BLACK MAGIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 101, 30 April 1937, Page 8

BLACK MAGIC

CHARMS AND SPELLS GIPSIES IN BUCHAREST An interesting "black-magic" trial took place recently before the Bucharest Court of Justice. A Gipsy of Rumania, eighty years old Florica Ciobanu, was asked by two educated Bucharest ladies owning a fashion shop which was not going very well to work a miracle for them and improve their business. Florica made conscientious use of her occult powers, but the trade of her two clients grew from bad to worse. After they had invested a considerable amount in the old Gipsy’s arts, they decided to sue her for obtaining money from them on false pretences. Strange allegations were made in Court ag-inst the Gipsies in Bucharest, who number about 3000. Most of them claim to be able to work miracles. A Roaring Trade. The casting ot spells and the sale of miracle-working fetishes is a regular business, customers being recruited not only from among the rural population, but also from the well-to-do educated town dwellers. A witness described to the judges the stock-in-trade and technique of the Gipsy magicians. Particles of automobile tyres are sold to persons who want their enemies to have a painful death in motor-car accidents. Bits of copper wire are given to those who want to find buried treasures. Patches of khaki cloth are offered to girls who want to marry army officers. Jars of "dog’s fat” are dispensed to people who want to get cured of consumption. The most expensive work of sorcery is a mysterious process known as “lead pouring." It needs a special technique, at which old Gipsy women are experts. Sins Washed Away by Lead. The client has to undress In a dark room and a special incantation, In which a goatskin and a flute play Important parts, is pronounced by the magician. After this preliminary formality the customer is plunged into a big barrel containing tepid water smelling of insense.

Moulten lead is then poured into the tub, when the person's sins are washed away. The lead taken various shapes in the water, and from these shapes the sorceress reads the client’s future and offer adequate advice. If lead-pour-ing and the fetishes do not work the miracles expected from them, the magicians wisely explain that some unforeseen counter-miracle has neutralised their charm. In the case of old Florica Ciobanu, the Court acquitted her on the ground that "educated persons who believe in the year 1937 in black magic have themselves to blame if they are duped by shrewd old Gipsies”