DEVILS AT A WEDDING.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9750, 7 July 1924, Page 6

DEVILS AT A WEDDING.

FATALITY IN CASTING OUT,

“Casting out devils” is a custom prevailing in some parts of the South Italian district of Salerno, where exorcism of evil spirits by means ot ancient ritual has caused tho death ot a woman believed to ho “possessed. After a wedding banquet at an inland village, one of the guests Antoniotta Nigro, having led well, d not wisely, showed signs of mental disturbance. Shouting disconnected sentences, she fell to the ground, wilining in contortions. No explanation occurred to the peasants present hut that Antometta was possessed by a legion of evil accordance with the ancient tradition of St. Antonino, tho supposed maniac was carried in a procession bv the wedding party to the church, in which is a broken column inhere in old times devils were wont to he cast out. By the legendary ritual, a cord is passed around the feet, the waist, and tho nock of tho subject, and also round and round the column. When the evil spirits are driven out invisible hands ring unseen hells. Having hound Antonietta, the relatives waited in the churchyard for ten minutes. Hearing no hells they reentered the cluiroh and found that the woman had strangled herself as she writhed in delirium with the cord about her neck. Parties to the attempted exorcism have been arrested, as_ the ancient • superstitions ceremony is no longer recognised by either Church or State.