The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-01-22
SUPERSTITIONS
STILL LINGER.
HOW SUPERSTITIOUS NATIVES OF THE EIGHTH
DISTRICT SOUGHT THE AID OF WITCHES
TO CURE DISEASES OF ANIMALS.

Wizard, without amy prompting, said to
Jeb: ''You have very sick mare at
home.'
II certainly have" assented the aston
ished Jeb.
"Your neighbours dog sleeps in her stall
sometimes"
''He surely does answered Jeb, with
his hands pressed hard down on his knees
to keep his eyes from bullying out Of their
sockets.
"You must shoot that dog" emphatic
ally commanded the Wizard "Your mare
is bewitched; she has the evil eye, and will
never get well while that dog lives"
SIS the dog witch?' stammered the
terrified Jeb.
"No; but his mistress is" unhesitatingly
replied the all-knowing Wizard Where
upon he produced box of silver bullets,
which he declared were the very "stuff"
for shooting witches, and Jeb having re-
oeived full instructions in the art of witch
dispatchng, he purchased $25 worth of the
silver bullets, departed joyfuly for home
The instructions were, that no communi
cation whatever be held with Jake or his
family until after the passing away Of the
dog, which was not to be of too sudden
nature.
When the dog should first be shot, the
Wizard declared: that the witch wife of
Jake would certainly receive severe shock,
probably fall in faint and have to be car
ried to bed, but on no account was any
member of Jeh's family to go to her relief.
1t was late when Jeb got home. He ate
his supper in silence and retiring to his
couch was soon locked in the embrace of
sound slumber, rendered doubly sound by
the fatigue Of his long horseback ride from
Lancaster City.
Arising betimes in the morning without
arousing the rest of the family, he loaded
his gun with the costly silver bullets and
proceeded to the stable. There sure enough
was Jake's white dog Just crawling out
from under the stable door Jeb waited
until he jumped over the barnyard wall
and then fired. With loud yell the
frightened canine struck for the wooded
hills along the creek and was never again
the harm and returned to the house. His
daughter was preparing breakfast when he
entered the kitchen.
He inquired for the wife and mother,
and great was his dismay when his daughter
informed him that Jake's wife had sent for
her before daylight as she was very sick.
hastily summoned, had declared that il her
symptoms did not abate soon she could not
live through the day.
Jeb deyoured his breakfast in moody
silence and FASTENED back to the barn.
Entering the stable he was Mortified to find
his black mare standing corpse. An ex-
the fodder from her rack neglected
"nubbin" had slipped down her throat,
shut off her wind and ended her earthly
career
When Jeb subsequently, revisited the
'conj urer" and tried to get him to take
back the remainder OF the silver bullets
and refund the money, the Wizard treated
the proposition with scorn and declared
that Mrs. Jeb ''broke the spell" when she
crossed Jake's threshold to minister to the
smitten witch Albeit it was not quite
time for her to be smitten.
BY degrees the story leaked out and the
Jonathan and David friendship of Jake
and Jeb was destroyed forever. Mrs. Jake
recovered from her sudden attack of illness
and lived to a green cd age A. C. S.