Daily Kennebec journal., 1870-08-19
Miseellaneous.
WITCHES IN THE 10TH CENTURY.
curlons German superstition.

| II may sccu StTaHpe tO near Oh DelleI
in witchcraft in Germany at the present
facts. The Heidelberg Journal of the 22d
of April says. literally: prosecutions for
wi chcraft exist here, ,and are unfortunately
nothing uncommon. Not very many days
ago a woman living just outside of the
/ city found herself compelled to seek pro-
lection from the repeated accusations
of two young married women, who ASSERT
ed that she had bewitched their children
This is all that we know of the case.
which went the rounds of the press un-.
questioned. A witch case of greater in
terest happened on the 7th of the same
month ut Stenglau, near Dirschau, Prus-
sia, which we trapslate as given by the
German papers. 5@'
"In Stenziau there lived for many years
three women, who were decried as
witches in the whole neighhorhood. They
were all widows. all having reached
pretty old age, and lived togetherin lit
tie house given to then as dwelling by
the proprietor of the district. Nothing
particular is known about their mode OF
life. Last fall young and beautiful girl
paid visit to the house Of the three. She
was daughter of widow named
Ba>chof On the day after her arrival
one of the most feared of the circle, gave
the girl IA piece of fried bacon, with bread,
which she ate. Some days afterward the
girl became sick, and grew worse day by
day. The girl had two brothers, the one
Il soldier of 1866, the othera young fellow
of about twenty years. They were very
much excited about the sickness of their
sister, which they thought could only
have been produced by the bacon given
to her by the witch" They determined
to make the latter withdraw the "enehant-
ment," and to this end they were told by
their mother that Sylvester night was the
most appropriate time for this procedure.
The night came and the two fellows led
the old witch Krausc to the bedside Of
their sister, and asked her to take back
the disease. She declared tha. she was
unable to do so; whereupon the two men
beat her in fearful manner with sticks
and knives. week after this event the
sister died.
"On the 9th of April the two brothers
were brought up for trial. They swore
tha, they had not beaten the witch, but
that their sister had doue so. DR.. Preuss.
of Dirschau. however, proved that the
girl,w suffered from typhus, was reduc-
ed to skeleton at New Year, and was
then so weak as to be unable to move.
He testified, also, that he attended Frau
Krause after her maltreatment, and found
IA number of wounds, many of them pro-
duced by knives, on her head and chest
and back. Frau Krause herself was then
called. She is sixty-threc years old, has a
thick-set, powerful form, and very ugly
striking countenance. She was dressed
in black, and wore black hood with a
white fril upon her head. 1t was not to
be denied that she could have well taken
part in the witch scene of Macbeth. She
solemly asserted that she had not bewitch-
ed the girl; but she was inclined to be-
lieve that somebody else must have done
it, She then related how the two brothers
had maltreated her. The brother who
had formerly been soldier, then made
the strange proposition to the court that
the woman Krause should swear to her
innocence in the village church between
, twelve loaded guns. If she swore falsely
one of the weapons would 60 OF and SEND
her to hell The court declined to adopt
this mode of proof, and sentenced the
brothers, on account of violent assault
with extenuating circumstances, to six
, weeks Imprisonment"
Still another case is reported in the col
umns of the Cologne Zcitung within the
past week, given on the authority of the
Bromberg Zeitung. In the family Of a
vilager of Beelitz, in the Prussian prov
ince of Posen, there died few days ago
the sister of the proprietor's wife. Short
ly after son died then the father, and
lastly the mother herself Another men,
Der of the family was also very i'll. The
first named deceased, whose chief occu-
patton had been telling fortunes by means
OF cards, has enjoyed the reputation dur
in life of being a witch: and the super
stitious people were now firmly convinced
that she had caused the deaths OF all the
members OF the family. few days after
/ all had been inferred some persons actual
ly did attempt to get at the corpse OF the
supposed "enchantress," then in the grave
in the churchyard, in order TO sever the
head from the body, and thus Danish the
evil enchantment, so as to preserve the
other sick member from impending death
Had it not been for the intervention of
some rational human beings this piece of
superstition would have been accomplish
ed.
The variety of superstitions prevalent
is almost us great as their number. 1t is
not long ago that a little child ut Essen,
Prussia, was bitten by mad dog, and the
parents not having faith in medical means,
took it to the Cologne cathedral, in order
that ecclesiastical remedies might be ap
Piled On the return journey hydrophobia
appeared, and the child died on reaching
home. In Fruhstockheim, in Lower Fran
COMA, their lives married couple
named Gaymann, to whom two strange
, women made known that an enchanted
child was buried in their house. which
i must be released with money. and
then it would bring an extraordinary for
tune The peasants of the neighborhood
gave money to the extent Of some two
hundred and fifty dollars, for which sum
all sorts of hocus pocus was done. The
end was that the two strangers disappeared
suddenly with the money, and have never
shown their faces again in the region. 1t
is SURPRISING, indeed almost incredible.