Cutting Edge

       In Africa, witchcraft is known by the Nyakyusa as “python in the belly”, by the Pondo as “snake of the women”, and by the Xhosa as ” great hairy beast”. The Tswana believe in the night witches as well as day sorcerers. The night witches are elderly women  who cast evil spells on people. The day sorcerers use herbs potions to inflict them. 
      In China, witchcraft is favoured by a culture steeped in mysticism and magic. Herbs, the staff, potions, and hares are all used in rituals that are associated with the moon.
      Indian witchcraft has existed for centuries and includes amulets, charms, and potions. On the South Pacific islands, magic predominates, with many different gods, spirits, and supernatural beliefs. The sea plays a central role in magic, and the people routinely cast spells.
      In Norway, witches were found guilty of causing shipwrecks and murder. In the Basque region of the Pyrenees, six hundred witches were tortured and killed in four months.
      Between 1576 and 1612 in Austria, witchcraft flourished under Emperor Rudolf II. He decided that all insane people were really witches. If a little kid said you were a witch, it sufficed for crazy Emperor Rudolf II to have you killed as a witch. In Salzburg, a witchcraft scare cost a hundred people their lives after brutal torture. In Tyrol, only children under the age of seven were safe from accusations of witchcraft. Those accused were tortured mercilessly.
      Witches didn’t fare much better in Bavaria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, or America. In fact, torture and death became commonplace around the world for wiches. In 1641, England made witchcraft a capital crime. In 1688, the Salem witch trials began with the hanging of the laundress Goody Glover, who was accused of turning Martha Goodwin and her younger brother and two sisters into witches. In 1692, nineteen witches were tortured and hanged, one wizard was pressed to death, and four accused witches died in prison.