HEX 'RECIPES' REVEALED!
"A man who loves a widow still in love with her dead husband should go to the husband's grave, get a little dirt, and bake it in a cake to be fed to the widow. Her affections will be transferred to the living man."
Weird though it is, this is only one of the strange recipes prescribed by witch doctors of the Hex people of York County, and more recently, to a small degree, in Allegheny County.
Evidences of hexism, some secrets of which were revealed three years ago following a murder in York County, have been noted here by Rev. Raymond N. Stumpf, pastor of Verona Trinity Lutheran Church, who spent his childhood in the hex country.
Recently, Rev. Stumpf said, a woman was taken to a local hospital after being severely beaten by a man who learned the woman was to use her hex powers on him.
Killed for Lock of Hair
In the York County case a young man, following the instructions of a hex doctor who had told him the misfortune following his family was the result of an evil spell cast on him by one versed in black magic, murdered his farmer-neighbor to obtain a lock of his hair.
The lock of hair of the murdered man, whom he believed had cast the supposedly evil spell on him, was buried under six feet of ground in accordance with the instructions given him by the witch doctor.
York County authorities made a concerted drive to eradicate this dark survival of practices and beliefs, born in the early days of the human race.
Their success in the face of centuries of secret growth through devious channels and eerie whisperings, can only be guessed.
115-Year-Old Book
Rev. Stumpf has in his possession one of the few manuals of hex magic outside the hex people themselves.
It was compiled in 1816 by one Johanes Hofmann in Delberg.
In it, written in German, in a fine flowing hand, are the incredulously superstitious and fantastic recipes for curing illness, misfortune, means of exorcising "black" hexes, how to obtain the affections of an indifferent sweetheart, and countless incantations for every contingency.
It has been said by a curator of Carnegie museum, to be one of the oldest books known on the subject of the hexers.
It tells how to do everything from changing a dice-shooter's luck to curing rheumatism.
Rev. Stumpf has had it translated, and it forms a valuable commentary on the customs and practices of people living outwardly in a modern world, but actually abiding in a world peopled by evil spirits, wicked machinations, and heathenish beliefs.
Practices of Hex People Described
Here are a few formulas for the exorcising of evil spirits, similar to the Voodoo rites of Haiti, and the primitive tribes of Africa:
• If one wishes to send a message to a dead person, catch and kill a black cat, write the message and put it in the cat's mouth, and when the cat has disappeared (or decomposed), the message will have been delivered.
• If you are a consistent loser at dice; snare a bat, cut its heart out, tie it around the dice-shooting arm, and go on with the game.
• To ward off fire, wrap an egg, laid by a black hen on Holy Thursday, in a soiled garment and put the package under the door sill.
• If your cow gives bad milk, put its foot in a mash (probably containing a medicinal herb).
• Should rheumatism cause painful twinges, pinch the underclothing being worn at the time between the door and the sill, every night until it is cured.
• To ward off lightning, carry around in a pocket or on the person, the dried body of a kingfisher.
• If a child suffers from a croup, take a hair from the head of a child whose father has died before its birth and tie it around the child's neck or have the same child stir a cup of tea containing the hair of a child born after its father's death.
How to Chase Fever
• Fever can be chased away by wearing one's shirt wrong side out three days in succession and saying in the morning, before putting it on, 'shirt, turn thyself; fever depart.'
These are only samples of the weird incredulous practices and incantations described in the book.
Hex beliefs are divided in two classes, white magic and black magic. White is for the working of good, and black for casting evil spells.
The hexers put their curses on humans or animals, as they wish.
The hex doctors may be either men or women. They frequently amass fortunes working their spells.
The study of ancient superstitions and religions is the hobby of Rev. Stumpf, who resided for several years in Adams, Berks, York and Lancaster Counties, the part of the country settled by Germans more than 100 years ago. His father was a minister for 42 years in York County.
A black cat as a symbol of good and bad luck, is the oldest and most ineradicable superstition in the world according to Rev. Stumpf.
It has been found in the annals of the Egyptians and subsequent religions.
From Pittsburgh, PA, Sunday paper dated Nov. 1, 1931