SORCERY AND WITCHCRAFT

Evening Star, Issue 23124, 25 November 1938, Page 12

SORCERY AND WITCHCRAFT

PREVALENT AMONG FRENCH PEASANTS Sorcery and witchcraft are still practised in many rural districts of France, and now and again the police round up “ magicians ” who are living on the credulity of ignorant peasants, but arrest's are neither easy nor popular. The peasants shield the wanted man or woman, and when arrest is made whole villages pray that the “ wonderworker ” will not put a curse on them. Most of these so-called sorcerers choose very secluded sites for their homes. They build their wooden huts in pine forests, where they cultivate small plots. Almost all of them profess to be devout Christians, and swear that they do not practise black magic or devil worship. The spirits are supposed to work wonders for them. No matter what the ailment, human or animal, physical or mental, the ignorant villager will alwhys go to his local “ magician ” for a cure. One strange aspect of those “ sorcerers ” is their uncanny connection wtih each other. They all use the periwinkle as a symbol of their power, and all incantations are preceded by the same magic word. Their cure for sunstroke, for example, is to cut off the branches froma bush bearing white flowers and to place them in a circle. The “ wonderworker ” then repeats the magic Word while placing a dish of sea salt in the centre of the circle. The invalid is then supposed to recover as the salt gradually melts. While such practices enable the police to arrest the sorcerers for unlawfully practising medicine, it is a more difficult problem when affairs of the heart are involved Even in these modern times lovelorn maidens will consult the “ wonder-worker.” Most of these “ sorcerers ” have a considerable knowledge of deadly shrubs, leaves, and flowers. One of them actually cultivated the thorn apple, the leaves of which he used for peasants who came to him with complaints of insomnia. Tie did not realise that, besides being a powerful drug, it was also a poison, and that if a sufficient quantity were taken it would eventually prove fatal. It was this that led to the arrest of the man concerned, and the police unearthed an extraordinary story of a servant girl who, thinking her lover was becoming indifferent, sought the magician’s aid and asked for a 11 love potion.” The “ magician ” told her to obtain parings of her lover’s finger nails and mis them with water and earth to form a paste. The paste would then be shaped into a human form and three pins would be stuck into it, the magic word being uttered. But. the magician added, this would have to be done at night at his hut. The girl, who worked as a servant in the small school run by the village priest, did not know how she would get away at night to carry ont the magician’s instructions. In her anxiety she dropped a piece of paper with the magic word written on it. One of tho pupils found this, and the girl cven-

tually told him all about the magician and the potion. The bov’s curiosity was aroused. He wanted to see the “ magician ’’ at work. , , , So the girl consulted the man again, and he advised her to steep thorn apple leaves in the priest’s wine. This would make him sleep, and she would he able to get away. When the boy was _ told this he agreed to doctor the wine. "But, fortunately for the priest, friends were alarmed at his sleepiness and had his wine analysed. Then the boy was questioned, told the whole story, and the ‘‘ magician ” was arrested. He is now undergoing a term of imprisonment. But «o great is his hold over the local inhabitants that all are offering prayers for his speedy leleaso.