Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-08-17

" 1911 u Cldh eNtI, VI DIT amy rate more
paralyZed, his eyes We're opened a lit
tie; he told his grievances to a magis
trate, and Imprisonment with hare
labor was allotted to the wise woman
A countryman lost his watch and
consulted a cunning woman'' about
1t. She undertook, for a fee of twelve
Shllllngs, to show him in a glass the
man who possessed the watch. On the
silly noodle giving her the money. she
brought sort of birdcage glass. and
requested him to look in it; he did so,
and saw something that looked like
a mans whiskers, but no face He
paid second visit, and gave her mon
ey to buy some stuff at a chemists 5.
The cunning woman went to his
| house next day, took tea with him,
told him that the person who had the
watch was every hard-hearted, and
| demanded nine or ten shillingS where
with to buy some more "Stuff' An
| other day came, and with it demand
(.
and SO on until fOrty-fve shillings in
all had been thus transferred. All the
| instructions she gave him was 90 to
keep at home till midnight, when the
man who had the watch would bring
it." Of course the watch never made
| its appearance, and the only cOnsOla-
ton for the Berkshire man was to get
the cunning woman punished for
fraud.
A married woman at CuckfeId, in
Sussex, being affected with some
| malady which her friends could not
understand, imputed it to witchcraft.
A g cunning man." who had ''book
of necrOmancy, was consulted. His
| book told him that a charm must be
tried at midnight preceding the Sab
bath, the planets being favorable The
| cunning man and the friends of the
SICK woman met secretly, provided
| with some new pins, which We're stuck
III certain positions; something was
| burned, jargOn read out of the book.
! CALCULATIONS uttered in commanding
tone, in the expectation that an invisi-
| bic witch would be driven up the
chimney. Prying neighbors, however,
spoiled the charm, and the wOman's
illness had to be attended to by a medi-
cal practitioner.
The belief in a mysterious power at
tributed to corpse by some old super
StitiOnS is almost incredible. At
Bewdley, in the year just named, a
man was found drowned in the Severn.
When the inquest was over q 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 de-
| ceased mans throat, in order that, as
the body decayed and wasted away, so
might the boys wens! The chief con-
stable acceded to this strange request.
About the same time a Suffolk man
died of typhoid fever, and superstition
led to deplOrable consequences. An
old ''WiSe woman persuaded neigh
Dor 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 COM
municated to the poor boy, from him
to other members of the family, and
from them to the neighbors; several
deaths occurred, and the village long
remained in tainted state.
On one particular Monday morning
III 1874, the pit-men at BedWorth Col
liery, WarWickshire, obstinately re-
fused to descend the pits they roamed
idly about Bedworth all day, losing a
day 5 wages (and in all probability
spending something additional for
drink. The reason assigned was that
the ''Seyen Ministers" had been heard
during the preceding night in the
nelghbOrhOOd, and that this always
presaged some colliery disaster.
Whether these Whistlers We're birds,
ghosts or devils the pit men did not
know, nor could they be certain that
the number was exactly seven; but
they had heard the cries, and that was
enough.
One day an aged woman at Long
Compton, Warwickshire, was return
ing with bread from a bakers shop,
when a man ran up to her and wound
ed her so severely in the leg with a
| hay-forll that she died the next day.
The man had for years entertained a
| belief that fifteen or sixteen witches
in Long Compton, whose names he
gave, had bewitched him and inter-
| fered with his work. The Superintend-
ent of Police told the Coroner and Jury
| that many of the villagers believed In
/ Witchcraft, and that the older women
were those on whom the accusations
of the bewitched mostly fell. The
misuse or misinterpretation of the BIZ
| BILE is often noticeable in the conduct
and half-crazy reasOningo Of these SUI
perstiti0us folks; the man pointed to
| y-o,SoS in ovitio,,C