Witchcraft in South Australia Part VII:
Wends of Ebenezer.
Ebenezer and St Kitts in the Barossa Valley, two small towns that many readers here would probably have never visited, were originally settled by Wendish immigrants. The Wends were Slavic people from Lusatia in South East Germany. Lusatia was positioned between the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg, and the polish provinces of Lower Silesia and Lubusz and was mainly isolated from other Germans. They were a people closely related to the Serbs, and their language is very similar. (Lusatian’s are sometimes also known as Sorbs or Wends.)
Wends were considered a very mystical and spiritual people, and due to historical events like the Thirty-Year War, and the outbreak of the plague, German religious influence crept into the area with many Wends becoming Lutheran (and some Catholic), but the Wends never lost their magical belief.
The Wends, despite being treated poorly by Germans, and often sold into slavery, managed to keep intact their language and many of their customs and beliefs, much of which stayed in place centuries later when they emigrated to South Australia in 1851 and established Ebenezer, St Kitts, Dutton and Neukirch.
It is said that the Wendish people of Ebenezer had access to the book; 'Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses, Magic Sympathetic, Moses, Magic Spirit Master, Mystery of Mysteries.' which supposedly contained the knowledge of witchcraft. The book contained magic spells for healing the sick, invoking spirits, breaking or making curses and other traditional magic. It is believed some of these books may still exist in the area, passed down through families as historical tombs of family knowledge.
Witchcraft was part of daily Wendish goings on for families that practised it, and for those that didn’t, they still bore the superstitions that followed from their homeland, such things as wearing a red ribbon around one’s neck to stop another bewitching them.
One story abounds during the late 1800s in Ebenezer, which is that of an older woman, who it was said was cursed with immortality and could not die, just age unless she passed the curse onto someone else. Townsfolk avoided her like the plague, so as not to annoy her and have the curse passed onto them.
A similar version of this immortality curse that surfaced in the area was that those who held the books of Moses could not die unless they passed those books onto someone else. Just like the old lady, they would age, but not die! Both stories were just folklore used to scare people into not following the traditions of witchcraft.
Other Wendish magical beliefs practised in the Barossa included baptising infants so they couldn’t be transformed into Will-o-the-wisps. This magic depended on the Godmother of the child stepping over an axe or broom as they entered the baptismal church.
It was believed witches could become disembodied souls and shapeshift, that they could control animals, especially black dogs and cats. Wends also had traditions from their homeland involving supernatural beings. Some of these included the Pshespoilniza, who would cut the heads of any farmer who did not stop working for an hour at midday. The Wassermann, who was very Bunyip like, was described as a small ugly grey creature with green hair that lived in rivers and ponds that liked to drown people.
Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018
