“Who is within, let him come out!
Three Urme call him,
Three Urme drive him
Into the egg-shell house,
There he lives in the house;
He has much fire,
He has much water!”
Then half the shell of the egg of the black hen is thrown into a running stream and the other half into a fire.
Next to the Nivasi and Pçuvuse, or spirits of earth and air, and human sorcerers or witches, the being who is most dreaded as injuring cattle is the Chagrin or Cagrino. These demons have the form of a hedgehog, are of yellowish colour, and are half a yard in length, and a span in breadth. “I am certain,” says Wlislocki, “that this creature is none other than the equally demoniac being called Harginn, still believed in by the inhabitants of North-western India. (Vide Liebrecht, p. 112, and Leitner, ‘Results of a Tour in Dardistan Kashmir,’ &c., vol. i. p. 13.) The exact identity of the description of the two, as well as that of the name, prove that the gypsies brought the belief from their Indian home.” It may here be observed that the Indian name is Harginn, and the true gypsy word is pronounced very nearly like ‘Hágrin—the o being an arbitrary addition. The transposition of letters in a word is extremely common among the Hindu gypsies. The Chagrin specially torments horses, by sitting on their backs and making water on their bodies. The next day they appear to be weary, sad, sick, and weak, bathed in sweat, with their manes tangled. When this is seen the following ceremony is resorted to: The horse is tied to a stake which has been rubbed with garlic juice, then a red thread is laid in the form of a cross on the ground, but so far from the heels of the horse that he cannot disturb it. And while laying it down the performer sings:—