased to flow.

It was a common reply at Topsham to the inquiry how any affair went on "It's going on like Stokepitch's can," or proceeding prosperously.

To laugh like Robin Goodfellow.

To laugh like old Bogie; He caps Bogie. (Amplified to "He caps Bogie, and Bogie capped old Nick.")

To play the Puck. (An Irish saying, equivalent to the English one, "To play the deuce or devil." KEIGHTLEY'S "Fairy Mythology.")

He has got into Lob's pound or pond. (That is, into the fairies' pinfold. KEIGHTLEY'S "Fairy Mythology.") Pinch like a fairy. ("Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins." "Merry Wives of Windsor.")

To be fairy-struck. (The paralysis is, or rather perhaps was, so called. KEIGHTLEY'S "Fairy Mythology.")

There has never been a merry world since the Phynoderee lost his ground. [A Manx fairy saying. See Train's "Isle of Man," ii. p. 14.8. "Popular Rhymes of the Isle of Man," pp. 16, 17.]

To be pixey-led.

Led astray by fairies or goblins. "When a man has got a wee drap ower muckle whuskey, misses his way home, and gets miles out of his direct course, he tells a tale of excuse and whiles lays the blame on the innocent pixies" (see KEIGHTLEY'S "Fairy Mythology"). Also recalling Feufollet, or the Will o' the Wisp, and the traveller who

"thro' bog and bush Was lantern-led by Friar Rush."

Gypsies have from their out of doors life much familiarity with these "spirits" whom they call mullo dûdia, or mûllo doods, i.e., dead or ghost lights. For an account of the adventure of a gypsy with them, see "The English Gypsies and their Language," by C. G. LELAND. London: Trübner & Co. "Pyxie-led is to be in a maze, to be bewildered as if led out of the way by hobgoblins or puck, or one of the fairies. The cure is to turn one of your garments the inside outward; some say that is for a woman to turn her cap inside outward, and for a man to do the same with some of his clothes" (MS. "Devon Glimpses"--Halliwell). "Thee pixie-led in Popish piety" (CLOBERY'S "Divine Glimpses," 1659).

The fairies' lanthorn.

That is the glow-worm. In America a popular story represents an Irishman as believing that a fire-fly was a mosquito "sakin' his prey wid a lanthorn."

God speed you, gentlemen!

When an Irish peasant sees a cloud of dust sweeping along the road, he raises his hat and utters this blessing in behoof of ye company of invisible fairies who, as he believes, caused it." ("Fairy Mythology").

The Phooka have dirtied the blackberries.

Said when the fruit of the blackberry is spoiled through age or covered with dust at the end of the season. In the North of England we say "the devil has set his foot on the Bumble-Kites" ("Denham Tract").

Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop, And I'll give ye a spintle off my god end.

This is spoken three times by the Clydesdale peasant when ploughing, because he believes that on getting to the end of the fourth furrow those good things will be found spread out on the grass "(CHAMBERS' "Popular Rhymes, Scotland," 3rd ed. p. 106).

Turn your clokes (i.e., coats), For fairy folkes Are in old oakes.

"I well remember that on more occasions than one, when a schoolboy, I have turned and worn my coat inside out in passing through a wood in order to avoid the 'good people.' On nutting days, those glorious red-letter festivals in the schoolboy's calendar, the use pretty generally prevailed. The rhymes in the text are the English formula" ("Denham Tract").

He's got Pigwiggan

Vulgarly called Peggy Wiggan. A severe fall or Somerset is so termed in the B'prick. The fairy Pigwiggan is celebrated by Drayton in his Nymphidia" ("Denham Tract"). To which may be added a few more from other sources.

Do what you may, say what you can, No washing e'er whitens the black Zingan. ("Firdusi.")

For every gypsy that comes to toon, A hen will be a-missing soon, And for every gypsy woman old, A maiden's fortune will be told. p. 205 Gypsy hair and devil's eyes, Ever stealing, full of lies, Yet always poor and never wise.

He who has never lived like a gypsy does not know how to enjoy life as a gentleman.

I never enjoyed the mere living as regards all that constitutes ordinary respectable life so keenly as I did after some weeks of great hunger, exposure, and misery, in an artillery company in 1863, at the time of the battle of Gettysburg.

Zigeuner Leben Greiner Leben. (Gipsy life a groaning life. KORTE'S "Sprichwörter d. D.")

