is laid on a cross-road on Easter or Saint George's morning. If a woman
steps first on the cake her husband will be a widower or an old man, but if a
man the husband will be single or young.
"To see the form of a future husband a girl must go on the night of Saint
George to a cross-road. Her hair is combed backwards, and, pricking the
little finger of the left hand, she must let three drops of blood fall on the
ground while saying:--
"'Mro rat dav piraneszke,
Kász dikhav, avava adaleske.'"'I give my blood to my loved one,
Whom I shall see shall be mine own!'"Then the form of her future husband will rise slowly out of the blood
and fade as slowly away. She must then gather up the dust, or mud-blood,
and throw it into a river, otherwise the Nivashi, or Water-spirits, will lick up
the blood, and the girl be drowned within the Year. It is said that about
twenty years ago the beautiful Roszi (Rosa), the daughter of Peter Danku,
the waywode, or chief of the Kukuja tribe, was drowned during the time of
her betrothal because when she performed this ceremony she had neglected
to gather up the sprinkled blood.
"If a girl wishes to see the form of her future husband, and also to know
what luck awaits her love, she goes on any of the fore-named nights to a
cross-road, and sits down on the ground, putting before her a fried fish and
a glass of brandy. Then the form of her future husband will appear and
stand before her for a time, silent and immovable. Should he then take the
fish the marriage will be happy, but if he begin with the brandy it will be
truly wretched. But if he takes neither, one of the two will die during the
year.
"That the laying of cards, the interpretation of dreams, the reading of the
future in the hand, and similar divinations are constantly practised is quite
natural, but it would lead us too far to enlarge on all these practices. But
there are charms to win or cause love which are more interesting. Among
these are the love-potions or philtres, for preparing which gypsies have
always been famed.
"The simplest and least hurtful beverage which they give unknown to
persons to secure love is made as follows:--On any of the nights mentioned
they collect in the meadows gander-goose (Romání, vast bengeszkero--devil's
hand; in Latin, Orchis maculata; German, Knaberkraut), the yellow roots of
which they dry and crush and mix with their menses, and this they introduce
to the food of the person whose love they wish to secure"
Of the same character is a potion which they prepare as follows: On the
day of Saint John they catch a green frog and put it in a closed earthen