Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-01-12

time this evening you would be driven
home. Was that right?"
Yes; thank you so muchr'
Tea was just then brought in, and Mrs
FanshaWe, commencing operations, asked
Captain Beauregard what reply he had
brought from the Mortons
To be continued.
WITCHCRAFT CASE,
Some Pennsylvania Dutch SupperstitiOns
Found in Northumberland County.
Shamokin Dispatch.
Some time ago Dispatch published an
account of lady who claimed to have
pow-wowed the pain out of her broken
limb. Reading that little item," writes
a subscriber, reminds me of peculiar
case that occurred in this county three Or
four years ago. Tho old Dutch farmers
are great believers in witchcraft, and not
only the Dutch, but other residents as
well. One of the best-known men OF the
county is VIM. K. He is an intelligent
man known all along the Susquehanna
River as one OF the best pilots that lives.
He is the last man who would be taken as
a believer in witches, but unless he has
changed greatly within the last three or
four years, he is firm believer in that
superstition. About the time I speak of
his daughter, Emma, a bright, cookbook
ing girl was taken sick with a peculiar
malady. She would be seized with CON
vulsions, during which she parked like a
dog, made noises like fighting cat,
crowed like rooster and did other re-
dicuIoEs things. The strangest thing of
all was that while under the influence of
the commissions she talked German, a
language she knew nothing about in her
lucid intervals. Physicians could do
nothing for her. One day, after having
suffered III this way for long time, she
told her father that few days before
she was taken sick she had refused to let
a certain young man Of the neighbor
hood accompany her home from church,
and he had told her that he would hand
her over to old Mrs. B., who would be-
witch her and she would die. Mrs. B. was
the head of respectable German family,
who had gained the reputation among
her neighbors of being witch, although
she on every occasion announced that
she nor none of her family believed in
witches or charms.
"When K. heard his daughters story
he knew that she was bewitched, and he
doctor, named Wolf. He called on the
girl Immediately announced her as being
under the torture of witches. He took
the girls half-sister in a room by her
self and when the latter came out she
said the doctor had shown her the witch
in basin Of indigo water.
L" Whose picture was it?' asked Z.
{" Old Mrs. b. replied the girl.
CDR. Wolf said he could not undertake
the case, as the casting out of the witch
would be long and tedious proc eeding,
which he had not the endurance to ac-
complish. a peddler named Armstrong
McLain, who bad some reputation as a
witch doctor, said h3 would lay the witch
in short time, and he was employed to
DO the job. When K. went to McLain's
house to consult him, the witch doctor
burned black, white and q brown hair
on a shovel, and after consulting the
ashes, said the witch was Mrs. B. He
then gave G. the ashes of the hair, over
which he 'pow-wowed.'
IF you cont meet a brindIe cow on
your way home.' said McLain to K,
sprinkle the ashes on the door sill. At
shutdown the witch's power over your
daughter will be broken. If you meet a
briddle COW you must come again to-
morrow
&" Squire Z. met 10 brindIe COW, and
sprindIed the ashes according to prescrip-
ton. At shutdown his daughter got bet
ter. She was well for some time, and
then one night she awoke the house by
screaming that old Mrs. B. was in bed
with her. From that on she was worse
than ever, and Witch doctor MeLain said
lol -,
lock OF hair from stubborn girl
baby, which had enabled her TO
break the charm of the ashes of
the black, white and brown hair, but he
said he would succeed in laying her.
He brought some snaky-looking roots to
KS house. and asked for the first bottle
her hands on in the cupboard while
holding her breath. The bottle was
brought under these considerations. Nc
Lain put the roots in the bottle, poured
water on them and sprinkled some kind
of white powder in the water, at the
same time repeating strange jargon.
He then asked for an old hammer. One
was found. He took the hammer and
went outdoors. He wa gone fifteen
minutes. When he returned ne walked
to the bedside of his patien5. Drawing
the hammer back as if to strike power
full blow, he said:
"'Now I'll kill the witch, old Mrs. b.
"He brought the hammer down gently
against the girls temples three times.
Then he took the hammer aud threw it
outdoors, and said to Mrs. T.:
''Tf your spotted COW kicks when yon
milk her tonight don't scold her, because
that's what the witches want you to do,
and that will break the charm. l have
settled Mrs B. She will die in seven
months. When they bury her her coffin
will burst open"
'This sort of thing went on until the
was excited against Mrs.
B., and at last John B., her son, had Nc
Lain arrested Oh charge of defamation
CT character, and the witch doctor was
bound over to appear at Court for trial. I
have never heard any thing about it
since, and guess asking the aid OF the
law in the affair did what the witch doc |
tor failed to do, cured the girl of witches"
Countryman-'Fi' pounds too much |
for him? He's won'erfu good sportin'
dorg, sir! Why he came to oead pint
in the street sir close ap'iu 2 OF pen'Ie- |