Welcome to another mini-sode of Murder, Myth and Mystery. I am your host, Eric. And I'm joined here today with Sarah. Hello. And Larisa. Hi.

Hello. Hello, girls. Hello, sir. Hello, nurse. I was just watching Eric during the introduction or entrance, whatever. Yeah. And I was amazed because I've never really thought about it. But he has to do like the fade in. And I'm like, man, he's like doing all the bells and whistles. I got mad skills. I can do sliders and talk at the same time. I know. I'm just impressed right now. I can hardly talk. I can hit buttons. I can do all sorts of stuff. It's amazing.

Yeah, watch this. Oh, man, man. I got mad skills for days. No, thank you, sir. Yeah. Hey, everybody. It's good to be here. It's good to be back still. Yeah. We're so glad you're back. Thanks. Thanks. Nice to be here. We got a patron exclusive episode here today, which is from Dana Fields. Oh, Dana. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So thank you very much, Dana. And you know, I

don't have a lot of intro on here. So I think we're just going to jump in jump right in. Yeah. I've been headfirst. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I bet those Pennsylvania dutch are up to some shady shit. Mm. That's a sentence I doubt that I would ever mutter into the darkness if it weren't for this podcast. It's also a very strange thing to say, considering. I've had absolutely no interactions with anyone that I knew to be Pennsylvania dutch. I kind of want to t-shirt that says that.

Pennsylvania dutch are up to some shady shit. It's so good. Up until now, my entire knowledge about these people came from the movie Witness, starting here. And of course, the random documentary about the Amish or Mennonite. Yeah. Basically, I just know that some of them choose to live a semi primitive lifestyle free from modern technology. Apparently, some of them are really good bakers and they're a hardworking folk. Beyond that, I know next to nothing about them. Yeah. Other than they descend from Germany and the surrounding areas.

And the Dutch part of their name is not a reference to Holland, but an ugly change of the word, which means German. Yeah. If like me, you know very little about these people. Here is what I learned through researching my case today. Yes. The area of German town, which is a suburb of Philadelphia, was settled by the first wave of Pennsylvania dutch back in 1683 when a large group of Mennonites and Quakers purchased the land from William Penn. They had come to America to escape both religious persecution.

And the effects of the 30 years war, which had devastated the area around the Rhine region of Germany, where they held from. Okay. The area quickly grew with more and more immigrants until by the Revolutionary War, at least half the state of Pennsylvania was considered Pennsylvania dutch. Interesting. Though not necessarily coming from any one particular religion, pretty much all of these immigrants were of Christian faith of one sort or another. Okay. But one of the most interesting things that I've been able to find about them is

the strong belief in traditional folk magic. Obviously, it's not uncommon for people to bring their cultural customs and traditions with them when they immigrate to a new country. And the Pennsylvania dutch had become the masters of blending old with new. The very particular blend of German and English into an entirely new dialect is one example of this. Christians outside of Germany would certainly look at the use of folk magic is being heretical. But the German Christians have never had an issue with that kind of

stuff. Just look at the legend of campus, for example, right? A perfect blend of old and new. But as those listeners out there that may practice certain pagan rights can tell you, magic is a fickle thing. And there are usually two sides to it, light and dark, Pennsylvania dutch folk magic is no different, but they don't call it magic. On the light side of the spectrum, we have what is known as pow wowing. No, I did not just transition my story to a Native American one.

Instead, contrary to its name, pow wowing has absolutely nothing to do with the people of the first nations. Instead, it has more to do with providing spells against illness, removing curses, finding lost objects, making good luck charms and looking into the future. Pretty harmless, really. And they found a way to incorporate these practices into their religious beliefs as well.

On the opposite side of pow wowing, we have the darker side, a Pennsylvania dutch folk magic known as hexer eye.

Practition, I know, right? Practitioners of hexer eye are considered witches who practice black magic. Okay. So you will also hear it referred to as witchcraft.

As we all know, witches have gotten a bad rap over the last millennium, but we also need to keep in mind that different cultures have different ideas about just what a witch is these particular witches were responsible for doing all those things that pow hours were trying to fix or prevent.

They would place hexes on people that would cause misfortune in one way or another, like causing someone to become ill, making objects disappear, causing cattle not to produce milk.

Just your basic annoying things that can usually be chalked up to a string of bad luck, though it could be used to seriously torture someone with seizures or vomiting, for example, as well.

The pow hours and witches worked against each other for more than two centuries, passing down their spells and rights from one generation to the next in the form of recipe books.

These recipe books would continue to grow as different pow hours would share their spells with each other. Eventually, some of these recipe books started getting published in the early 1800s, and pow hours were always quick to get their hands on another volume so they could add more spells to their repertoire.

The most popular of these books was an English translation of the old German book, Their Longa Verbolgefreind, or The Long Lost Friend by John George Holman in 1820.

The book was a hit because it seamlessly blended pow wowing with Christian prayers and rituals, and contained everything from keeping thieves away from your property to making good beer.

You know all the stuff that an aspiring pow hour needs.

But what about the witches?

Well, don't worry. They had their own books too.

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