The legend of the good witches is strength and magic. Salem witches. Bridget Bishop and the Other Salem Witches

Witches and sorcery have fascinated the minds of everyone, from angry villagers wondering why their women have gained a sense of independence, to the average layman wondering if the herbal tea they drank last night was a potion or just a really bad tea. For generations, witches have been seen in folklore as objects of wisdom and evil.

10. Kikimora

Kikimora, whose name is very funny to pronounce, is a domestic spirit, which, above all, must be respected. She is the female equivalent and wife of a male brownie or family spirit, and her presence always manifests as wet footprints. So what makes a kikimoru a witch you don't want to date? Usually, she is quite harmless, but if she is not respected, she will whistle, break dishes and throw things. If you don't want all your things to be broken - respect this witch.

9. Kirk or Circe (Circe)


A famous character in Homer's Odyssey, Circe, was a witch who lived on an island called Aeaea. She had a rather peculiar hobby - she turned passing sailors into wolves, lions and all sorts of other animals after drugging them. Well, some people like to collect stamps, others like to turn people into animals. It's not for us to judge her.

When Odysseus visited Aea, Circe turned his people into pigs, but the gods gave Odysseus a magical plant that prevented Circe from drugging him. After he made Circe swear that she would not betray him, Odysseus and his men lived for a year under Circe's protection before attempting to sail back to Ithaca.

8 Morgan Le Fay


Most people are vaguely familiar with the legend of King Arthur and his companion the sorcerer Merlin, but few of us remember the heroine of the legend named Morgan the Fairy. In the myths, she works tirelessly with her magic to destroy the good Queen Guinevere, who drove her from court when she was younger. She tries to betray Guinevere's lover, Sir Lancelot, and thwart the plans of King Arthur's knights. The final fate of Fairy Morgana is unknown, but she eventually makes peace with King Arthur and brings him to Avalon after his final battle.

7 Witch of Endor


The sorceress of Endor was not necessarily evil, but the fate she spoke of could not be ignored. According to legend, King Saul went to the sorceress of Endor to get an answer to questions about how to defeat the Philistines. The sorceress of Endor summoned the ghost of the prophet Samuel, who did not tell him how to defeat the Philistines, but predicted that they would defeat him, and he would go to the next world to his three dead sons. Saul, who was wounded in battle the next day, killed himself out of fear. And while the sorceress didn't technically cause Saul to kill himself, she was no doubt involved in his death.

6. Jenny Greenteeth


Depending on which part of England you hear from, you may know about this cruel witch known as Ginny (Ginny, Jinny, Jeannie), or Wicked Jenny. Jenny Grinties was a witch who deliberately drowned young and old people just for fun. In some legends, she devours children and the elderly. In other legends, she is simply a sadist who enjoys the pain her victims experience. She is often described as having a green complexion and razor-sharp teeth. As with many other creepy characters from folklore, it was probably used to scare children into behaving and staying close to the water's edge while swimming in pools in the afternoon. But the main moral of the story is this: stay away from green river witches.

5. Chedipe


Ah, Chadip. Who are you: a witch, a vampire or something else? In any case, this is not a beautiful lady under the moonlight. A chedip is a woman who died in childbirth or committed suicide and is the Indian equivalent of a succubus. She rides a tiger in the moonlight, and when she enters the house, not a single soul wakes up and notices her. She then sucks the life out of each person through their toes - yes, through their toes - and disappears without a trace.

4. "Prophetic Sisters" or Three Witches (Weird Sisters)


Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most outstanding plays, full of amazing characters and filled with magic, betrayal and fear. But the very first characters in history are those who set everything in motion - the Prophetic Sisters. And yes, they are certainly more than strange, but in this case, "strange" means "fateful", so they are more like "Sisters of Destiny". They act like a destructive force and don't just send Macbeth into a spiral of corruption and paranoia, they send all of Scotland to war just to topple one man from power. And this is the real evil.

3. Bell Witch


The Bell Witch is the most famous witch in American folklore, and her story is one that is told around the campfire. The Bell Witch was allegedly a poltergeist who appeared at the home of John Bell, Sr. in 1817. The Bell Family witch attacked family members and often cursed at the family. She ended up poisoning John Bell Sr., leaving behind a bottle of poison disguised as medicine. We must remember to burn some sage today.

2. Hecate


Hekate was the Greek goddess of witchcraft. She was also the goddess of witches, witchcraft, poisonous plants, as well as many other witchcraft paraphernalia. Hecate was the daughter of the titan Perses and is still worshiped by some Greek polytheists. It is said that the very concept of the evil eye came from her, and shrines in her honor were erected to moderate the wrath of evil demons and spirits in Greek myths. One of her names "Chthonia" (Chthonia) in translation means "from the underworld."

So what makes her so intimidating? Well, first of all, she is the goddess of sorcery. If it existed, it probably wouldn't have been too fond of Europe's (or Salem, Massachusetts) ancient habit of hating and burning/killing "witches" (who were most likely just miserable innocents). The fact that we've turned witches from scary, wise women who can hurt and heal people into beautiful women on TV who use magic to pass exams would most likely annoy her.

1. Graeae / Morai


So which witches will take the top spot on this list? Of course, the spinners of fate themselves. Grayi and Morai are trinities of witches of different kinds who understand the vagaries of fate, and based on the fact that they are often confused, we will talk about both trinities. Morai weave the fabric of fate, and the fate of every person is tied to their fabric, even the fate of immortals.

The Grays, on the other hand, were three evil sisters, related to the Gorgons (Medusa and her two lesser-known sisters). The Grays were not the most friendly creatures, but they had one eye on everyone, which they passed on to each other. The Grays also had knowledge of the unknown and fate, but they had no control over it. So which ones are worse? Sisters of Medusa, or those who could cut your thread of life? Probably, dear reader, it is better to stay away from both trinity after all.

In the ancient legends of most peoples, there is an image of a witch - an evil woman endowed with magical abilities, who causes trouble to others. It is also interesting that in different cultures the same sign of a witch is indicated - a small ponytail, which she supposedly hides under her clothes.

In Europe during the “witch hunt” (Middle Ages), any woman could be accused of witchcraft for the most ridiculous reasons: red hair, sexual attractiveness or, conversely, unattractiveness, grumpy character, and so on! No wonder the Inquisition executed hundreds of thousands of women.

By the way, it is believed that witches were burned at the stake, but most of them were hanged. A grim fact: the most brutal instrument of torture was the "witch's bridle" - a steel mask with a spiked gag. Any attempt to say anything while wearing a mask caused terrible pain. The inquisitors said that if a witch cannot speak, then she will not be able to harm judges and executioners with her curses.

The most popular witchcraft test in medieval Europe is the water test. The woman was tied up, a huge stone was hung around her neck and thrown into a river or lake. If the unfortunate woman did not drown, she was considered a witch. Like, water does not accept evil spirits. If she drowned, then all charges were dropped from the dead. This is medieval justice!

By the way, about the water test. In 1524, a sculpture of the Virgin Mary was burned in Riga on charges of witchcraft! A wooden statue was accidentally thrown into the water; of course, it did not drown. It was enough to burn the devil idol.

Read also:

In 1692, the most famous witch trial in human history took place in the small town of Salem. The accuser was the daughter of a local Catholic priest, the girl claimed that she was spoiled. One and a half hundred women were arrested in the city, 20 of whom were hanged, and one was stoned to death. Later it turned out that the case was fabricated. And in 1993, a monument to the victims was erected in Salem.

In Britain, witchcraft was abolished in 1735. However, all those suspected of practicing black magic were further pursued, but already for fraud. The law completely lost its force only in the 50s of the last century.

It is believed that the last executed witch was Anna Geldi. Anna was sentenced to death by Swiss judges for practicing black magic. Only in 2008, the country's authorities acquitted a woman who had been executed a long time ago.

