The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-06-05
WITCHES IN THE SOUTH.
Dire Havoc Believed to Have Beer
Caused by Them Among Coon Dogs.

Dire Havoc Believed to Have Been
Caused by Them Among Coon Dogs.
In Wayne county, of which Colds
boro, N. c., is the county seat, many of
the inhabitants believe in witchcraft.
The Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and
other southern states abound in so called
switch DOCTORS" who will cure your ails
and kill the witch that is troubling you.
Some of these doctors actually believe in
the personal existence of witches and in
their supernatural power, but many of
them are frauds. who make living by
imposing on the credulity of their neigh
bors.
The negro race is naturally supersti-
tious, but the poor white crackers" are
also ignorant, and for believing in
spooks, spirits, hobgoblins and other
natural phenomena they can give the
colored man cards, spades and aces, and
then beat him. The cracker is worse
than the colored man, because he fondly
imagines that he is so much shrewder,
and so he does not use what brains he
has, nor does he try to learn anything.
He has thousands of signs, omens, cures
ard beliefs that are d continual source
of annoyance to him, and perpetually
keep him in a state of dread. The sim
plest incident is one of sinister and &C.
cult meaning to him, and he is ever in
tremor lest i'll luck and misfortune over
take him.
The evil influences manifest them
selves in various ways, and each one
seems worse than the other. His gun
occasionally hangs fire and refuses to
''go off" properly, and at times is so
badly deranged that it cannot be dis
charged at all. At other times his ia
vorite coon dog is bewitched by some
evil minded and envious person, and
then the woe of the cracker is something
painful to witness. If his gun were not
bewitched, why could he not kill a squir.
rel with it? And why should his dog re-
fuse to hunt coons, when to hunt coons
was his business? These are questions
that he can answer only by assuming
that witch has been influencing him
and his property.
He employs witch doctor, to whom
he pours out his tale of woe and yields
up his hard earned cash. The doctor
cares little for the woe, but the cash is
grateful and exhilarating. The doctor
is sanguine, and declares that he has
method of killing that is strictly original,
copyrighted, and warranted to be effec-
tual.
In one case that came across the doc
tor learned that an old woman living
several miles away was the suspected
party, and he commenced a campaign
against her. He told the victim to go
to her house some night and stretch a
white cotton string around the building
and tie the ends together with "weav-
er's knot" Then he was to walk around
the house seven times each way, recite a
given sentence in front of each door
while making mysterious marks ON it,
and the cure would be completed. The
directions We're followed. and, I am
happy to say, were effectual, as the next
hunt resulted in the death of three coons.
Another time a small powder was
given, which must be swallowed by the
witch without her knowing it. The old
lady was invited to dinner, the powder
placed in her cup of coffee, and the cure
was as complete as could be desired
Philadelphia Times.