The World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), Saturday 22 November 1947, page 10

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137126078

There's a spate of witch-hunting

By BILL KNOWLES

WHENLord Inverchapel, for

merly Sir Archibald Clark

Kerr, Britain's popular Ambassador

to the United States, cut short his

Honeymoon to nurry to loch Jt.cn,

his Scottish estate, to exorcise a

witch, he did not .create a precedent.

He was merely following an old.

custom.

At the estate, the diplomat found

the household seriously concerned at

evidence of witchcraft.

According to local folklore, witches

were slowly destroying a stone wallthat obstructed their path north to

Black Sabbath revels.

With typical thoroughness Lord

Inverchapel set about banishing the

spell. >

A fire was lit on the terrace of the

old ancestral home, and into it was

poured brandy. By the eerie light of

the leaping and dancing flames, Lord

Inverchapel solemnly conducted the

exorcism.

At the conclusion of the service

champagne was served to all present.Lord Inverchapel's action set off a

spate of witch-hunting that extended

over Britain.*

Aboriginal relic

The Rev. T. H. Elkington, padre to

the Missions to Seamen at Falmouth,

caused a stir by announcing that he

would conduct an exorcism service on

the "death-bone" of an Australian

aborigine.

Misfortune had all those who

Misfortune had dogged all those who

had possessed this grisly souvenir,which was taken to England by JimmyHill, a former member of the Merchant

Navy.Hill got the bone from one of the

Loritja tribe in Central Australia,

where it had been used by the tribal

medicine men. Even now "pointingthe bone" is a practice extensively used

and feared by superstitious blacks in

remote parts 6f Australia.

On his way to England, Hill showed

the death-bone' to several people, one

of whom went down with meningitis,another with infantile paralysis, and

a third complained of queer Illness

after viewing the bone.

Hill said he was too superstitious

to destroy the bone, and so on his

arrival in England he persuaded Padre

Penny, of Bristol, to accept it. Like

a curse from over the ocean, bad luck

struck again. A mysterious sickness

laid low several members of tlie Padre's

family.

Immediately, Padre Penny got in

touch with his friend, Padre Elkington, who agreed to do what he could.

He said *he believed ih the potency of

the native curse, but did not fear it.

However, he planned to burn the bone

just in case.

Before the exorcism service, Hill de

manded his talisman, which was

handed back.

The desperate housing situation in

postwar England, was indirectly re

Lord and the

sponsible for yet another case of at

tempting to lay an unwanted ghost.

A huge apparition was reported to

be haunting an old almshouse at Langley, Buckinghamshire. The tenants

appealed to the Rev. T. D. Prentis to

save them from what they feared to

be a visitation from another world.

Knowing it was impossible for them

to find other accommodation, he

promised to do what he could.

Delving into musty ecclesiastical

tomes, he found that the medieval

church authorised a ritual for riddinga place of unwanted, spirits.

"Bell, book, candle""Bell, book and candle," ran the

litany. The 'correct procedure, he

found, was for the priest to end his

incantation with the words "unclean

spirit, depart thee hence, go to the

Book, quench the candle, ring the

bell."

Even staid local government bodies

in England are taking up cudgels

against these unearthly visitations.

Fearing a loss in rates because of

a local legend, Duton Council organ

ised a ghost hunt. The story went

that 250 years ago an irate father

locked his daughter and her lover in

a cupboard in which they died. Later

Dick Turpin, the highwayman, taking

shelter in the house, found their skele

tons. He then blackmailed the father

into letting him use the house as a

hideout.

The eviction- party consisted of a

spiritual medium, a' member of the

Society of Psychical Research, and H.

W. Richards, a member of the local

council. v

Mere coincidence?But .are ghost hunts always success

ful? Or is it merely coincidence that

after exorcism the phenomenon

appears to cease?

Some years ago the Railway *author

ities at Tokio were gravely concerned

about the number of inexplicable acci

dents at Tokio Station.

It was put down to the work of an

evil spirit, reputed to live in a stone

from a tomb that had been built into

the platform.

The stationmaster had the offend

ing stone removed, and a Buddhist highpriest performed an exorcism service.

This had the desired effect.

Since 1858, a lighthouse in the

Bahamas was reputed to be haunted.

This had been reported officially bya succession of lightkeepers. In 1914,

a new keeper decided to lay the un

canny visitor once and for all. He

held "committal service" at dusk on

his first day ,of duty. The phantomhas not been seen since.

Superstitious beliefs are a heritagefrom the past. Today many people

give superstitions a wavering adher

ence, like that of the man who doesn't

believe in ghosts, but avoids cemeteries

at midnight.#