Some interesting facts from the present

In Saudi Arabia, there are articles in the criminal law that punish witchcraft with imprisonment.

In autumn 2008, 12 sorcerers and witches were burned at the stake in Kenya.

Over the past 20 years, in India, as a result of lynching, about 5 thousand sorcerers and witches were killed.

I will try to tell you this terrible story verbatim. I read it in a very old newspaper, which I found in the attic of an incomprehensibly preserved house. Now it’s hard to call it home, because its walls have collapsed long ago, leaving only the attic (it’s also difficult to call it an attic) and the roof. Newspaper in pure English. There is a date on it: December 2, 1792. The pages of the newspaper are barely preserved, it is very difficult to restore the information recorded on it. By the way, before you read the legend, I will tell you right away that there is a small cemetery not far from this house. On one of the tombstones, you can somehow read the name Rose.

In 1484, an old woman lived in a certain village. All the inhabitants appreciated her very much, because she healed the sick. Everyone who came to her house left it healthy and full of strength. No one knew the name of this woman, but everyone called her Rosa, after the flowers that grew in her garden. In the morning Rosa went to the forest and picked berries and herbs. She was a very kind woman. No one has ever seen her in a bad mood.

And then one day, on a rainy evening, a certain man in a hat came to the old woman.
He brought a little girl and said:
- My daughter Rumi is sick! Her whole body was covered with ulcers, and strange black spots went down her neck! Help!
The man in the hat left and never returned. The girl stayed with the old woman.
Rosa was unable to cure her. Herbs and medicines didn't help.

It's been a week now that my father hasn't come," Rumi said. - Where did she disappear to?
- He sailed on a big ship to the distant Northern lands, he helps the king, but this is an important matter, - the old woman was cunning. - He will return... And he left you with me.
- But why?
Rose was silent.

So they lived for several more weeks, and then years.
Rumi grew up, her ulcers eventually disappeared, but the black spots on her neck had to be hidden.
The old woman had fun living with a little girl.

Years passed. Rumi grew up and forgot about her father. She became the most beautiful in the village.
And the old woman was bedridden. All this time, since that rainy day, Rosa was getting worse. Her legs gave out, and then her whole body.

One fine day, the king's son came to the young beauty Rumi. He wanted to get married and offered her all the wealth that the royal family has.
- Can you heal Rosa?
- Of course! Do not worry. I will send her to the East with my best troops! The most wonderful healers live in those parts.

Rumi agreed and was immediately taken away by ship, away from her native village to a beautiful castle. The king's son assured that the old woman would be sent on a golden carriage to the very desert, cured, and soon she would arrive healthy and full of strength.

Wealth and power poisoned Rumi's soul and she didn't even think about Rose. All this time, the girl hid the black spots on her neck as best she could, and if she was asked about it, then Rumi said that she had a scar from childhood and she did not want to show it to anyone.

Many years passed and one rainy evening Rumi began to bleed those same spots.
She felt very bad. She saw that her blood had turned black.
In the morning, Rumi ran away from the castle and hid with her friends, saying that she had a fight with her husband.
The son of the king turned the whole castle in search of his lost wife.

The next day it started to rain again and Rumi's spots began to bleed again. Her friends saw this and told the king's son. He called her a witch and locked her in a dungeon. In this cold empty place, Rumi dreamed of Rose. The girl bribed all the guards, promising to give all her savings and fled on a merchant ship to her native village.

Entering the house, Rumi saw an old woman emaciated to the bones.
- Rose! What are you doing here?!
The astonished girl sat down next to her.
- Ru... Rumi, is that you? The old woman spoke slowly, in a whisper.
- Yes. It's me. Why are you still here? You've been cured! I know. Why are you so thin? You are quite sick.
- They... deceived you... I went blind... Rumi. My dear Rumi. People came to me and asked where you were. They... tried to help... I told them that you would come back and everything would be fine. I... forbade... people to enter this house and said that I could return all diseases to them...
Rumi wept bitterly. Black tears flowed from his eyes.
The king's son broke into the house and grabbed Rumi, leaving Rose to live out the remaining days...

Word spread through the royal lands that the witch had been caught. People demanded to burn Rumi. And so it happened...
Residents of the surrounding villages made a big fire. They said that when the girl burned, black blood flowed from her.

Many years later...
The king's son grew old, but all this time he continued to commit violence and murder from that very day. Black Blood Day.
One rainy evening, the king's son disappeared. His head was found the next day in the royal bedroom. Black blood flowed from his eyes.

Every year on one of the rainy evenings, someone from the royal family, all their relatives, friends or just acquaintances died under strange circumstances. I will tell you the most famous cases (I can only name their names!)

1534 - Patrick. His withered body was found in a local fountain. Most of the body was like a shapeless mass. It is said that he died from a long stay in hot water. Black blood flowed from his eyes.

1551 Harold. Found hanging from his favorite apple tree. Black blood flowed from his eyes.

1555 Richard. At one of the festive dinners, when big guests arrived at the castle (at that time, another king ruled the lands). It rained heavily that evening. Everyone was having dinner and having fun at the big table. And when the main course was served, some guests found human bones on their plate. And the king got Richard's head. Black blood flowed from his eyes. Everyone was very scared.

1666 On one of the rainy days, several people died at once in the castle. One was stuffed with his head into the fireplace and burned, another was thrown from a high tower, the third was found in a local well.

Since that day no one else has died.

For centuries, people have passed this story down from generation to generation. She became a myth, a legend. The castle has been turned into a museum. But many people who worked there said that sometimes on rainy evenings they see a girl in a black robe. They then called her the Black Witch. There were many more murders in the castle and the museum was closed.

Rumor has it that the Black Witch Rumi still roams the old castle in search of a new victim...

Salem witches

Today at Roadside Bar we're going to be talking about witches.
Of course, not about those who are shown in the movies and who wear black hats, dark clothes and fly on broomsticks, no.
We are talking about real witches ... well, or about those whom people thought were witches, and who had to pay a very high price for it.

Today we are waiting for the terrible story of the Salem witches, America's most famous witches.
With this legend, we open the cycle of "witch" stories: following the story of the Salem witches, we learn about the witches of New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts.
But it will be later, but for now ...
The famous Salem witch hunt: 1692, 19 people hanged for witchcraft, an octogenarian old man is stoned to death for refusing to plead guilty, more than a hundred people (including a four-year-old girl) are thrown into prison as accomplices of witches, fear and panic in the city, because no one, no one is immune from the fact that the next victim of the hunters can be anyone: an elderly woman, a priest, a child, a governor's wife, a respectable parishioner. If they bring charges, there is only one way: interrogation, confession - and the gallows.
The Salem witch hunt is probably one of the most well-researched episodes in American history.
There is still debate about what really happened: were those executed actually witches or were victims of deliberate deception, died as a result of a slander by the victims, or, as historians say, ergot poisoning played its black role ... or perhaps Was there something else unknown to us?
We will never know this...

This is what Salem looked like in 1692.

A quiet town, where not a single resident could even imagine what black glory this place would have!
To clarify, there were two Salems: Salem Village, where the events leading up to the witch trials took place (which is currently called Danvers), and Salem Town, where the witch trials took place and which is still called Salem.
Now Salem is a historic city, a "memorial" of famous events of the past.
Everywhere you look - fake spiders, bats and owls, black crows and black cats... even on the sheriff's car you can see a painted witch on a broomstick.
The best way to put it is: Salem is a city where Halloween lasts all year round!
Here they try to preserve the style of houses and streets of the 17th century. Many buildings have been turned into museums, the benefit of tourists is full here: the house of the American philanthropist Peabody, where about 500 original documents of witch trials and instruments of torture are stored; a gallery of Salem wax figures, a museum of witches, an underground prison where witches were kept.

