he natural result of Puritanical teaching acting on the
mind, predisposing men to see Satanic influence in life, and
consequently eliciting the phenomena of witchcraft." LECKY's
_Rationalism in Europe_ (Vol. I, p. 123).

Witchcraft's reign in many lands and among many peoples is also attested
in its remarkable nomenclature. Consider its range in ancient, medieval
and modern thought as shown in some of its definitions: Magic, sorcery,
soothsaying, necromancy, astrology, wizardry, mysticism, occultism, and
conjuring, of the early and middle ages; compacts with Satan, consorting
with evil spirits, and familiarity with the Devil, of later times; all
at last ripening into an epidemic demonopathy with its countless victims
of fanaticism and error, malevolence and terror, of persecution and
ruthless sacrifices.

It is still most potent in its evil, grotesque, and barbaric forms, in
Fetichism, Voodooism, Bundooism, Obeahism, and Kahunaism, in the devil
and animal ghost worship of the black races, completely exemplified in
the arts of the Fetich wizard on the Congo; in the "Uchawi" of the
Wasequhha mentioned by Stanley; in the marriage customs of the Soudan
devil worshipers; in the practices of the Obeah men and women in the
Caribbees--notably their power in matters of love and business, religion
and war--in Jamaica; in the incantations of the kahuna in Hawaii; and in
the devices of the voodoo or conjure doctor in the southern states; in
the fiendish rites and ceremonies of the red men,--the Hoch-e-ayum of
the Plains Indians, the medicine dances of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes,
the fire dance of the Navajos, the snake dance of the Moquis, the sun
dance of the Sioux, in the myths and tales of the Cherokees; and it
rings in many tribal chants and songs of the East and West.

It lives as well, and thrives luxuriantly, ripe for the full vintage, in
the minds of many people to whom this or that trivial incident or
accident of life is an omen of good or evil fortune with a mysterious
parentage. Its roots strike deep in that strange element in human nature
which dreads whatsoever is weird and uncanny in common experiences, and
sees strange portents and dire chimeras in all that is unexplainable to
the senses. It is made most virile in the desire for knowledge of the
invisible and intangible, that must ever elude the keenest inquiry, a
phase of thought always to be reckoned with when imagination runs riot,
and potent in its effect, t