Er taugt nicht zum Zigeuner. Spottisch vom Lügner gesagt weil er nicht wahr-sagt. (KORTE, "Sprichwörter.")

"He would not do for a gypsy." Said of a liar because he cannot tell the truth. In German to predict or tell fortunes also means to speak truly, i.e., wahr = true, and sprechen = to speak.

Gypsy repentance for stolen hens is not worth much. (Old German Saying.)

The Romany chi And the Romany chal Love luripen And lutchipen And dukkeripen And huknipen And every pen But latchipen And tatchipen.

The gypsy woman And gypsy man Love stealing And lewdness And fortune telling And lying And every pen But shame And truth.

Pen is the termination of all verbal nouns.

(GEORGE BORROW, Quoted from memory.) It's a winter morning.

Meaning a bad day, or that matters look badly. In allusion to the Winters, a gypsy clan with a bad name.

As wild as a gypsy.

Puro romaneskoes. (In the old gypsy fashion.)

Sie hat 'nen Kobold. ("She has a brownie, or house-fairy.")

"Said of a girl who does everything deftly and readily. In some places the peasants believe that a fairy lives in the house, who does the work, brings water or wood, or curries the horses. Where such a fairy dwells, all succeeds if he or she is kindly treated" (KORTE'S "German Proverbs").

"Man siehet wohl wess Geisters Kind Sie (Er.) ist."

"One can well see what spirit was his sire." In allusion to men of singular or eccentric habits, who are believed to have been begotten by the incubus, or goblins, or fairies. There are ceremonies by which spirits may be attracted to come to people in dreams.

"There was a young man who lived near Monte Lupo, and one day he found in a place among some old ruins a statue of a fate (fairy or goddess) all naked. He set it up in its shrine, and admiring it greatly embraced it with love (ut semen ejus profluit super statuam). And that night and ever after the fate came to him in his dreams and lay with him, and told him where to find treasures, so that he became a rich man. But he lived no more among men, nor did he after that ever enter a church. And I have heard that any one who will do as he did can draw the fate to come to him, for they are greatly desirous to be loved and worshipped by men as they were in the Roman times."

The following are Hungarian or Transylvanian proverbs:--

False as a Tzigane, ie., gypsy.

Dirty as a gypsy.

They live like gypsies (said of a quarrelsome couple). He moans like a guilty Tzigane (said of a man given to useless lamenting).

He knows how to plow with the gypsies (said of a liar). Also: "He knows how to ride the gypsies' horse."

He knows the gypsy trade (i.e., he is a thief).

Tzigane weather (i.e., a showery day).

It is gypsy honey (i.e., adulterated).

A gypsy duck i.e., a poor sort of wild duck.

"The gypsy said his favourite bird would be the pig if it had only wings" (in allusion to the gypsy fondness for pork).

Mrs. GERARD gives a number of proverbs as current among Hungarian gypsies which appear to be borrowed by them from those of other races. Among them are:--

Who would steal potatoes must not forget the sack.

The best smith cannot make more than one ring at a time.

Nothing is so bad but it is good enough for somebody.

Bacon makes bold.

"He eats his faith as the gypsies ate their church."

A Wallach proverb founded on another to the effect that the gypsy church was made of pork and the dogs ate it. I shall never forget how an old gypsy in Brighton laughed when I told her this, and how she repeated: "O Romani kangri sos kerdo bâllovas te i juckli hawde lis."

"No entertainment without gypsies."

In reference to gypsy musicians who are always on hand at every festivity.

The Hungarian wants only a glass of water and a gypsy fiddler to make him drunk.

In reference to the excitement which Hungarians experience in listening to gypsy music.

With a wet rag you can put to flight a whole village of gypsies (Hungarian).

It would not be advisable to attempt this with any gypsies in Great Britain, where they are almost, without exception, only too ready to fight with anybody.

Every gypsy woman is a witch.

"Every woman is at heart a witch."

In the "Materials for the Study of the Gypsies," by M. I. KOUNAVINE, which I have not yet seen, there are, according to A. B. Elysseeff (Gypsy-Lore Journal, July, 1890), three or four score of gypsy proverbial sayings and maxims. These refer to Slavonian or far Eastern Russian Romanis. I may here state in this connection that all who are interested in this subject, or aught relating to it, will find much to interest them in this journal of the Gypsy-Lore Society, printed by T. & A. Constable, Edinburgh. The price of subscription, including membership of the society, is £1 a year--Address: David Mac Ritchie, 4, Archibald Place, Edinburgh.