The house of Corwin, where one of the judges of the Salem trial, Jonathan Corwin, lived, has also been preserved; now there is also a museum here. The house-museum has been restored anew and even moved a few meters (it was moved when the street was laid). The old cemetery, where one of the judges is buried, has been preserved.
Also, the guests of Salem will certainly be shown the "Village of Pioneers", which preserves the layout of the city as it was at the dawn of its inception; "Pickering House" - the oldest in the United States, occupied for 360 years by the same family; A house with seven gables: a dark gray two-story building with massive chimneys, barred windows, high ridges of a roof divided into sections and gas jets in the corners.
This house, one of the main attractions of Salem, it is described in the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which is called: "The House of the Seven Gables."
The novel is set in the Hawthorne family home. The curse, about which the writer, a native of Salem, narrates, was imposed on his entire family because his great-grandfather, Judge John Hawthorne, convicted "Salem witches" in the trials of 1692-1697.
Of course, a visit to the Underground Dungeon of the Salem Witches makes a huge impression on tourists. This building is a former church, on Lind Street. The ground part of it was used as a courtroom, and the underground part was used as a prison. Tourists are first invited to attend the trial of the witch, which is played out in front of them according to the preserved protocols by professional actors (there are “witches” sitting on the docks at this time: wax figures. Then the tourists are escorted to the dungeons: cold, damp, dirty, rat-infested dungeons.
Those who wish to experience in their own skin what it was like to be prisoners here are taken to the basements and locked up in one of the dark, damp cells. The cells were different: general, where the prisoners lived and slept side by side, single - for "privileged gentlemen" (those who could pay for themselves), or stone bags, so cramped that the prisoner could only stand.
You can also take a look at the dungeon, where confessions were extracted from sorceresses with the help of torture.
After the death sentence was pronounced, the convoy escorted the condemned to Gallows Hill. Their corpses, hanging on the branches of trees, were visible even from the city center...
This is what the tourist guide says, but in fact, no one knows exactly where those accused of witchcraft were executed and where the unfortunate Salem witches were buried, since it was forbidden to bury them in the city cemetery.
And, nevertheless, it is the old city cemetery that is now declared a memorial one.

But back to our legend.
Who are the Salem witches?
Accomplices of the devil or innocent victims of human bloodthirstiness, human slander, fear and ignorance?
To understand this, you have to start the story from the very beginning.
So, the end of the 17th century, the American town of Salem.
Hard times: smallpox epidemic, Indian raids, drought, harsh winters.
What is all this for?
There was only one answer: the machinations of the devil, witchcraft, witches!
In 1641, the death penalty for witchcraft was established in Massachusetts.
And soon there were also witches.

(Photo from one of the expositions of the Salem Witch Museum)

On that day in January 1692, eleven-year-old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris (niece and daughter of the Reverend Parris) suddenly began to behave strangely. They writhed in pain, hid in corners, complained that someone invisible was stabbing with a pin and a knife, and when Father Parris tried to preach a sermon, they plugged their ears.
Robert Kalef, a merchant from Boston who observed everything that was happening, noted that the girls took "all sorts of strange postures, made bizarre movements, uttered stupid ridiculous speeches, from which neither they nor those around them could understand anything."
Soon, the same oddities appear in the behavior of the girls' girlfriends, including eleven-year-old Anna Putnam Jr.
In February 1692, Dr. William Griggs, having not determined what kind of mysterious illness tormented the patients, made a diagnosis: witchcraft.
Was it really witchcraft or a stupid teen joke?
Perhaps later - now it’s already difficult to say anything - when the girls saw what their ridiculous inventions led to, they realized that it was better to stand their ground and repeat that they were being haunted by ghosts than to be responsible for their actions.
(By the way, one of the inhabitants of Salem then made a clever proposal on how to stop all this. “If these girls are given free rein, then we will all soon become witches and demons here; so we should tie them to a post and tear them out properly,” - he advised.
Who knows - maybe if people had followed his advice then, this whole story would not have happened! After all, according to John Proctor, when his servant Mary Warren first trembled in a fit, he put her at the spinning wheel and threatened to flog her. The attack immediately stopped, but, alas, not for long: the next day he had to leave home, and everything started all over again).
One way or another, it was these few teenage girls who unleashed a wild witch hunt in Salem.
First of all, Tituba, the priest's slave, was accused of witchcraft. Yes, and how not to suspect her, because Tituba was brought by Parris from Barbados, and she told the girls about Voodoo magic in a different way!

To protect themselves from witchcraft, they called Tituba's husband, the Indian John, and forced him to make a "witch's cake." The New England almanac of that time gives the recipe: “From fever. Take barley flour, mix it with baby urine, bake it and feed it to the dog. If it shakes, then you will be cured.” Perhaps people also hoped that if the dog got sick, the girls would tell who and how sent the disease to them?
But this did not happen, and meanwhile, there were already seven “bewitched” girls. They writhed, took strange poses, complained that they were pinched and bitten by spirits, said that they saw witches flying in the sky.
Now the people of Salem no longer doubted: there are sorceresses in the city, and the girls suffer from the fact that they were cursed with witches.
The next to be pointed out by the girls and whose names were heard in court were, as might be expected, the most defenseless members of the community: Sarah Good, a beggar who used to smoke a pipe, and Sarah Osborne, a cripple who had been married three times and Martha Corey, who had an illegitimate half-breed son.
On February 29, 1692, the women accused by the girls were arrested and examined (they looked for "witch's nipples" on their bodies - moles or warts, through which, by all accounts, witches feed demons).

On February 29, 1692, Sarah Hood was charged with the criminal use and practice of "certain abominable arts known as sorcery and sorcery."
They did an interrogation.
Judge John Hawthorne (an ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne) and Judge Jonathan Corwin, both residents of Salem, firmly believed they were dealing with a witch.

Question: Sarah Goode, what kind of evil spirits do you know?
Answer: Nobody.
Q: Didn't you sign a pact with the devil?
Oh no.
Q: Why are you harming these children?
A: I didn't do anything to them. And I would never go down to that!
Q: Then who did you instruct to harm them?
A: I did not entrust this to anyone.
Q: What creature did you hire for this?
O .: None - they slandered me.
Seeing that the defendant's answers did not provide any grounds for sentencing, the judges called the "injured" girls.
“Judge Hawthorne told the children, every one of them, to look at her (Sarah Good) and say, is this the person who is harming them? They said it was one of those." To prove their words, the girls screamed as if in pain, and began to pretend that someone was pinching or biting them.

Tituba denied her guilt with all her might, but after long interrogations she was forced to admit that a certain man from Boston visited her (the stranger was immediately identified as Satan himself), who sometimes turned into a black dog or a pig and offered her to sign his book and help him. She said that she practiced witchcraft and confirmed that she did it with four other witches, including Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, said that they flew through the air on broomsticks.
The Witch Case began to pick up steam.
Two girls from the “bewitched”, seeing that their jokes had gone far, tried to confess to deception, but the rest, fearing to death of exposure and punishment, threatened to declare them repentant as witches, so that they had no choice but to take their words back and return to the ranks of the accusers.
Anna Putnam accused Martha Corey of witchcraft, and Abigail Williams blamed Rebecca Nurse.
Corey and Nurse were also subjected to inspection. Even four-year-old Dorcas Good, the little daughter of Sarah Good, was arrested and interrogated (the girls claimed that they were being bitten by her spirit). The four-year-old baby was kept in prison with her mother for 8 months, until the girl's mother went to the gallows.

