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

J. Vorák: Kolompár Kálmánné kiskunhalasi cigányasszony kézimunkái

„acacia blossoms", beans and barley will bring in a rich crop.

5 b) Of its dried blossoms infusion against cough is made. Many do it even today. (MK) — A decoction for hectic patients is made of it, however its leaves also tell the girl whether she is loved. (,,He loves me, a little. . . etc.") c) When the first flower of the acacia tree is opening, it should be picked off. One should keep some of the dried flowers in the purse and money will never run out of it. (LJ) — If there are acacia flowers in abundance, the year will be favourable and there will be plenty of everything. (JK) Sour cherry-tree, cherry tree a) Zsigmond Szcndrey: . . . sour-cherry and cherry are the habitual trees for bunting on St. John's day; they are also used for Catherine and Barbara twigs: if put into water on St. Catherine's or St. Barbara's day they come into flower by Christmas, then the unmarried girl will marry before the year is over.

52 b) Its leaves are picked for herb-teas, however, also stalktea is decocted of the peelings stripped of its stems. People mostly cure a sore throat with it but it is also a rencdy against other diseases. c) Sour cherry and cherry are just good. (My gipsy informants do not connect them with any particular belief.) Lilacs a) Zsigmond Szcndrey and Ákos Szcndrey: In the Great Hungarian Plain and in Transdanubia it is used as a Barbara twig. . . According to Illyés, in Jászladány people cut a cherry branch, in Kisvárda and in theBodrogköza sour-cherry branch, in Alsószecse an apricot branch and in Apátfalva a lilac branch for this pupose. . .

53 — Nagysárrét: Against a bewitching that has lasted through three Fridays in succession, a bath is suggested which should be concocted also of lilac twigs, among others.

54 b) Tea is concocted of the clusters of lilac and given to drink to sick hens. (MK) — White lilac seen in a dream means just as good luck as a white pigeon. (LV) c) When its cluster is bending downwards, it should be picked off. Young men stick it on their hats, girls over their bosom so that they should have luck in love.(JJ) Willow, weeping willow a) Zsigmond Szendrey:. . . herdsmen do supplications with it against boils, brew made of its wickers is drunk by those having the jaundice, however, it is also good as an exorcising drug.

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50 — Borsod county: If a girl in the marrying age finds her hair too short, she should go and braid it under a willow at dawn on Good Friday, — it is sure to grow longer before the year is over." — Szarvas district: At dawn on Good Friday the girls go under a willow at the Kőrös riverside. There they let down their hair and comb it round in the way the wickers bend towards the ground. At each stroke of the comb theay say: „Snakes, frogs, keep away from our house!" They say it three times in succession. No evil speech or gossip will come near them or their family.

57 b) Good Friday morning the girls should comb under it „in the speechless" („szótalanba") so that their hair be long and thick. „Rozál Szél was always combed by her mother in this way on Good Friday and we went after them and spied on them." (MK) — To have it in the courtyard is bad luck, it brings sorrow to the house. ,,My daughter-in-law still seems to keep this rule because she did not let my son plant a weeping willow behind the house." (LV) c) In March when the wickers and leaves of the willows are fresh, the girls go to the willow grove towards evening. Standing under a willow, they comb their hair so that it should grow long and that the young men should like them. If a boy and a girl go there together, then they arc already sweethearts. {]}) Poplar tree a) Göcsej: If a girl threads her hair into a needle and sticks it at the foot of a poplar tree, then the boy will have to marry , s 8 her. b) They do not know of bcliets connected with poplar trees. c) The girls go and post themselves under it and undo their hair. They comb it back all over and say: „Grow, grow my hair, grow, grow!" (Cf. willow, sec above.) (LJ) Birch a) The Witches of 1 lencida (171): „On the third night thereafter they put oat-straw together with birch twigs in the bed of the daughter of Fatcns. So then the witches had no access to her. . ."''•' b) Against skin diseases they used to drink birch wine. The Károly Kovácss tapped the birch tree. They put a mug there so that the sap could flow into it, of the sap they made wine to drink." (MK) — Its trunk was tapped, of its sap people made 51 Dr. Endre NÉMETHY: Beliefs in the Kemenesalja region from the scope of agriculture and animal breeding. — Ethn. 49:230. 52 Zsigmond SZENDREY: op. cit.: p. 159. 53 Zsigmond SZENDREY and Ákos SZENDREY: op. cit. p. 199. 54 Sándor SZUCS: Shamans and witches in the Nagysárrét — Ethn. 47:44. 55 Zsigmond SZENDREY : op. cit. : p. 157. 56 Gyula ISTVÁNFFY: op. cit. p. 293. . 57 Mrs. Matthias MÁTRAI née Rózsa VARGA : op. cit. : p. 160. 58 Ferenc GÖNCZI: op. cit. pp. 34—38. 59 Ferenc SCHRÄM: op. cit. ip. 74. 202