Bats and birds have the advantage of flight and can enable a witch to search for both enemies and victims. She usually chooses birds of the night, such as owls and corpse fowls.16
Cats, especially black ones, are probably the most popular familiars, and many witches choose them because of their own feline nature. Cats are quick and subtle, but also cruel: They play with their prey before devouring it.
Snakes are almost as common, not least because of their ability to kill. County snakes are not usually dangerous, but association with a witch increases the power of their jaws and endows them with a lethal venom they would not normally possess.
Toads are the least powerful of familiars, and are usually employed by very old, isolated witches (whose powers are waning and who merely want the latest gossip) and by those whose grasp of dark magic is extremely limited. However, they are the favorite familiars of water witches, well suited to the boggy terrain they inhabit, and their skin oozes a particularly virulent poison: The merest contact with it results in death.
Finally there are what we term higher-order familiars. These are entities such as demons that would normally be considered too dangerous and power-ful to be employed as familiars. Only the very strongest witches dare to attempt this, and few can carry it off. Almost inevitably there is a power struggle, and the witch may become subservient to that which she sought to control.17
Mirrors and Scrying
There are three ways in which the Pendle witches combine dark magic with the use of mirrors.
1. To communicate over a distance, either by lip reading from one another’s reflected images or by writing. Most witches are skilled at lip reading, but sometimes they write on the mirror when communicating with others unused to the practice. Using dark magic, they can locate another mirror and their message appears there. A very skillful witch can even use a puddle or any surface of calm water.
2. They use mirrors to spy on their enemies or victims. As a defense against that magical art, many inhabitants of the Pendle district turn their mirrors to the wall after dark.
3. Some witches believe that they have the ability to use mirrors to prophesy. Using the blood of a victim as ink, they draw magical symbols along the edges of a mirror. Afterward, spells are chanted, and they supposedly see visions of the future in the glass. Such so-called scryers are almost certainly deluded. I refuse to believe that the future is fixed. Free will and choice shape what happens.18
Moon Magic
This type of magic is mostly practiced by benign witches. Practitioners sometimes dance naked at the time of the full moon to strengthen the power of the herbs they gather for healing.
The moon is said to show the truth of things, and can sometimes counter spells of false appearance.
Sniffing
Long sniffing is used by a witch to sniff out approaching danger.19 Seventh sons of seventh sons are immune to that power, but we must still beware of short sniffing; up close, a witch can use it to find out our strengths and weaknesses. The nearer she approaches, the worse it gets. Always keep a witch at bay with a rowan staff, and above all, never let her breathe into your face!
Spells of False Appearance
Otherwise known as dread, glamour, and fascination, these spells allow a malevolent witch to hide what she really is.
Dread is used to change her appearance in order to terrify her enemies. Instead of hair, a nest of black snakes may adorn her head and her eyes may glow red like fiery coals. Additionally, her face deforms and becomes monstrous.
Glamour and fascination work together. The former makes a witch seem younger and more beautiful than she really is; fascination then forces a man to believe anything she tells him. He becomes like a rabbit in thrall to a stoat. But only the very strongest of witches can maintain such illusions in moonlight.
Sympathetic Magic
This type of magic is usually used to kill, cripple, or seriously hurt the enemy of a witch. A clay or wax figure is modeled in the shape of the intended victim. Into it are mixed ingredients that make it more potent, such as the victim’s blood or urine. If these cannot be obtained, a strand of hair or a small piece of material from the victim’s clothing will usually suffice.
What happens next is bounded only by the imagination and vindictiveness of the witch. Any injury inflicted on the figure will result in the victim feeling that pain. The witch has created sympathy between the figure and the living person. So a nail driven into any part of the model’s anatomy will be felt in the same place on the living being. If the head and heart are targeted, then death will come swiftly. Alternatively, the victim may be crippled. Melting part of the model might result in a wasting disease.
A witch bottle is often used as a defense against an enemy witch who is already using dark magic. Some of her urine is placed in the bottle, along with sharp stones, pins, and iron nails. Once corked, the bottle is given a good shake, then left in the sun for three days. On the night of the next full moon it’s buried under a dung heap. The next time the witch tries to urinate, she finds herself in agony. Thereupon the witch is informed of what has been done, and in return for halting her own magical attack, the witch bottle is destroyed.
DEALING WITH WITCHES
Unlike boggarts, witches cannot be confined using the power of salt and iron alone. But several techniques can be used to bind them successfully.
Symbols such as those sketched on the facing page are used to mark the pit of a bound witch. A Greek letter sigma is used to denote a sorceress, and a diagonal line sloping from right to left indicates a successful binding. Additionally, the type of witch (here the Greek letter lambda for lamia) and the ranking (1 being the most powerful) may be marked on the stone. It is vital to write the witch’s full name below the symbols to identify her. Being women, they are subtle and may change over time. Each history must be consulted in my Chipenden library.