Neither while the process was going on, nor even when the executions began, none of the girls tried to admit that they were lying, sending people to the gallows and all their actions indicate that they deliberately slandered acquaintances and strangers for no reason.
During the trial, a lot of people were in the dock, but
the most significant victim of this process was the former priest of the village of Salem, the Reverend George Barrows.
On April 20, 1692, twelve-year-old Ann Putnam testified under oath that she was "greatly frightened" by the ghost of a priest who strangled her and forced her to write in his book. “I told him how terrible it was that he, a priest who is supposed to teach children the fear of God, went so far as to tempt poor defenseless creatures to give their souls to the devil.” She continued: "Oh, terrible ghost, tell me your name so that I know who you are"? And then he said his name was George Burrows."
Anna Putnam stated that he had bewitched the soldiers during the military campaign against the Indians in 1688-89 and was responsible for a number of failures in the Indian wars.
Burroughs was confronted by thirty accusers, including repentant witches. Nineteen-year-old Mercy Lewis, who claimed that Barrows flew her to the top of the mountain and promised her mountains of gold if she signed the Book of Satan.
Abigail Hobbs has stated that Barrows gave her voodoo dolls.
Barrows was exposed as the instigator and head of the witch community, heading the witch covens.
Based on the testimony of six teenagers and eight repentant witches, he was sentenced. The decisive evidence came directly during the trial, when the girls accused Burrows, who was kept in prison, of biting them. They showed teeth marks, and then the judges ordered Burrows to open his mouth and compare the impressions with the defendant's teeth, "which were different from the teeth of other people."
Burroughs had a good reputation and 32 residents of Salem, despite the danger to themselves, petitioned the court to find Burroughs not guilty, but
On August 5, 1692, he was sentenced to the gallows, along with five other defendants.
In a last attempt to defend himself, Pastor Burrows (he never pleaded guilty to witchcraft), already standing at the gallows, read the Lord's Prayer "Our Father" without hesitation. (It is believed that a witch or sorcerer is not able to say a prayer without hesitation, that if a person read this prayer without stumbling, he is innocent). The crowd present at the execution was so excited by this fact that they demanded the immediate release of the priest.
The judge overseeing the execution had to spend time telling the parishioners that the devil is most dangerous when he appears in the form of an angel of light and confuses the innocent souls of the people of Salem.
Burrows was hanged.

Next in line was the case of Bridget Bishop, considered by the court in June 1692.
Bishop was in her sixties, quarrelsome, dressed eccentrically, and ran a tavern.
The city dyer testified that Bishop brought him pieces of lace to dye, which no decent woman would have in her wardrobe. Of course, this fact was immediately used as confirmation of her witchcraft.
Her sister's husband confirmed that Satan appeared to Bridge, and the witness swore that he saw Bishop's spirit steal eggs, and she herself turned into a black cat.
There were others who confirmed that Bishop is a witch.
Villager Samuel Gray said that Bishop came to him at night and tormented him.
Some of the girls also confirmed that Bishop's spirit came to them as well.
But most importantly, a suspicious wart was found on the woman's body, which passed for the "witch's nipple."
Old Bishop was found guilty, and on June 10, 1692, the "Witch of Salem" was hanged.
... After that, the young accusers, as they say, got a taste.
On July 29-30, 1692, five more women were found guilty and hanged.
One of them, Rebecca Nurse, was a respectable parishioner and an elderly woman: she was already 71 years old and did not get out of bed.
Rebecca until the end retained a sober mind and sense of humor, which did not betray her even during interrogation.

Question: Why are you sick? There are strange rumors about your illness.
Answer: I wash my stomach.
Q: What are you upset about?
A: Nothing but old age.
Her advanced age did not save her.
The "bewitched" girls stood their ground: she is a witch! She made them sign in the book of Satan! She is guilty!
They writhed and fought in a fit when they saw Rebecca, which, naturally, forced the court to recognize her as a witch.
Rebecca Nurse was hanged.

The Salem Witches case continued, people were sent to prison and to the gallows, and if the townspeople had doubts about what was happening, they kept their opinions to themselves. Doubt was deadly.
The innkeeper John Proctor was one of the few who dared to doubt that the unfortunate women were really witches.
A day later, Anna Putnam, Abigail Williams, the Indian John (Paris's slave), and eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Booth spoke out against him in court.
They stated that the spirits told them that Proctor was a serial killer.
Proctor tried to fight, sought to transfer the case to Boston, but he did not succeed.
On September 9, 1692, six more women were sentenced to the gallows, and on September 17, nine more people were accused of witchcraft.
On September 19, 1692, eighty-year-old Giles Corey drew the heaviest lot.
Corey had already spent five months in prison in chains (his wife was accused of being a witch), but even after that he denied any involvement in witchcraft. It was decided to apply heavy torture to him in order to literally squeeze out a confession.
It was against the law because, although torture had existed in England before 1827, in Massachusetts Section 46 of the Liberty Corps of 1641 forbade its use: "Inhuman, barbarous, and cruel punishments are not permitted of corporal punishment."
However, octogenarian Giles Corey was crushed to death by putting more and more weights on the board placed on his chest over the course of two days.
No food was given, "except three slices of the worst bread on the first day and three sips of stagnant water, which is nearby, on the second." Robert Calef described how, on Monday, September 19, in an open field near the Salem prison, Giles Corey was dying "under the yoke and from the heaviness piled on him, his tongue crawled out of his mouth."
Corey died without pleading guilty.
On September 22, 1692, eight more people were hanged.
The ninth victim, Dorcas Hoare, confessed to witchcraft and thereby escaped hanging.
No matter how dangerous it was to doubt the impartiality of the court, nevertheless, in October 1692, many began to doubt the correctness of the decisions made.
The end of this story was put by Governor Phips, who first forbade the execution of those arrested, and then, by his decree, dismissed the court.

A few years later, in 1702, the 1692 judgment in the Salem witch trials was declared illegal.
In 1711, all the victims were legally restored to their civil rights, the good name of the dead was returned, and considerable monetary compensation was paid to the families of the victims of the Salem tragedy.
Salem was renamed Danvers in 1752. In 1992, a memorial was erected in memory of the victims of the Salem tragedy.
Where the "Salem witches" are actually buried is unknown.

During this witch hysteria, one hundred and fifty people ended up in prison, nineteen were hanged.
Two died in prison, one was crushed to death, one (Tituba) was kept in prison for a long time without trial, two women had their execution suspended because they announced their pregnancy (they later lived to see the total cancellation of the sentence), one (Mary Bradbury) escaped from prison after the verdict was passed, five more pleaded guilty and received a reprieve.

Many versions explaining the behavior of the accuser girls were put forward later.
It was alleged, for example, that they were poisoned by ergot contained in bread (the symptoms of this poisoning cause hallucinations and seizures). Soon this version was refuted.
Others said that a special form of encephalitis could be the culprit for the girls.
But most likely and most truthfully, we see the simplest version: having lied once, the girls could no longer stop and were forced to lie again and again. This is what led nineteen people to the gallows.

The only document to support this is Ann Putnam's confession, which she made 14 years later, at the age of 26:

I wish to repent before God for that sad and mournful role that, by the will of Providence, fell to the lot of my father's family in 1692; in the fact that in my childhood I was led by the will of the Lord to become an instrument for accusing several people of a serious crime, through which they lost their lives, but now I have every reason to believe that those people were not guilty. At that sad time, satanic obsession deceived me, and I fear that, along with others, I became, although without any malice or intention on my part, an instrument in the wrong hands and brought on my head and on the heads of my people the curse of innocently shed blood; honestly and directly in the face of God and people I declare that everything that I said or did then was said and done not out of malice or out of ill will towards anyone, because I did not have such feelings for any of them, but only out of ignorance as a result of satanic obsession.
For this reason, I want to fall on my face and pray for forgiveness from the Lord and from all those whom I have caused so much offense and grief, from those whose relatives have suffered from the accusation

IN EDMA - in the pre-Christian, pagan period - these are, most likely, female witches, "knowing" (after all - knowledge, know - know), who during their lifetime played the role of the coastline of the clan, village; women who knew herbs and their medicinal properties, who knew conspiracies and healed people, who communicated, as it was believed, with spirits. How the characters of pagan mythology were images with dominant positive features.

Witch - in Slavic beliefs - a woman endowed with witchcraft abilities by nature or who has learned to conjure. In essence, the very name of a witch characterizes her as “a person who knows, has special knowledge” (“to witch, to witch” means “to conjure, to tell fortunes”).

