[1] “Geit suer Heidrun heitr stendr uppi a Valholl …. En or spenum hennar rennr moilk … tháer ero sva miklar at allir einheria verda fuldrucknir af.” (“A ewe named Heidrun stands up in Valhalla. And from her udders runs milk; there is so much that all the heroes may drink their fill of it”). (Snorro Sturleson’s “Edda,” 20th tale). [↑]
CHAPTER VI.
OF PREGNANCY AND CHARMS, OR FOLK-LORE CONNECTED WITH IT—BOARS’ TEETH AND CHARMS FOR PREVENTING THE FLOW OF BLOOD.
Like all Orientals the gypsy desires intensely to have a family. Superstition comes in to increase the wish, for a barren woman in Eastern Europe is generally suspected of having had intercourse with a vampire or spirit before her marriage, and she who has done this, willingly or unconsciously, never has children. They have recourse to many magic medicines or means to promote conception; one of the most harmless in Hungary is to eat grass from the grave in which a woman with child has been buried. While doing this the woman repeats:—
“Dui riká hin mire minč,
Dui yārá hin leskro kor,
Avnás dui yek jelo,
Keren ákána yek jeles.”