Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-08-07
Some Mexican Superstitions.

Not long ago. in one of the frontier
towns of Mexico, Il man shot a defense
less old woman down in the street in
broad daylight. He was captured with
his carbine in his hand, and when ex-
amined before the magistrate gave as
a reason for his crime that the murder
ed woman had been called upon to
nurse his brother, who was sick, and had,
by working charms on him, caused his
death. The firm belief in phantoms is
taken advantage OF by evil disposed
persons, who. disguised as women,
glide about the suburbs secure from
molestation by any passers by. Some
times coniiding husband is made the
victim of evil spirits, rs was one poor
wretch in Brownsville, who, coming
home late at night, encountered dark
form standing at his door He ad-
dressed it, but received no reply, and
then tried 10 drive it away. whcreupon
he was set on by the object, which he
afterward firmly declared was the
devil, and terribly beaten, the iiend
disappearing in flash of sulphurous
flame just as aid reached him. leaving
him standing in the middle of the street
alone. These phantoms haunt grave
yards, and grown men will grayely tell
you Of 'phantasmus." as they call
them, seen at or near The spot where
men have been murdered. These gem
orally bear the form of men lying dead,
weltering in their blood. Those that
recount you these tales affect not TO
believe in the existence of spirits, but
one can see that although, like Nine.
de Stael, not believing in ghosts, they
are afraid of them all the same.
At Pueblo a man went before one of
the judges and asked protection from
a discarded sweetheart who, he de-
clared had made an image the exact
representation of him. and which was
carefully dressed in clothes like those
he wore, and that she stuck pins in the
arms and legs of this puppet, which act
caused him the most awful tortures,
fearful pains shooting through the por-
tons of his body corresponding to those
in which the pins were stuck on the
puppet. He had dragged TO court the
woman, and actually bore the puppet
in his hand as proof of what he said.
He proposed to destroy this uncomfor-
table pirated edition of himself, and
only asked that the judge would pre-
vent the woman from making another
one.
These superstitions, of course. give
rise to considerable traffic in charms,
in which may be found curious inter-
mixture in religious belief. a thief,
for instance, will carry rs charm
against detection some curious verses
addressed to the patron saint of his
guild. Love powders and potions are
often used, and sundry old men and
women ycleped ''curanderos" make
living as doctors, practicing curious
mixture of medicine and nccromancy.
II is not so long ago, in an interior
city. that one of the old women smoth-
cred herself and patient. q tax collector
of some intelligence. to death in an i'm
provised Russian bath, in which she
raised Il mephitic vapor of certain
herbs for the purpose of driving out
witch that inhabited the body of her
patient The fact that she herself per-
ished shows that she believed n ghosts
and thought that she could conquer
them. Before entering the bath she
told her attendant to pay no attention
to any cries from within, rs the witch
would probably make a great disturb
ance before allowing herself to be dis
lodged.