Horrible of Execution in Spain
--The
Discussion publishes a horrible instance of the degrading influence of fanaticism and ignorance among the
Spanish peasantry:
"A farmer of the neighborhood of Culls, district of Castellan, province of
Valencia, was some years back attacked with vertigo and pains in the head, which returned regularly at intervals of a month.
His wife and three daughters did all they could to relieve him, but in vain.
At last, a pretended sorcerer who called at the house made the woman believe that the man was possessed by a devil, and that he would never be well as long as the field lived.
Accordingly, a few nights back, she and her three daughters, who shared her belief, attacked the man with hatchets as he was in bed asleep, and did not leave off until he was not only dead but literally out to pieces.
The next morning the woman went to the parish priest, and related that she and her girls had killed the demon who had so long effected her husband.
The woman the daughter, and the sorcerer were arrested.
The indignation of the people was so great against the latter that it was with difficulty they were prevented from killing him."