Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/74

58 and requests her to do the shopping. The witch herself is not allowed to appear in the street. If she were not seized at once by the police or priest, she would fall into the hands of peasant women. Every one of them turns to her in case of need, bringing rich presents or money, but every one of them knows that all misfortunes befalling the inhabitants of the village are the result of demoniac curses. And should the peasant women behold the poor, friendless old hag in the street, they might pursue her in a crowd, surround her and beat her, beat her womanlike with gradual, pitiless, tormenting torture. Pulled out hair, scratched out eyes, knocked out teeth, or broken bones, are nothing much to them. In their superstitious fear and rage women have torn the witch to pieces, burned the ragged remnants of her body to ashes, and blown them to the "dry woods, to the empty fields."

Sometimes they will drag her to the river and throw her down into the water with a stone around her neck.

Such are the witches, and such is the fate of "the devil's betrothed."