The events narrated in the following story are said to have occurred in 1850, near Côteau Landing, in the county of Soulanges, Quebec: —

My uncle and wife went to Glengarry one day, and left their only daughter, about eighteen years of age, to take care of the house. About three o'clock in the afternoon an old tramp passed by the door, then stopped and, seeing the door open, asked for something to eat. The girl, being afraid of the tramp, closed the door on him and told him to go on, for she would not give him anything or let him in.

The old tramp became mad, and with oaths and threats he pounded on the door until he became tired; then, seeing the girl through the window, through madness he bewitched her and went away.

When the parents returned the girl was going through all sorts of manoeuvres, such as crawling through the rounds of chairs and trying to climb the walls, so the folks had to tie her.

The next day a quack doctor passed up the road and stopped at the house as usual. Upon seeing the girl in such a way, he asked the cause of it. When told, he asked for the petticoat she wore, and two packages of new pins. Getting them, he put the girl in bed, sat in the old fireplace, with the door open, and taking the petticoat and pins, he put [stuck] all the pins into the petticoat, then pulled them out and put them in again until the old tramp arrived before the door and asked, "What are you doing there?"

"Go on!" said the doctor, "why do you want to know?"

"But stop!" said the tramp, "you are doing no good!"

"Oh!" said the doctor, "you are the villain, are you, that put this poor girl in such a state? Now I want you to take that spell off the girl immediately!"

"I can't," said the tramp, "unless I have something to throw it on."

"There's an old hen before the door," said the doctor, "throw it on her."

The tramp did so, the girl got out of bed sensible, but the hen turned over and died.

The doctor took the tramp at once in charge and went away, but the girl was for years silly at spells." [1]