Beavers.—The following quotation from "An Account of the Micmakes and Maricheets, dependent on the Government of Cape Breton" (1758), pp. 37-38, mentions the superstitious use made by native jugglers of river-water in which beavers built their huts. "The great secret of these jugglers consists in having a great oorakin [bowl] full of water, from any river in which it was known there were beaver huts. Then he takes a certain number of circular turns round this oorakin, as it stands on the ground, pronouncing all the time with a low voice a kind of gibberish of broken words. After this he draws near to the bowl, and bending very low, or rather lying over it, looks at himself in it as in a glass. If he see the water in the least muddy or unsettled, he recovers his erect posture and begins his rounds again, till he finds the water as clear as he could wish it for his purpose, and then he pronounces over it his magic words. If, after having repeated them twice or thrice, he does not find the question proposed to him resolved by this inspection of the water, nor the wonders he wants operated by it, he says with a loud voice and a grave tone, that the Manitoo … would not declare himself till every one of the assistants should have told him (the juggler) in the ear what were his actual thoughts or greatest secret."
Witches in Cornwall.—Belief in witches and ill-wishing still lingers in Cornwall. Within two miles of Penzance live two families on adjacent farms. For twelve months the whole of the Jilbart household have believed that Mrs. Clarke, their neighbour, who is seventy-one years of age, was a witch, and had ill-wished their horses, so that they suddenly refused to pull, and started kicking. On Tuesday evening two young men of the Jilbart family went to Mrs. Clarke's farm, and threatened to murder Mrs. Clarke, who complained to the police, and warrants were issued. At the Penzance Police-court yesterday the elder brother swore that he believed Mrs. Clarke ill-wished their horses, causing them to kick and jib. Both young men were bound in £20 each, with a surety of £20 to keep the peace for six months. (Standard, March 7, 1890.)
Hungarian Custom.—"Shamokin (Penn). Fifty Hungarian women were thrown into the river by a gang of miners, and kept in the water until almost drowned. The women provoked the miners by following a custom alleged to be in vogue among the Hungarian peasants in Europe. The men are supposed to bathe at Eastertide, and, by way of a hint, the women threw water over all the men they met for the first day or two after Easter Sunday. This was the miners' way of retaliating." (Echo, April 10th, 1890, p. 3.)
