that may be, the basil is held in very high esteem and seems to know it, if any faith can be placed in the poetic conceits of the following songs, which I heard at different times in two different parts of Macedonia. I. (From Melenik.) Βασιλικέ μου τρίκλωνε, μὴν πολυπρασινίζῃς. The Pink and the Basil. “My three-branched basil, bloom thou not so proudly green! Which the fair maidens and all the black-eyed ones wear, II. (From Nigrita.) Ο δυόσμος κῇ ὁ βασιλικὸς καὶ τὸ μακεδονῆσι Σωπάτε, βρωμολούλουδα, καὶ μὴν πολυπαινέστε! Ἐγὼ μυρίζω πράσινος καθὼς καὶ στεγνωμένος, Ἐγὼ μπαίνω 'ς τοὺς ἁγιασμοὺς κ ̓ εἰς τοῦ παπᾶ τὰ χέρια, Ἐγὼ φιλῶ τῆς ἔμορφαις καὶ τῇς μαυρομματούσαις. The Peppermint, the Basil, and the Parsley. The peppermint, the basil, and the parsley, The two between them, and all three amongst them wrangled and went to judgment : Then turns the basil and thus addresses the (other) plants: “ Hold your tongues, ye ill-smelling herbs, and be ye not over-boastful : I am basil the musk-scented. I am sweetly fragrant when green and also when dry. I enter into the Holy Services and into the Priest's own hands. I kiss the fair maidens and the black-eyed ones!" CHAPTER VIII. DIVINATION. BESIDES the guesses and divinings already discussed in connection with the Feast of St John in summer, and New Year's Eve in winter, there are several methods of divination which are not confined to any particular season of the year: the oracle is always open and ready to satisfy the cravings of the untutored mind with predictions certain to be fulfilled—provided the questioner has faith, and a moderate capacity for selfdelusion. To the divination by tea, or 'cup-reading,' still remembered in English, and more especially in Scotch country places, corresponds the Macedonian practice of divining by coffee: One solitary bubble in the centre of the cup betokens that the person holding it possesses one staunch and faithful friend. If there are several bubbles forming a ring close to the edge of the cup, they signify that he is fickle in his affections, and that his heart is divided between several objects of worship. The grounds of coffee are likewise observed and variously explained according to the forms which they assume: If they spread round the cup in the shape of rivulets and streams money is prognosticated, and so forth. A memory of another, now, to the best of my knowledge, extinct form of divination, probably survives in the proverb: κάποιος δὲν εἶχε ποιὸν νὰ ῥωτήσῃ καὶ ῥωτοῦσε τὸ δικανίκι του. 1 Coffee bubbles possess a meteorological meaning in English folk-lore, see R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 199. In America, appropriately enough, "a group of bubbles on a cup of coffee signifies money," Memoirs of the American FolkLore Society, vol. iv. p. 87. "Some one in want of a counsellor consulted his staff." The phrase seems to be a reminiscence of an old use of the wand for purposes similar to those of the modern divining rod." At any rate, the demanding advice of the staff forcibly recalls the biblical passage "My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them."2 "The riddles are working miracles and the sieves are dropping” (θαματουργοῦν τὰ κόσκινα καὶ πέφτουν ᾗ πυκνάδες) is another popular saying, used to describe any unaccountable or sudden noise in the house. It probably alludes to the “feats of impulsive pots, pans, beds and chairs," spoken of by Mr Andrew Lang, with, perhaps, a faint reference to coscinomancy-one of the commonest of classic and mediaeval methods of divination. Its meaning, however, is entirely gone, and it remains as a mere phrase or figure of speech. 3 It is with a sense of relief that one turns from the shadowy regions of conjecture to the realms of reality. To the methods of hydromancy, or divination by water, described already, deserves to be added the art of divining by bones-an art still resting upon the firm rock of credulity. The principal instrument used in this kind of divination is the shoulder-blade (wμoπλáτη) of a lamb or kid, and hence the process is technically termed omoplatoscopy. When the bone in question has been carefully cleansed of the meat which adheres to it, it is held up to the light and subjected to the expert's scrutiny: if its colour is a glowing red, it portends prosperity; if white, and semi-transparent, it forebodes extreme poverty and misery. This general interpretation is supplemented and modified by various minor details. Thus, for example, black spots round the edges and only a small darkish space in the middle are omens of impending disaster. A white transparent line running across from end to end indicates a journey. Black veins fore 1 See A. Lang, Custom and Myth, pp. 180-196. 