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��MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN HOPKINTON.
��tent in this town. We have heard a story of a man assaulting, axe in hand, an old woman whom he conceived might have obsessed his child, and threatening to destroy her if the annoy- ance did not cease. The child was re- lieved by the operation. There is also a story that incantation was once tried on a reputed witch, in consequence of an afflicted person, and the result affected the suspected witch with great and prolonged agony, if it did not de- stroy her. A successful trick was once played on Witch Burbank. Two young men, apprentices of David Young, cab- inet maker, joiner, etc., were disbe- lievers in witchcraft. Seeing Witch Burbank passing the shop one day, one of the young men, remembering that silence must be maintained during in- cantation, motioned his companion to hand him a brad-awl, which he took and stuck in the track of the witch. She had passed but a few rods and sat down when the awl was applied to the earth. Pretty soon Mrs. Young, a person well remembered for her eccentricities, entered the shop in great concern, asking the young men what they had done to Witch Burbank to make her stop ; for she feared the witch would obsess them all. The apprentices denied any ac- tion on their part, but, on Mrs. Young's return to the house, the awl was with- drawn from the earth, and Witch Bur- bank continued on her way. We pre- sume the attitude of the young men to-
��wards witchcraft was afterwards some what modified.
We said at the beginning that super- stition is the offspring of ignorance. We may add that the child is capable of great filial attachment. With the progress of popular intelligence many follies disappear. That there are oc- cult phenomena constantly attendant upon human life cannot be denied. True knowledge, however, allows no absurd superstition, though it may en- tertain a rational mystery, which, though it transcends the intelligence, does not contradict it. Some of the affirmed facts of ancient marvel are too puerile for explanation. Others are subjects of frequent present elucidation by teachers of different branches of science.* There are still others that imply prob- lems not yet solved in any uniform con- ception of the public mind, and which are open to such investigation as in- quiring minds are able to bring to bear upon them.
- It is well known to the scientific world
that stagnate water, when drunk by cows, will convey microscopic spores of infuso- rial life into the general circulation of the animal and, in the milk, cause a viscous and frothy condition, of mysterious ori- gin to the uninformed. It is another scientifically apparent fact that dyspep- sia, or indigestion, will induce a great variety of spectral illusions in the minds of sleeping persons, especially if they happen to be of active cerebral, and nervous temperaments. Alcoholic fermentation in cream, also, thwarts the manufacture of butter.
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