Bizarre beliefs of 1888: New Mexican Witches
The terror of the People-How to catch one Oar witchology is full, detailed and graphic, writes a St. Louis Globe correspondent from New Mexico. Every paleano can tell you their strange habits, their marvelous powers and their baleful deeds. They never injure the dumb animals, but woe to the human being who incurs their displeasure! Few, indeed are bold enough to brave their wrath. If a witch asks for food, wood, clothing, or anything else, none dare say nay. Nor dare any one eat what a witch proffers; for, if he do, some animal, alive and gnawing, will form in his stomach. By day the witches wear their familiar form, but at night dressed in strange animals shape, they fly abroad to hold witch meetings in the mountains to wreak their evil wills.