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This belief in the ability of witches to convert themselves into the
appearance of animals at pleasure was prevalent even during this
century. In 1828, or there-about, there died an old woman, who when
alive had gone about with a crutch, and it was reported of her, and
generally believed, that in her younger days she had the power of
witchcraft, and that one morning as she was out about some of her
unhallowed sports, disporting herself in the shape of a hare, that a man
who was out with a gun saw, as he thought, in the moonlight, a hare, and
fired at it, breaking its leg; but it took shelter behind a stone, and
when he went to get the hare, he found instead a young woman sitting
bandaging with a handkerchief her leg, which was bleeding. He knew her,
and upon her entreaty promised never to disclose her secret, and ever
after she went with a crutch. I have heard similar stories told of other
women in other localities, showing the prevalence of this form of
belief. As those who had dealings with the devil were believed to have
renounced their baptism or their allegiance to Christ, they never went
to church, and hated the Bible.
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