Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-18
ARE THERE WITCHES STILL?
By Frederic j. HaSkin
rEW YORK CITY, Jan. 12.-"She's
\ WITCH" yelled woman in New York

fact was suddenly revealed that numbers of
persons in the most civilized city in America
firmly believed in the power of the evil eye,
and that a baby had lost the use of its legs
because it had been cursed by woman sup
posed to have that power
The belief in witchcraft is supposed to
have persisted in this enlightened country
little over 200 years ago. Shortly after the
witchcraft prosecutions which took place in
Salem in the 18th century, whole literature
against the belief in witches sprang into be-
ing. 1t began with books which admitted
that the Devil was a dangerous fellow and
apt to tamper with human destiny, but which
denied that he could do it through the me-
dium of witches. Such arguments this
were followed by others more and more rad
ical in tone, until finally the most intelli-
gent came out flatly for the bold idea that
there was nothing in any of these supernat-
ural ideas.
These bold inte1lectua1s were at first re-
garded askance but they gradually prevailed.
People who believed in witches became
ashamed to acknowledge the fact. Most i'm
portant Of all, the church and the law no
longer took official cognizance of witches, as
both had done before the year 1900. Witch
craft as a crime recognized by the statutes
ceased to exist
Belief Still Alive
But the belief in witchcraft by no means
ceased, as the New York ladies recently dem
onstrated. Literal belief in witches who
commune with the Devil and cast supernat-
ural spells is still common to a large part
of the human race. 1t is widely scattered
among the lower peasantry of Europe, and
by them is imported into the United States
with every boatload of immigrants. Fur
thermore, it still flourishes an indigenous
product in many sections of this country.
Down in the southwest, for example, Mexi-
in m
and to some extent openly. A Mexican wom-
an in a southwestern town has been known
to spit in the eye of the baby in public, and
explain that she did it to protect the child
from the curse of a witch who was looking
at it.
Belief in wtchcraft as literal and crude
as is indicated by this incident, and that of
the New York court room, may be compare
lively rare, or at least limited to a few very
ignorant classes of the population. But the
essentials of withcraft still widely preva
lent. These essentials are ignorance and the
credulity that always goes with it, and per-
sons who are anxious to turn both to their
own advantage.
BY his belief in witchcraft, as in fairies,
ghosts and other supernatural phenomena,
the ignorant man is primarily expressing
feeling that there are forces in the universe
beyond his KEN This is a sound feeling.
When you come right down to it, no one
can with certainty deny the existence of SUI
pernatural forces. The universe is infinite
and mysterious. The dogmatc scientist who
asserts that there is nothing beyond what he
can prove by experiment has way of prov
ing that he is right.
The sophisticated and educated man may
admit this, but he also realizes that if there
are supernatural forces, in the nature of the
case it is impossible to understand them. He
therefore confines his mental operations to
the world that he is able to apprehend with
y fc oiT15 n1N1 Il oY01 SnfI1 TO
Germ himself about the supernatural on the
ground that it is essentially unknowable.
But this position is possible only to mind
somewhat trained and logical. The unframed
mind thinks not in terms of logic but of emo
tions and images. In other words the ig
norant man is vaguely aware that there is
a supernatural world, and he necessarily con-
ceives of this world in emotional and imagf-
native terms. AS sure as he thinks about the
matter at all, he is scared of ghosts, or has
visions of witches or fairies or hobgoblins or
something. He or she is generally a hard
working person, drugged by routine, and
therefore does not think of the matter much.
But that sense of the supernatural is always
there 1t is always ready to flare up if it
has chance. It usually cherishes in secret
some sort of delusion. How many persons
can you find among your acquaintan who
do not believe in any sort of superstition?
The great army of those who believe they
communicate with the dead by means of
ouija board, and those who support our great
army of fortune telers in luxurious ease are
the modern descendants of the witchburners.
Some of them are half-ashamed Of their SUI
perstition and some are proudly in earnest
about it. But in all an instructive belief in
the supernatural, combined with a desire to
give the supernatural some definite form and
character, is at the root of it. 1t Is very no.
ticeab1e that women are more prone to these
superstitions than men, and the reason is that
women have more leisure, and are therefore
more cognizant of the mystic element in life.
They have more time to think about it.
This belief in the supernatural as an alb
straction is, as we said, inevitable. There is
something of it in every man. 1t is the root
of his religious sense. 1t is his instructive rec
ognition of the fact that finite mind cannot
possibly comprehend an infinite universe
that there are vast areas of existence which
transcend the powers of the human mind and
ire beyond all laws which it discover.
Pride and Superstition
1t is the tendency to manufacture this mys-
tic sense into definite images which does the
damage. Man is full of troubles which are
due to the miserable precariousness of hu-
man life coupled with the remarkable stupid
ity of human beings But men, being proud
animal, hates to admit that his troubles are
due to the fact that he is merely unfortunate
and stupid. The child who burns his hand
does not blame his own stupidity. He 5lames
the stove, endows it with malignant spirit,
and wants it punished The savage who has
no luck in hunting does not blame his own
laziness and lack of cunning. He blames the
gods and makes prayer to them. The be-
lever in witchcraft likewise refuses to put
the blame for his troubles where it belongs
on himself. Instead he picks out some neigh
Dor whom he envies or dislikes and accuses