158 STORIES ABOUT HORSES.

advantage, and when the farmers’ cattle are
feeding in the fields, they entice them to follow
them by presenting to them handfuls of fodder.
They then besmear the nose and mouth of the
animals with some preparation, which causes
them to loathe all kinds of food, as everything
smells of the nauseous mixture. In conse-
quence of this forced abstinence, the animal
soon pines away. Its owner, fully satisfied
that it is bewitched, calls in the assistance of
the gipsies, some of whom are of course easily
found. The exorcist 1s generally a woman.
She goes into the cow-house, and having ex-
cluded every one, and remaining for some time
in the pretended exercise of her charms, calls in
the farmer, and tells him of his cow’s recovery,
and as a proof shows it him eating heartily,
when she of course is amply rewarded. The
only charm which she exercises all the while is
to wash the animal’s nose and mouth clean from
the preparation with which she, or some of her
friends, has besmeared it, when, its sense of smell