The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-12-29
VICTIMS BY THE MILLIONS.
EXTRAORDINARY BELIEF IN WITCHES
IN EARLY TIMES.

and the Eighteenth Centuries Nearly
Ten Million soroerers Were KILLED.
1t is difficult to realize the fact that
only zoo years ago considerable plural
ity OF our forefathers were firm believers
In witchcraft, and that during the GEN.
tury OF Columbus almost the entire
Christian world was possessed with a de-
lusion 30 extravagantly absurd that even
tne common sense OF rustic jury has
doomed more than one of its modern de-
tenders to the lunatic asylum, saws he
San Francisco Chronicle.
The superstitions of pagan Eurone
furnish no clue to the origin OF the mon
strous belief. They had gnomes and
nymphs IN ancient Greece, but their
habits were as harmless as those of the
| British fairies, and the Roman lamias
were most akin to the heather ghosts or
warning apparitions of scandinavian
FOLKLORE. The word switch" in the Old
testament has been demonstrated to
mean poison monger, and the Hebrews
never had anything resem bling the witch
craft tribunals OF the middle ages, but IL
Is true that the Buddhists had mingled
the doctrine OF their founder with all
sorts of hag-ridden nightmares, and 10 is
suggestive fact that their missionaries
appeared in Western Asia at the very
time that witnessed the birth Of world
changing religion.
During the first eleven centuries of the
Christian era the charge of diabolical
possessions was, however, directed al
most exclusively against renegades, more
or less willing converts, who had re-
lapsed into the belief of their pagan ances-
tors. Instead of denying the existence of
the heathen deities, the Christian mis-
sionaries generally preferred the alterna-
tive OF degrading them to the rank OF
evil spirits.
Thor, the Scandinavian Mars. became n
homicidal giant; Wooden, a wood devil.
ranging the moonlit forests in the puise
ofthe q" Wild Huntsman." Our strange
prejudice against horsefiesh is due to the
circumstance that the ancient Druids
propitiated the favor of Odin by the sac
rifice of foal, and one Of their most
popular affairs on the summit of the
Brocken was afterward dreaded as the
scenes of the Witches Sabbath.
BY and by, however, when the revival
OF classic studies filled Europe with
sceptics, the suspicion of the church was
directed against new danger, till the
name OF a scholar had almost become
synonyme OF hereto. From that stigma
1t was only step to the charge OF sorcery.
Not philosophers and alchemists only.
but prelates, princes, and at least two
Popes incurred the suspicion of black
art" by the unusual extent of their eru-
dition.
In 1850 witch was formally tried in
Augsburg, Germany, and convicted upon
the testimony of nineteen witnesses.
who claimed to have seen her perform ali
sorts of tricks in the shape of black cat.
She had been caught crouching over the
cradle OF sleeping children, who laughed
N their dreams in answer to the bias
ohemous scurrility Of her whispered re-
marks. She had also been seen hobnob-
Ding with the devil and stirring a caul-
iron OF witch broth, but in spite OF the
evidence the judges
for week before they agreed
IN the fatal verdict.
Three similar cases were tried in
'adua, Linz upper Austria), and Strass-
'urg in the course Of the next ten years,
nd upon the basis of those precedents
he Christian world soon after appeared
o go crazy en- masse.
Witch comm missioners, with their posse
4 bullies, roamed from village to village,
he jails were crowded with prisoners
rho, in many cases, seem to have lost
heir wits as completely as their prosecu-
ors. Death by fire became the usual
orm OF execution. The terrible name of
he Paris chamber ardente or fire. court
'ould have applied to thousands of
tribunals in Western and Southern Eu-
)pe.
The CHASTITY insanity reached its cul-
lination point about the end of the Fiji
'enth century, and it seems a mercfuI
lspensation OF Providence that by that
me the progress Of American colonies
ad opened a gate of escape to the far
lest. Witchcraft trials occurred in
,uth America and here and there in the
nglish settlements, but on the whole
lie settlers of the new world were too
lsy with terrestrial problems to waste
uch time on experimentation.
Some forty or fifty thousand Mexicans
ay have been burned on a charge of
ack art during the first three centuries
the Spanish domination, and perhaps
700 persons in all British North Ameri-
, but those aggregates are the variest
ifie compared with that of medieval
irope. Professor HitEig, of Berlin, af.
r careful comparison of all the availa.
e records, estimates the total number
victims from the end of the Fourteenth
sHN Dos AhhihB Va tho Ilisuteentn CEN
ry at 100000
Gavinet, in his Memoir de Ia Magie,n
'umes much higher aggregate, and
. Sprenger, in his "Life of Moham-
d." may come very near the true
dium in computing the total for sll
rope and America at 1900, 900.
were accused Of having as
ned the shapes Of all possible animals,
m a black rat to black mara Tbay
re charged with the murder of persons
ose residence they had never ap-
'ached within hundred miles. They
re held responsible for storms, fires,
denies, earthquakes, and In several