A WOMAN AND A BIBLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 8, 6 January 1913, Page 5

A WOMAN AND A BIBLE.

A CHARGE OF SLANDER. A remarkable case of superstition was discussed and examined at some length in the Berlin Coui;t of Criminal Appeal, when a butcher in a village some distance from the capital prosecuted a woman of means on the charge of slander, and the woman’s counsel pleaded that his client was covered by the fact that her superstitious beliefs had persuaded her that the remarks she made ivere quite true, and that she had acted in entire good faith. The superstition concerned a strange thumb-marked yellow-leaved Bible, which was produced in Court (says the Berlin correspondent of the Standard). It was bound in blue silk, and fastened at one side by a quaint padlock. The defendant said it had been handed down from generation to generation in her family, and it had always been understood that its possessor was endowed with power to foresee the future, and also discover the identity of the authors of any crimes perpetrated in the neighbourhood. It was the belief in the latter quality that led to the present prosecution. During the spring of the year there were many thefts of cattle in the village in which both the litigants lived. The woman was not affected, hut, as the police were unable to trace the theives, she volunteered to make use of the magic powers of her Bible.

After saying a special prayer she held the Bible out so that it hung from her two first fingers by the padlock, the hand being palm downwards. She then recited the names of villagers, and at the mention of that of the butcher the fingers were bent forward by magic influence, as it was averred, and the Bible fell to tho ground. This, the woman was convinced, was absolute evidence of the butcher’s guilt, and, consequently, she Lad no hesitancy in declaring him to he the culprit. The woman maintained that nothing could shake her conviction that the Bible possessed the powers she claimed for it, and offered to demonstrate her method in Court. This.was done, and again on mentioning the name of the butcher the Bible fell to tho ground. The Court accepted the woman’s conviction as an extenuating circumstance, and she was only fined 10s.