SlideShare una empresa de Scribd logo
1 de 12
Descargar para leer sin conexión
Magical Practices of Gypsies on Bulgaria
Eugenia I. Ivanova and Velcho Krastev
Assoc. Prof. Eugenia I. Ivanova PhD in History in The Regional
Museum of History, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. E-mail: evgenia_iv@abv.bg;
http://www.balkanethnology.org/files/cv/E.Ivanova.pdf
Velcho Krastev is a PhD student at the section “Bulgarian Ethnology” at
The Institute of Folklore and Ethnography of the Ethnographic Museum,
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. E-mail: tehnitari@gmail.com;
http://www.balkanethnology.org/files/cv/V.Krastev.pdf
Since ancient times, sorcery and magical beliefs, divination and
fortune telling have accompanied the lives of human beings. They are
incredibly persistent in time and space and they form an essential part of
the Gypsies’ traditional culture as well. Gypsies themselves say, that
Father God (Our Lord) took away from them all the worldly goods, but
he gave them the gift „to see (realize the divine – n.a.) and to make
magic“.
The magical practices of the Gypsies in Bulgaria have never been
reviewed as a separate topic. The general researches on the Gypsies,
as well as the numerous archive materials tell about their sorcery skills,
about soothsayers and diviners. The purpose of our presentation is to
show the Gypsies in Bulgarian lands not only as the agents, but also as
the targets of magical practices and divination during the period between
the end of the 19th
century and the beginning of the 21-st century. Our
sources comprise literature and documentary archives, their oral history
which takes us two-three generations back, as well as our terrain
researches done during the last about ten years.
Sorcery, divination and soothsaying are practiced by women, and
this is linked not that much to the men and women social roles definition
than to the strong awareness of sex differences. Since very old times the
fact that the woman gives life has been conceived as a magical gift.
The Gypsy women have kept from their land of origin their skills to
cast spells and unspell, divination and fortune telling. The neighbouring
population, especially those sharing similar superstitions and beliefs,
see them as the best performers of such actions. The historical sources
dating back to their arrival in Asia Minor and on the Balkans and their
spreading from here towards Europe, present the Gypsies as sorcerers,
clairvoyants, fortune tellers, enchanters. This is illustrated in the
researches of a number of authors as M. Goeje, P. Charanis, G. Soulis,
J.-P. Liegeois, Е. Marushiakova and V. Popov, L. Wiener and many
others.
We see them as such also in the next centuries in the itineraries
of the foreign travelers passing through the Bulgarian lands – the
Austrian Johann Kempelen (1740), the French Esprit-Маrie Cousineri
(18th
century’s 70s-90s.). The most numerous facts in the oral history,
documentary archives and the local press date back to the end of the
19th
– the first half of the 20th
century.
A periodical of the Bulgarian Books Society of 1895 has published
the following notes: „Mostly the Gypsy women are believed to be
sorcerers, especially the Chergari (nomads). The Sorcerer not only
would not disclose her art, she would also beware of being known to be
such. People disfavour those.”
The Obshtestven Glass issue of the 12th
March, 1911 reports that
in the inn next to a school in the town of Shumen since 2-3 months there
was a group of Russian Gypsies, Kalaydzhii (whitesmiths). Their women
were told to be “fortune tellers” and many men and women came to
them for “soothsaying”.
Both in the settled and in the nomad groups of Gypsies the
soothsaying, spell casting and unspelling is considered to be traditional
women’s trade. Women practice palmistry, they cast beans and tell the
fortune (as a rule only for luck and happiness), they make magic for good
health and for love (as an exception possibly “black” magic – negative
magic). In Sliven in the beginning of the 20th
century “mostly the Valah Gypsies
dealt with begging and divination”. The Mechkari (bear trainers) women
during their tours in the country make charms and read palms, coffee
cups, they cast beans and unspell. An informer of ours from the Stara
Zagora region (age 75, 2005) a member of the Demirdzhii group was
proud to tell us of his grandmother: „My grandmother knew how to cast
lead, to do midwifery, to cast beans and she'd tell you everything wright.
She was much needed. That was how she used to earn some pennies
for the household“.
Тhe tradition of soothsaying and divinaion among the Gypses is
oriented towards earning their living rather than towards helping people.
Our respondent Rosa of the Horhane Roma group, who lives in a village
near Stara Zagora, says: “I don't go around the villages or visit people's
homes, I work from here. I cast the beans, I read the cards – whatever it
shows. I also undo spells. People come to me a lot, if I cast for you now
you'd need to put money – nothing shows without money”.
