CHAPTER XII 



OLD COUNTRY FOLK | SOME OF THEIR WAYS 



Some kind of belief in witchcraft certainly existed among 

 labouring people, at any rate, up to the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century. I can well remember how often we used 

 to hear about it when I was a child. 



I have tried to erather some details from two or three 

 of my oldest cottage friends, but, either they have nothing 

 to tell me, or they are shy of acknowledging that it was 

 once a belief among them. Only one of them can re- 

 member anything at all definite. This was about a witch- 

 woman who gave a girl baby some cakes, the supposed 

 consequence of which was that the child wasted away, its 

 limbs shrinking almost to nothing. The mother said its arms 

 felt like little sticks when it was in bed with her at night. 



The continuation of the narrative was so vague and 

 inconsequent that I could make nothing more of it except 

 that the bright idea struck some one that the witch should 

 be paid for the cakes, which would break the spell. Two- 

 pence was accordingly sent, sealed down ; the sealing was 

 considered of great importance. 



A quarter of a pound of new pins was boiled with 

 certain ceremonies and incantations, but I could not ascer- 

 tain how the thing worked ; pins were also stuck in door- 

 ways. Pins seemed always to figure in these practices, both 

 in the cause of aggressive enmity and in that of defence. 



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