Interesting essay, Hsing I especially liked the bit about Spanich Inquisition refusing to hold witch trials - there goes THAT stereotype!

By the way:

... 15 years ago or so I overheard a relative of mine talk about her neighbor "She has the evil eye - she made my little boy sick just by looking at him"

...10 years ago, I baby-sat for a woman who seemed upset at my description of a hypnotist show at our school party: "That's black magic - you shouldn't invite this sort of thing into your life!"

...4 years ago I read about kids in an American school who were expelled from school for "casting malicious spells" on their classmates - this was during the time when people burned Harry Potter books and accused J.K.Rawling of promoting devil-worshipping.

Yeah, just when you think you've progressed far enough...