In some of the groups these activities are very often practiced
together with begging (the Kanglyari/Grebenari (combs makers)),
together with pickpoketting (the Kardarashi), together with charms and
medicinal herbs sales. The police records for 1943 say: „Order that the two
Gypsy women who went in the home... did some soothsaying for his wife and
managed to steal three golden pendars and two mahmudi (old Turkish coins)
be searched for and caught and convoyed. The said Gypsy women go in a
group of Grebenari (comb makers) ...“.
Very rarely, both in the past and nowadays, it is mentioned among
the Gypses about men-soothsayers and sorcerers. We do have such an
example in the city of Plovdiv. In the beginning of the 20th
century in the
new Gypsies' quarter, the present-days' Stolipinovo, the most respected
person was the old Asan – a medicine man and a sorcerer. „All sorts of
women would go to him to have magics done - young, old, scruffy, spiffy
city ladies, poorer dressed ones. Each of them would say her worries,
and Asan would listen carefully without interrupting. When she'd finished
telling her story, he would start doing the magic mysteries”.
The tendency to relate the Gypsies to the „trade“ of sourcerers,
soothsayers, divinators is alive also in present days in certain groups.
They are treated with different attitude. On the one hand people around
them seek their services, on the other hand they fear them. In the 80s –
90s of the 20th
century in the Stara Zagora Gypsy quarter Lozenets
there was a local medicine woman and soothsayer named Kera (of the
Fitchers group). „A lot of people came to her, she would help a lot of
people. She used to soothsay on the Bible, undo the spells, „untie the
luck“. All sorts of people would come to her from everywhere” (a woman,
age 77, Fitchers, 2005).
In the Gypsy quarter of the town of Sandanski (2001) there lived
an old Gypsy woman – sorcerer. The locals were afraid to speak about
her, and they would only whisper her name – Kaymeta, for fear that
some of her magics might reach them. In the Fakulteta quarter in Sofia
there was a famiy whose nickname was related to sorcery: „They used
to call them the Cambovs... Cambov comes from „magic“, but I don't
know whether they made magic” (a woman, age 39, 2001).
During the first decade of the 21st
century the Lingurary women
still continued to offer there services for fortune-telling in the streets of
Stara Zagora. The women of the local Kardarashi clan were their
competitors. Very often they were accompanied by a little girl. They
would give a geranium – geranium sp. (a symbol of good health, welfare
and long life in the Bulgarian cultural traditions), thus attracting the
attention of the target passer-by – in most cases a woman. During a visit
to the clan in the autumn of 2009 the six-years old grand-child girl
wanted to show us her fortune-teller's skills and she did that before the
eyes of her grandmother. The Kardarashi girls commence their
“vocational training” in fortune-telling and theft in young age.
During the 90s of the 20th
century the Sveta Nedelya Church in
the capital Sofia is the place where usually fortune-tellers meet , and
those are also of the Kardarashi group. Lately we see them offering their
services in the streets of the capital, in the parks, around churches, in
the Malls. They go in couples holding a bunch of geranium in one hand.
In the sea capital of Bulgaria – Varna, in the summer time such
services were offered in the park around the Municipal Administration. A
part of those appeared also in the District Hospital courtyard, were they
took advantage of the health issues of the visitors and used those to
convince the patients that they could help them.
The Gypses are not only the agents of different magical practies,
they are also the target of sourcery, evil eyes and other evil forces. The
Gypses (of the Blagoevgrad region in the Western Bulgaria), whenever
anyone falls ill they would first of all look for spell that brought the
ilness. They believe that this is a woman-sourcerer's deed. She must
have found a piece of clothing that belonged to the target man and
sewed it up in the mouth of a frog. Then she must have burried it under
the threshold of the target's home or plastered it with some clay in the
oven. Then, as the frog dries away, the charmed man would languish
and die away. Whenever anyone falls ill the whole family starts digging
under the thresholds or around the oven – they look for the spell (a
woman, age 71, 2001)
The Gypsies would apply sorcery in their family affairs, as well, in
certain cases. They would make a spell to a man who has stoped
showing sexual interest towards his wife or a one who harass her all the
time. In principle, the spell is made by his mother or by his wife.
„Though, in most cases the wife would not admit she's done it. If she
makes it, she'd do it very quietly and no one should know of it”.
Sometimes love spells are made. The woman who knows how to
make those, would be visited by the boy or his mother. Various love
spells would be applied: they would sew up a root of „obichniche“ (love
