PEASANT MAGIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 269, 13 November 1935, Page 25

PEASANT MAGIC.

iN, MODERN FRANCE.

WHITE AND BLACK SORCERY. CREDULOUS SAVOYARDS. -- vvi f'ijjje political division of France into left and right, Reds and whites, extends down to the most obscure rural commune. It often gives a grotesque touch to local squabbles over repairing the village pump or buying new buckets for the fire brfcade. But any observer of French life will tell you unhesitatingly that the.national line of cleavage is the only one and there are io real local issues. A Paris reporter vacationing in the wildest Alps of Savoy has found the one commune which is the exception, it the elections of May last the council of the commune of La Vernaz was chosen on an issue all its own. The issue was—do you or do you not believe in witchcraft? The believers won a complete victory. Not a single sceptic was' elected to manage the affairs of la Vernaz. In that mountainous region superstitions as old as humanity live a3 viforouslv as ever. One of the gorges bears the'name of the Devil and is supposed to be his preferred residence. Naturally lie spreads his influence round about and the inhabitants of La Vernaz ire, so to speak, his favoured subjects. Dire legends are handed down from mouth to° mouth. A century ago, it is said one. witch cast a spell over a neighbour's cow. To conjure the spell, the poor beast had its tail split. That was a trick with which the. old hag had not reckoned. Her evil-doing came back on herself, for with the splitting of the cow's tail she expired in atrocious agony. But in Savoy witches, wizards and sorcerers are not merely legends. Only this spring occurcd events which explain the curious election issue. Young girls Of the countryside.-proclaimed themselves bewitched. In the dead of night, 'dlad in little or nothing, they would rush wild-eyed out of their houses and go running dow.n the paths till they dropped from exhaustion. The scandal got so great that the constabulary (gendarmes) had to send men to La Vernaz and conduct an investigation. Their presence had a, quieting effect for the time being on the wild women. But it has not put a stop to talk of sinister goings-on. One girl, it is said, on a moonlight evening mounted the family's old nag, the wizard who had bewitched her climbed on behind, and the two started off madly. The old nag went careering down paths too steep for the most surefooted mule; oii the leypl he hit a pace which would have l,eft far behind any thoroughbred racehorse.

Black Magic and White. The sorcerers of .La Vernaz are *of two kinds—those who practice black magic and those who practise white hiagic. The first do the harm; the second cure it, for luckily there exist remedies to the devices of the devil. He can ,he "Outwitted at times, and his work can always be undone. It is important, however, to secure the services of an expert, for 1 a "white" sorcerer who does not possess the requisite skill is worse than nothing. There is no telling what-mischief the evil so.rcerers will be up to. Their simplest and most usual trick is to dry lip cows. Or they may drive mad a herd of sheep and send them rushing over the edge of a cliff. They can 'turn milk, even if it has been freshly drawn on a winter's morning. They can work on a binfiil of potatoes and rot them within a day. At other times they play apparently innocent pranks, just to show their sense of humour. One day a peasant discovered, for no reason whatever, a huge chunk of butter in a heap of straw. •The thing struck him as so strange that ne consulted a. "white" sorcerer. Although the butter appeared to be perfectly fresh, the wonder worker ordered, it to be taken to a crossroads and urned. If it wore kept, he said, dire things would happen. The "white" sorcerer does not merely counteract spells. He is a healer of all diseases, which, to be sure, are usually caused by the malevolence of the devil. One sorcerer at La Vernaz used the peculiar method of curing "in secret." nat means that he acts always as if he some other ailment than ,e real one. Behind this screen lie is able to catch the disease unaware. His reputation • bccamo so great in tlie countryside that all sorts of people who were perfectly well began to discover unsuspected ills within themselves, just so they might have the, benefit .of- Ms secret"■ treatment.

The Powers of Evil. Sometimes the "white" sorcerer cannpt completely overcome the powers of i ma J r even himself fall a victim 0 them. One case has been reported iom La Vernaz within the last month, 1 ,?T . w^ loSr! stable liad been bewitched I? m . a "white" sorcerer to purify +1° •i 0b was f l° ne successfully, but bs tlio miracle worker was on his way home he and the two persons who accompanied him were suddenly all three struck unconscious, their automobile W'ent careening over an embankment, and s " three were badly injured. The superstitions of La Vernaz might be taken as something local, occurring Mly among a mountaineer population. Ihat is not the case, as a complete survey of the subject made in all France •hree years, ago proved. Though this is the twentieth century and the French "lie of the most enlightened of peoples, the practice of magic is still widespread among the peasantry. The only regions which appear free from it are the immediate environs of Paris and the industrial region of the north. Otherwise there is practically not a tillage in France which does not possess its soothsayer, its wise man or wise womaii, its liealcr, or its undoer of spells. Getting information on the subject is extremely difficult, since peasants freeze into silence whenever it is brought up. But those who have got hito their confidence will find out what people in a village are given credit for the power to cast spells. 't has its advantages. All your neighbours consider you with salutary respect. At vintage time, or the harvest, °r the pig killing, you will be sure of getting little presents, bribes to hold your good will. And, greatest advantage of all in a village, the gossips will keep their tongues off you. It is not healthy t° discuss the conduct of a spell caster. Despair of Doctors. The persistence of superstition among the French peasantry has been the c -spair of doctors and veterinaries. In I:>ie communities the latter are never ii'.'ulted except when an animal is ; -"d, and a certificate from the veteri-

nary is necessary before it can be sold as butcher meat. Otherwise, the peasant, when anything goes wrong with his live stock, gets the "white" sorcerer to diagnose thei trouble, and' remedy it, if; possible. "' ' •' ' « ' • t'. Country doctors in France are bitter on the subject. Many a peasant family never sends for them in a•. whole lifetime until a death certificate has to be signed. Not only does the doctor have a source of revenue cut off by the healers and "white" sorcerers, but he has the grief of knowing that the poor misguided victims of their own credulity are in the hands of charlatans, getting treatment often positively injurious to them, often with remedies and rites 9o filthy and obscene that they cannot be described. The high infant mortality rate among the French peasantry is ascribed* in part to their preference for healers to doctors and to superstitious practices in dealing with, babies, practices which no amount of propaganda can knock out of their heads. The French like to boast they arc the most sceptical of all peoples. The irony of Parisian wits may justify the reputation. The fact remains that a good proportion of this sceptical people still believes in gross superstitions.