The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-08-31

A married woman at Cuckfeld, in
Sussex, being affected with some malady
which her friends could not understand.
imputed it to witchcraft. A cunning
man." who had "book of necromancy,"
was consulted. His book told him that
charm must be tried at midnight pre-
ceding The Sabbath, the planets being
favorable. The cunning man and the
friends of the sick woman met secretly,
provided with some new pins, which were
stuck in certain POSITIONS; something
was burned. jargon read out of the book,
CALCULATIONS uttered in a commanding
tone, in the expectation that an invisi-
BILE witch would be driven up the Chin
ney. Frying neighbOrs, however, spoiled
the charm, and the woman's illness had
to be attended to by medical practi-
| toner.
The belief in mysterious power at
tributed to corpse by some old super
stitions is almost incredible. At Bewd-
ley, in the year just named, man was
| found drowned in the Severn. When
| the inquest was over woman came,
bringing with her boy afflicted with
many unsightly wens on the neck. She
begged permission to draw the boys
hand nine times over the dead mans
throat, in order that, as the body decayed
and wasted away, so might the boys
wens! The chief constable acceded to
the strange request. About the same
time Suffolk man died of typhoid fever,
and superstition led to deplorable cOnse-
quences. An old "wise woman" per-
suaded neighbor whose son was afflicted
with some disease to submit the diseased
part of the boys body to the touch Of
the dead mans hand. The typhoid was
communicated to the poor boy, from
him to other members of the family, ant
from them to the neighbors; severa
deaths occurred, and the village long re
mained in tainted state.
On one particular Monday morning il
1874 the pit men at BedwOrth Colliery
Warwickshire, obstinately refused t.
descend the pits; they roamed idly abou
Bedworth ali day, losing days wage
(and in all probability spending some
thing additional for drink). The reason
, assigned was that the "Seven Whistlers
! had been heard during the night in tn,
! neighborhood, and that this always pre-
saged some colliery disaster. Whethe
| tuSoC w hiooiCio WCiO biuoj Sbooeo "
devils, the pit men did not know, no
could they be certain that the numbe
was exactly seven; but they had hear'
| the cries and that was enough.
One day an aged woman at Long Comp
ton, Warwickshire, was returning wit
f bread from the bakers shop, when ma
( ran up to her and wounded her so sc
3 verely in the leg with hay-fork tina
t she died the next day. The man ha
entertained the belief that fifteen or six
3 teen witches in Long Compton, who's
, names he gave, had bewitched him an
e interfered with his work. The Superir
D tendent of Police told the Coroner an
!, jury that many of the villagers believes
5 in witchcraft, and that the older womeI
) were those upon whom the accusation
, of the bewitched mostly fell. The mi.
e use or misinterpretation of the Bible
Y often noticeable in the conduct and hal
a crazy reasonings of these superstition
folks; the man pointed to three verse
in Leviticus and one in the Acts of tn
Apostles to show that he was justified i
killing the poor old woman who ha
I "overlooked" him!