In my collection, The Crow Witch and Other Conjurings, you will meet a selection of sorcerers and wise women and in one story in particular - The Malan Witch - the witches are a powerful, evil force to be reckoned with. If you had been living anywhere near them, you would have been glad you had walled up a dead cat, hidden away a written charm or two, a horse’s skull and some (preferably children’s) shoes. As a cat lover of major proportions, I was relieved to discover that the walled up cats I had read about were, in almost every case, already dead when they were inserted into a cavity in the wall. They were certainly a common enough occurrence. Many medieval houses in need of restoration have revealed a little feline mummified carcass among the wattle and daub.
Even with all this protection, you might not be completely safe If you fell ill inexplicably and suddenly, your crops failed, or your animals got sick and died. You would know that somehow or another you had upset a witch and he – or more likely she – had put a curse on you. Then, most assuredly, you would need your own witch’s bottle.
Witches’ bottles have been found in both the U.K. and
the United States, indicating that the practice travelled across the Atlantic
with the earliest British settlers.
Although they have most certainly been around since
Elizabethan times - if not earlier - one of the first mentions of such a bottle
occurs in 1681 in Saducismus Triumphatus,
or Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions, written by Joseph Glanvill.
The author gives a description of how such a bottle would be created. A man
whose wife is sorely afflicted is told to, “Take your Wive’s Urine… and
Cork it in a Bottle with Nails, Pins and Needles, and bury it in the Earth; and
that will do the feat.” We are told, “The Man did accordingly. And his Wife
began to mend sensibly and in a competent time was finely well recovered.”
The
‘cure’ worked well for her – but had another effect, for across town, a wife
complained that someone had killed her husband. It transpired that he was a
known “Wizard” and must have put a curse on the woman whose husband was wise
enough to equip himself with a witch’s bottle. So, these bottles not only had
the power to counteract the magic, but were able to turn it back on the perpetrator.
So, what did they look like? Usually they were constructed of brown or grey salt-glazed stoneware.
Some – known as Greybeards or Bellarmines – were embossed with a bearded face.
Bellarmines also had the dubious distinction of being named after a
particularly obsessive Catholic Inquisitor. Some weren’t buried, but
deliberately destroyed as part of their function. Some people believed that you
should throw the witch’s bottle on the fire and when it exploded, it would
break the spell and kill the witch.
By the
early 19th century, witch bottles were constructed from glass
bottles, vials and other containers. Traditionally – and perhaps ironically –
it took a witch to prepare a really effective bottle. As described above, into
the bottle went the victim’s urine, hair or nail clippings, and some red thread
taken from a ‘sprite trap’ (a device used to trap troublesome spirits). Other
ingredients historically included blood, glass, wood and bone. Witch bottles are
still with us and more recently, these unsavoury ingredients have largely been
replaced by rosemary, needles, pins and red wine.
These
days, there are a range of alternative ingredients for making up a witch
bottle. These include: sea water, earth, sand, stones, salt, knotted threads,
vinegar, ashes, coins, oil, feathers, shells, herbs and flowers.
A woman who seems to step out of an old Hollywood movie, and a castle with a murderous past.
A seer whose deadly prediction was hidden away for a future generation.
A mysterious portrait that is far more sinister than mere paint and canvas.
An old woman only the foolish would ridicule, for she knows the secrets of the land and how to harness its power.
All these and more conjurings abound, and you would do well to remember, my dear reader…
When the seeds of revenge are sown, beware the harvest!
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