Horváth Attila – Solymos Ede szerk.: Cumania 2. Ethnographia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1974)

J. Vorák: Kolompár Kálmánné kiskunhalasi cigányasszony kézimunkái

a medicinal draught. (For what, she does not know.) There are some who do it still. (LV) c) Who sweeps with a broom made of birch twigs will not sweep luck out of the bouse. (IB) Elder a) Zsigmond Szendrey: Keeps off evil. b) It is good for wounds. If the wounds of cattle get flyblown and maggoty, people make elder-blossom tea, wash the wounds with it and the maggots drop out. My father often did it and it proved effective at all times. (MK) — Of its dried blossoms tea was made for cough. Some do it still. c) Just as good as Maria Theresa leaves. (?) (For what and how it should be applied, she cannot or will not tell.) (LJ) Young man with can, child with can, full vessel a) Csángó people from the Moldva district: If the young couple meets a full water-cart while the groom is taking home his bride, it means luck. Just therefore the children used to go to meet the procession with a water-cart and shed the water before the newly wed. For this each of them got a small coin from the groom each time.

61 — Makó : If one is met by people coming with a full can, he will have no luck. b) At weddings every vessel has to be always full so that „the life of the newly married couple should be complete." The wedding procession returning home from the church is received with a can or a bottle full of wine too. If the bride meets a child on her way home from the church, she will have many children. (Boy-child!) (MK) c) A full can means good things at weddings, it is luck. (Mrs. Kálmán Kolompár) — When asking a girl's hand in marriage either a can of wine or a bottle of brandy was taken and presented, and both had to be full. With them people congratulated. The can of wine brings luck. It means luck for the bride if she is met by people who carry a full can. Sometimes those who come from the opposite direction carrying cans even cried: ,,Only death can part you!" (LJ) Red ribbon a) Szilágy county : Nail a piece of red cloth on the side of the threshold and nobody will charm your child. — In Kisunkmajsa a red ribbon or a red thread is bound round the wrist of the unbaptized baby so that no "exchanged child" should become of it. (Own collection.) b) In Kiskunhalas I could not find it. c) ,,I bound a red ribbon in her hair so that people do not charm her." (Mrs. Kálmán Kolompár) — A red ribbon in the hair protects against evil. (LJ) Sad bride a) Bakony region: ,,Of a sad bride a merry young wife will . 64 become. b) „In olden times each bride had to be sad. When I was young there were no gay brides at all. People would have run down such ones behind their backs." (MK) — „It does not matter if she grieves, the merrier her life will be later." (LV) c) Mrs. Kálmán Kolompár: „Brides are always sad." Child, boy-child a) Kalotaszeg: „A boy is only a boy, but a girl is more, a girl ,,65 is penury. b) „A boy-child brings to the house, girls only take away from what there is." (LV) c) Children mean luck, so do girls. Still, boys are the real thing." (Mrs. Kálmán Kolompár.) Chimney a) Bácska region : A bride will have as many children in her marriage as chimneys she notices on her way returning home from her wedding. (Szabadka.) b) It is lucky if a bride counts the chimneys on her way home: so she will have many children. (JJ) Scissors a) Mrs. Henrik Wislocki: People put a knife or a pair of scissors or a piece of iron in the cradle of their child so that it could not be bewitched. — Roumanian superstition from Transdanubia : . . . Still if anyone — however only women — would possibly forget the significance of the evening, and would work, then she has to put a pair of scissors beside the bed for the night by any means, so that she might scare the witch with it if necessary. b) It is not good to lend it. It cuts friendship. Neither are scissors given as presents. — People use them when telling 60 Zsigmond SZENDREY: op. cit. p. 157. 61 Mrs. György WICHMANN: Some of the superstitious beliefs of the Csángós of Moldavia — Ethn. 18:214. 62 Mihály H. KOVÁCS : Popular superstitions from Makó — Ethn. 47:78. 63 Márton BALÁZS : Ethnographical data from the Szilágyság — Ethn. 2:203. 64 József KÁLDY: op. cit. p. 285. 65 Mrs. Henrik WLISLOCKI: The child in Hungarian popular belief—Ethn. 4:416. 66 Bálint BELLOSICS: op. cit.: p. 309. 67 Mrs. Henrik WLISLOCKI: op. cit.: p. 416. 68 Countess László MATUSKA : Roumanian superstitions — Ethn. 10:298. 203