Wives, Witches and Wickedness.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17953, 24 February 1930, Page 14

Wives, Witches and Wickedness.

. Evil Ey® Tlhat Emspired Village Mwrdes’s Ma® Mamy Dup®§ Th© W©rid otoif. . „ . .

THE SENSATIONAL trial at Budapest of thirty-one women from Hungary's accursed valley, now hold in dread all over that country, demonstrates how savagery, superstition and ignorance still reign in the human heart (writes a special correspondent of the “Sunday News’). Who knows but that the unbelievable fiendishness of those wives, so greedy of possessions that they murdered their husbands to get them out of the way, originated in tho superstitions that still run rife in remote regions of Central Europe and in other parts of the world ? Men shun the village of Nagyrev, where this drama is being played out. They murmur of black magic, sorceresses and spells, wit-ches and the evil eye. For, argue these simple peasants, what else but devilish influences could have transformed the feminine population of a peaceful village into diabolical plotters and murderesses, enlisting the services of old crones and midwives to encompass their wicked schemes ? No man will wed the maids from r e sin-stricken valley. Those girls are as doomed as the woman in the old Salem story of tho Scarlet Letter, A, only theirs would be a flaming INI if they were forced to wear the band of their sin on their bosoms.

Ever-Flourishing Beliefs,

The murder epidemic in Nagyrev is not the first, occasion on which events have illustrated how thin is the veneer of civilisation over some people, for other recent reports reveal how firmly witchcraft is implanted in the minds of peasants. One concerned the “Witch of Vladimirovac,” in Jugoslavia, who because of her evil eye, caused the deaths of a dozen men.

Then there was the case of a Vienne judge who dismissed charges of murder against a family of peasant folk for killing an old woman whom they thought was a witch. The court held they were justified in believing the woman a witch and that she held an evil spell over a member of their family. One of the most remarkable cases involving the evil eye in Jugoslavia refers to a 92-voar-old woman. Anna Listova, who was accused of killing. through the arts of fascinn'ion, a dozen men whose wives were tired of them.

The witch had long been known to tho police as a hoi bn list and "wise woman and harmless. Later she was caught in a net of evidence and accused of combining witchcraft with the more practical weapon of poison to kill off husbands for disgruntled wives.

Investigation is said to have shown that by casting a spell with her evil eye .no could force a man to drink poison. The authorities of Jugoslavia accused her of having engaged in this "business ’ for a number of years. Whenever a young and pretty wife wanted to get rid of an old but wealthy husband she appealed to the witch and her fatal magic. The mysterious death of Burgomaster Carina of Novoselo created an unusual

sensation and resulted in the arrest of the witch of Vladimirovac on a charge of murder.

Tho burgomaster’s body as well as the bodies of other men who had died mysteriously were exhumed. Carina's widow and five other widows were arrested on charges of conspiring to kill their husbands.

Tho witch’s defence was that she gave only “love potions’’ to the husbands, and it was their fault if they were overdosed. Carina’s widow and tho other widows insisted that they only wanted to “revitalise” their husband’s love.

A further extraordinary and tragic case of the evil eye occurred in another village in Hungary. An old woman was beaten to death by members of a family who believed that one of their number was held in the thrall of a spell.

Farmer Pittlik fell ill of a mysterious malady, the nature of which baffled the village doctor. The patient began by losing his strength, and finally his mind.

In a frenzied moment the patient prophesied that at a given hour the witch who had cast, a spell over him with her evil eye would appear in his sick room. Strange'• enough, at that time, an old hag knocked at the door. The meinhe s of Pit.tlik’s family rushed at her, threw themselves on the unfortunate creature and heal her to death with sticks. When she was dead Pittlik sprang out of lied, completely cured, finding his speech to rejoice over the lifeless body of the so-call-ed sorceress.

Her assailants were arrested and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. But the Supreme Court of Budapest ordered a new trial, in consequence of which the sentences were reduced in each case to three months’ hard labour.

The Supreme Court found that the farmer and his family were justified in their assumption that the old woman was a witch and that the only mistake they made was in killing her. In America, Tool

Primitive and uneducated villagers are not the only people who give way to frenzied fears horn of superstition, though happily, such reaction rarely terminates in a wholesale slaughter of husbands and relatives!

Belief in the evil eye has even been decovered in America ! v ln the old Green wirh Tillage Italian section, situated but a brief walk from New York University, are to be found many who believe in and practise the arts, of witchcraft. In some parts of the Harlem district, not far from Columbia, University, one of America's largest i 'itidions of learning. there is said to be more fear of the evil eyes than of the policeman round the corner.

This superstition was brought therefrom certain European countries, where the belief at persons can bewitch, injure or even kill with a glance is widely spread.

And, when the desired results do not lake place quickly enough bv psychical means, it is perhaps but a sliort step to help them on by physical ones that can he bought by the ounce at the chemist s shop. When a pretty bride went into the New York Supreme Court and asked for a separation, declaring her husband believed she possessed the “evil eye” and could bewitch him, a great light was flashed unexpectedly upon an unbelievably widespread condition of superstition and sorcery in American centres of culture and progress. “My husband,” she said in court, “was continually pointing his finger at me as a person who had an evil eye that cast a spell over him. He said that unless he was freed from the evil influence be would die and I would be to blame.”

A month after thiir marriage, she said, tlie husband forced her to go and live with a “witch” in Brooklyn in order to be exorcised. Then he took her to a “better witch” in Fourteenth-street, and then to a “special witch” who could dispel the evil charm. Needless to say. the judge who tried their case was much at sea, but lie came to the conclusion that the young woman could not possibly live with such a suspicious husband. Surely the queerest case of separation on record !

Evil Eye Terror,

The i rror < f the evil eyes is one of the oldest superstitions. Pliny wrote that in Rome laws were enacted against injury to crops by “fascination.” In Italy there are thousands of believers.

In Naples, the jettatore, as the owner of the evil eye is called, is so feared that at his approach a street is rapidly emptied of men, women and children. In India, China, Turkey and Greece there is a definite belief that t' e evil eye affects horses and cattle. The Slavs, also firm believers in the art of fascination, tell a story of a man who, afflicted with the evil eye, blinded himself so that he might not be the means of injuring his children. In a town in -Africa a fascinator called Elzanar is said to have killed by his evil eye no less than 80 people, in two years.

To combat the effects of the, evil eye many unusual means are resorted to. Hindoos decorate their children with a profusion of jewels to antagonise it. Mohammedans suspend articles from the ceiling over the cradle for the same purpose.

In Rumania a child or grown person decorated with red ribbon is supposed to be impervious to this terrible influence, and hence many Rumanians wear something scarlet about their bodies. However, all their secretly stored-up knowledge of black magic did not aid the dour wives of Nagyrev, since they had to resort to “doctored” fly-papers to carry out their amazing poisoning campaign, actuated by hate and greed.