“Lege dich, lieber Wind,
Bringe dies deinem Kind!”
“Dear Wind, be not so wild,
Take that unto thy child!”
“In which thing,” adds the highly Protestant Prætorius (“Anthropodemus Plutonicus,” p. 429), “she was like the Papists who would fain appease the Donnerwetter, or thunderstorms, with the sound of baptized bells, as though they were raging round like famished lions, or grim wolves, or a soldier foraging, seeking what they may devour.” The Wind here represents the Wild Hunter, or the Storm, the leader of the Wüthende Heer, or “raging army,” who, under different names, is the hero of so many German legends.
That the voice of the wind should seem like that of wild beasts roaring for food would occur naturally enough to any one who was familiar with both.
When a child refuses the breast the gypsies believe that a Pçuvus-wife, or a female spirit of the earth has secretly sucked it. In such a case they place between the mother’s breasts onions, and repeat these words:—
“Pçuvushi, Pçuvushi,
Ac tu náshvályi