SUPERSTITIONS OF TO-DAY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 20 January 1912, Page 10

SUPERSTITIONS OF TO-DAY

A correspondent has written to ask me' if- i am prepared to .assert that the belief in witchcraft still lingers in the British Isles. Ido not think there can be any doubt about the matter. From districts that lie within easy reach of rail, the belief has well-night died, but we are apt tp forget that there are counties in which one may still walk or ride for inile9 without finding a populous town or a railway station, and. there among the old people you will find plenty whq hold that witches —black, grey, or white —are still in our midst.

Tke black are of the worst kind — "their feet make haste to shed blood." The grey are quite safe so long as they aro placated, but woe to the man or woman who "goes coi*trairy with them." The white are wholly kind. As far as East Anglia is concerned, I have only i heard of grey witches or *wise men, of j whom the former can. take the form of I owls or hedgehogs. . i In the first form they are dangerous , !to travellers on unfamiliar roads, while , as hedgehogs they are said to rob the' cows of their milk. There are parts of Scotland in which the night of May 12 is regarded as the witches' festival, "and in England Midsummer night or St. John's eve is supposed to give them exceptional powers. Nightshade, briony, foxglove, wych (witch) elm, ragwort, ! aspen, witch bells (campanula rotundiflora) are all associated with witchcraft in parts of Great Britain, while the mountain ash, the sallow, and the hazel are among the growths which hold witchcraft helpless. VILLAGE FEAR. The reason why we hear but little about "wise people" to-day is/that the old country folk who belieye in them are extremely reticent. It is only when I' have actually seen charms in use .against witchcraft (that jl haife succeeded in persuading some of the old folk to talk, and in every case the talkers have been men. More than once an old country woman has told me that it will do no good to anybody to discuss such things, but she has clearly shown by what she has left unsaid .that fear is the mother of silence.

I remember a delightful old country parson who did his* best to remove the belief in "wise folk" that was rampant throughout his scattered-East Anglian parish, but shortly after one Midsum-mer-day he died very suddenly. Quite well at lunch-time, he was dead, from perfectly natural causes, before the evening, and the effect of this upon his simple parishioners was startling. They would not express themselves to me, for being but a visitor I was, in their language, a "furriner," butl heard that they attributed the death of their worthy and devoted pastor to the powers his unbelief had offended. CREDULOUS EAST ANGLIA. When I went first into East Anglia, 20 years ago, I was still in my 'teens, and the village lads would speak quite freely to me. More than once they have quoted statements made by their parents to the effect that such and such an old woman was probably a witch, and ought to be tested for supernatural powers by being tied up and floated in a b.orsepbnd. Life in the country has made great strides since 1890, but I doubt if it has covered the ground so rapidly as to leave these gross superstitions, far behind. It will be_ noticed that nmny of the plants associated with the wise folk are poisonous, and it is not difficut 1 to understand that in past times the children of ignorant and credulous people have suffered from them, and that the idea has arisen that the plants must have been bewitched. —S. L. Bensusan, in. the Express. '