Damo and Yehwah

The first man and woman. God (o Del) competed with the Devil (o Bengh) in the making of two statuettes of earth (papusha). The devil made them in the form of man and woman and o Del breathed the word into them.

In the Kalderash tradition, the birth of this Adam and Eve is linked with the presence of two trees, which sprung up beside water, one behind Damo and one behind Yehwah, covering both with their branches. The tree behind the man was a pear tree, the other an apple tree. The man begins to eat a pear and 'seeing how the man was becoming,' the Serpent (sap) tries to prevent the woman from eating an apple. But o Del intervenes and the serpent retires. The pear aroused the man's desire and the apple that of the woman, and they 'know each other.'

References

Source

  • Clebert, Jean-Paul. (1967). The Gypsies. Baltimore: Penguin, pp. 172-173.