herb) (meadow-rue), to the boy would be given to drink „love“ herbs
potions so that the girl would fall in love with him.
Asan - the medicine man and sourceror of Plovdiv, used to make
a spell to „untie“ the luck of the young couple. The young couple love
each other, but the girl's parents do not consent. So, Asan would make a
magical object that the young people should sleep with, „but no other
people's eyes should see that”.
The Gypsies know only the practical aspect of magic. They do not
analyse the mental processes on which their activities are based. They
do not reason the abstract principles related to it. Without realizing it, in
their practice they use different types of magic – immitative (indirect,
based on the similarity principle), verbal (magical speech), contact
(based on the laws of contiguity), contageous (the contact with objects
or belongings of someone is equal to the dicrect contact with the target).
At the immitative magic they are both agents and targets. We see
it as a part of the child birth rituals in certian Gypsy groups. The paralel
manifestation of action and speach builds the basis of the magical act,
and the imitative contents put in them defines the magical nature of the
ritual.
On the third day after the birth a round bread is made, and only
women guests are invited. The ritual has some local versions in different
groups and its purpose is to socialize the newborn child, so it may grow
up and secure the reproduction of the family. Either the mother of the
baby's father or the tallest of the women would jump up high while
holding the bread above her head (“up” is the growth direction) and
would shout out loud the name of the baby (the group acknowledges
that the baby belongs to them). They would smudge under the skirt of
each woman before they break down the bread, some sex imitating
actions would be carried out, the whole group would laugh out loud
(attracting the reproductive basis).
At the contact type of magical influence the Gypsies are also
both agents and targets. They themselves make and carry amulets as
protection against deamons and ilness. In order to protect the mother
and so that she may be healthy, the Fitchers of Stara Zagora put an iron
object under her pillow, and under the baby's pillow they put salt, a piece
of bread and a spikelet of broomcorn. Those should stay there until the
40th
day. The Kalaydzhii (Whitesmiths) of Thrace make an amulet of a
horse bead, garlic, a coin and a turkey butt, and they tie those amulets
with red thread to the baby's wrist and to the head scarf of the mother.
The iron objects, and especially those related to the fire, possess
great repellent power. Women who cannot keep their babies carry small
amulet-axes forged by an Agupt (Agupts – Gypsies blacksmiths who
live in the Rhodopi mountains, muslims) „at midnight after 12 p.m., who
has done it without speaking a word and naked”; the same amulets are
carried by any newborn child in a family where children have died, by 3-
4 years old children to prevent them from falling ill. On a Bulgarian
wedding in the Rhodopi mountains (the Smolyan region) the bride
received as a gift a fire poker and a spatula – to protect her from evil
forces. The gift was given by an Agupt woman who had been specially
invited to the wedding, and the objects had been forged by her husband
– a blacksmith.
At the verbal magic the Gypsies are more often the agents. They
use that mostly when they tell the fortune and at begging. They start with
blessings and good wishes. If they do not receive any responce to their
wish, some of them would continue with curses and forecasts of
something evil. The power and the action of their curse lie on the spell of
incantation (the words).
Contageous Magic. The Gypses of the Silistra area believe, that
someone who wants to make evil to a child might steal a piece of the
child's clothing in the dark and cast a spell on the child. „There are such
people - enimies. They would steal the cloths of the child, they would
make a magic and then the child would not be able to speak or walk –
depends what magic they have done”.
The Yerlii of Sofia use the skin of the syunet (circumcision of
boys) to make love spells. The preserved skin the boy would wrap in a
candy or something else and he would give that to the girl to eat it. This
magic guarantees reciprocal love.
* * *
The Gypsies use theirl skills to make and undo spells, to soothsay
and tell the fortune on different occasions and at different
circumstances, but they do that always with commercial purpose.
Sometimes their target would be the foreigners, another time – their own
people. These magical practices persist in time, we can see them even
nowadays.
Научното съобщение е прочетено на годишната среща на The
Gypsy Lore Society, проведена в Бейоглу, Истанбул, Турция, 21-23
септември 2012 г.
Магия
Магически вярвания
Цигани
България
Магически практики
Гадателка
Врачка
Магьосници циганки
Влашки цигани
Демирджии
Лингурарки
Кардараши
Мъже-гадатели
Любовна магия
Вербална магия
Имитативна магия
Контактна магия
Контагиозна магия
Тракийски калайджии
агупти

