Gipsy Lore.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 332, 9 January 1889, Page 6

Gipsy Lore.

Pr.Kiiu-s the reason that gypsies undorslaud bo well how to work upon the sympathies of others i.s because they arc superbtilious themselves. Homo gypsies tet their bootf. crosswise before going to bed, fancying thoieby bo keep away the cramp ; a fomald gyp^y parried tho skeleton of a mole's foot, which (Mie called a v fairy foot,' becau.-o she believed it good against 1 henirntism : and it is> a standing truth among them that children in teething should wcai a necklace inado of niyrUo-stoncs, which tor a boy inubt bo tint by a woyian, by a man for a girl. An adder's plough or a bit of mountain ash is! suro Lo bring good luck ; and with the same object, sonic of tho children wear round thoir necks black bags? containing fragments of a bat. Fn order to hurl an enemy you have only to stick piiib into a red bag and burn the .same; oth'u^ tor the same end res-orb to the ciuel practice ol sticking pins into a toad until it lookh hko a hwlgohog, and then bury it with certain obserxanccs. Ono old woman, called a gho-t-soer, carried in hor pocket, a little china do^ drcs-ed like a doll. ' I mind,' says the j^vpsy who tell-* the stoiy, * t-hc lost it once, and bhewaain such an awful otatc till it wa«> found ; and hl U! u-od to fancy it would talk to hoi when she was all alone .smoking her pipe in the van. You should sec a pack ol \ei\ old fortuneicllino cuds, which was painted in dilleiont coloiii.s. bhc used to .sclct-l the dillcient one- for each day; pomctmie-) bho woidd have those \\ith thc-dcvil and serpents _on them, then she would carry those with buds ;ind pi a cos, '