The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-08-17
DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF TAMA COUNTY.

its appearance, and the only consOla-
ton for the Berkshire man was to get
the "cunning woman punished for
fraud.
A married woman at Cuckfield, 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 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 were stuck
in certain positions; something was
burned, jargon read out of the book,
calculations uttered in commanding
tone, in the expectation that an invisi-
BILE witch would be driven up the
chimney. Prying neighbors, however,
spoiled the charm, and the woman 5
illness had to be attended to by a medi-
cal practitioner.
The belief in 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 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 a 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 a tainted state.
On one particular Monday morning
in 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
days wages (and in all probability
spending something additional for
drink. The reason assigned was that
the "Seven Whistlers" had been heard
during the preceding night in the
neighborhood, 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 man ran up to her and wound
ed her so severely in the leg with a
hay-fork 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 Bi-
BILE is often noticeable in the conduct
and half-craZy reasonings of these su-
perstitious folks; the man pointed to
three verses in Leviticus and one in
the Acts of the Apostles to show that
he was justified in killing the poor old
woman who had overlooked him =
Chambers Journal.