WITCHCRAFT IN PENNSYLVANIA
as told to
ANN HOWARD
They came to visit us in the evening recently, these two new friends of ours. The husband Mark B. we call him was a fine looking chap, an athlete and amateur boxer, but it came out somehow that during his childhood he had been frail and sickly. When I asked him how the change came about, he replied with an unusual question -
"Do you believe in witchcraft," he asked.
"Yes," I said, "provided the victim believes he can bewitched."
Then he began to tell us an incident of his childhood. He had been born in a small town in Pennsylvania, where to this day witchcraft is practised, and the "6th and 7th Books of Moses" are held in high and dark repute. There was a town witch, of course, and all the children were warned against her, especially against looking her full in the face and so encountering the evil eye. But Mark B. was a venturesome youngster:
"There was a wide-topped fence back of our house, and my brother and I spent much time walking on it and watching for passers-by in the alley. And one evening the town witch came that way. My brother took to his heels, but I had too much curiosity. I thought I could see what she looked like, without looking into her eyes. But when she came close and I glanced at her face, her gaze caught mine and held it. I knew then what it feels like to be spell-bound. Everything seemed to stand still for a few moments, then the woman looked away and I ran for it.
"It was right after this that I began to fail in health. My bones began softening. But my aunt was a tryer; she tried me for magic, and found all the signs, and sent right away for a famous hex doctor. When he came here's what he did for a cure. He put a three-legged table in just the right position and made me crawl around one leg of it three times while he repeated prayers in German. Next, he made me hang onto the top of the door while it was 'swung' to and fro eight times, to the accompaniment of more prayers. Then he had me stand on the table, and he tied a string in a loop with a peculiar knot. He passed this loop down over me, and then up, and then down again - and then I stepped over it with my right foot. 'You're all free from the spell now,' said the hex doctor."
"And did it do you any good? What do you think about it now?" I asked him. Mark B. smiled a little.
"I suppose it was a vitamine deficiency," he said, "and maybe they fed me better after that, tho I don't know. At any rate, I started a quick recovery, and I've never had a sick day since."