Doll of Witchcraft, a Witchy Wednesday article.
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Article in the Northern Weekly Gazette - Saturday 28 June 1902
DOLL OF WITCHCRAFT
Recently & curious doll was die. covered in Hungary by Franz von Crabnay, a noted ethnologist, and it haa been presented by him to the National Museum of that country. It is made of wax, and was fashioned by an old witch for a girl who had been forsaken by tier lover.
In order to make a doll of this kind effective as a love charm a long ceremony is necessary. First the witch and the girl meet at midnight in a room which has a window facing the east, and the witch hands the girl the doll and at the same moment utters the false sweetheart's name. The girl repeats his name three times, and after that two women utter this strange invocation: "Come back, I say; come back. If you don't may the demons pre-vent you from eating and from sleeping quietly in your bed. If you do not come back I will drive my knife into your heart (at these words the girl sticks a knitting needle through the doll) and then you will surely die and the ants eat your flesh. I pray, too, that as the tongue goes into the mouth, so may you go after me, and as I cannot live without a tongue, so may you not be able to live without me."
If the faithless swain does not appear in due time the following curse is shouted up the chimney by the two women:-"Demons, bring him back wherever he is, for he shall have no rest! May my curse follow him and, as formerly ST. Peter betrayed Christ three times before the cock had crowed twice, so may the devils persecute you, and 1 too will torment you as long as there is breath in your body! Here by this elder bush I bury you, and may the devils and their servants throw you into their mill and bruise your body until your blood gushes out and only your skeleton remains Having uttered these words, the girl spits three times in the doll's face, and then buries it under the elder bush.
In the days of Joan of Aro, as readers of this paper will remember, having noted in the recent series of articles on that period, the resort to these wax dolls was a frequent practice.
Northern Weekly Gazette - Saturday 04 April 1908
Please join me again next week for another WW article.
Kat 😊