Finally, as with boggarts, the name of the spook who carried out the binding should be written directly under the witch’s name.
Dealing with Dead Witches
Witches are sometimes hanged, then given to their families for burial, but this achieves little.
One problem when dealing with witches is that for most, death isn’t the end of them. They are bone bound, their spirits trapped in their corpses, so if a witch is simply buried, one night she’ll scratch her way to the surface and go hunting for victims and suck their blood to renew her strength.
Witches vary in power. A really strong witch might roam for miles in a single night; others can only drag themselves a few paces and often hide under moldering leaves, waiting for someone to pass close to their lair.20
Below are the important stages in the process of binding a dead witch.
1. Hire a master mason and a blacksmith. Both tradesmen should have previous experience of the task at hand. Set them to work constructing a stone-and-iron cover for the pit.
2. Dig a pit to contain the body of the witch. This should be a shaft nine feet deep and six feet long by three feet wide.
3. Next, ease the body into the pit headfirst. When night falls, unaware of her orientation, the dead witch will mistakenly dig herself deeper into the ground.
4. Next the mason and blacksmith must work together to construct the thirteen bars that will cover the pit, each bolted to a rim of stones.21
Dealing with Live Witches
First, a malevolent witch must be captured; This is best accomplished by use of a silver chain. The technique for casting the chain can only be acquired by hours of practice against targets: My apprentice must test his skills first against the post in my garden, then against moving targets. I also practice regularly, as it wouldn’t do to let these skills get rusty. Below are the general principles involved.
1. The silver chain should be coiled about the left wrist.
2. It should be cast with a twisting upward motion of the hand so that it spins widdershins, against the clock.
3. Enough elevation should be gained so that it d
rops over the witch, tightening as it falls, but not enough that she has time to evade it.
4. It is important to achieve a degree of what we call spread. This means that the chain should bind the witch from head to knee. With sufficient practice, it is possible to ensure that the chain tightens against her teeth. Her silence is desirable. She may attempt to use dark magic.
Once captured, the witch must be dealt with. Burning, cruel though it is, destroys the witch for all time. Another good method is to eat the heart of the witch. This barbarous but reliable method is not usually practiced in the County, but some spooks kill a witch, then feed her heart to their dogs.22 One other reliable method of dealing with a witch—the one I use—is to keep her in a pit reinforced with iron bars.
Below are the important stages of the process of binding a live witch in a pit.
1. Hire a master mason and a blacksmith. Both tradesmen should be reliable and experienced. They should also have strong nerves because dealing with a live witch can be very dangerous.
2. Dig the pit. This should be nine feet deep, six feet wide, and six feet long.
3. With a strong witch, line the walls with a mixture of salt and iron. Leave the floor of the pit clear so that she can survive on a diet of slugs and insects. When dealing with feral lamias or water witches, a cage of iron bars needs to be constructed and buried in the ground (both types of witch can burrow).
4. The critical point is getting the witch into the pit. The silver chain should bind her until the very last moment. The skill lies in rolling the witch into the pit, simultaneously uncoiling the chain. This can only be learned by practice.
5. Finally, stay in attendance until the mason and smith have sealed the pit.
This technique has one serious but fortunately rare drawback. After being kept in a pit for many years, eating slugs and worms, the water seeping into her flesh and bones, an extremely strong witch starts to change. If she is then killed, she will become wick– not only able to move her body great distances, but soft and pliable, with the ability to squeeze into a tiny space. Entering a human body through the nose or ears, the witch can possess it and use it for her own purposes.
