The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-16
leup of the two
A SUPERSTITIOUS PEOPLE
Those Living in Cumberland Noun
tains Believe in Portents.

The mountaineer is a great believer
| in signs and portents- Personally, /
| confess I never happened to meet any
one who claimed tic be a witch or a
| wizard, though / knew several who
were said to possess charms of one
sort or another There was still living
| not long ago, in one locality which
| visited, an old woman who asserted
that she could cure almost anything.
/ including cancer. She said that in
/ order to work a cure, however she
must first know the full name of the
/ person. together with the mater of
the trouble, and that then she had to
go out and look at q green appIetree,
saying a few words of ceremony
These were her secret She could
not reveal It to another woman with
out losing her power. Fer a woman
could tell it only to three men and
a man to three women She herself
had been taught the charm many
years before by an old man who, in
turn, may have received it from an
other woman, or from the devil him
self For there are those in the
mountains who sre supposed to have
sold their souls quite in accordance
with the best FaUstian traditions
In the Cumber12nds there has
never been felt any of that odium the
ologicum toward witches fould else
wEers IL modern times They have,
it is true, been feared; ard, if we are
country, individual witches have,
when taken, been subjected to cruel
runishments-even put TO death But
tn re has never, SO far as I have
secution of those suspected of dfabol-
ical practices ard this accordS with
the simpler and more natural senti-
ment on the subject in primitive
countries, where there are always ade-
quate means with which to combat
this particular spiritual evil
There are, of course, no priests in
the Cumberlands to make the sign
of the cross, Sprinkling little holy |
water on the infected place or on the |
person suspected of suffering from a |
malefice- But there are almost as I
many witch doctors as there are /
witches, and their charms make it 1
very dangerous for the latter to at /
tempt anything serious against human 1
life Besides, witches are always liza
bic to painful accidents in the pUr-
suit of their unha flowed profession
Many years ago a mans wife, who
was q witch, went one night to attend
!. meeting of the witches In the guise
Of a black cat she came home to |
where her husband was sitting by the
iiresfGe and threw her paws upon his
knees Not especially in love with |
he sa1utation of this strange visitor,
he chopped one of her paws off, and
Immediately the hand of a woman lay
wife complained of sickness and was
lot disposed TO get out of bed The
husband was suspicious nd asked her
o reach out her right arm She did
o, and the hand was missing.
L have also heard another story of
he same sort, concerning a woman !
TI1o every night turned a young man
nto horse, and rode Kim so hard
hat the following morning he was
A stranger who happened ,
D be staying in the house where this
ccurred observed the young man
Tasting from day to day, and suspect
q the woman of sorc6ry. So he lay
wake one night and saw her come
} her victims bedside, shake a bride
YER him, and say three times, up
evil; put on bridIel" Then, as he
hanged shape, she Iesped on his
ack and dashed through the door.
he next night the stranger turned
ne tables on the enchantreSS; and,
hen he mad changed her into mare,
0de her straight up The creek to a
shop, where he dis Y
lounted and gave her q full set of
noes. Then, after riding her all '
Ight, he brought her hack to the !
| bin and restored her to her proper
,rrn But the shoes still remained
xed with cruel nails to her hands Il
III feet--WilIian Aspenwau Bradley
Harper's Magazine for August
I