What you seek for shall be found
On the sea or solid ground.”
Moon-worship is very ancient; it is alluded to as a forbidden thing in the Book of Job. From early times witches and other women worked their spells when stark-naked by the light of the full moon, which is evidently derived from the ancient worship of that planet and the shameless orgies connected with it. Dr. Wlislocki simply remarks on this subject that the moon has, in the gypsy incantation, “eine Phallische Bedeutung.” In ancient symbolism the horns of the moon were regarded as synonymous with the horns of the ox—hence their connection with agriculture, productiveness, and fertility, or the generative principle, and from this comes the beneficent influence not only of the horns, but of horse-shoes, boars’ tusks, crabs’ claws, and pieces of coral resembling them.
The great love of gypsy mothers for their children, says Wlislocki, induces their friends to seek remedies for the most trifling disorders. At a later period, mother and child are left to Mother Nature—or the vis medicatrix Naturæ. What is greatly dreaded is the Berufen, or being called on, “enchanted,” in English “overlooked,” or subjected to the evil eye. An universal remedy for this is the following:—
A jar is filled with water from a stream, and it must be taken with, not against, the current as it runs. In it are placed seven coals, seven handfuls of meal, and seven cloves of garlic, all of which is put on the fire. When the water begins to boil it is stirred with a three-forked twig, while the wise woman repeats:—
“Miseç’ yakhá tut dikhen,
Te yon káthe mudáren!
Te átunci eftá coká
Te çaven miseçe yakhá;
Miseç’ yakhá tut dikhen,