Here, as elsewhere, thirteen is an ominous number.
It is unfortunate to meet an old woman or a Roumenian Pope; the meeting of a Protestant or Catholic clergyman is indifferent, and brings neither good nor evil.
It is bad luck if your path be traversed by a hare, but a fox or wolf crossing your road is a good omen.
Likewise, it is lucky to meet a woman with a jug full of water, while an empty jug is unlucky; therefore, the Roumenian maiden who meets you on the way back from the well will, smiling, display her brimming pitcher as she passes, with a pleased consciousness of bringing good luck; while the girl whose pitcher is empty will slink past shamefacedly, as though she had a crime to conceal.
Every orthodox Roumenian woman is careful to do homage to the water-spirit, the _wodna zena or zona_, which resides in each spring, by spilling a few drops on the ground, after she has emptied her jug. She will never venture to draw the water against the current, for that would strike the spirit home and provoke her anger.
The Roumenian in general avoids the neighbourhood of deep pools of water, especially whirlpools, for here resides the dreadful _balaur_, or the _wodna muz_, the cruel waterman who lies in wait for human victims.
Each forest has likewise its own particular spirit, its _mama padura_,[14] or forest mother. This fairy is in general supposed to be good-natured, especially towards children who have lost their way in the wood. Less to be trusted is _Panusch_ (surely a corruption of the Greek god Pan?), who haunts the forest glades and lies in wait for helpless maidens.
Ravaging diseases, like the pest, cholera, &c., are attributed to spirit called the _dschuma_, to whom is sometimes given the shape of a fierce virgin, sometimes that of a toothless old hag. This spectre can only be driven away if a red shirt, which must be spun, woven, and sewed all in one night by seven old women, is hung out at the entrance of the afflicted village.[15]
The body of a drowned man can only be found again by sticking a lighted candle into a hollowed-out loaf of bread and setting it afloat at night on the river or lake. There where the light comes to a standstill will the corpse be found. Until this has been done the water will continue to rise and the rain to fall.