Page:Folklore1919.djvu/114

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102
Death and Burial among the Roumanians.

a pomana for my father,” consoling himself with the idea that somehow the stream would bring the cap to his dead father.

(3) There is the well-known rain charm Calojan, quoted by T. Stratilesco, p. 183. When there is prolonged drought in spring time, women take yellow clay and make a model of a man that they call Calojan. They also make a coffin, put him in this, cry over him, burn incense, and in short carry out fairly accurately the “griji” for the dead. Then they bury him near the well, singing:—

Calojene-jene
Dute’n cer şi cere
Să deschidă porţile
Să sloboadă ploile
Să curgă ca gârlele
Nopţile şi zilile
Ca să creasă gârnele   
Calojan, oh Calojan,
Go to heaven and beg
That the gates may be opened,
That the rains may be set free,
That they may run like torrents
Day and night,
So that the wheat may grow.

After three days Calojan is dug up and thrown into the river to provoke rain. On the day on which he is dug up men do not work after midday, but spend the afternoon drinking and dancing.

(4) Another rain charm is to dig up the corpse of some one struck by lightning, and to throw it into running water (S. page 183).