Village brand girl, 9, as ‘witch’.
Little Nicolina and ‘evil spirit’ start a panic.
From Llyn Lewis, Rome, Saturday.
Police have been sent to a tiny hamlet in Southern Italy to protect a girl of nine who is accused by neighbours of being a witch. The tales about little Nicolina Mustone started when she went to stay with her aunt and uncle in their three-roomed cottage at Melito, Irpino. For when she arrived their smallholding went haywire. Hens stopped laying, water turned bad, and the rabbits started killing each other.
Then the furniture in the house started moving by itself. Jars fell off shelves, tables overturned, and a barrel of grain – too heavy for two men to lift – turned on its side as the frightened family watched. When Nicolina went home to her parents, the strange happenings stopped. Her uncle, Antonio Mustone, 79, said: “I didn’t believe at first that it was anything to do with the child. But when she came back trouble started again. I believe there is a spirit in the house which does not like her.”
The local bishop has blessed Nicolina, and a priest tried to exorcise the spirit. But the trouble went on. So last week villagers called in a “wizard.” He cleared the house, sealed it, and ordered the spirit to depart. When the door was opened, the furniture had been disarranged. It was then that Nicolina’s uncle called in police.
Already, farmers have chased Nicolina out of their fields with pitchforks, and children stoned her.
Sunday Mirror, 20th March 1966.