98 LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS. 
them in the room. The next day the familiar spirit was again 
consulted, and he said he was confident that all the holes had 
not been stopped; and when a search was made, a round hole 
was found on the stairs, which communicated with the outside, 
and had been omitted, and thus caused the incantation to fail. 
XVII.—Local Superstitions. By the Rev. H. B. Tristram. 
Cure for a Wen.—The body of a suicide who had hanged him- 
self in Heselden Dene was laid in an outhouse awaiting the 
coroner’s inquest. The wife of a pitman at Castle Eden Colliery, 
suffering from a wen in the neck, following the advice given her 
by a “wise woman,” went alone, and lay all night in the out- 
house with the hand of the corpse on her wen. She was assured 
that the hand of a suicide was an infallible cure. The shock to 
the nervous system was such that she did not rally for some 
weeks, and eventually died from the wen. This happened about 
the year 1855, under my own cognizance. 
Witchcraft—In November of the year 1861, I was sent for 
by a parishioner, the wife of a small farmer, who complained that 
she had been “scandalised” by her neighbours opposite, who 
accused her of witchcraft. 
These neighbours had lost two horses during the last year, 
and consulted “ Black Willie” at Hartlepool, who assured them 
they had been bewitched. Following his advice they adopted 
the following means for discovering the witch. Having procured 
a pigeon and tied its wings, every aperture to the house, even to 
the keyholes, was carefully stopped, and pins run into the pigeon 
while alive by each member of the family, so as to pierce its 
heart. The pigeon was then roasted, and a watch kept at the 
window during the operation. The first person who passed the 
door would be the guilty person. This neighbour had the mis- 
fortune to be the first person who passed the window, and the 
family are firmly convinced she had exercised the “ evil eye,” 
though she is a comely matron not yet fifty years old. This 
happened in a village close to the Tees. 
