EXTRAORDINARY SUPERSTITION.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 75, 8 March 1879, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY SUPERSTITION.

At tho City Police Court, yestorday, l>eforo Messrs. J. T. Smith (chairman), Wilton, Noonan, Gurton, and Levy, J.'sP., a swarthy-looking woinau named Ann Cora wan chargod on warrant with imnosing on Mary Rowlands by means of fortune telling. Tho accused had boon remanded from Ballarat, where she had U idorgono n sentence of ono month'* imprisonment for a similar offence. The caso disclosed extraordinary credulity on the part of some of tho persons concerned. The prosecutrix, who keeps a small grocer'* shop in Faraday-street, Carlton, stated that the prisoner called at her •hop in July lost, and representing that she wu a fortuao-Uillvr, askod it Row-

one of those persona who can prevent evil." Rowlands consented to have her fortune told and handed the woman ss. Cora looked at her hand, and, after some little time, she said, "There is'great trouble before yo'i, and I can prevent it if you give me a piece of gold." Row- ' lands gavo her a sovereign, after which the woman said that she should also require " seven pieces of silver, the largest you can get." Rowlands gave her seven oue-shilliug pieces. Cora placed the coins ir. a pocket-handkerchief and said that she wonld take them away with her in order to •' put them on her (Rowlands') planet, to prevent the evil." Before leaving she said, " You have a had planet and a good one; I will break the evil one." She then left, but continued to visit Mrs. Rowlands frequently for the next three months. On one occasion she took a fancy to a cruet-stand, and said sho would take it, and " put it on her boys' planet to preserve them from becoming drunkards." Placing implicit faith in the gipsy woman, Mrs. Rowlands allowed her to have the cruet-stand, and on a subsequent visit the defendant also obtained an umbrella and two dresses on the same pretence. Altogether she inveigled Rowlands out of about £lO in money in addition to the other articles mentioned. She was in the habit of .saying to her dupe, "My dear lady, keep your mind to yourself; tell no one, or you will be ruined. If you put faith in me and God, I will make all things comfortable and happy, and cause you soon to have property of your own." At every visit Cora asked Mrs. Rowlands for money, and on the prosecutrix informing her that she could not aflord any more money, she said, " You must get it if you can, even if you have to sell everything you have." Mrs. Rowlands at last began to be afraid of the woman, and used to borrow money from the neighliours in order to accede to her demands. When she was unable to borrow any more money from the neighbours, Cora induced her to pledge a piece of silk valued at £i, two shawls worth £+, a family Bible valued £i 10s., ami another valuable book. About three weeks ago the defendant called at tho Bhop and said, " You have been very good to me, and 1 am going to bring you £2O on Monday, but you must first rake me £l." After some difficulty tho ill was obtained from a neighbour, and given to the prisoner. Cora said that she did not want to see the money, and directed Rowlands to " place it in a Bible, and to bury the book in the yard." The prisoner asked tor a handkerchief and some pins, and having pinned the handerehief round the Bible she handed it to Rowlands, who dug a hole in her back yard anil buried tho book as directed. Cora then left, and remarked that she would return in three-quarters of an hour for i tea. This occurred about the end of the week, and before lc aving Cora expressly . advised her not to touch the Bible until the i owing Monday. She did not rci t"~ Droiiiis :1, and Mrs. Rowlands beC ing suspic. us dug up tho Bil lo horn r-lie ground sad found the £l-note

IMSSIUf. In rns» er to Mr. P. Stephen, who appeared ou behalf o: the accused, Mi . Rowlands stated that she left her hus band at Scandals al>out months a£o on account of |ill-ticatnient. She placed great coutidenee in the representations of the prisoner, who however, did not inform her of the exact nature of the trouble she had undertaken to deliver lior from. Mr. Stephen submitted the prosecutrix had been labouring under some strange hallucination about her husband, and that the whole of the transactions which Mrs. Rowlands alleged she had had with the accused never took place at all, but were merely a myth, the result of a. diseased imagination—in faot, added Mr. Stephen, the woman was not in her right senses, and should be sent to. a lunatic asylum by the Bench. The testimony of tho prosecutrix was wholly unsupported, and if she had boon in hor proper mind she would never have allowed herself to be imposed upon in the manner described. Mr. 'J. T. Smith remarked that tho ease was a most extraordinary one, but in his opinion there was not the slightest doubt that the prosecutrix wub in her right mind. fho Bench sentenced prisoner to six months' imprisonment with hard lahjur.

Mr. Stephen gave notice of appeal.— Argiis November 2G.