Christianity in the fight against paganism turned the witch into a witch, endowed with only negative features. She began to be portrayed as an old, gray-haired, disheveled woman with a hooked nose, wild eyes, bony hands and a small ponytail, living with the devil or making a deal with him. Witchcraft was declared a crime.

Witch has properties. She can turn into a crow, an owl, a cat, a dog, a pig, or she can appear as a beautiful young woman. A witch flies on a broom, shovel, poker or on a goat, flying out of the chimney at home.

“They say about witches that they have a tail, they can fly through the air, turn into forty, turn into pigs and other animals, throwing themselves over twelve knives.”

“The king himself went out to the square and ordered all the witches to be covered with straw. When straw was brought in and surrounded, he ordered to set it on fire from all sides in order to destroy all witchcraft in Russia, before his own eyes. The frying pan of the witches engulfed them - and they raised a screech, scream and meow. A thick black column of smoke rose, and magpies flew out of it, one after another - apparently-invisibly ... So, all the witches-crossdressers turned into forty and flew away and deceived the king in the eyes.

With their witchcraft charms, witches send damage to plants, animals and people. If a witch in the field binds several bunches of cereal plants or cuts a narrow path of ears of corn, then the entire crop dies - she takes it to herself. She can spoil any cattle, she can milk cows, no matter how far away, she can deprive them of milk: if she only draws a circle on the ground and sticks a knife into its center with a conspiracy, then the milk from the cow she has conceived will flow by itself.

Witches are to blame for the illnesses of people, especially if it is not known what and why this or that person is ill. Droughts, hurricanes, heavy, damaging downpours, hail, epidemics, crop failures, etc. began to be explained by their insidiousness. But, knowing certain methods of action, the witch can be disarmed, made peaceful.

“They say, in order to frighten a witch and disarm her actions, you need to in the hut where she is, in the cross of the window frame, in the jamb of the door that serves as a crossbar, or in the garden under the table, stick a knife, and the sorceress will be submissive.”

“If a sorcerer or sorceress ties a doll in bread, then you need to remove it with a poker and take it out of the pen, looking around or burn it right away, do not pull it out. They also do this: they take an aspen peg, split it, grab the doll into the split and pull it out. From this remedy, they say, the culprit of the doll suffers greatly - he gets severe pain in the lower back.

Dying, the witch suffers terribly. Both the witch and the witcher cannot die without passing on their sorcerous knowledge to some kind of successor. This is strictly followed by evil spirits, but they want to lose their influence on people. If there are no people willing to voluntarily take on this burden, then sorcerers transfer their abilities by deceit. Dying, they can take someone by the hand, give him any thing, while saying "on you." That person, without knowing it, becomes a sorcerer. Or they can even throw a stick - the one who picks it up will be given unclean witchcraft power.

In order for the soul of a dying witch to leave her body faster, it was usually supposed to break the floorboard - apparently, it was believed that such and such a soul could only go straight underground. In other places, it was believed that it was necessary to raise the mother or make a hole in the roof - evil spirits could not come for the witch in the usual way.

Such a transformation of ideas, characteristic of many images of pagan mythology, is largely due to the desire of Christianity to establish its undivided dominance in the minds of people, for which all the deities that were previously worshiped had to be presented as servants of the Antichrist. In addition, the image of a witch embodied the Christian idea of ​​a woman as a vessel of sin.

In Slavic mythology, these are sorceresses who have entered into an alliance with the devil or other evil spirits in order to gain supernatural abilities. In different Slavic countries, witches were given different guises. In Russia, witches were represented as old women with disheveled gray hair, bony hands, and huge blue noses.
Peasant girls confided their secrets to village witches-witches, and they offered their services to them.

One girl, who served with a rich merchant, complained: "He promised to marry, but he deceived." “And you bring me only a piece of his shirt. I will give it to the church watchman to tie a rope on this tuft, then the merchant will not know where to go from longing, ”such was the witch’s recipe. Another girl wanted to marry a peasant who did not like her. “Get me the stockings off his legs. I will wash them, I will say water at night and I will give you three grains. Give him that water to drink, throw grain under his feet when he rides, and everything will be fulfilled.

Village witches were simply inexhaustible in inventing various recipes, especially in love affairs. There is also a mysterious talisman, which is extracted from a black cat or from frogs. From the first, boiled to the last degree, an “invisible bone” is obtained. A bone is equivalent to walking boots, a flying carpet, a hospitable bag and an invisibility cap. Two “lucky bones” are taken out of the frog, serving with equal success for both love spells and lapels, that is, causing love or disgust
In Moscow, according to researchers, in the 17th century, on different sides, there lived witches or sorceresses, to whom even boyar wives came to ask for help against the jealousy of their husbands and consult about their love affairs and about means of how to moderate someone else's anger or harass enemies. In 1635, one “golden” craftswoman dropped a scarf in the palace, in which the root was wrapped. On this occasion, a search was appointed. When asked where she took the root and why she went to the sovereign with it, the craftswoman answered that the root was not dashing, but carried it with her from “heart pain, that her heart was sick”, she complained to one wife that her husband was dashing before her, and she gave her a reversible root, and ordered to put it on a mirror and look into the glass: then her husband would be affectionate to her, and in the royal court she did not want to spoil anyone and did not know other homies. The defendant and the wife to whom she referred were exiled to distant cities.

According to popular beliefs, witches "born" are kinder than "scientists" and can even help people, correcting the harm caused by "scientific" witches. In the Oryol province, it was believed that a "born" witch was born the thirteenth girl out of twelve girls in a row of the same generation (or, respectively, the tenth out of nine). Such a witch has a small tail (from half an inch to five inches). Sometimes witch skills passed from mothers to daughters “by inheritance”, and whole families of witches arose. According to popular beliefs, witches cannot die and suffer terribly until they pass it on to someone - either their knowledge; therefore, people endowed with witchcraft abilities, dying, could pass them on to unsuspecting relatives, acquaintances - through a cup, a broom, and other objects at hand. One of the residents of the Murmansk region told how an old sorcerer offered to “write off witchcraft from him” as a sign of his disposition, but she was frightened and refused. The witch could get witchcraft abilities even after concluding an agreement with evil spirits: the devils began to serve the witch, fulfilling all her orders, even those not related to witchcraft. For example, for the sorceress Kostikha, devils regularly worked in the hayfield (Murm.). Another witch was taught to conjure by the devil in the form of a cat she picked up in the forest, and he eventually tortured her (Tulsk.). about how toads, snakes and other evil spirits crawl out of the body of a dead witch. In the Tula province they said: snakes, lizards, frogs gather on the chest of the deceased witch, and when her hut is burned “by the verdict of the rural community”, barking, screaming, voices are heard from there; in the ravine, where coal is poured, a pit with poisonous snakes is formed. However, the witch does not always resort to the help of devils, limiting herself to her own skills and powers.

In one village there could be several witches, sorceresses. On the Tersky Coast of the White Sea, until recently, residents called villages where there was traditionally "a lot of blackness", and, accordingly, there were many sorcerers and sorceresses. Sometimes witches were considered subordinates of an older, "strong" sorcerer. There are also references to the eldest, chief witch. From sorceresses (mostly grandmothers involved in healing), witches are distinguished by an unkind character and more diverse abilities and skills. The traditional appearance of a conjuring witch is a woman in a white shirt, with long flowing hair, sometimes with a kuban (pot) over her shoulders, with a pail or basket on the head, in the hands. She knows how to move quickly (fly) on a lutoshka (linden stick without bark), on a broomstick, a bread shovel, and other household utensils. All these magical tools of the witch indicate her special connection with the hearth, the stove - in the house the witch usually conjures at the stove. If you overturn the grip at the stove, then the witch will lose the ability to conjure (Vlad.), But if you turn the stove damper with the bow inward, then the witch will leave the house and will not be able to return to it (Vol.). The witch flies (flies out of the chimney) with smoke, a whirlwind, bird. In general, the chimney is a favorite way of witches from house to house, and the smoke, curling in especially bizarre rings, is one of the evidence of the presence of a witch in the hut: she has “the first smoke from the chimney never comes out calmly and quietly, but always twirls and twists it in clubs in all directions, whatever the weather” (Vol.).

