ABSTRACT
Bewitching occur when someone with magic power enchants or transforms a person, animal, or thing. Bewitchment is an important event in many folktales. Sympathetic magic is another means of bewitchment. Most bewitching has a negative effect; people die or suffer injuries; animals are paralyzed; cows give curdled milk; beer is magically kept from brewing; and swords are magically dulled. The person, who bewitches, in folklore and literature from ancient times to the present, is usually a woman. As Jeffrey Burton Russell explains in Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, maleficia constituted a form of "low magic" feared by rural folk, while divination, "high magic," was the province of philosophers and alchemists. Just as amulets of protection can fend off Lilith, certain magic ornaments can keep the evil eye at bay. In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, female witches and male wizards teach students to become expert in using magic power.
