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from which their future husbands would come. Young men would gather around a campfire and perform fancy jumps to impress the young women. It was also an occasion for palm reading or drinking potions made of special herbs. Gypsies, with their herbal knowledge and reputation for fortune telling, were an integral part of these summer solstice rituals. In Ukrainian literature, Gypsies are repre sented in prose and in poetry. Ukraine's national bard, Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), celebrated the Gyp sies in literature and in art. In one of his oil paintings entitled Kateryna, he portrays a young woman show ing the palm of her hand to a Gypsy woman, obviously asking her to foretell her future. In his poem entitled "Vid’ma" (The Witch),3 Shevchenko tells the story of a young woman whose fate symbolizes the fate of many young girls throughout Ukraine until the aboli tion of serfdom of 1861 and even after. She is a serf who is left with child by her owner and is marginalized by everyone, including the child's father. Everyone calls her a "pokrytka," a woman covered with a scarf to hide her face and her shame. Shunned by her own, she finds acceptance and warmth among the Gypsies to whom she reveals her story. They are willing to lis ten to her without judging her. She follows them and from them she learns the power of herbs and the sci ence of witchcraft. She hope to avenge her life and the lives of her twin children who are now living in her master’s home as serfs themselves. The Vid'ma is especially distraught about her daughter because she knows too well that she is in danger. She fears the girl will be a victim of incest, molested by the very man who conceived her. She sees her daughter already abandoned, probably with child, somewhere. Another "pokrytka" is in the making and the thought is enough to make her demented. The Vid'ma is determined to instruct young girls to be aware of the danger and to safeguard themselves. One day she learns that her former master- lover, who has disposed of their son and seduced their daughter, is ill. She gathers herbs and is determined to enter his home. However the servants recognize her as the "pokrytka" and refuse to let her in. Thus, the man's crime remains unrevealed and unavenged. Yet through the poem, Shevchenko leaves a documentation of what the lives of women were like during serfdom and why so many so-called "witches" roamed the land. Another Ukrainian writer who celebrated the life of Gypsies in Ukraine is Ol’ha Kobyl’anska (1863- 1942). The title of her novel, On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs (1908),4 suggests the inherent impor tance of herbal science among Gypsies. The storyline is not as important as the depiction of Gypsy camp life. Kobyl’ianska was writing in Bukovyna (Romania) and she must have had a Gypsy informant who revealed details about the relations between men and women and about the harsh punishment reserved for women who fell afoul of Gypsy ways and customs. The novel tells the story of a Gypsy woman, Mavra, the wife of a Gypsy leader Rada. Mavra gives birth to a white boy, a child who is obviously not sired by her husband. Rada wants to kill his wife but she is saved by her father. He drops Mavra off at one village and abandons her baby boy in another village. For years Mavra lives with a Turkish widow, secluded from society. She helps raise the widow's daughter, Tetiana. Years go by and one day Tetiana meets a young man from a neighboring village. His name is Hryts. No one knows that he is Mavra’s son. He is en gaged to a girl in his village, but he falls in love with Tetiana. When Tetiana discovers that Hryts is engaged and about to be married, she "gathers berries to poison him." The irony is that she has learned about the power of the poisonous berries from the Gypsy woman who is Hryts's mother. In addition to the storyline, this novel can serve as good historical documentation of Gypsy mi grations. From the story it seems that Gypsies passed through the Chemivstsi area during the summer and spent their winters in Hungarian territories from Vynohradovo to Uzhhorod. Gypsy documents are hard to find because Gypsies jealously guard their customs and traditions. Thus, folk songs, folktales, folk cus toms, and literature are invaluable in providing clues about their history and their ways. In Ukraine today, gypsies are scattered throughout the country but concentrated largely in the Transcarpathian, Crimean, and Odessa provinces. Con temporary researchers and scholars are fascinated by the historical past of the Gypsies, especially in view of the fact that they were victims of the Holocaust and victims of geopolitical transitions that closed the bor ders they were accustomed to cross unchallenged and forced them to abandon their migratory ways. Two examples of these are a 1926 resolution and a 1956 government decree issued by the Soviet authorities that forced the Gypsies to adopt a settled way of life. Many were forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and work in agriculture and industry. Gypsies are currently the subject of extensive research and numerous studies and publications.5 To this day the lifestyle of the Gypsies in Ukraine does not seem to have changed. Scholars report that they continue to live on the outskirts of villages, specializ ing in fabricating mud bricks called "shamans," similar to the adobe bricks of New Mexico. The bricks are a mixture of local clay and chopped straw and are used to create shelters which, of course, are off the beaten Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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