THE SCENE: In the passage below, the Berber traveler and trader Abu Hamid bluntly describes medieval witch-trials with all their idiotic cruelty.
THE TEXT: There are a people around there who live in the woods and shave their beards. They live by a great river and hunt beavers. I was told that every ten years, witchcraft increases and the old witches begin to lead the women astray. So they round up all the old women in their territory, tie their hands and feet and throw them in the river. They let the old women who sink live, because they realize that they are not witches, but those who float on the water are burned alive.
– The Travels of Abu Hamid al-Andalusi al-Gharnati