The witch turns into a needle, a ball, a sack, a rolling barrel, a haystack. However, most often it takes the form birds (magpies), snakes, pigs, horses, cats, dogs, rolling wheels . In some regions of Russia, it was believed that there were twelve possible forms of a witch. The ability to quickly transform and the variety of forms taken distinguish the witch from other mythological characters. Turning around, the witch somersaults on the stove hearth (or underground, on the threshing floor) through the fire, through knives and forks, through twelve knives, through a rope, etc. There are also more well-known (according to fairy tales) ways of wrapping - for example, rubbing with magic ointment. A witch casts spells, turns around and flies or runs in the form of animals most often at dusk, in the evening, at night. A witch, a sorceress is a creature and a real one (in everyday life she an ordinary peasant woman), and endowed with supernatural powers and abilities. According to Russian beliefs, a witch has power over various manifestations of the existence of nature and man. From witches and witchers "depends on harvest and crop failure, illness and recovery, the welfare of livestock, and often even a change in the weather."

In the records of the XIX-XX centuries. such a skill of the witch as damage and theft of the moon is also mentioned. In the Tomsk province, it was believed that witches first learn to “spoil” a radish and a month, and then a person. The month is "spoiled" as follows. Baba, becoming "okarach" (on all fours), looks at him through the bath trough and conjures. From this, the edge of the month should turn black as coal. In the Astrakhan province, a story is recorded about how a witch “stole” a month during a wedding, and the trainees (participants in the wedding) did not find the way. And in the archives of the Kursk Znamensky Monastery there is a record of the 18th century, which tells how a witch removed stars from the sky. The connection with the Moon, characteristic of the most ancient deities, supernatural beings, testifies to the antiquity of the origin of the image of a witch. However, in Russia XIX-XX centuries. such beliefs (and even more so stories about a witch flying, eating, sweeping the moon and stars with a broomstick) are not as common as, for example, in Ukraine, among Western and southern Slavs. In Russian materials, a witch, conjuring over the Moon and stars, usually retains her human appearance, although she can be compared with an eclipse, a cloud. This does not allow us to see in the image of a witch only animation, a personification of natural phenomena. The witch either imitates the elements, then subordinates them to herself, then, as it were, dissolves in them, merging with the elements, acting through them.

The image of a witch arose at the crossroads of ideas about “living” elements, about a woman endowed with supernatural abilities, as well as about animals and birds with special properties and abilities. In order to fly, a witch turns into a bird, a horse or becomes a woman rider. The "occupations" of flying witches are varied. In the guise of a magpie, a witch-little thing harms pregnant women (see, less often - flies to the Sabbath (Tulsk., Vyatsk.) Or steals the Moon (Tom.). In Russia of the 19th-20th centuries, stories about magical flights or trips of witches on a person are popular , wrapped by her in a horse (or, conversely, endowed with special powers of a person on a witch-horse - Orel., Kaluga., Vyatsk.) The long-standing distribution of this plot is evidenced in the Nomocanon, which mentions the healing by Archbishop Macarius of the “wife turned into a mare” To wrap a sleeping or gaping person with a horse, it is enough for a witch to throw a bridle over him. The bridle and collar are traditionally one of the most "witchcraft" items. Russians believed so much in the transmission of witchcraft through everything "belonging to horse harness and in general to riding" that to for example, outsiders were categorically not allowed to royal horses, and in Eastern Siberia, damage by witches to people, livestock and objects is still called “putting on a collar”.

In the stories of the XIX-XX centuries. flights and trips of horse witches (witch riders) are aimless or end in the marriage (sometimes death) of a witch tamed in the form of a horse. Narratives about the flights and trips of witches to the Sabbath (as well as about the Sabbaths themselves) in the Great Russian provinces did not become widespread. In a story from the Vyatka province, for example, it is not so much about the Sabbath as about the fate of a person who accidentally fell on it: a magpie witch (and after her the witch's husband who turned into a magpie) arrives at a gathering of sorceresses. The husband is immediately forced to leave him (“until the witches have eaten him”) and flies away on a horse drawn and animated by his wife. Having jumped off his horse at the wrong time, he then gets home for half a year. Witches also have power over the weather, especially over moisture and rain. In the Voronezh province, it was believed that a witch could drive away the clouds by waving her apron.

According to beliefs (albeit more characteristic of the southern and southwestern regions of Russia), a witch hides and stores rain, hail, and a storm in a bag or pot. into a river, a lake, and those who did not drown were considered witches (apparently suspected of being able to influence water). This custom can be regarded both as an execution, and as a purification, a sacrifice. During severe droughts, witches were usually sought out who had conjured a drought (perhaps even holding rain somewhere in or "in themselves") Belief that a witch can somehow attract (or "draw" into herself) moisture - to hold back the rain, to rake in the dew, to milk the cows - is especially common in Russia. One of the most traditional occupations of a witch is milking other people's cows. Usually at dusk, at night, turning into a snake, a pig, a cat and secretly sneaking up to a cow, the witch milks her, while she can do without a milker, dragging the udder with invisible hairs (Raven.).

In a story from the Tula province, a rich peasant's cows do not give milk. He is advised to guard with an ax, sitting under a chicken perch. At night, a cat comes into the yard and, turning into a simple-haired woman, milks a cow in a leather bag. A man cuts off a woman's hand with an ax, and she disappears. In the morning it is discovered that he cut off the hand of his mother, who turned out to be a witch. The gathering decides not to let her out of the yard. A cow milked by a witch dries up the udder, she withers and dies. They also talk about more complex methods of witch milking: without touching the cows, the witch milks them by sticking a knife into the plow (which causes milk to flow out of the knife), or calls, calls out to the cows, listing their names. According to the word of the witch, milk fills the dishes prepared by her at home.

The actions of witches are also connected with the annual cycle of nature. They are especially significant and dangerous in the middle of winter and on the days of the summer solstice. In the southern regions of Russia, there are stories that on January 16, hungry witches kill cows, and during the summer solstice (on Ivanov, Petrov days, July 7 and 12) they try to get into the stables and get close to the cattle. The days of the solstice and major calendar holidays (for example, Easter) are peculiar festivities of witches, accompanied, according to Russian beliefs, not so much by sabbaths, but by the activation of all the forces and creatures inhabiting the world: “witches and sorcerers fly out of their caves to guard treasures, spoil cattle, destroy spores in bread, make creases so that the reapers writhe, make gaps so that they are not threshed, ”etc. (Psk.). Fearing witches, on such days they tried to leave the cows together with the calves in the barn, so that the sucking calf would prevent the witch from taking milk, thistles were hung on the door of the barn, a young aspen tree was placed in the door of the barnyard, they propped up the door of the barn with aspen logs, sprinkled with flaxseed. Stinging nettles were placed on the windows of the hut, and in general they tried not to sleep on the night of The day of Ivan so as not to become a victim of witchcraft tricks. In the Smolensk province, before Ivan's Day, a Passion candle and an image were placed on the gates of the barnyard (a day later, the candle could turn out to be bitten by a witch, whom she prevented from entering the barnyard). In some regions of Russia (especially southern and southwestern), on the night of Ivanov's day, a symbolic burning of a horse's skull or an effigy depicting a witch took place. Calling cows driven out to the healing dew of Ivanovo, they simultaneously take away the dewy moisture that gives health, fertility, and milk.

