The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-15
cess Of snOw-white shirt streaming in

cess OF snoW-Whlte shirt streaming in
the wind.
AS soon as he was seated and the par
ticulars of the occasion made known,
the family remembered the first rite of
hospitality, which was to bring out a
half-gallon jug of Slater's best fourth
proof whisky, aud hold it up to the ca
ger lips that wet themselves unctuously
and smacked and partOok again with a
relish that was pleasurable to look upon.
"Well," he said, in a cracked old
voice, looking around, and then the COW
was driven up to the door where he
could see her.
"Turn her head this way" he said.
Then he opened his big sacred box, took
out piece of dingy, soft muslin, on
which was inscribed cabalistic charac-
ters, laid it across his knees and opened
a paper in which were two needles with
fiat heads. One of these he ordered to
be stuck in the band of his shirt, back
of his neck, and the other in the hem OF
some WITHHOLDING gum, wet it with
spittle, and rubbed it over the region OF
his heart.
"Watch if the COW rolls up her eyes
or makes complaint" he said, as he be-
gan to make bows, very slowly at first,
and then they came faster and faster,
until the poor old man looked like a
ninny. Suddenly he stopped and wet
the white gum again and rubbed it on
his forehead.
Just then the COW lolled her tongue
over to the other side of her cold, wet
mouth and moaned as if in pain.
Satisfied" !" he muttered, and signaled
to have the curious needles removed.
"She's cle& bewitched, there's no doubt
o. that" said he, giving an upward
hitch to the band that constituted q
part of his trousers. "Have you any
idee of any possessed creeter hereabouts;
anybody you'd mistrust ?" he asked.
Then Susan Franks, with staring eyes
and twitching hands, related her meet
ing on the hillside with the queer cree
ter who lived on the Watkins place.
"DO you know anything about her
Tell all you know" said he, leaning
back.
"a man with two pack horses brought
her and her hOus' old stuff and left im-
mediately. People don't take to Ter mol
she to them," was the reply.
"Well, we must find out if she be one
possessed" }" said the poor old man, 'an
if she be, we'll know how to manage
! her. If she be in league with a evil one
we'll find it out and give her her jest de-
serts," and the grim, wise old astrolO'
ger gave his refractary trousers, band
another hitch.
Such people believed that witches
were sold unto the devil; that they en-
tered into a compact and that the bar
gain was usually in writing and signeC
in the witch's own blood.
! One point in witchcraft was the belle
i'm stated meetings of witches and devils
! by night, called Witches Sabbaths
that, first annointing her feet anC
shoulders with a salve made of the fat
of murdered and unbaptized children
the witch mounted broomstick, dis
! taft, rake, or the like, and making hel
exit by the chimney, rode through the
| air to the place of rendezvous. If bel
demon lover came to fetch her, he wa!
represented as sitting on the staff before
aud she behind him. At the feast t
which they all assembled there wert
viands, but no bread nor salt, and they
drank out of OK hOOfs and horse skulls
but the meal neither satisfied nor nour
ished. After eating and drinking, they
danced to music played on a bagpip
with a horses head for a bag, and
cats tail for a chanter.
At the conclusion a great goat tha
had participated was burned to ashes
and then the ashes were divided amonI
the witches to raise storms with. The,
returned as they came, and the husbant
was kept from being aware of his wife
absence bya stick laid in the bed, whicl
he mistook for her.
The power that the devil gave then
was exclusively directed to work evil
to raise storms, blast crops, inflict rack
ing pain on an enemy or make him pin
away in sickness. This latter was done
usually, by making an image Of wa,
and sticking it full of pins or setting
away to melt before the fire.
If witch attempted to do good, th
devil was enraged and chastised her.
Taking a small vial out of his littl
box, Gran'ther Jones, on the point of
penknife, lifted out some of the oil
contents, which he rubbed on one sid
of stick, mumbled over it, and the
laid it down beside him. Then he too
. some charcoal, that had been made oU
J of burned bats, and made some mark
on a fragment of white paper with il
folded it up neatly, tied it in a clotl
, and laid it down beside the stick. The
: he called Daniel Franks up to him, an
= tying a snake-skin round Daniels ha
: told him to go to the house of th
strange woman, lay the oiled stick o
t her dOorsill, throw the marked papt
} down her chimney, and then hide b,
5 hind her house with his hat drawn dow
over his face and stay there fifteen {
] twenty minutes, and then come baC
r and report what he had seen and hear,
In due time the man returned. Graz
= 'ther, who had been sitting leaning G
] his staff, now rallied, and, looking U
! said: "What say 2"
t 1.-THE creeteT was a.carTyin' on ma
t ingly," was the reply; "she was cryi
an moanin' an maxim all sorts
: noise, e'en almost like one demented
D "All right, she's witch sure-least-
t ways all the symptoms pint that wa
y Well manage her, or there's no trul
t in TRUTH" said the old man, putting Il
snake-skin back in his box and clOsiI
n it carefully. Then he took out of b
g bosom little parcel, which he unrolle
d and within was a small, compact ball
e hair, or hairy calculi such as is occ
b siOnally found inside Of the stomachs
g old cattle, formed perhaps out of the fl
# hair that lodges on the tongue whC
d they are licking themselves, and elm
d together and becomes secreted in ii
s stomach, and is never removed unle
d by curious human hands after the an
: NAL is dead.
= Astrologers and fortune-tellers and s
r perstitious people ascribe supernatur
r powers to this worthless accumulate
/ ,1rI #