Bewitched Farm?
Strange French Story of Black Magic.
A beggar’s curse.
Witches and wizards are particularly busy in France just now. Following on revelations connected with the thrashing of the Abbe Desnoyers comes a new story of black magic which has terrified the inhabitants of a lonely farm near Cahors, in the Lot Department. The farm is occupied by M. Cavaille, 91 years of age, his wife, an octogenarian, their daugher, a widow of 50, and their 15 year old granddaughter.
On July 14th of last year a beggar woman, apparently of great age, came to the farm late one night and asked for a night’s lodgings. Cavaille and his wife, fearful of robbery, refused to shelter the unknown visitor, who, therefore, spat upon them and, shaking her fist in their faces, said they would have cause to remember the date on which they refused to help her.
Strange things began to happen afterwards. Sacks of grain tied to beams in the ceiling burst and spilled their contents over the floor, knives developed a habit of jumping from the table, and pails of water danced from place to place. A dressed pig hanging on a wall moved itself one night to the opposite side of the room.
The strangest story of all is that of the disappearance of a basket of truffles which had been left on the kitchen table. It disappeared during the night, but on the following morning the farmer noticed a clump of moss jumping from one rung to another of a ladder which led into the upper storey of the barn. He followed the jumping moss until it led him to a pile of straw, under which the basket of truffles was found.
A pig was killed the other day, and a cauldron of water for scalding it set on a great log fire. But, stoke as they would, the farmer’s people could not get the water even hot until, puzzled to the point of anger, the farmer uttered a string of lurid oaths, whereupon the water immediately began to boil.
This is the story told to the police by the farmer and some of his neighbours who claim to have seen these things. The police (says the Telegraph) are sceptical, but scores of visitors from miles around are making pilgrimages to the bewitched farm.
Nottingham Evening Post, 26th January 1926.