BAN ON WITCHES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 November 1929, Page 10

BAN ON WITCHES.

: CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL. A campaign is being waged in Portugal against the practice of witchcraft. Throughout the country there are hundreds of witches, or what tne Portuguese call “bruxas,” pronounced “bruches.” for hundreds ot years the witches have preyed upon tfie ignorance of the peasants hand servants, l says an overseas journal. ) ,in -an effort to abolish the. practice, many stories of different methods of extorting money from victims of superstition have been uncovered. -One of the most common practices is to approach a servant in the home of a. well-to-do family and convince her of the powers ol witchcraft. Then it is an easy matter for the witch to exact a to Ken of gold, linen, silver and silk, in return lor which the witch would deliver to the ignorant victim a powder to be sprinkled in the shoes of the one she uesires to marry, or put into liis food. The results promised are that the object of the -poor girl’s affection will immediately tall in love with her and ask her hand in marriage. In the meantime, the servant generally lands in gaol, and the story of the theft is revealed..

Instances have recently been revealed in the north of Portugal, where illiteracy is more general, where whole families have been under the influence of a witch for years. Various ills are treated with herbs, and weird and strange practices, such as dieting to the point ol' starvation, are employed. In Lisbon recently a raid was made on the home of a witch where several beds were occupied by patients. In answer to a question as to what percentage of “cures” she made, the witch replied: “All those that don’t die, I cure.” The effort to gaol the witches is proceeding under difficulties because of the tendency on the part of the victims to protect the practitioner. The stories of marvellous things done 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.