The difficulty then is to identify the witch, but there are two ways: A body that is newly possessed has poor balance and may stagger as if dizzy or even completely lose its balance and fall over. There are often personality changes, too. Someone who was formerly kind, calm, and happy may suddenly become excitable and bad tempered.23
* * *
1 Testing a witch? Just never trust a woman. And never trust a woman who wears pointy shoes.—John Gregory
2 The principle behind the swimming test is right—it’s just the practice that is wrong. Most witches cannot cross running water, so a stream or river would be a better place to test them. Witches also find seawater toxic because of its high salt content.—Bill Arkwright
3 Agnes Sowerbutts of Pendle could fall into the category of a benign witch, but her status is not certain. She is a healer but uses a mirror for magical purposes, something usually considered a tool of the dark.—Tom Ward
4 Witches (with the exception of water witches) cannot cross running water. As the Pendle district has numerous streams, some means had to be found to enable witches to move about relatively freely. Thus witch dams were developed. A system of pulleys and a handle are used to lower a big wooden board into a stream to block its flow. The heavy board slides down between two grooved posts into a trench in the bottom of the stream, which is lined with wood to make a good seal. Water quickly builds and flows around the dam, but before it does so, several witches are able to cross safely.—John Gregory
5 Now I know better. Time has shown that I was wrong to allow Bony Lizzie to escape, and I also should have killed Tusk while I had the chance. Years later, both returned to Chipenden in another attempt to free Mother Malkin. It almost cost me the life of my apprentice, Tom Ward. (How we finally dealt with Mother Malkin is chronicled in Tom Ward’s own notebooks.) I have always had a tendency to be merciful. Sometimes it has cost both me and others dearly.—John Gregory
6 From what has been learned since the return of the Fiend to this world, it is highly probable that Tusk was an abhuman, the result of a union between a witch and the Fiend.—John Gregory
7 Inside the Ord there were hundreds of vaengir summoned by the Fiend to swell the ranks of the Ordeen’s servants. This accounts for them rarely being seen elsewhere.—Tom Ward
8 This is the account of my dealings with the lamia witch Meg Skelton. She has now returned to her homeland, Greece, and I do not expect to see her again. I include it now as a warning to my apprentices. —John Gregory
9 Seawater, with its high levels of salt, is toxic for witches. They avoid the seashore and cannot safely walk on sand even when the tide is at its lowest ebb. Even water witches die if immersed in seawater for too long. However, witches can and do make successful sea voyages. To do so, they must stay in the boat’s hold as much as possible and dress to shield their skin from the wind and spray. —John Gregory
Bill Arkwright uses a salt solution in the pits he uses to bind water witches. This makes them docile. He also has a salt moat around his garden to keep others at bay.—apprentice Graham Cain
10 The current leader of the Mouldheels is Mab. She’s a very young but powerful witch and an extremely skilled scryer. Beware—she will use fascination against a spook if she can!—Tom Ward
11 The powerful witch Wurmalde journeyed from Greece to Pendle and succeeded in briefly uniting the three main clans to bring the Fiend through a portal to this world. That witch is dead now, and the clans are in conflict once more. We must be watchful lest another outsider comes to bring the Malkins, Deanes, and Mouldheels together again.—John Gregory
12 These former appearances of the Fiend often lasted just a minute or so. Now, of course, he dwells in our world and threatens it with a new age of darkness.—John Gregory
13 The witch Bony Lizzie had me trapped in a pit and was ready to take my bones. She was already sharpening her knives when Alice helped me escape. —Tom Ward
14 Limbo comes from the Latin word limbus, which means the edge or fringe. Souls have to pass through it to reach the light. Some find it harder than others.—John Gregory
15 When working with Bill Arkwright, I came into contact with a Celtic witch from Ireland, who used a curse to kill a County landowner. We called her a banshee witch because she behaved like that elemental, the difference being that she brought about the death rather than just foretelling it. In addition to the curse—uttered in the Old Tongue—and the wailing cries, she used a ritual that involved washing and twisting a burial shroud. This caused the heart of the victim to rupture.—Tom Ward
16 The water witch Morwena had a corpse fowl as her familiar. She used it to hunt for me on Monastery Marsh. It was slayed by Grimalkin, the witch assassin .—Tom Ward
17 Alice Deane made a pact with the Bane, a very powerful spirit that had formerly been one of the Old Gods. In giving it her blood and attempting to bind it to her will, she was in effect making it her familiar. She was in great danger, but the fact that she was able to deal with it in such a way is a testimony to her power. Alice Deane must never be allowed to turn to the dark.—John Gregory
18 Bony Lizzie used long sniffing to foresee the danger from the Chipenden mob that eventually burned down her house.—Tom Ward
19 Mab Mouldheel used mirrors twice, to my knowledge, to predict the future. In the first instance, she foretold the breaching of Malkin Tower and the threat to our lives by retreating witches. In the second, she foretold the near death of Alice Deane in Greece at the hands of a feral lamia.—Tom Ward
20 Some witches are so strong that they can break free and be born into the world again. My master calls this reincarnation.—apprentice Bob Crosby
21 In order to save money, some spooks place a large boulder over the witch’s grave instead of iron bars. I would only use that as a temporary measure when dealing with a
relatively weak witch. It’s better to be safe than sorry.—John Gregory
22 I was sent to work with Bill Arkwright for six months. He was a hard man who beat me badly on two occasions. One of the worst things I ever witnessed was the killing of a water witch that he’d had imprisoned in a pit for two years. She was still screaming when he threw her heart to his dogs.—apprentice Jack Farington
Mother Malkin, one of the strongest witches the County has ever seen, possessed the body of a pig butcher. After she was driven out by salt and iron, her heart was devoured by pigs.—Tom Ward
When the witch Wurmalde died, dropped by a vaengir lamia from a great height onto Gore Rock in Pendle, the Spook told me that her slayer had already ripped out her heart and devoured it.—Tom Ward
23 As a young man, I wrote the definitive guide to possession. It is to be found in my Chipenden library and is titled The Damned, the Dizzy, and the Desperate.—John Gregory
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