According to customs, peasant women also “scoop dew” in the morning of Ivan's Day, “carrying a clean tablecloth over the grass and squeezing it into beetroot” (Volog.), or ride in the dew, trying to draw health and strength from it (Olon.). “Dew scooping” by peasant women is aimed at acquiring health and well-being; “raking in” the dew by a witch means “raking in milk” and spoiling health, spoiling a cow. Apparently, in some of their qualities, dew, milk, rain seemed to the peasants a single substance, the embodiment and guarantee of the fruitfulness of the land, livestock, people. Witches, on the other hand, had the ability to take away or “absorb” this fertility into themselves. The milk that is given out retains a connection with the witch who took it away: if such milk is boiled, then the witch will experience terrible torment (Perm., Sarat.) Or “everything inside will boil” ( South). If you stick a knife into the butter made from this milk, blood will come out (Novg.).

The milk seems to be inside the witch, in which there is some resemblance to a yard snake or noon snake ( cm. ) It is difficult to say whether the witch "imitates" a snake or the image of a supernatural snake is one of the components of the image of a witch. One way or another, but the idea that witches can keep fertility, harvest ("abundance") in themselves, was noted even in Ancient Russia.

During the famine in the Rostov land, the skin behind the shoulders of women suspected of witchcraft was cut, releasing the “abundance” drawn into them. In the beliefs of the XIX-XX centuries. a milking bowl, a pot, a basket on the head and behind the shoulders of the witch, obviously, are also considered as vessels intended for “taken away” milk, dew, rain, harvest. The witch, thus, turns out to be associated with the most diverse elements and forces of the world: she and the snake , and a bird, and a horse, and wind, and smoke; she and a woman endowed with supernatural abilities - perhaps once a servant of various snake-like, bird-like, and other deities, an intermediary between them and people.

In Eastern Siberia, there is still an idea that a witch can command snakes, frogs, evil spirits (devils). A witch, endowed with the ability to influence almost all essential aspects of life (especially moisture, water, fertility), may have been It is also associated with the highest female deity of the East Slavic pantheon - (Old Russian “moksh” means “conjure”, and “mokosha” means “bewitching woman”). The role of a witch commanding diverse forces and beings could be not only harmful, but also necessary. Many researchers of the customs of the Eastern Slavs note the special vocation of women in the matter of witchcraft, keeping witch secrets and ancient beliefs. E. Anichkov believed that in Russia (starting from the 11th-12th centuries) “with the decline of the role of the Magi”, a “primordial bearer of secret knowledge” - a woman, comes to the fore, “witchcraft becomes family, domestic” [Anichkov, 1914].

Indeed, even in the XIX-XX centuries. in especially important or critical cases (during epidemics, deaths of livestock) they tell fortunes, conjure ordinary peasant women. At the same time, their appearance, actions often repeat the appearance and actions of witches: women in shirts, without belts, with loose hair, go around on pokers and brooms, plow the village during epidemics, blocking the path of the disease; or they run around the house on Maundy Thursday, driving away evil spirits, trying to “protect”, keep prosperity and well-being in the house. Women's divination (like the woman herself, especially connected with nature and elemental forces) primordially seemed as necessary as dangerous. In the village of the XIX-XX centuries. a witch is almost always a negative phenomenon, a source of various troubles: “Whatever happens in a peasant family, the witch turns out to be guilty.”

In addition to damage to the weather and livestock, damage to fields, health, people can be attributed to the witch. Usually the witch "spoils" the field by making "creases and twists": wringing and tying, twisting the stems, pressing the ears to the ground, she "binds fertility", prevents the ripening of cereals and destroys the harvest. According to popular beliefs, if a witch makes a hall or a gap in the field, a gap (lives through a strip), then the evil spirit begins to drag grain from this field to the witch's bins (Yarosl., Tulsk., Orl.). In the hall, the twist cannot only be pulled out, but even touched without the risk of becoming mortally ill, therefore, in the Tula and Oryol provinces, for example, they were removed with a poker or a split aspen stake. The hall could be destroyed by a sorcerer who burned it or drowned it. For this purpose, they also invited priests who served in the prayer field. The antiquity of all these performances is evidenced by the monuments of ancient Russian and medieval literature. In the collection of the XV century. among confessional questions addressed to women we read: ... did you spoil the field with someone or something else, a person or cattle?

A witch can “spoil” people in many ways, chasing them in the form of animals (scaring, biting and even seizing, eating, “driving” in the form of a horse), slandering, spreading diseases through wind, water, various objects (and even through touch or glance ).The fear of witchcraft and witches, especially in medieval Russia, was strong; in many cases, even the clergy, like the highest secular authorities, "blindly believed in magic." The charter of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich mentions a sorceress woman who slandered about hops in order to bring a “plague plague” to Russia [Krainsky, 1900]. Witches were especially feared during weddings, to which they tried to invite a “strong” guardian sorcerer (see). Witches, sorcerers of “blameful women” were tried and persecuted in Russia until the 19th century, also marked by litigation between “spoiled and spoiled”.

Numerous were extrajudicial reprisals against those suspected of witchcraft: testing, witches were drowned, and wanting to neutralize, they beat and maimed. It was believed that if you hit the witch with all your might, then she would lose her witchcraft abilities (or at least part of them). Less cruel methods: hit the witch with Trinity greenery or “nail” her shadow with nails, hit the shadow with an aspen stake, turn the damper at the stove, grip, etc. It was possible to find out who the witch was in the village mainly during big holidays. The peasants believed that by the beginning of the festive Easter service, witches would definitely come to church and even try to touch the priest (probably in order to receive sacred, magical powers emanating from him). Therefore, if during Easter matins you look at those present in the church through a piece of wood from the coffin of the dead, you can see witches with jugs of milk on their heads (South).

They looked out for witches at Easter and held a piece of cheese saved from Maundy Thursday behind their cheek. “When the priest says:“ Christ is Risen! ”, All the witches (with milkers on their heads) will turn their backs to the icons” (Sarat.). Witches could also be seen in the house, in the yard: if on Thursdays of Great Lent you make a harrow from aspen, and on Good Saturday hide behind this harrow with a lit candle and wait, you will see a witch (South).

In the Surgut Territory, they knew this way to catch witches: it was necessary to leave the entire post on a log from the morning firebox, and during Easter morning, flood the stove with these logs. Witches will flock to ask for fire, and if a floorboard is pulled out between them and the door, they will not be able to get out of the hut. However, the peasants were still afraid to irritate the witches and tried not to do this unless absolutely necessary. Dangerous during life, witches are restless, harmful even after death, continuing to frighten fellow villagers and relatives with their visits, and also persecute the victims they have chosen. The deceased witch often “bites”, “bites” people, personifying death, destruction. The dead witches take revenge on the priests who tried to expose them during their lifetime, they persecute both the guys who inadvertently rejected their love, and their suitors: “One guy in a strange village had a fiancee who died, and she was a witch. So that she would not torture the guy, the people advised him to go to her cemetery and sit on the cross of her grave for three nights, then she would leave him alone and do nothing to him. The guy went to the witch's grave for three nights and every night he saw her until the first roosters. All three nights she came out of the grave and looked for him. On the first night, she was looking for him alone, on the second night with her friends, and on the third, in order to find him, on the advice of the old witch, they brought with them a baby with a tail, who showed them where the guy was sitting. But, fortunately, at the time when the baby with the tail pointed to the cross where the guy was, the roosters crowed - and the witches failed. The baby was left with outstretched hand, and his parents were found by him; and this is important, because these people are treated with caution and they are watched so that they don’t do anything bad to the Orthodox.”(Tulsk).

In order to get rid of the persecution of the deceased witch once and for all, her coffin and grave were "guarded" with special precautions. If the witch continued to “get up” and cause harm, the grave was torn apart, and the body was pierced with an aspen stake - aspen was traditionally revered as a tree that protects against witches. In general, after death, witches do not “get up” as often as the deceased sorcerers, and mostly only the first time after the funeral. In Russian beliefs, stories about witches of the 20th century. sorcery transformations, flights, trips of witches are described less frequently than in the 19th century, but ideas about the ability of witches to spoil cattle and people are still widespread. Witch, sorceress in the village XIX-XX centuries. as if personifies the troubles, dangers and accidents that lie in wait and pursue the peasants. It is an almost universal explanation of misfortunes, and in this capacity it is even necessary for the life of the peasant community.