Más contenido relacionado

Similar a Magical-Practices-Gypsies-Bulgaria

Paolin A Short Story
Paolin A Short StoryPaolin A Short Story
Paolin A Short StoryBrooke Curtis
 
Foreshadowing In Three Dirges Essays
Foreshadowing In Three Dirges EssaysForeshadowing In Three Dirges Essays
Foreshadowing In Three Dirges EssaysErica Wright
 
Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)
Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)
Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)Sara Reed
 
Polish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitionsPolish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitionsErasmus+
 
The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...
The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...
The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...Liz Bundren
 
Polish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitionsPolish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitionsZespolSzkolZawiercie
 
How Does Folklore Shape Canadian Culture
How Does Folklore Shape Canadian CultureHow Does Folklore Shape Canadian Culture
How Does Folklore Shape Canadian CultureLisa Fields
 
American Culture Research Paper
American Culture Research PaperAmerican Culture Research Paper
American Culture Research PaperAlana Cartwright
 
The Science Of Taot Cards
The Science Of Taot CardsThe Science Of Taot Cards
The Science Of Taot CardsSandra Ahn
 
Analysis Of The Man To Send Rain Clouds
Analysis Of The Man To Send Rain CloudsAnalysis Of The Man To Send Rain Clouds
Analysis Of The Man To Send Rain CloudsTasha Holloway
 
Write An Essay On The Ouroboros
Write An Essay On The OuroborosWrite An Essay On The Ouroboros
Write An Essay On The OuroborosCatherine Bitker
 
Analysis of a Korean Household Fairy Tale
Analysis of a Korean Household Fairy TaleAnalysis of a Korean Household Fairy Tale
Analysis of a Korean Household Fairy TaleYogeshIJTSRD
 
AllPointsNorthManuscript
AllPointsNorthManuscriptAllPointsNorthManuscript
AllPointsNorthManuscriptZoë Fahy
 
What Is Racial Fetishism
What Is Racial FetishismWhat Is Racial Fetishism
What Is Racial FetishismEmily Jones
 
Narrative Essay On Being Adopted
Narrative Essay On Being AdoptedNarrative Essay On Being Adopted
Narrative Essay On Being AdoptedHeather Bjugan
 
