BAN ON WITCHES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 102, 26 October 1929, Page 24

BAN ON WITCHES

CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL

A campaign is being waged in Portugal against tho practice' of witchcraft. Throughout tho country there aro hundreds of witches, or what the Portuguese call "bruxas," pronounced "bruches." For hundreds of years tho witches havo preyed upon the ignorance of tho peasants and servants, says an overseas journal. In an effort to abolish tho practico many storios of different methods of extorting money from victims of superstition have been uncovered. One of tho most common practices is to approach a servant in tho homo of a well-to-do family and convince her of tho powers of witchcraft. - Then it is an easy matter for the witch to exact a token of gold, linen, silver aud silk, iu roturn for which tho witch would deliver to the ignorant victim a powder to bo sprinkled in tho shoes of the one sho desires to marry, or put into his food. Tho results promised are that the object of tho poor girl's affection will immediately fall in love with her and ask her hand in marriage. Iu the meantime tho servant generally lands in gaol, whon the story of tho theft is revealed. _ Instances havo recently been rovoaled m tho north of Portugal, whero illiteracy is moro goneral, where whole families have been undor tho influence of a witch for years. Various ills aro trcatod with herbs, and woird and strange practices such as dieting to tho point of starvation, are employed. In Lisbon recently a Taid was mado on tho home of a witch whero' several beds were occupied by patients. In answer to a question aB to what percentage of "cures" she made, tho witch replied: "All those that don't die, I cure." The effort to gaol the witches is proceeding under difficulties becauso of tho tendency on the part of the victims to protect the practitioner. Tho stories of marvellous things dono by various witches come down from one generation to another and remain fixed in the minds of the illiterate Portuguese, and it will take time and a great deal of education to eradicate witchcraft from the country.