The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-09

of evil life is here deemed able to arrest the
growth of plants aud the current Of living
water, or to deaden the ripeaiag fruits.
MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE.
An alluson to this deadly power is found
in Ecclesiastes xiv. Various ancient writ
ers give accounts of people VINO possessed
this power to a wonderful extent. The
case of Medea and of the Gorgons will re-
cur to every one. Pliny speaks especially
OF the Scythian and lllyrian women. Ovid.
PIutarch, Horace, Herodotus, and other
classical writer's frequently allude TO il. st.
Mark puts an allusiOn to the evil eve in the
mouth Of Christ, and st. Paul alludes to it in
the eplStle TO the Galatians. The early
fathers of the church reason much about it
with the result OF leaving the matter in
great confusion, but none or them question
this power. They usually ascribo to the
Deity the source Of this great influence, but
later writers assign it to the malevoleuce Of
Satan. Children, handsome people, and the
aged were declared particularly subject TO
harm from this source. For there are
some" says one of these writers. who have
eyes so brilliant and full of fire that wit
single glance they infect Others, and partic-
uIarly children. the venom OF fascination
acting upon them by reason Of the perverse
or malign quality and dangerous humor of
the injecting eve of the sorcerer, which en-
tiers the sympathetic pupil of the child'S
eye"
A SoRCERER STONED TO DEATH.
In France this wild superstition existed
from the earliest times. The inhabitants Of
certain districts, as Bearn and Laudes, were
particularly regarded askance as possessing
the fatal evil glance. A Bearness sorcerer
was stoned to death in 1918 because he made
two young girls i'll by his malign looks
Some suppose it compac5 with Satan,
while Others regard the possession of this
power as natural result of evil and cor
rupt tendencies In the heart Of the sorcerer.
Few of the writers of the fifteenth or
sixteenth centuries were bold enough to
deny the thing altogether. Some at rIbute
Its effects entirely to the imagination, Others
think there IS present an actual fluid pa ssng
from eye to eye. Sometimes 1t is declared
that the will of the opera or was not con-
cerned at all, and that these evil emanations
even proceed from the body of the unfprtu-
nate sorcerer without his consent Old
women, as usual in these matters during the
dark ages, had TO bear the principal burden
OF accusation. Whenever anyo le died SUD e
denly or was taken seriously ill of a inalady
unknown to the physician, sorcery was at
once Inferred, and many in ocent persons
suffered from the imputations as to the sup
posed effects of their evil giances,
HORRIBLE CRUELTIES PRACTICED.
Some noted cases are interesting and
may DO cited as occurring during the pros
ent enlightened century. In 1875, near a
town called OAK in the department OF
Landes, young wife fell i'll Of some un-
known malady, and wise man" Oh being
called, attributed her illness to the effects OF
the evil gances of a certain young woman,
her most intimate friend. The hu5 band
ana brother of the invalid concluded to tes'
the matter, and decoying tho suspected
woman into the house under the pretause of
wanting a nurse, they charged her with "
ing caused her friends illness and demanded
that She at once undo her work In spite Of
her denials the = kin1led fire and roasted
her over it III a horrIole manner until e
finally acknowledge her q -eHcy in causing
the disease, ana promised to remedy il. She
was them at 2 o'clock in the morning, led
into dense forest and turned adrift some
peasants found her, and her inhuman per
secutors We're afterward brought to trial,
but the witnesses calle1 all de
! clared their belief il the guilt Of the &C
cused, and swOre that the valid began to
mend from the moment of tho exacteu coa-
fesSion.