Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-03-28

The negroes are direct and IN,
questioning in all their beliefs, how.
ever fantastical. Their explanation of
how it is in the eternal adjustment OF
things that the good has, as they ex.
press it, the upper holt" is final and
to them satisfactory: DE Good Man
has all days for his work. De Bad
Man las only des Friday"
The whole plan of saving grace of
eternal goodness Just resolves itself
to them in a question of seven TO one.
Especially is Good Friday day and
night when witches, faithful ennis
saries of the devil, have great power.
The plantation dread OF witches IS
widespread and not uplifted from
and education that has come to them.
There are various preventives for
witches. The most efficacious is TO
hang up a horseshoe at the door. a
dressed-up horse shoe is a surer,
better charm; the cloth used to dress
it in should be spotted or embroidered
in dots, for the witches will stay out
side the door, counting these spots or
dots till daylight, when they become
powerless.
| have a dressed horseshoe which
colored woman gave me, thinking
from my anxiety 10 know about
witches that | must be nightly
pestered wild EN-" Her mother, being
ridden by witches, had hung up a
dressed horseshoe and had found it al
morning covered with jelly-like sub
stance which she firmly believed was
the very elemental stun of the de.
feated witch.
To find out who is the witch that is
riding one at night, take a cup of
mustard-seed and after dark pour it
out on the threshold of the cabin door
The witch cannot pass over the door
until every mustard-seed has been
counted.
A plantation aunty who had been
much worried by a persistent witch
tried this counter-charm; at daylight
she walked 10 find her next-door neigh,
Dor of the quarter sitting crouched on
her doorstep counting mustard-seed.
He was an old, gray man, who pro-
fessed TO be her good friend in day
time, and who was now proved to be
her nighttime enemy.-a witch. Such
a story told to the plantation folks
convinces them that certain of their
number practice witchcraft
The accredited witches of the
plantation need never, however, fear
personal injury. The negroes. left 10
harmless race. and the preventives
they use to defend themselves are as
harmless as themselves. A line of
cotton seed spread above a door win
keep of witches. The same counting
process must be gone through with
ere the witch can enter. A sitter,
wire sieve. hung at a door serves a
like purpose. The witch is supposed
TO hang by his claw-like fingers to the
wires of the sieye,-counting holes.
Some believers in this charm lay the
sitter on the breast at night, and thus
sleep safely and soundly.
Or if a person is much ridden of
witches let him or her pull the hair
of the head over the face,-the same
counting process must be gone over.
In before-the-war days long hair. the
kinlly hair of the true negro, was as
great a glory in the man as in the
woman. The men ''wropped" the hair
as well as the women. The "wrop-
ping" as il is known among the race,
is a tight cording and wrapping with
white cotton strings. A head we'll
wrapped shows multitudinous little
strings of this parti-colored wool and
string. On festival occasions these
are loosened. the hair combed OUT
and behold, a hair arrangement as
large as a half-bushel measure. The
pride in this sort of couture has en-.
tirely departed from the men. The
closer they shear the wool the nearer
they fancy they approach the fashion
AMI likeness of civilization. The
women draw the hair into why bunch,
ing knots or cover it as best they may
with straight-haired chignons. Many
superstitions concerning witches have
TO do with hair. A plated horse-hair
bride hung at cabin door is thought
to be a prev entive of witches. rs.
pecially so if a horseshoe is hung on
the bride.
The harm that witches are usually
accredited with is riding people. They
get astride on the breast of the person
to whom they bear a grudge, and plat
ing the hair of the victims head into
bride and stirrups, they ride all night
The ridden person makes a peculiar
whining complaint: Ouch, Ouch!
OUGHT
4 pair of cotton cards crossed over
the bed-head is good to keep of
witches. a pray er-bOOk in one side of
sleeping person and Bible on the
other is said 10 be eficacious.
Riding horses in their stalls at night
is a favorite amusement of these
plantation pests. The owner of the
horses can tell if a witch has ridden
his steed at night; first by the faded
appearance OF the horse. next nv find