“This Tritas is called intelligent. How then does he appear sometimes stupid? The language itself supplies the explanation. In Sanskrit bâlas means both child and stolid, and the third brother is supposed to be stolid because, at his first appearance especially, he is a child. (Tritas is one of the three brothers or gods, i.e., the trinity).” (“Zoological Mythology,” by Angelo de Gubernatis, 1872).
I am indebted to the as yet unpublished collection of Gypsyana made by Prof. Anton Herrmann for the following:—
There is a superstition among our gypsies that if the shadow of a cross on a grave falls on a woman with child she will have a miscarriage, and this seems to be peculiarly appropriate to girls who have “anticipated the privileges of matrimony.” The following rhyme seems to describe the hesitation of a girl who has gone to a cross to produce the result alluded to, but who is withheld by love for her unborn infant:—
“Cigno trusšul pal handako
Hin ada ušalinako;
The žiav me pro ušalin,
Ajt’ mange lašavo na kin.
Sar e praytin kad’ chasarel,
Save šile barvāl marel,
Pal basavo te prasape,