CORNWALL WITCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

CORNWALL WITCHES.

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ijtrawr* in Cornwall h»7« been kncnrn to implore * white vstch to ' remove the sfKSli * Tsrfa«a they ha-re raftered losses oi animals or crops. "Tn my fctml'l have tenriewed persons who believe implicitly in witch** and witchcraft." One Jtcry, related by Jk Pays!**, is ihai some years ago a woman living near HcUton ha 3 % child affected by a. mysterious sickness, to care which medical aid had been tried in vain, " As it was generally believed ia the neigh boar fiioodi that the child was ' :llwisbed,' tfee woman *&j advised to go to lidaim arid see a person Stated to be a witch, who was _ believed t:o have thfs power ci discovering who had bewitched it, and of compelling them to remove their influence. " The woman demanded of th* _ snppoied •witch the cam# of the ill-wisher. This she rerajed to gi~®, ahe described the ill-wisher in rach dear' detail that the woman immediately named the sorcerer and returned home, resolved to ' bring biocd from her.' " Horndays afterward the reputed witch passed her door; so she laid Violent hands upon her and scratched her ana, drawing blood. Strange to relate, from that honr the child began to get well, and was soon able to leave her bed and plav with the other children, free from all fKaease."

Among baby superstitions, which wero quite common at Gallington, Liskeard, and Gminislake, until a few years since, Mr.' Paynter quoted the following: Never cut a baby's nails for the first few months after its birth; they must b» bitten short by the teeth, otherwise the baby will grow up to be a thief and a rogue. "An empty cradle should never be rocked, for this lcad3 to an over-large family. " "The right hand of a baby thould never be washed until the child is a year old; to clean it would deprive the baby of richeii," Mr. Paynter added that according to an ancient Cornish dame, wall-versed in witchcraft, possessors of the evil'eye can bo recognised by having a double pupil or the pupil that contains the figure of soma animal, usually a horse; lean bodies and melancholy temperaments; squints, hollow eyes, hook noses, broad overhanging eyebrows; while there is stated to be a strange -glare in the eye of a person who can ''overlook," mid tht eyelids aro always red,.