FRENCH SORCERY TRIAL.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11999, 12 February 1920, Page 2

FRENCH SORCERY TRIAL.

EXTRAORDINARY CREDULITY. A WEEPING- IMAGE. An extraordinary story of credulity has been told at Bordeaux, at a socalled sorcery trial, in which a police official, a stockbroker an orchestra conductor, ana a bank clerk were found guilty of assaulting a Syrian priest, Sapounghi, and were sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and fined £3O. The assault concerned a miraculous figure, called the Weeping Virgin, which is reputed to have wept real tears, by which the sick could be cured. It is alleged that Sapounghi, desiring to gain possession of this image, cast an evil spell over its possessor, Madame Menin, who declared that she had been bitten on the face by an invisible mouth, and had been assailed by terrible suffering, so that she became homicidal. Her friends beat Sapounghi, attempting to got his supply of hi ood of toads and other unclean animals, and a nude was black figure which he used in his sorceries.