LOCAL WITCHCRAFT. 97 



one or two of our country schools, recently fell ill, after having 

 been in more or less delicate health for a long time, and was 

 obliged to give up his place. Having consulted several 

 doctors one after the other, without great beneficial result, he 

 was at last led to believe certain persons who told him that he 

 was bewitched. By their advice he went to consult an old 

 woman at the Catel who professes to unbewitch people. Of 

 course she did not hesitate in confirming him in his belief, 

 even naming the person who was the author of the spell, for 

 which piece of information he had to pay her the sum of £3, 

 which he could ill afford. Shortly after his having begun to take 

 this person's remedies, I was told by a relation of the young man, 

 with whom he lived, that he had found himself all at once 

 better, and would shortly be completely recovered. Time 

 passed, and I often inquired how he was. At first they said 

 he was getting on fine. A little later he was recovering but 

 slowly, and finally they were forced to own that he was no 

 better. Before this result, however, and while they still had 

 some faith in the unbewitcher's skill, a kind of plague broke 

 out in the family. They all at once, so they said, found them- 

 selves swarming with vermin. Down they trudged, two or 

 three of them on foot, to the arch-witch, a distance of some 

 half-dozen miles. I met them myself as they were returning, 

 and learnt from them the whole of the affair. The arch- witch, 

 of course, promised them instant relief, and gave them some 

 remedies, for all of which they had to pay her £2 more, thus 

 extorting from them altogether the sum of £5. It is to be 

 hoped that they have found out by this time that plenty of 

 water and general cleanliness, for which they would have had 

 nothing to pay, would have worked a greater miracle than all 

 the unbewitcher's prescriptions and incantations. 



In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to read 

 a short extract from a volume of poetry in the Guernsey 

 French dialect, published by me some two or three years ago. 

 It begins by a general description of what was generally 

 believed in our country parishes concerning witchcraft a very 

 few years ago, if it is not still so now, and proceeds to 

 enumerate some of the principal tricks and spells played 

 by the pretended witches, and some of the remedies used 

 to detect and cure them. Finally, it concludes by relating 

 another case of pretended witchcraft which was gravely 

 related to me by a respectable farmer of St. Peter-in-the- 

 Wood, just before the time this publication was made, and in 

 which he was the principal person concerned. 



