John George Hohman published a book in the early nineteenth century that became the ultimate guidebook for a weird folk magic tradition practiced by Pennsylvania Dutch farmers known as powwowing.

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John George Hohman published a book in the early nineteenth century that became the ultimate guidebook for a weird folk magic tradition practiced by Pennsylvania Dutch farmers known as powwowing. The book is filled with bizarre Christian prayers, magical hexes, and highly specific spells to stop your cows from exploding or to magically cure a toothache by writing words on a piece of paper and eating it. It is absolutely fascinating that an entire community of highly religious, extremely conservative German immigrants saw absolutely no contradiction between attending church on Sunday and casting a magical ward of protection on their barn on Monday. The practice eventually led to a notorious murder in the nineteen twenties when a guy believed he was cursed by a local witch, exposing to the modern world that a bunch of American farmers were still actively engaging in intense medieval wizardry