The Note On The Bench Essay
The Note On The Bench EssayThe Note On The Bench Essay
The Note On The Bench EssaySherry Bailey
 

Similar a Magical-Practices-Gypsies-Bulgaria (20)

Paolin A Short Story
Paolin A Short StoryPaolin A Short Story
Paolin A Short Story
 
Foreshadowing In Three Dirges Essays
Foreshadowing In Three Dirges EssaysForeshadowing In Three Dirges Essays
Foreshadowing In Three Dirges Essays
 
Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)
Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)
Essay About Bris Milah (Circumcision)
 
Polish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitionsPolish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitions
 
Filipino's beliefs
Filipino's beliefsFilipino's beliefs
Filipino's beliefs
 
The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...
The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...
The Civilization Of The Mayan Civilizations In Central...
 
Polish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitionsPolish folk beliefs and superstitions
Polish folk beliefs and superstitions
 
LornaDeeCervantes
LornaDeeCervantesLornaDeeCervantes
LornaDeeCervantes
 
How Does Folklore Shape Canadian Culture
How Does Folklore Shape Canadian CultureHow Does Folklore Shape Canadian Culture
How Does Folklore Shape Canadian Culture
 
American Culture Research Paper
American Culture Research PaperAmerican Culture Research Paper
American Culture Research Paper
 
Harana
HaranaHarana
Harana
 
The Science Of Taot Cards
The Science Of Taot CardsThe Science Of Taot Cards
The Science Of Taot Cards
 
Analysis Of The Man To Send Rain Clouds
Analysis Of The Man To Send Rain CloudsAnalysis Of The Man To Send Rain Clouds
Analysis Of The Man To Send Rain Clouds
 
Write An Essay On The Ouroboros
Write An Essay On The OuroborosWrite An Essay On The Ouroboros
Write An Essay On The Ouroboros
 
Analysis of a Korean Household Fairy Tale
Analysis of a Korean Household Fairy TaleAnalysis of a Korean Household Fairy Tale
Analysis of a Korean Household Fairy Tale
 
AllPointsNorthManuscript
AllPointsNorthManuscriptAllPointsNorthManuscript
AllPointsNorthManuscript
 
Halloween
HalloweenHalloween
Halloween
 
What Is Racial Fetishism
What Is Racial FetishismWhat Is Racial Fetishism
What Is Racial Fetishism
 
Narrative Essay On Being Adopted
Narrative Essay On Being AdoptedNarrative Essay On Being Adopted
Narrative Essay On Being Adopted
 
The Note On The Bench Essay
The Note On The Bench EssayThe Note On The Bench Essay
The Note On The Bench Essay
 

