A case in which superstition has produced a fiendish murder
is reported this week from Clontnel, in Ireland. A. man named Cleary, a peasant, found his wife subject to some nervous affection, accompanied with inability to eat, and decided that she was bewitched. He therefore ordered her to declare that she was not his wife, and on her refusal, placed her on the fire. She still refused, and he took her off ; but next day, in the presence of eight relatives, be repeated his demand, and being again refused, stripped his wife, poured oil over her, and burnt her to death on the fire, declaring that the relatives would soon see her fly up the chimney. The charred body was then buried in the garden, where it was found by the police. The man is not shown to be mad, and of course all pre- sent could not have been. It was a real case of be- lief in possession, remarkable only for the utter cal- lousness which it produced. One would have expected Irishmen to appeal to the priest, that the demon might be exorcised ; but in these frightful cases, which occur pretty frequently in Italy and Hungary, that merciful course is rarely taken. All present will of course be hied—some of them for murder—and it is a relicf to note that popular feeling is decidedly against them.
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