Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/110

 102 profess to pour the molten lead on those who are impure, saying the words, "This is not thine, this is somebody else's."

Pouring out water.—This cure is used against enchantment. The sign of the cross is made by hand, and a tumbler full of water is placed thereon; a glowing cinder, broken into three pieces, is thrown into the water with some such formulas as this: "Blue eyes, black eyes. I will wash it with water by hand. If the cause of the spell be a man, may his buttock burst; if it be a woman, then may her breast break out." Then they blow three times the sign of the cross over the tumbler, and make the patient drink some of the water, also three times; they then wash with the water his spine, forehead, nose, the soles of his feet, and the palms of his hands; and if in the daytime the remainder of the water is thrown on the eaves, if at night on to a broom standing behind the house-door, in order that nobody shall step into it, because if anybody stepped into such "out-pourings" he would be afflicted with some skin disease. People are particularly careful to guard little children from enchantment, and it is customary in order to counteract the spell to spit on the child. ("Fie! fie! ugly one!") The power of enchantment is specially attributed to gipsy-women and men whose eyebrows are grown together. If, when throwing the glowing cinders into the water, two pieces sink to the bottom, the spell comes from a man; if only one, the patient has been bewitched by a woman.

The enchantment is supposed to have power even over animals or flowers (Proverb: "May enchantment seize you!") It is against the effects of such a spell that they tie a red ribbon on to a foal's or calf's neck, and for the same purpose that they draw red tassels through a lamb's or kid's ears; this also explains why the sprays of flowers are hung with pieces of red cloth in every Székely house. The red colour is generally considered a preventive against enchantment.