BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20659, 3 September 1930, Page 8

BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT.

WILD FOLK OF WALES. FEAR OF "THE EVIL EYE." ' A Herefordshire has been tip in arms at the suggestion made before the Licensing Commission that excessive drinking of home-made cider was a source of mental deficiency in the county. Hereford town* says in effect: "It is nothing to do with • us. The wild folk of the Welsh mountain border country have brought this indictment on us." The medical officer of health for the county also spurns the suggestion, but at. the same time defends the people of the mountain district. In this, frankly, a correspondent says, he found him in a distinct minority. Investigations made in the wild hilly district along the border would seem to substantiate in some measure the tales heard in Hereford of a race made up of isolated communities left far behind in the march of progress. Hero scattered farmsteads stand cut off from the world and in many cases attempts on the part of authority to approach them have resulted in (light "for fear of 'the evil eye,' " and on at least two recent occasions there has been violence. In this wild country there is still a very lively belief in witchcraft and spells and a great faith in the efficacy of "the evil eye." A County Council health visitor, who was chased down the mountain fide by a man whose house she visited, told a remarkable tale. In the house to which she had been sent, she said, she found a woman who had been held prisoner in one room for 20 years because "she had been looked upon with 'the evil eye.' " "On my second visit to this homestead. " the. woman said, "one of the brothers who held the woman prisoner accused me of having 'the evil eye' and 1 threatened me with a gun. When I turned and ran he chased me down the mountain, uttering teriible cries." The medical officer of health for the county strongly resented the opinions expressed regarding the people. "They are by no means the decadent, feeble-minded people they arc made out to be by soins in Hereford," he said. "There are cases, of course, and we rather take the view that they are best left alone until they do any hurt to other people. Dull they , may be. but not mentally deficient in the main. I have 110 difficulty in administering the Health Acts up there and find the people very willing to respond. "As a stranger they would, of course, be nervous of you and refuse to speak. Superstitious, yes; but do you walk under ladders or omit to throw the spilled salt over your shoulder ? Of course, you don't."