Gipsy Exorcism.—In Pt. 3, Vol. 8 of the Journal of the Gipsy-lore Society, Ser. 3, Mr. Engelbert Wittich describes some of the fraudulent tricks practised by German gipsies, and includes among them two forms of exorcism—digno dorgaben (‘little exorcism’) and baro dorgaben (‘big exorcism’). By ‘little exorcism’ is meant the curing of illness, but ‘big exorcism’ is the expulsion or exorcism of an evil spirit which is bringing misfortune to the house. The practice of ‘little exorcism’ for illness is usually left to a female gipsy. The patient is given three chestnuts, of which one has previously been bored with a red hot needle. These ‘magic’ chestnuts are said to have been obtained from a ‘holy tree’ in India, and must be worn by the patient next the skin for three days and three nights. If at the end of that time they are split open in the presence of the gipsy, and one of them is found to have a black stain in the middle, this is a bad sign portending death. This fate can only be averted by the payment of a sum of money which the gipsy spends on obtaining magic herbs and potions. ‘Big exorcism’ comes into operation on the indication of the presence of an evil spirit by a snake's skin, the heart of a bat still fresh, or a hedgehog's foot with the bones arranged to resemble a child's hand, being found when the householder is digging in his garden. The evil spirit must be made gamlo (kindly). Holy water must be obtained at considerable expense from a holy spring in India, known only to a limited number of the gipsy's people. The whole place is then sprinkled with tfre water, and digging is undertaken in the garden to see if the spirit is appeased. If, as is usual, another sign of misfortune appears, the baro rom or ‘big man’, that is, the wizard, or the baro tschuwl, the ‘great woman’ or witch, is called in. He comes with great solemnity, accompanied by some sign, the cattle become restless, spirit candles burn with a blue flame in the garden, etc. After an incantation—“Bind the straw, hang the straw, give the horses water”—the gipsy finds in one of a plate of hard boiled eggs over which he has repeated his incantation three times a curiously coiled horse hair, a presage of evil. The ancestors of the victim have incurred the wrath of Heaven by a serious crime. A large sum of money is buried in the garden with three hens heads. This ultimately is found to have been changed into a root curiously formed, which must be carefully tended for years until prosperity returns.