Several such
persons were suspected, and sent for to visit the afflicted woman; and,
while they were in the house, a relation of the sufferer's secretly cut
out a small portion of the visitor's dress and threw it into the fire,
by which means it was believed that the influence of the _ill e'e_ would
be destroyed. At all events, the woman suddenly got well again, and as a
consequence the superstitious belief of those who were in the secret was
strengthened.
CHAPTER VI.
_CHARMS AND COUNTER CHARMS._
During these times when such superstitious beliefs were almost
universally accepted--when the sources from which evils might be
expected to spring were about as numerous as the unchecked fancies of
men could make them--we must naturally conceive that the people who
believed such things must have lived in a continual state of fear. And
in many instances this was really the case; but the common result was
not so, for fortunately the bane and antidote were generally found
together, and the means for preventing or exorcising these devil-imposed
evils were about as numerous as the evils themselves.
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