This belief in the ability of witches to convert themselves into the appearance of animals at pleasure was prevalent even during this century.  In 1828, or there-about, there died an old woman, who when alive had gone about with a crutch, and it was reported of her, and generally believed, that in her younger days she had the power of witchcraft, and that one morning as she was out about some of her unhallowed sports, disporting herself in the shape of a hare, that a man who was out with a gun saw, as he thought, in the moonlight, a hare, and fired at it, breaking its leg; but it took shelter behind a stone, and when he went to get the hare, he found instead a young woman sitting bandaging with a handkerchief her leg, which was bleeding.  He knew her, and upon her entreaty promised never to disclose her secret, and ever after she went with a crutch.  I have heard similar stories told of other women in other localities, showing the prevalence of this form of belief.  As those who had dealings with the devil were believed to have renounced their baptism or their allegiance to Christ, they never went to church, and hated the Bible.  Therefore, all who did not follow the custom of believers were not only considered infidels, but as having enlisted in the devil’s corps, and such people in small localities were kept at an outside, and suspected, being regarded as capable of any wickedness, and untrustworthy.  I remember several persons, both men and women, against intercourse with whom we were earnestly warned, and were instructed that it was not even safe to play with their children.

There were other supernatural powers thought to be possessed by certain persons, which differed from witchcraft in this, that they were not regarded as the result of a compact with the devil, but in some cases were thought to be rather a gift from God.  For example, there was second-sight, a gift bestowed upon certain persons without any previous compact or solicitation.  Sometimes the seer fell into a trance, in which state he saw visions; at other times the visions were seen without the trance condition.  Should the seer see in a vision a certain person dressed in a shroud, this betokened that the death of that person would surely take place within a year.  Should such a vision be seen in the morning, the person seen would die before that evening; should such a vision be seen in the afternoon, the person seen would die before next night; but if the vision were seen late in the evening, there was no particular time of death intimated, further than that it would take place within the year.  Again, if the shroud did not cover the whole body, the fulfilment of the vision was at a great distance.  If the vision were that of a man with a woman standing at his left hand, then that woman will be that man’s wife, although they may both at the time of the vision be married to others.  It was reported that one having second-sight saw in vision a young man with three women standing