Death Spell from Brazil

by Winkelstein
The following incident took place in the late 1950s in the South of Brazil. My mother was a young girl and lived in a white, middle-class neighbourhood. One day the young and pretty woman that lived next doors, Mrs. Svensson, was taken to hospital. Her family was very worried about her. About a week before the hospitalization she had started to complain about dizziness and a dry throat. Soon she lost weight and suffered from dehydration. In hospital she was drip-fed and doctors tried to help her but couldn't find the source of her illness. Her condition deteriorated fast and it looked as if she was going to die from dehydration during the next two days.
The family and close neighbours were all very sad, worried and helpless. Finally one old lady suggested that they should consult a "wise old woman" who lived in the area. Now these people were all Roman Catholics and not superstitious, but now they had nothing more to lose and visited old Mother Rita in her little dark house. Mother Rita listened to their story of the strange illness that had befallen Mrs. Svensson. She shook her head in an unbelieving and disgusted manner and said, "Listen to me, people. You have to do exactly as I tell you now. Go to Mrs. Svensson's home. Under the first step of the staircase of the porch you will find something that you have to bring here as soon as possible. Hurry!"
Mrs. Svensson's husband and her brothers drove to their house. Like many Brazilian houses it had a wooden porch and with a wooden staircase. They pulled the planks from the first step of the staircase and found a toad. Nothing else. Upon closer inspection they saw that the toad, it was more dead than alive, had its mouth sewn shut with a metallic thread. They grabbed the poor creature and brought it to Mother Rita. She sighed and said, "God, I hope we can still save her." Then she carefully pulled out the thread and opened the mouth of the toad. Inside its mouth was a golden coin.
Now I don't remember what she did with the toad and the coin, but she saved Mrs. Svensson's life in the very last minute. The story was that somebody had for some reason put a death-spell on Mrs. Svensson: if the toad had died from dehydration and starvation so would have the young woman. I guess such stories are common lore in Brazil but my mother swears this really happened.