Magical-Practices-Gypsies-Bulgaria

  • 1. Magical Practices of Gypsies on Bulgaria Eugenia I. Ivanova and Velcho Krastev Assoc. Prof. Eugenia I. Ivanova PhD in History in The Regional Museum of History, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. E-mail: evgenia_iv@abv.bg; http://www.balkanethnology.org/files/cv/E.Ivanova.pdf Velcho Krastev is a PhD student at the section “Bulgarian Ethnology” at The Institute of Folklore and Ethnography of the Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. E-mail: tehnitari@gmail.com; http://www.balkanethnology.org/files/cv/V.Krastev.pdf Since ancient times, sorcery and magical beliefs, divination and fortune telling have accompanied the lives of human beings. They are incredibly persistent in time and space and they form an essential part of the Gypsies’ traditional culture as well. Gypsies themselves say, that Father God (Our Lord) took away from them all the worldly goods, but he gave them the gift „to see (realize the divine – n.a.) and to make magic“. The magical practices of the Gypsies in Bulgaria have never been reviewed as a separate topic. The general researches on the Gypsies, as well as the numerous archive materials tell about their sorcery skills, about soothsayers and diviners. The purpose of our presentation is to show the Gypsies in Bulgarian lands not only as the agents, but also as the targets of magical practices and divination during the period between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 21-st century. Our sources comprise literature and documentary archives, their oral history
  • 2. which takes us two-three generations back, as well as our terrain researches done during the last about ten years. Sorcery, divination and soothsaying are practiced by women, and this is linked not that much to the men and women social roles definition than to the strong awareness of sex differences. Since very old times the fact that the woman gives life has been conceived as a magical gift. The Gypsy women have kept from their land of origin their skills to cast spells and unspell, divination and fortune telling. The neighbouring population, especially those sharing similar superstitions and beliefs, see them as the best performers of such actions. The historical sources dating back to their arrival in Asia Minor and on the Balkans and their spreading from here towards Europe, present the Gypsies as sorcerers, clairvoyants, fortune tellers, enchanters. This is illustrated in the researches of a number of authors as M. Goeje, P. Charanis, G. Soulis, J.-P. Liegeois, Е. Marushiakova and V. Popov, L. Wiener and many others. We see them as such also in the next centuries in the itineraries of the foreign travelers passing through the Bulgarian lands – the Austrian Johann Kempelen (1740), the French Esprit-Маrie Cousineri (18th century’s 70s-90s.). The most numerous facts in the oral history, documentary archives and the local press date back to the end of the 19th – the first half of the 20th century. A periodical of the Bulgarian Books Society of 1895 has published the following notes: „Mostly the Gypsy women are believed to be sorcerers, especially the Chergari (nomads). The Sorcerer not only would not disclose her art, she would also beware of being known to be such. People disfavour those.” The Obshtestven Glass issue of the 12th March, 1911 reports that in the inn next to a school in the town of Shumen since 2-3 months there was a group of Russian Gypsies, Kalaydzhii (whitesmiths). Their women
  • 3. were told to be “fortune tellers” and many men and women came to them for “soothsaying”. Both in the settled and in the nomad groups of Gypsies the soothsaying, spell casting and unspelling is considered to be traditional women’s trade. Women practice palmistry, they cast beans and tell the fortune (as a rule only for luck and happiness), they make magic for good health and for love (as an exception possibly “black” magic – negative magic). In Sliven in the beginning of the 20th century “mostly the Valah Gypsies dealt with begging and divination”. The Mechkari (bear trainers) women during their tours in the country make charms and read palms, coffee cups, they cast beans and unspell. An informer of ours from the Stara Zagora region (age 75, 2005) a member of the Demirdzhii group was proud to tell us of his grandmother: „My grandmother knew how to cast lead, to do midwifery, to cast beans and she'd tell you everything wright. She was much needed. That was how she used to earn some pennies for the household“. Тhe tradition of soothsaying and divinaion among the Gypses is oriented towards earning their living rather than towards helping people. Our respondent Rosa of the Horhane Roma group, who lives in a village
