Note 26 — Chapter I · THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS

A Pomeranian Rite.—An attempt was made a few days ago to cast a devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district of Pomerania, on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a sour and somewhat hysterical temperament, and three of the village gossips came to the conclusion that she was a victim of diabolical possession and resolved to effect a cure by means of enchantment. They first of all gathered the herbs needed for the purpose in the forest at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then a tripod was formed of three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. Beneath her was fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. As the fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the louder they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough to prove effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that the devil would run out of the woman after them. She, however, continued to shriek. Her cries were heard by a man, who released her.—The Times, December 5, 1921.