Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/364

 34- Ccrevioiiial Customs of the British Gipsies.

parties concerned stood one on each side of the carcass, clasped hands, and addressed one another. Then, quitting their hold, they walked three times round it in contrary- directions, stopping at the " corners " and speaking. At the last stop, by the horse's tail, they shook hands, and parted for ever, going north and south. The animal's heart was then taken out, roasted, sprinkled with brandy or vinegar, and eaten by the husband and his friends. The wife, on her departure, was given a cast-iron token about an inch and a half square, marked with a sign like a capital T. If she lost this, or attempted to remarry, she was liable to death after trial by the elders of the tribe ; and the manner of her death was that she was bound to a stake by an iron chain, and cudgelled at intervals until she died ! "This ceremony began at noon, probably because the sun begins to decline then. The horse is frequently employed in divination by other peoples, and its use in the chastity test or ordeal is in no way extraordinary, for what other animal would a tinkler have, except perhaps a dog ? The eating of the heart is not a little peculiar, though, for amongst the German Gipsies, it may be recalled, horse-flesh is tabooed. As to the origin of this curious form of ordeal, which seems to be peculiar to the tinklers, I can say nothing, except that it is obviously not connected, as Simson thought it was, with the Asvamedha rite. The punishments meted out to the woman, — expulsion from the band and prohibi- tion of remarriage, or, under exceptional circumstances, death, — are very much the same as those of Gipsies else- where in cases of unfaithfulness, and are quite in keeping with the high value they set upon corporal chastity. . Although the British Gipsies have abandoned their marriage and divorce rites, they still' cling firmly to their funeral customs, the main point of which, the destruction of almost everything connected with the deceased, they observe much more strictly and completely than their kindred elsewhere.