Late Somerset Witch Caught as Rabbit March 6, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Beach has long tradition of posts of unusual nineteenth-century accounts of the survival of witchcraft in Britain and Ireland. Here is one from Bridgewater, Somerset (the south-west), which appeared in Notes and Queries in 1853.
A cottager, who does not live five minutes’ walk from my house, found his pig seized with a strange and unaccountable disorder. He, being a sensible man, instead of asking the advice of a veterinary surgeon, immediately went to the white witch (a gentleman who drives a flourishing trade in this neighbourhood). He received his directions, and went home and implicitly followed them. In perfect silence, he went to the pigsty; and lancing each foot and both ears of the pig, he allowed the blood to run into a piece of common dowlas. Then taking two large pins, he pierced the dowlas in opposite directions; and still keeping silence, entered his cottage, locked the door, placed the bloody rag upon the fire, heaped up some turf over it, and reading a few verses of the Bible, waited till the dowlas was burned. As soon as this was done, he returned to the pigsty; found his pig perfectly restored to health, and, mirabile dictu! as the white witch had predicted, the old woman, who it was supposed had bewitched the pig, came to inquire after the pig’s health. The animal never suffered a day’s illness afterwards. My informant was the owner of the pig himself.
Compare the ear piercing to an earlier account from England of pig protection. As to the witch being summoned by counter magic we have see frequent examples and many involve urine.
Some time ago a lane in this town began to be looked upon with a mysterious awe, for every evening a strange white rabbit would appear in it, and, running up and down, would mysteriously disappear. Dogs were frequently put on the scent, but all to no purpose, the white rabbit could not be caught; and rumours soon began to assert pretty confidently, that the white rabbit was nothing more nor less than a witch.
Witches it should be remembered often transform into hare or rabbits, as seen, for example, in a hilarious case from a Manx court.
The man whose pig had been bewitched was all the more confident; as every evening when the rabbit appeared, he had noticed the bed-room window of his old enemy’s house open! At last a large party of bold-hearted men one evening were successful enough to find the white rabbit in a garden, the only egress from which is through a narrow passage between two cottages, all the rest of the garden being securely surrounded by brick-walls. They placed a strong guard in this entry to let nothing pass, while the remainder advanced as skirmishers among the cabbages: one of these was successful, and caught the white rabbit by the ears, and, not without some trepidation [love the fear], carried it towards the reserve in the entry. But, as he came nearer to his friends, his courage grew; and gradually all the wrongs his poor pig had suffered, took form and vigour in a powerful kick at the poor little rabbit! No sooner had he done this than, he cannot tell how, the rabbit was out of his grasp [!!]; the people in the entry saw it come, but could not stop it; through them all it went, and has never been seen again. But now to the proof of the witchcraft. The old woman, whom all suspected, was laid up in her bed for three days afterwards, unable to walk about: all in consequence of the kick she had received in the shape of a white rabbit!
The injury done to witches in animal shape is also common in stories but how thrilling to see it in a personal memory from mid-nineteenth-century England.
Other examples of late witchcraft
