eal_ of a witch. So dear is power to the human heart, that
this old woman actually encouraged the popular superstition; she took no
pains to remove the ill impression, but seemed to delight that she, old
and miserable as she was, could keep in awe so many happier and stronger
fellow-creatures. Timid girls crouched with fear when they met her, and
many would go a mile out of their way to avoid her. Like the witches of
the olden time, she was not sparing of her curses against those who
offended her. The child of a woman who resided within two doors of her was
afflicted with lameness, and the mother constantly asserted that the old
woman had bewitched her. All the neighbours credited the tale. It was
believed, too, that she could assume the form of a cat. Many a harmless
puss has been hunted almost to the death by mobs of men and boys, upon the
supposition that the animal would start up before them in the true shape
of Mother ----.

In the same town there resided a fisherman, who was the object of
unceasing persecution, because it was said that he had sold himself to the
devil. It was currently reported that he could creep through a keyhole,
and that he had made a witch of his daughter, in order that he might have
the more power over his fellows. It was also believed that he could sit on
the points of pins and needles and feel no pain. His brother fishermen put
him to this test whenever they had an opportunity. In the alehouses which
he frequented, they often placed long needles in the cushions of the
chairs in such a manner that he could not fail to pierce himself when he
sat down. The result of these experiments tended to confirm their faith in
his supernatural powers. It was asserted that he never flinched. Such was
the popular feeling in the fashionable town of Hastings a few years ago;
very probably it is the same now.

In the north of England, the superstition lingers to an almost
inconceivable extent. Lancashire abounds with witch-doctors, a set of
quacks who pretend to cure diseases inflicted by the devil. The practices
of these worthies may be judged of by the following case, reported in the
_Hertford Reformer_ of the 23d of June 1838. The witch-doctor alluded to
is better known by the name of the _cunning man_, and has a large practice
in the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham. According to the writer in the
_Reformer_, the dupe, whose name is not mentioned, had been for about two
years afflicted with a painful a