Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/73

Rh ing. Enraptured and excited with the uncommon experiences and sensations, she knows how to tell her dreams vividly and impressively, establishing thus her reputation of a "flying witch," who rides on a broom or a squab.

Her fame now travels far and fast, although it is studiously concealed from the priest and the police. Her usual occupation is to cure women or to help them in their love affairs. She procures love-philtres, finds sweethearts, or gets rid of hated, drunken, brutal husbands. True, these magic arts often lead to the green table of a criminal court, where clients appear in the dock. For the hag tells fortunes, conjures the soul of a given man in his sleep, soothsays and manufactures all kinds of mascots, lucky things, and teaches how, by the intense exertion of will, it is possible to hasten another man's natural demise.

She is a past mistress of hypnotism. Living a simple life surrounded by wild nature, in constant feat of the authorities, the priests, and the people, she be^ comes observant and suspicious and an excellent psychologist. But she is careful to hide natural phenomena under the mask of magic conjurations, charmed formulae, demonology, witchcraft, and other arts of black lore.

It is only rarely and under the pressure of sheer necessity that the weird hermit leaves her solitary shelter to get food or clothing in the village. Usually she steals at night into the house of a devoted client