40 WITCHCRAFT IN DORSET. 



This story was supplemented by a correspondent living at Gilling- 

 ham, who stated that in his parish the power of the " wise woman " 

 extended over man and beast. He mentioned a case wherein an old 

 woman with a very bad temper and tongue was supposed to be in 

 league with the "wise woman" of Stalbridge. She was about 

 buying some pigs from a neighbour, but there was a differ- 

 ence between them of a shilling a head, and when she 

 could not get her way she said she would have nothing 

 to do with them, and added the ominous words : " And 

 mark my words, they will never thrive with you." Curiously 

 enough, in about a fortnight they all died, and this cross 

 old dame had the credit of their death, and she was dreaded 

 accordingly by her neighbours both far and near, for she was 

 very dangerous to her own species. 



The narrator of this story added that in the previous 

 year this old woman had been very ill, but in a dream 

 one night she saw a supposed ill-wisher of hers laughing 

 at her through the window, and she sent to another " wise 

 woman," who removed the illness from herself to her enemy, 

 " which was, of course, very satisfactory for her, but not 

 for him." 



Another instance is taken from the Bridport News for the year 

 1884, which further supplies the means by which the cure of the 

 " overlooked " was effected in that case. The wife of a woodman 

 living in one of the parishes of Dorchester had been seriously ill 

 for a considerable time. She had been waited on by a gipsy 

 woman, who told her she had been overlooked. The gipsy 

 informed her that she would never recover until the spell 

 had been broken, which she bargained to do for a small 

 sum of money. This was readily acceded to by the credulous 

 invalid, whom the Romany ordered, among other things, to 

 place certain pot flowers out of doors, and when the flowers 

 withered she would begin to mend. The instructions were im- 

 plicitly followed, and the woman, strange to say, recovered pretty 

 nearly as the gipsy had predicted. She stated positively that the 





