Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 389, 22 October 1903, Page 2

Ways of Living.

WITCHCRA.PT OF TO-DAY.

;Srr*2EHEF in witchcraft is to-day more qf/gK prevalent in the rural districts of ffir& Great Britain than town dwellers suspect. Not long ago two young farmers living ia Cornwall were charged with threatening to murder an elderly neighbour, whom they accused of having 'ill-wished'their horses* so that they refused to pull their loads and started kicking- One of the -defendants swore that the old lady had cast an evil spell over the animals. At a recent murder trial in a remote part of Invernessshire the constable who discovered the body of the viotim, a Mr. Rose, could not produce the boots because he had buried them on the seashore in the hope that such action would ' lay the ghost' of the deceased. Some little time ago the churchgoers of a Highland village collectively expressed indignation at certain theological views expounded by their minister. Within a few days the unhappy clergyman began to manifest symptoms of some wasting disease. His anxious friends attributed the malady to a stream that passed his house having been bewitched by his opponents. With solemn rite and incaaUtion the stream was cleansed of its evil spirits, but the record fails to state whether the patient's health improved in

consequence. Suffolk, Shropshire, Yorkshire, Devonshire and Cornwall appear to be the most superstitious counties in England. In Suffolk, for instance, the peasants to this day nail horseshoes to the beams of their houses if they suspect the presence of 'the evil one.'Mb Shropshire and Yorkshire one commonly hears of giants having been seen. Tho people of County Leitrim, Ireland, have a strong prejudice against

eating hares, lest they should be transfirmed into witches—the latter, according to local belief, having a habit of adopting that guise. The Leitrim dairy maids tie a rope with ( nine knots roasd their churns to prevent evil spirits stealing the butter from the milk. At Coychurch, in Glamorgan, there is a well to which tufferers repair, They dip into the water pieces of rag and touch the affected parts with them, afterwards banging the rags on an adjicent tree. As many as '2OO of these shreds have been seen depending from the branches. The Isle of Man, however, is the most superstitious spot in the B:ifcish Isles Witchcraft is—or was quite recently—openly practised in certain districts away from the towns. The daughter oi a once famous 'charmer' on the southern side of the island appears to have inherited her father's powers of pereuasion, for the fishermen from all parts flock to ber for luck. Manxland, even in 1903, has a remarkable population of fairies and giants, mermen and brownies, kelpies and water bulls,

A SUMMEB FLIKTATION. Young ladies, and also ladies that are not particularly young, are sometimes in the habit of setting a high value on themselves. They appraise the worth of their affections far higher than those upon whom they condescend to bestow them. This was the case with a city flirt, Miss Page, who was spending a holiday in the country. Staying at a farmhouse during the Summer months, she resolved she would try her powers of fascination on the landlord's son, a rustic youth with large blue eye 3, fair hair, sloping shoulders, and a lamb-like expression. His name was Moses Sparrow, and he was very green. She thought he was a good subject for a flirtation, in which all the fun was to be on her side and all the sentiment on his. And at it she went, beginning with a smile, a look, a word, and rejoicing to see the fish bite so readily. She enjoyed herself very much until she grew tired of it $ and then she decided to break the heart she had won, and enjoying the crash, So she lured him out into the garden, and made him tit\ beside her on tbe bench under the wistarias, and said sadly, ' I'm going home next week. I shall send you wedding cards when lam married. lam going to be married to a very rich old gentleman next winter.' Then she waited to see him drop at her feet; but he did not drop. He only said : ' Well, I'm glad to her that. I felt afraid I'd been going too far with you. I'm a sort o' butterfly, flittin' from flower to flower, you know; and I have flirted with you, I allow. I was afraid you'd gooff into a decline or Bulhin'—- you seemed to set so much on me —if you heard sudden-like that me and Ann Maria was keepin' steady company. Bat, law! sence your goin' to be married, ther' ain't no harm done. I shouldn't have liked you to drown yourself, like the other boarder did, in the mill-pond. She had my photograph in her pocket when she was fished out.' Then he smiled at Miss Page, and she arose and sailed away from him with great dignity. But Moses sat within the arbour a while longer, and laughed so loudly that his mother heard hitn in the kitchen where she was sprinxling the clothes, and thought that the old owl in the woods was booting louder than than ever that night.