FAITH IN WITCHES.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 356, 3 August 1875, Page 3

FAITH IN WITCHES.

One of the most original of the gifts which the Ist of April brought to Prince Bismarck from his grateful and admiring countrymen was a costly and highly decorated clothesbrush. With it came the quaint conceit:— “As this brush shall cleanse the garments of his Highness from dust or stain, so may he long continue to keep the German Imperial mantle free from moths and to shake out of it all antiquated dust.” If faith in witches and charms be counted as antiquated dust the Prince may find plenty of work in some of the outlying parts of the Empire. In Bavaria a book recently published of “ Eighty-three Secrets for everyone engaged in husbandry” is in great request. The “ Secrets” are curious charms for the cure of bewitched cattle. There and elsewhere, too, the driving out of evil spirits is a very moneymaking profession. One shrewd farmer who complained to the witch-doctor that in spite of the costly exorcisms some of his beasts were dead, was met by the retort that that showed the virture of the cure, for if there had been nothing in it they would have been all dead. A story comes to us from Alsace that seems to throw some light on customs still rife_in some parts of our own country. The burgomaster of a certain small town whose wife is suffering from some mental disorder fetched a witch doctor to cure her,. The course of treatment which he prescribed was a nine days’ quarantine, during which no one might enter or leave the house, while all the inmates were to devote themselves to prayer fdr the benefit of the sufferer. At the end of the time, as the patient was no better, a second novaine was ordered. Thifc also failed, owing, it is said, to the sleepiness of the assistants. A third novaine is now running its course. If this also prove fruitless the doctor has given notice that he will have to try more severe measures, and must give the patient a sound beating. This, he explains, will not be felt by her, but only by the demon which has taken possession of her. No doubt a similar belief lies at the root of the mode of treating ill-conditioned wives so much in favor in Lancashire that there the husband prefers himself to administer the remedy.