2 Hosea iv. 12. 3 Cock Lane and Common Sense, p. 31. The case from Mr Graham Dalyell's Darker Superstitions of Scotland, quoted by the same author (ib. p. 123) where The sive and the wecht dancit throw the hous" is particularly in point. shadow discord and war. A hollow or a tumour on the surface is a sign of serious calamity, such as dangerous illness or even death. The same rules apply to the examination of a fowl's breast-bone (σrnáρi), which the folk from its shape fantastically call 'saddle' (σaμápı) or 'camel' (кaμýλa). For instance, if it is clear and pale with only the three corners shaded, it augurs great happiness to the owner. For this purpose a hen or cock is specially kept in the villager's poultry yard, and after it has been immolated and cooked, the breast-bone is extracted, and some modern Calchas sets to work "to look for the luck of the household” (νὰ διοῦμε τοῦ σπιτιοῦ τὸ τυχερό). Omoplatoscopy chiefly flourishes among the shepherds of Western Macedonia, and is also extensively cultivated in Albania. But, as folklorists are aware, this quaint art-a relic of ancient haruspication-is by no means confined to the Balkan Peninsula. At one time it must have been spread far and wide through Europe; for we still find survivals of it both on the continent and in the British Isles. In England it is very appropriately termed "reading the speal-bone (speal == espaule shoulder")." It is related to the old Chinese divination by the cracks of a tortoise-shell on the fire. It is very popular in Tartary, and on the discovery of the New World the NorthAmerican Indians were found to be familiar with it. They "would put in the fire a certain flat bone of a porcupine and judge from its colour if the porcupine hunt would be successful."2 The prevalence of this method of divination in lands and races so remote as, say, Ireland and China, suggests the problem which so frequently confronts the student of custom: Is it due to transmission from one country to another, or is it a case of independent production? If the former, when and how and by whom was it transplanted, and did it first see the light in the East or in the West? It is perhaps the difficulty, not to say the impossibility, of giving a satisfactory answer to these questions that usually induces folklorists to adopt the view of spontaneous and independent development, though in many A. F. 1 Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. p. 331. 2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 124. 7 cases-and this is one of them-it is not quite clear why different nations should have hit upon exactly identical modes of action. Another custom connected with a fowl's skeleton ought perhaps to be mentioned here, though it is a mere game and bears only a distant relation to divination. This is the pastime known as Yadis, or Remembrance.' The 'merry-thought' or, as it is still called in some parts of England and Ireland, 'wishing-bone' of the fowl is picked out, and two persons take hold of it, each gripping one arm with his little finger and tugging until the fork has snapped. From that moment the two parties are careful not to accept any object handed by one to the other, without saying "Yadis." He who is the first to forget forfeits something agreed upon beforehand. It is a wager, or rather a trial of rival memories. Several other superstitions of a kindred nature may be noticed in this connection. A flickering flame in the fire, or an upright excrescence in a burning candle, is interpreted as predicting the arrival of a guest, whose stature is judged by the length of the flame or excrescence. This mode of divination by the fire is not unknown in England. Mrs Elizabeth Berry, for instance, "noted a supernatural tendency in her parlour fire to burn all on one side," and she very shrewdly concluded that a wedding approached the house-a conclusion fully justified by the event, as readers of Mr Meredith's Richard Feverel will remember.2 If in carving bread a thin slice drops out of the loaf, it is supposed to indicate the return of a friend or relative from foreign parts. The same intimation is conveyed by bubbles in coffee, or by the accidental fall of a piece of soap on the floor. If one drains a glass of the contents of which some one else has partaken, he will learn the secrets of the latter. 1 Persian yad, ‘memory.' 2 Fires and candles also prognosticate changes in the weather in English folklore; see R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 197. 3 In America 66 if you drop a slice of bread with the buttered side up, it is a sign of a visitor." Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. iv. p. 89; see also pp. 90 foll. |