test_set.txt

Though European explorers called it ‘the New World’ when they first reached the continent 
wizards had known about America long before Muggles (Note: while every nationality has its own term for ‘Muggle 
the American community uses the slang term  
short for ‘No Magic’) 
Various modes of magical travel – brooms and Apparition among them – not to mention visions and premonitions 
meant that even far-flung wizarding communities were in contact with each other from the Middle Ages onwards 
The Native American magical community and those of Europe and Africa had known about each other long before the immigration of European s in the seventeenth century 
They were already aware of the many similarities between their communities 
Certain families were clearly ‘magical’ 
and magic also appeared unexpectedly in families where hitherto there had been no known witch or wizard 
The overall ratio of wizards to non-wizards seemed consistent across populations 
as did the attitudes of s 
wherever they were born 
In the Native American community 
some witches and wizards were accepted and even lauded within their tribes 
gaining reputations for healing as medicine men 
or outstanding hunters 
However 
others were stigmatised for their beliefs 
often on the basis that they were possessed by malevolent spirits 
The legend of the Native American ‘skin walker’ – an evil witch or wizard that can transform into an animal at will – has its basis in fact 
A legend grew up around the Native American Animagi 
that they had sacrificed close family members to gain their powers of transformation 
In fact 
the majority of Animagi assumed animal forms to escape persecution or to hunt for the tribe 
Such derogatory rumours often originated with  medicine men 
who were sometimes faking magical powers themselves 
and fearful of exposure 
The Native American wizarding community was particularly gifted in animal and plant magic 
its potions in particular being of a sophistication beyond much that was known in Europe 
The most glaring difference between magic practised by Native Americans and the wizards of Europe was the absence of a wand 
The magic wand originated in Europe 
Wands channel magic so as to make its effects both more precise and more powerful 
although it is generally held to be a mark of the very greatest witches and wizards that they have also been able to produce wandless magic of a very high quality 
As the Native American Animagi and potion-makers demonstrated 
wandless magic can attain great complexity 
but Charms and Transfiguration are very difficult without one.