n's rights; and she became a
leader of the class of strong-minded women, still seeking to assert
their rights in politics, science, and art.

CHAPTER LXXI.

Superstition at Chelmsford--Woman
Bewitched--Fortune-telling Quack--Old
Zadkiel--Incantation in Somerset--Turning the Bible
and Key--Woman assuming the form of a Hare--Woman
ruling the Stars--Young Women Deceived--Superstition
in London--Generality of Superstition--A
Prediction--How to preserve Children from
Disease--Dreams Fulfilled--Virtue of Holly and Ivy in
Worcestershire and Herefordshire--Legend concerning
the Tichborne Family--Romantic Divorce Case.

A case tried at Chelmsford, on the Home Circuit, in 1864, affords a
curious proof how much antique superstition still lingers amongst the
English peasantry. For twenty years before 1863 there had been living
in one of the Essex villages an old man, deaf and dumb, who enjoyed
the reputation of a wizard or fortune-teller. He was eighty years of
age, and the singularities of his manner and appearance contributed to
the impression he made on the rustic mind. The better sort of people
treated the old man with a kindness due rather to his calamities than
to his profession, while the more sceptical of the rabble who did not
fear him, seem to have amused themselves occasionally at his expense.

Dummey had been at the village of Ridgewell, near Hedingham, in the
summer of 1863, where there was a beer-house, the landlady of which
was one Emma Smith. The old magician wanted to sleep in the beer-house
instead of returning to his own hut, but Emma Smith refused to give
him leave. He gesticulated menacingly in his own fashion with his
stick, and went his way angrily. Soon after this Emma became ill. The
image of Dummey rose before her mind, and she pronounced herself
"bewitched."

After long misery, she went forth to seek the old man, found him at
the "Swan," a public-house near his own den, and tried to persuade him
to return with her, that his presence might break the spell which hung
over her. She repeatedly offered him three sovereigns as payment for
this service; but neither money nor words could move him. Meanwhile
the news spread that a woman who had been bewitched by old Dummey was
at the "Swan," and a crowd assembled and pulled the unlucky wizard
about, so that he fell once or twice on the ground. Smith took an
active part in the assault; and