Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/222

 COLLECTANEA.

The Mystery of the Lamb's Head.

Witchcraft Story from Naples.

A STRANGE Story comes from Naples showing how old beliefs and superstitions still linger among the people, and with what passion they will chng to them. The old belief of the common Neapolitan people in witchcraft has been reaffirmed by an incident which took place there the other day. Some Customs officers on duty at an octroi station near the port noticed an old woman dressed in rags carrying something in a black cloth which she seemed anxious to hide from examination. The Customs officials naturally asked her to declare the contents of the parcel, but, as she refused, they were obliged to open it by force. The package contained a lamb's head wrapped round with a woman's hair, which was attached to the former by a kind of steel comb and forty-three large nails driven into the head.

As soon as rumour of what was in the parcel got about among the populace of the quarter, the cry of " She is a witch " was raised. With difficulty the Customs officers, with the assistance of some police, rescued the old woman from the fury of the mob. Interrogated by an inspector, she refused any informa- tion about herself ; only asking repeatedly that the lamb's head should be returned to her.

To keep the crowd quiet, the inspector agreed to hand over the lamb's head to a commission of citizens. The suggestion to destroy it on the spot w^as vetoed by those more learned in the ancient stories of witchcraft. A procession, composed of several hundreds of people, set out for the church of Sant