CHARMS AND CONJURATIONS TO CURE THE
DISORDERS OF GROWN PEOPLE
FEVER
THOUGH not liable to many disorders, the gypsies in Eastern Europe,
from their wandering, out-of-doors life, and camping by marshes and pools
where there is malaria, suffer a great deal from fevers, which in their simple
system of medicine are divided into the shilale--i.e., chills or cold--and the
tate shilalyi, "hot-cold," or fever and ague. For the former, the following
remedy is applied: Three lungs and three livers, of frogs are dried and
powdered and drunk in spirits, after which the sick man or woman says
"Čuckerdya pal m're per
Čáven save miseçe!
Čuckerdya pal m're per
Den miseçeske drom odry prejiál!"Frogs in my belly
Devour what is bad
Frogs in my belly
Show the evil the way out!"By "the evil" is understood evil spirits. According to the old Shamanic
belief, which was the primæval religion of all mankind, every disease is
caused by an evil spirit which enters the body and can only be driven out by
magic
Another cure against the fever is to go to a running stream and cast
pieces of wood nine times backwards into the running water, repeating the
rhymes:--
"Shilályi prejiá,
Páñori me tut 'dáv!
Náñi me tut kámáv
Andakode prejiá,
Odoy tut čučiden,
Odoy tut ferinen,
Odoy tut may kámen
Mashurdalo sastyár!"Fever go away from me,
I give it, water, unto thee