Talk:Sokushinbutsu/@comment-25032124-20140606192312/@comment-25326117-20150101195109

Yurias1374, I think I might have seen that. Well, this might be scarier than what happened in Virginia Beach back in the 17th Century. Apparently, there was a real life woman named Grace Sherwood, I think that's her name. Anyways, she was accused of witchcraft and as such, people threw her numerous times into a river, but she always ducked to the top. She was later imprisoned, had her property confiscated from her, and got humiliated.

Grace Sherwood did get everything back, but she probably wasn't the same after her gruelling experiences. I heard one story that she had a heavy Bible tied to her big toe or some appendage to weigh her down, since it was the townspeople's only option to keep the 'witch' from floating up. Grace outsmarted them, I think she might have torn off her big toe or something like that, in order to keep from drowning. She swam back to the shore, and you can pretty much guess what happened from there, the people imprisoned her and after a long time, she got her property back, but she wasn't exonerated from her 'crimes' until 2006.

Talk about stupid and depressing, people like them nearly killed an innocent woman. No wonder she is said to haunt the road that is named after her, Witch Duck Road.

By the way, if you're curious, the practice that Grace Sherwood, I heard was pretty common. It was believed that the holiness of the water would reject the wickedness of the accused, thus the accused would float to the top. Those that weren't 'guilty,' well, they would drown.