  • 4. near Stara Zagora, says: “I don't go around the villages or visit people's homes, I work from here. I cast the beans, I read the cards – whatever it shows. I also undo spells. People come to me a lot, if I cast for you now you'd need to put money – nothing shows without money”. In some of the groups these activities are very often practiced together with begging (the Kanglyari/Grebenari (combs makers)), together with pickpoketting (the Kardarashi), together with charms and medicinal herbs sales. The police records for 1943 say: „Order that the two Gypsy women who went in the home... did some soothsaying for his wife and managed to steal three golden pendars and two mahmudi (old Turkish coins) be searched for and caught and convoyed. The said Gypsy women go in a group of Grebenari (comb makers) ...“. Very rarely, both in the past and nowadays, it is mentioned among the Gypses about men-soothsayers and sorcerers. We do have such an example in the city of Plovdiv. In the beginning of the 20th century in the new Gypsies' quarter, the present-days' Stolipinovo, the most respected person was the old Asan – a medicine man and a sorcerer. „All sorts of women would go to him to have magics done - young, old, scruffy, spiffy city ladies, poorer dressed ones. Each of them would say her worries, and Asan would listen carefully without interrupting. When she'd finished telling her story, he would start doing the magic mysteries”.
  • 5. The tendency to relate the Gypsies to the „trade“ of sourcerers, soothsayers, divinators is alive also in present days in certain groups. They are treated with different attitude. On the one hand people around them seek their services, on the other hand they fear them. In the 80s – 90s of the 20th century in the Stara Zagora Gypsy quarter Lozenets there was a local medicine woman and soothsayer named Kera (of the Fitchers group). „A lot of people came to her, she would help a lot of people. She used to soothsay on the Bible, undo the spells, „untie the luck“. All sorts of people would come to her from everywhere” (a woman, age 77, Fitchers, 2005). In the Gypsy quarter of the town of Sandanski (2001) there lived an old Gypsy woman – sorcerer. The locals were afraid to speak about her, and they would only whisper her name – Kaymeta, for fear that some of her magics might reach them. In the Fakulteta quarter in Sofia there was a famiy whose nickname was related to sorcery: „They used to call them the Cambovs... Cambov comes from „magic“, but I don't know whether they made magic” (a woman, age 39, 2001). During the first decade of the 21st century the Lingurary women still continued to offer there services for fortune-telling in the streets of Stara Zagora. The women of the local Kardarashi clan were their competitors. Very often they were accompanied by a little girl. They would give a geranium – geranium sp. (a symbol of good health, welfare and long life in the Bulgarian cultural traditions), thus attracting the attention of the target passer-by – in most cases a woman. During a visit to the clan in the autumn of 2009 the six-years old grand-child girl wanted to show us her fortune-teller's skills and she did that before the eyes of her grandmother. The Kardarashi girls commence their “vocational training” in fortune-telling and theft in young age.
  • 6. During the 90s of the 20th century the Sveta Nedelya Church in the capital Sofia is the place where usually fortune-tellers meet , and those are also of the Kardarashi group. Lately we see them offering their services in the streets of the capital, in the parks, around churches, in the Malls. They go in couples holding a bunch of geranium in one hand. In the sea capital of Bulgaria – Varna, in the summer time such services were offered in the park around the Municipal Administration. A part of those appeared also in the District Hospital courtyard, were they took advantage of the health issues of the visitors and used those to convince the patients that they could help them.
  • 7. The Gypses are not only the agents of different magical practies, they are also the target of sourcery, evil eyes and other evil forces. The Gypses (of the Blagoevgrad region in the Western Bulgaria), whenever anyone falls ill they would first of all look for spell that brought the ilness. They believe that this is a woman-sourcerer's deed. She must have found a piece of clothing that belonged to the target man and sewed it up in the mouth of a frog. Then she must have burried it under the threshold of the target's home or plastered it with some clay in the oven. Then, as the frog dries away, the charmed man would languish and die away. Whenever anyone falls ill the whole family starts digging under the thresholds or around the oven – they look for the spell (a woman, age 71, 2001) The Gypsies would apply sorcery in their family affairs, as well, in certain cases. They would make a spell to a man who has stoped showing sexual interest towards his wife or a one who harass her all the time. In principle, the spell is made by his mother or by his wife. „Though, in most cases the wife would not admit she's done it. If she makes it, she'd do it very quietly and no one should know of it”.
