Ursitory

Gipsy Children, 1855

The Ursitory ("white women" also known as Ursitori, Oursitori, Ursitele, Urbitele, Urditele, Osatorele, Ursoi, Ursoni or Urmen, Uremi, Ourmes) are a group of three fairies or female spirits of fate in Romani folklore. Two of them are good spirits, while one tries to harm people. Their queen is , who makes use of gigantic birds called the Charana.^[1][2][3][4]

These fairies became more widely known by the novel "The Ursitory" written by Matéo Maximoff in 1938 and first published in 1946.^[5] According to him, the Ursitory are three angels of fate, the good angel, the bad angel and the impartial angel of reason, who decide about the fate of the baby on the third day after its birth. On that day, the mother places three pieces of bread and three glasses of wine in a circle around the child for the ursitory. Then she whispers the child's real name, which is according to some traditions kept secret against the father and the children themselves until they become adults, because the name represents power.^[6]

The Charana are a Phoenix (mythology) like bird.

There is also a tradition, they once bathed the newborns in a nearby river, nowadays mostly in a tub.

The Muslim Roma in Turkey, Northern Cyprus and the Balkans have a similar legend of Matuya, with her three sons Rom, Dom and Lom, who were once expelled from there Homeland Hindustan (India) to Misr (Egypt), from there, the descendants of their three sons migrated around the world, the roma to europe, the domlar to mesopotamia and the Lomlar to the Kaukaus.

Literature[]

• Heinrich von Wlislocki: Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Zigeuner. Aschendorff, Münster 1891, p. 2–11, 41–43. (German)

References[]

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