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MAGUS

65 mouth of each crock was the form of a cross of wood. Attached to each point of the cross was a long hair, supposed to have been taken from the tail from the tails of the cows. Her husband, from the shame of his wife being accused and found guilty of so horrible a crime as her, [was] found dead the same night. It is said the cure was affected and the milk and butter restored by taking a quantity of straw from the eave of the house of the person found guilty and burning under the nostrils of the cow or cows blinked. The priests perform the cure by taking all the milk the cow gives and blessing it and also blessing salt out into it. This to be given to the cow without letting a particle to the ground. This cure was given to the cow of a Presbyterian in [the] parish of Termoneeny but without effect.’ Liverpool Mercury, 6 January 1871, Witchcraft in Ireland [Newtownards, Co. Down]. At Newtownards (County Down) quarter sessions, on Tuesday, Hugh Kennedy, to recover the sum of £14 for wages alleged to be due for one year. It appeared that the plaintiff and defendant were brothers, and the point in dispute was whether the plaintiff had been hired at £7 a year or £7 per half year. During the examination of the plaintiff he stated that his brother’s house and land were frequented by witches, and that he had been employed to banish them. The witches did not belong to the “good people,” as they were evilly and maliciously inclined towards his brother, the consequence of which was that his land got into a bad condition, and his cows into a state of settled melancholy. There was a certain charm of great repute in the neighbourhood for putting to flight these unwelcome visitors; but it was only useful when properly applied and performed, and no other person but plaintiff could be got to undertake the serious task, and perhaps, of gaining their ill-will. The method pursued was this-Plaintiff locked himself in the house alone, all others leaving for the time being. He stopped up the keyholes, closed up the windows, stuffed up the chimney, and, in fact, left no mode of egress to the unfortunate witches, whom he was to summon into his presence to meet their well-merited doom. He then lit a fire and put a pot of milk on it, and into the pot he put three rows of pins and needles which had never been sullied or contaminated by use. These he boiled together for half an hour, during which time the witches had the satisfaction of nearly choking him with the smoke for his cruel conduct. In the interim he had a great conflict with them, and believed the potency of the spell to be all powerful, as they had never been seen or heard of since. The cows resumed their former healthy condition, and the land its wonted fertility. The case being one of a rather “complicated” nature, it was left to arbitration. Subsequently it was announced in court that the arbitrators had awarded to the plaintiff the sum of 10s. The plaintiff seemed to think that the services he had rendered, not

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