  • 8. Sometimes love spells are made. The woman who knows how to make those, would be visited by the boy or his mother. Various love spells would be applied: they would sew up a root of „obichniche“ (love herb) (meadow-rue), to the boy would be given to drink „love“ herbs potions so that the girl would fall in love with him. Asan - the medicine man and sourceror of Plovdiv, used to make a spell to „untie“ the luck of the young couple. The young couple love each other, but the girl's parents do not consent. So, Asan would make a magical object that the young people should sleep with, „but no other people's eyes should see that”. The Gypsies know only the practical aspect of magic. They do not analyse the mental processes on which their activities are based. They do not reason the abstract principles related to it. Without realizing it, in their practice they use different types of magic – immitative (indirect, based on the similarity principle), verbal (magical speech), contact (based on the laws of contiguity), contageous (the contact with objects or belongings of someone is equal to the dicrect contact with the target). At the immitative magic they are both agents and targets. We see it as a part of the child birth rituals in certian Gypsy groups. The paralel manifestation of action and speach builds the basis of the magical act, and the imitative contents put in them defines the magical nature of the ritual. On the third day after the birth a round bread is made, and only women guests are invited. The ritual has some local versions in different groups and its purpose is to socialize the newborn child, so it may grow up and secure the reproduction of the family. Either the mother of the baby's father or the tallest of the women would jump up high while holding the bread above her head (“up” is the growth direction) and would shout out loud the name of the baby (the group acknowledges that the baby belongs to them). They would smudge under the skirt of
  • 9. each woman before they break down the bread, some sex imitating actions would be carried out, the whole group would laugh out loud (attracting the reproductive basis). At the contact type of magical influence the Gypsies are also both agents and targets. They themselves make and carry amulets as protection against deamons and ilness. In order to protect the mother and so that she may be healthy, the Fitchers of Stara Zagora put an iron object under her pillow, and under the baby's pillow they put salt, a piece of bread and a spikelet of broomcorn. Those should stay there until the 40th day. The Kalaydzhii (Whitesmiths) of Thrace make an amulet of a horse bead, garlic, a coin and a turkey butt, and they tie those amulets with red thread to the baby's wrist and to the head scarf of the mother. The iron objects, and especially those related to the fire, possess great repellent power. Women who cannot keep their babies carry small amulet-axes forged by an Agupt (Agupts – Gypsies blacksmiths who live in the Rhodopi mountains, muslims) „at midnight after 12 p.m., who has done it without speaking a word and naked”; the same amulets are carried by any newborn child in a family where children have died, by 3- 4 years old children to prevent them from falling ill. On a Bulgarian wedding in the Rhodopi mountains (the Smolyan region) the bride received as a gift a fire poker and a spatula – to protect her from evil forces. The gift was given by an Agupt woman who had been specially
  • 10. invited to the wedding, and the objects had been forged by her husband – a blacksmith. At the verbal magic the Gypsies are more often the agents. They use that mostly when they tell the fortune and at begging. They start with blessings and good wishes. If they do not receive any responce to their wish, some of them would continue with curses and forecasts of something evil. The power and the action of their curse lie on the spell of incantation (the words).
  • 11. Contageous Magic. The Gypses of the Silistra area believe, that someone who wants to make evil to a child might steal a piece of the child's clothing in the dark and cast a spell on the child. „There are such people - enimies. They would steal the cloths of the child, they would make a magic and then the child would not be able to speak or walk – depends what magic they have done”. The Yerlii of Sofia use the skin of the syunet (circumcision of boys) to make love spells. The preserved skin the boy would wrap in a candy or something else and he would give that to the girl to eat it. This magic guarantees reciprocal love. * * * The Gypsies use theirl skills to make and undo spells, to soothsay and tell the fortune on different occasions and at different circumstances, but they do that always with commercial purpose. Sometimes their target would be the foreigners, another time – their own people. These magical practices persist in time, we can see them even nowadays.
  • 12. Научното съобщение е прочетено на годишната среща на The Gypsy Lore Society, проведена в Бейоглу, Истанбул, Турция, 21-23 септември 2012 г. Магия Магически вярвания Цигани България Магически практики Гадателка Врачка Магьосници циганки Влашки цигани Демирджии Лингурарки Кардараши Мъже-гадатели Любовна магия Вербална магия Имитативна магия Контактна магия Контагиозна магия Тракийски калайджии агупти