Kiya lelákri me beshav.”
“Where the sun goes up
Shall my love be by me!
Where the sun goes down
There by her I’ll be.”
Then the blade of grass is cut up into pieces and mingled with some food which the girl must eat, and if she swallow the least bit of the grass, she will be gewogen und treugesinnt—moved to love, and true-hearted. On which Dr. Wlislocki remarks on the old custom “also known to the Hindoos,” by which any one wishing to deprecate the wrath of another, or to express complete subjection, takes a blade of grass in his mouth. Of which Grimm writes: “This custom may have sprung from the idea that the one conquered gave himself up like a domestic animal to the absolute power of another. And with this appears to be connected the ancient custom of holding out grass as a sign of surrender. The conquered man took the blade of grass in his mouth and then transferred it to his conqueror.”
If a gypsy girl be in love she finds the foot-print of her “object,” digs out the earth which is within its outline and buries this under a willow-tree, saying:—
“Upro pçuv hin but pçuvá;
Kás kámáv, mange th’ ávlá!
Bárvol, bárvol, sálciye,