TORTURED AS WITCH
YOUNG BRIDE’S DEATH. Belief in witches still flourishes among some of the superstitious peasants of Westphalia, and the torturing Io death of a newly married woman to drive out a “witch” possessing her is reported from Haltern. Frau Martha Lande, three weeks after her marriage, was taken to hospital covered with wounds, from which she ultimately died. The woman described how a fortuneteller told her husband and his relatives that she was responsible for disease breaking out among their cattle.
The fortune-teller recommended as a remedy confinement of the young wife in a dark room, where the “witch ’' could be driven out of her body by starvation and whipping. After the husband and l\is relatives had tortured their victim for more than a fortnight, a neighbour reported the practice to the police, who arrested all concerned, including the fortune-teller.
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 14 (Supplement)
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142TORTURED AS WITCH Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19846, 21 May 1927, Page 14 (Supplement)
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