Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1884 — Lingering Superstitions. [ARTICLE]

Lingering Superstitions.

A strange instance of cruelty, prompted by superstition, recently occurred at Clonmel, in Ireland. Two ignorant peasant girls took a poor deformed little child of 3 (years of age, and subjected it to agonies which endangered and were perhaps fatal to its life. Among other barbarous tortures, they put it On a hot shovel, and so burned it dreadfully. The excuse given by the women was that the child was what is known in the rural districts of Ireland as a “fairy changeling.” It is still believed by large numbers of the Irish peasantry, that certain supernatural being which they call “elves” exist, and sometimes visit the abodes of mortals. These elves are said to be but three or four inches in height; they may make themselves transparent or invisible at will; they are reported to dwell in beautiful underground grottoes; and are supposed to play many mischievous pranks with human beings. One of the customs attributed to the elves is that of coming down the chimney, or even through a key-hole, taking Children away, and replacing them with 'Vitch-like babes, which are therefore vailed “changelings.;” and it was because the two peasant women thought their crjppled little victim to be a fairy changeling that they tortured it. Their purpose was to drive the witch-spirit out of it. The rural parts of Europe, as well as of Asia, fairly teem with still lingering superstitions, not a whit less gross and absurd than that which has been spoken of. In many Irish dictricts, implicit belief is“still given to the existence of a “banshee,” or female spirit of the household. Another supernatural being in Ireland is “Chericanne,” who reveals himself to mortals as a wrinkled old man, and leads those whom he favors to find hidden treasures. A less beneficent spirit is that of “Phooka,” a fierce demon who hurries his victims to destruction across bogs and over yawning precipices. “Phooka” takes many shapes, according to the superstition; but most often appears as an eagle, or a black horse. In Scotland the belief in “Kelpy” and “Brownie” yet lingers in remote Highland fastnesses; and there are certain secluded districts in England, sunk in ignorance, where peasants may be found who are convinced that misfor-tune-working witches still live and work their malignant spells. It is less than twenty years ago that a poor old Frenchman was outrageously maltreated in an English village bcause he was suspected of witchcraft. To this day many a Devonshire hind believes in the influence of the “evil eye,” and will religiously shun a person whom he thinks possesses this ocular deformity. Perhaps of all countries, Italy is the most rife with superstition in all its strange and imaginative varieties. Italians believe in the “evil eye.” They have a “false spirit,” which is, given to practical jokes upon mortals; and a darker hobgoblin, the “Fata Morgana,” who draws youths beneath the waves of the Straits of Messina, and leaves them there to drown. There is a certain walnut tree near Benevento, in Italy, around which the witches are said to gather on certain nights; and many a peasant of the campagna believes that the witches assemble on midsummer night amid the ruins of the Roman Forum, where they turn themselves into huge black eats. As one goes East, the superstitions of the ignorant thicken and multiply. India is full of supernatural traditions and fantasies; and many are the tortures and cruelties visited upon the poor creatures who are charged with witchcraft or demonism. It is, however, a certain and comforting fact that the further education spreads, the further it drives back and roots out these foolish fears and fancies, which are bred of ignorance. It is not many centuries since superstition Was universal the world over. It now only lingers where the light of knowledge has not yet been able to penetrate. —Youth’s Companion.