Perhaps the following account of superstitions now entertained in some
parts of Somersetshire, will be interesting to the inquirers into the
history of witchcraft. I was lately informed by a member of my congregation
that two children living near his house were bewitched. I made inquiries
into the matter, and found that witchcraft is by far less uncommon than I
had imagined. I can hardly adduce the two children as an authenticated
case, because the medical gentleman who attended them pronounced their
illness to be a kind of ague: but I leave the two following cases on record
in "N. & Q." as memorable instances of witchcraft in the nineteenth
century.
A cottager, who does not live five minutes' walk from my house, found his
pig seized with a strange and unaccountable disorder. He, being a sensible
man, instead of asking the advice of a veterinary surgeon, immediately went
to the white witch (a gentleman who drives a flourishing trade in this
neighbourhood). He received his directions, and went home and implicitly
followed them. In perfect silence, he went to the pigsty; and lancing each
foot and both ears of the pig, he allowed the blood to run into a piece of
common dowlas. Then taking two large pins, he pierced the dowlas in
opposite directions; and still keeping silence, entered his cottage, locked
the door, placed the bloody rag upon the fire, heaped up some turf over it,
and reading a few verses of the Bible, waited till the dowlas was burned.
As soon as this was done, he returned to the pigsty; found his pig
perfectly restored to health, and, _mirabile dictu!_ as the white witch had
predicted, the old woman, who it was supposed had bewitched the pig, came
to inquire after the pig's health. The animal never suffered a day's
illness afterwards. My informant was the owner of the pig himself.
Perhaps, when I heard this story, there may have been a lurking expression
of doubt upon my face, so that my friend thought it necessary to give me
farther proof. Some time ago a lane in this town began to be looked upon
with a mysterious awe, for every evening a strange white rabbit {614} would
appear in it, and, running up and down, would mysteriously disappear. Dogs
were frequently put on the scent, but all to no purpose, the white rabbit
could not be caught; and rumours soon began to assert pretty confidently,
that the white rabbit was nothing more nor less than a witch. The man whose
pig had been bewitched was all the more confident; as every evening when
the rabbit appeared, he had noticed the bed-room window of his old enemy's
house open! At last a large party of bold-hearted men one evening were
successful enough to find the white rabbit in a garden, the only egress
from which is through a narrow passage between two cottages, all the rest
of the garden being securely surrounded by brick-walls. They placed a
strong guard in this entry to let nothing pass, while the remainder
advanced as skirmishers among the cabbages: one of these was successful,
and caught the white rabbit by the ears, and, not without some trepidation,
carried it towards the reserve in the entry. But, as he came nearer to his
friends, his courage grew; and gradually all the wrongs his poor pig had
suffered, took form and vigour in a powerful kick at the poor little
rabbit! No sooner had he done this than, he cannot tell how, the rabbit was
out of his grasp; the people in the entry saw it come, but could not stop
it; through them all it went, and has never been seen again. But now to the
proof of the witchcraft. The old woman, whom all suspected, was laid up in
her bed for three days afterwards, unable to walk about: all in consequence
of the kick she had received in the shape of a white rabbit!