UP-TO-DATE "WITCHES."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12282, 8 July 1914, Page 8

UP-TO-DATE "WITCHES."

USE OF CINEMATOGRAPH. The sensational trial of six Sardinian "witches" ended recently in the 'sentence of Rosa Aril, the so-called Saint of Sassari, to five'years' imprisonment, with a fine of £2BO. Her five female accomplices, in addition to fines ranging from £4O to £l6O, were, sentenced to terms of confinement .varying from eighteen to forty months apiece. An astounding insight into the psycho : logy of local, superstitions was furnished towards the . close of the trial. , Marshal Melis, commander of the. Carabinieri squadron that hunted down and killed the notorious brigand chief Binu last October, stated that the villagers at Ittiri alone had been swindled -• to the extent- of many hundreds of pounds for pretended, apparitions .and angels of dead relatives which the witches produced ill a cave outside \he town by means of a. cinematograph, then wholly unknown to that locality.

One farmer, beholding the Saint of Sassari surrounded by rays of light whilst she predicted the end of the world for December 31, was induced to write out a'.cheque for £SO forthwith in' the assurance that the lady saint. would .avert the catastrophe by her prayers. . Another paid down £25 for "exorcising" a gouty leg, the witches having persuaded him that the ghost. of the deceased Archbishop of Sassari had taken refuge within the limb. Doc-toress Giovanni 'Pinna, head jiuree of a hydrophobia hospital, gravely related in her evidence that the witches took her _at . 4 o'clock one morning to a wayside chapel in the suburbs of Sassari, "where she beheld big knives, stones, .and sweetmeats rained from heaven while she stood aghast with wonder. The . witches explained that the confectionery came straight from. Paradise, but the daggers were, precipitated .by demons,, to avert whose wrath a minimum offering , of £2O was urgent. . Dupes from the well-to-do classes subscribed large sums of money to buy up in the witches' name desirable house property in various parts of the island in ] the belief that hidden treasure was stored I underneath. - j