e
parts of Somersetshire, will be interesting to the inquirers into the
history of witchcraft. I was lately informed by a member of my congregation
that two children living near his house were bewitched. I made inquiries
into the matter, and found that witchcraft is by far less uncommon than I
had imagined. I can hardly adduce the two children as an authenticated
case, because the medical gentleman who attended them pronounced their
illness to be a kind of ague: but I leave the two following cases on record
in "N. & Q." as memorable instances of witchcraft in the nineteenth
century.

A cottager, who does not live five minutes' walk from my house, found his
pig seized with a strange and unaccountable disorder. He, being a sensible
man, instead of asking the advice of a veterinary surgeon, immediately went
to the white witch (a gentleman who drives a flourishing trade in this
neighbourhood). He received his directions, and went home and implicitly
followed them. In perfect silence, he went to the pigsty; and lancing each
foot and both ears of the pig, he allowed the blood to run into a piece of
common dowlas. Then taking two large pins, he pierced the dowlas in
opposite directions; and still keeping silence, entered his cottage, locked
the door, placed the bloody rag upon the fire, heaped up some turf over it,
and reading a few verses of the Bible, waited till the dowlas was burned.
As soon as this was done, he returned to the pigsty; found his pig
perfectly restored to health, and, _mirabile dictu!_ as the white witch had
predicted, the old woman, who it was supposed had bewitched the pig, came
to inquire after the pig's health. The animal never suffered a day's
illness afterwards. My informant was the owner of the pig himself.

Perhaps, when I heard this story, there may have been a lurking expression
of doubt upon my face, so that my friend thought it necessary to give me
farther proof. Some time ago a lane in this town began to be looked upon
with a mysterious awe, for every evening a strange white rabbit {614} would
appear in it, and, running up and down, would mysteriously disappear. Dogs
were frequently put on the scent, but all to no purpose, the white rabbit
could not be caught; and rumours soon began to assert pretty confidently,
that the white rabbit was nothing more nor less than a witch. The man whose
pig had been bewitched was all the more confident; as every evening when
the rabbit appeared, he had noticed