SORCERESS SENTENCED

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 61

SORCERESS SENTENCED

A GULLIBLE VICTIM

Sentence of two years’ imprisonment has been passed on a sorceress whose ingenuity was less than the gullibility of her victim. , The latter, a woman keeping a stationary shop, who had managed to. put by some £-30, was rofbbed of three-quarters of her savings by the seer. The sorceress took no trouble to concoct a likely tale. She called on her chosen victim and told her that she had jiist received a dream visit from Louis Philippe. His departed Majesty had informed her that the late Due de Berry had CONCEALED A TREASURE in the cellar of the stationary shop. The owner of the latter was delighted by this welcome intelligence. But the question was how to get at the treasure The sorceress was surprised at the objection. Had her friend never heard of the well-known principle in necromancy that money attracts money ? Gold pieces must be strew on the cellar floor, according to certain rites. The treasure would then rise to the surface. THE VICTIM,. already caught,, at once produced a bag of louis. That night the sorceress appeared at the cellar door clad in her bed gown. There could thus be no deception, as there was no pockets in her attire wherein the money could be hidden away. The incantations were duly pronounced, and the gold pieces strewn on tho floor. They were not to be seen there when the landlady went down herself, but the sorceress explained that they were

SUCKED INTO THE SOIL by the spirits guarding the treasure of the Duo de Berry, and her victim was satisfied. Apparently she was capable of believing anything. The same operation was renewed several times. It was not until 750 louis had been strewn on the ground, or, rather, secreted in instalments cn successive evenings inside the bed gown, which had pockets after all, that the credulous woman began to distrust the sorceress, and called in the police. At the trial the victim looked rather more ashamed of herself than the swindleivbut the latter, who seemed to expect that she would be let off easily on the ground of the unnatural simplicity of the prosecutrix, had a fainting fit when sentence was passed.