he origin of the quarrel,
adhered to this statement. Mrs. Susannah Gathercole
also corroborated the statement as to the assault,
adding that the defendant said the complainant's
mother was a witch. Defendant then blazed forth in
righteous indignation, and, when the witness said she
knew no more about the origin of the quarrel, he said,
'Mrs. Martins is an old witch, gentlemen, that is what
she is, and she charmed me, and I got no sleep for her
for three nights, and one night at half-past eleven
o'clock, I got up because I could not sleep, and went
out and found a "walking toad" under a clod that had
been dug up with a three-pronged fork. That is why I
could not rest; she is a bad old woman; she put this
toad under there to charm me, and her daughter is just
as bad, gentlemen. She would bewitch any one; she
charmed me, and I got no rest day or night for her,
till I found this "walking toad" under the turf. She
dug a hole and put it there to charm me, gentlemen,
that is the truth. I got the toad out and put it in a
cloth, and took it upstairs and showed it to my
mother, and "throwed" it into the pit in the garden.
She went round this here "walking toad" after she had
buried it, and I could not rest by day or sleep by
night till I found it. The Bench: Do you go to church?
Defendant: Sometimes I go to church, and sometimes to
chapel, and sometimes I don't go nowhere. Her mother
is bad enough to do anything; and to go and put the
"walking toad" in the hole like that, for a man which
never did nothing to her, she is not fit to live,
gentlemen, to go and do such a thing; it is not as if
I had done anything to her. She looks at lots of
people, and I know she will do some one harm. The
Chairman: Do you know this man, Superintendent Symons?
Is he sane? Superintendent Symons: Yes, sir;
perfectly."[281]

In Somerset belief in witchcraft still lingers in nooks and corners of
the west, as appears from a case brought before the magistrates of the
Wiveliscombe division.

"Sarah Smith, the wife of a marine store dealer,
residing at Golden Hill, was for some time ill and
confined to her bed. Finding that the local doctor
could not cure her, she sent for a witch doctor of
Taunton. He duly arrive