Kiless said:
Anyone have some links / information / opinions about witchdoctors who place 'hexes', in particular those who hail from the Asian region (Indonesia, specifically)?
I don't know about the Asian hexes, but I know something about the local ones.
A number of witch trial proceedings that happened during the first main period of witch hunts in Finland (roughly 1550-60) have been preserved. This witch hunt was initiated by the Swedish King Gustav Wasa after he heard that a couple of witches had tried to curse him and it was aimed purely against practioners of black magic so those who did only divination and healing stuffs were not put to trial.
A typical trial case was such that the defendant had on some occasion publically wished something evil to happen to the accuser. In some cases it had been a direct threat of black magic and in others a more vague hope for bad stuff happening. Then, when something bad happened to accuser (within a year or so), he (or she) attributed it to the ill-wisher and raised a suit against him (or her).
The general rule of thumb was that witch accusations were made between persons of equal standing: farm owners suing farm owners, cottars suing cottars, men suing men, and women suing women. The exception for this rule was that a beggar got easily a reputation of a witch and might be sued by persons of higher social status (there are records of many beggars who actively seeked the witch reputation because it increased their income: it is easy to deny food from a ragged beggar but much more difficult treat a potentially dangerous witch that way).
There is one recorded case of a priest getting a heart attack after he heard that a witch had cursed him. (This curse was enough to get a death sentence for the witch).
There is another case where a beggar found out early in the morning that a bear had attacked the cattle of one farmer and had killed one of the cows. He then quickly run to the next village, went to visit a house there pretending to having come from the opposite direction and nonchalantly asked the housefolk if they had heard any news from the unlucky farmer. They hadn't, but when the news of the bear attack came to the village a couple of hours later, the beggar said something along the lines (I don't remember exact words): "Well, he won't badmouth me again". => instant reputation as a powerful witch, especially since it was a common folk belief that a bear will not attack cattle naturally but only if ordered to do so by a witch.
So, generally the curses worked so that the target of the curse knew that he (or she) had been cursed and when something bad happened, it was because of it. Sometimes the witch let the target know of the curse indirectly by telling another person about it and trusting that the story would find its way to the target's ears.
)
You're very helpful.