In a spiritual verse written (by A. V. Valov) in Poshekhonye, ​​Yaroslavl province, the soul of a witch, who has already completed her earthly existence, repents of her sins as follows:

“I gave milk from the cows, I lived a strip between the borders, I laundered the ergot from the bread.” This verse gives a full characterization of the witch's evil activities, since these three acts constitute the special occupations of women who have decided to sell their souls. However, if you carefully look at the appearance of a witch in the form in which it is drawn to the imagination of the inhabitants of the northern forest half of Russia, then a significant difference between the Great Russian witch and her ancestor, the Little Russian one, involuntarily catches the eye. In general, in the Little Russian steppes, young widows are very common among witches, and, moreover, according to the expression of our great poet, such that “it’s not a pity to give their souls for the look of a black-browed beauty,” then in the harsh coniferous forests, which themselves sing only in a minor tone, playful and beautiful Little Russian witches turned into ugly old women. They were equated here with the fabulous Baba-Yagas living in huts on chicken legs, they, according to the Olonets legend, always spin a tow and at the same time “graze geese with their eyes in the field, and cook with a nomsom (instead of a poker and tongs) in the oven”, Great Russian witches are usually confused with sorceresses and are imagined only in the form of old, sometimes fat as a tub, women with disheveled gray hair, bony hands and huge blue noses. (Because of these fundamental features, in many places the very name of a witch has become a curse.)

Witches, according to the general opinion, differ from all other women in that they have a tail (small) and have the ability to fly through the air on broomsticks, pokers, mortars, etc. They go to dark deeds from their homes without fail through chimneys and , like all sorcerers, can turn into different animals, most often magpies, pigs, dogs and yellow cats. One such pig (in the Bryansk places) was beaten with anything, but the pokers and grips bounced off it like a ball until the roosters crowed. In cases of other Transformations, beatings are also considered a useful measure, only it is advised to beat with a cart axle and not otherwise than repeating the word “one” with each blow (saying “two” means ruining yourself, since the witch will break that person). This beating ritual, which determines how and with what to beat, shows that the massacres of witches are practiced quite widely. And it is true, they are beaten to this day, and the modern village does not cease to supply material for criminal chronicles. Most often, witches are tortured for milking other people's cows. Knowing the widespread village custom of naming cows according to the days of the week when they were born, as well as their habit of turning around at the call, witches easily use all this. Enticing "authors" and "subbotok", they milk them to the last drop, so that after that the cows come from the field as if they had completely lost their milk. Offended peasants console themselves with the opportunity to catch the villain at the scene of the crime and mutilate her by cutting off her ear, nose, or breaking her leg. (After that, a woman with a bandaged cheek, or limping on one or the other leg, usually does not take long to show up in the village.)

Numerous experiments of this kind are carried out everywhere, since the peasants still retain the confidence that their cows are not milked by hungry neighbors who do not know how to feed the children, but by witches. Moreover, the peasants apparently do not allow the thought that cows can lose milk from painful causes, or that this milk can be sucked out by alien-eating animals.
Witches have a lot in common with, and if you select outstanding features in the manner of action of both, you will have to repeat. They are also in constant communication and strike among themselves (it is for these meetings that “bald” mountains and noisy games of playful widows with cheerful and passionate ones were invented) - , in the same way, they die hard, tormented by terrible convulsions caused by the desire to transfer their science to someone, and in the same way, after death, their tongue sticks out of their mouths, unusually long and very similar to a horse's. But the similarity is not limited to this, since then restless night walks from fresh graves to the old ashes begin for the best case - to taste the pancakes put out of the window before the legal fortieth day, for the worst ~ to vent belated and uncooled malice and reduce the unfinished calculations during life with unloved neighbors). Finally, the aspen stake driven into the grave calms them in the same way. In a word, it is useless to look for sharp boundaries separating from sorcerers, as precisely as witches from sorceresses. Even the history of both has much in common: its bloody pages go back centuries, and it seems that they have lost their beginning - the custom of cruel reprisals against sorcerers and witches has taken root in the people to such an extent. True, even in the Middle Ages, the most enlightened church fathers opposed this custom, but in that harsh era, the preaching of meekness and gentleness had little success. So, in the first half of the 15th century, at the same time as in Pskov, during a pestilence, twelve witches were burned alive, in Suzdal, Bishop Serapion was already arming himself against the habit of attributing social disasters to witches and destroying them for this “You still cling to the filthy the custom of sorcery, said St. father, you believe and burn innocent people. In what books, in what scriptures have you heard that there are famines on earth from sorcery? If you believe this, then why do you burn the Magi? Do you beg, honor them, bring gifts to them, so that they don’t make pestilence, let down rain, bring heat, tell the earth to be fruitful? Sorcerers and sorceresses act with demonic power over those who are afraid of them, and whoever holds firm faith in God, they have no power over those. I mourn your madness, I beg you, step aside from the deeds of the filthy. Divine rules "order a person to be condemned to death after listening to many witnesses, and you put water as witnesses, say:" If she starts to sink, she is innocent, if she swims, then she is a witch. so as not to drown, and thereby lead you into murder?

However, this word of conviction sounded in the desert, filled with the highest feelings of Christian mercy: 200 years later, under Tsar Alexei, the old woman Olena was burned in a log house as a heretic, with magic papers and roots after she herself admitted that she spoiled people and some of taught them witchcraft. In Perm, the peasant Talev was burned with fire and, under torture, they gave him three shakes according to a slander that he was letting people hiccup. In Tot'ev 1674. the woman Fedosya was burned in a log house, with numerous witnesses, according to a slander "damage, etc. When (in 1632) news came from Lithuania that some woman was slandering about hops in order to bring pestilence, then immediately, under pain of death, those hops were forbidden to buy. A whole century later (in 1730), the Senate considered it necessary to recall by decree that the law defines burning as magic, and forty years after that (1779), the Bishop of Ustyug reports the appearance of sorcerers and wizards from male and female peasants who do not they only turn others away from orthodoxy, but also infect many with various diseases through worms. The sorcerers were sent to the senate as having confessed that they had renounced the faith and had an appointment with the devil who brought them worms. The same senate, having learned from the questions of the sorcerers that they had been beaten mercilessly more than once and forced by these beatings to blame for what they were not at all guilty of, ordered the voivode and his comrade to be dismissed from their posts, the alleged sorcerers to be released and released, and the bishops and others to forbid spiritual persons to enter into investigative cases on sorcery and sorcery, for these cases are considered subject to civil court.

And now, since the life-giving ray of light flashed for the first time in impenetrable darkness, on the eve of the 20th century, we receive the following news, all because of the sorcery question about witches:

“Recently (writes our correspondent from Orel), at the beginning of 1899, a woman (named Tatyana), whom everyone considers a witch, was almost killed. Tatyana had a fight with another woman and threatened her that she would spoil her. And this is what happened later because of the women's street squabble: when the peasants came together to shout and turned to Tatyana with a strict request, she promised them to turn everyone into dogs. One of the men approached her with a fist and said: “You are a witch, but speak my fist so that it does not hit you.” And hit her on the back of the head. Tatyana fell; as if on cue, the rest of the men attacked her and started beating her. It was decided to examine the woman, find her tail and tear it off. Baba screamed with a good obscenity and defended herself so desperately that many had their faces scratched, others had their hands bitten. The tail, however, was not found. Her husband ran to Tatyana's cry and began to defend, but the peasants began to beat him too. Finally, badly beaten, but not ceasing to threaten, the woman was tied up, taken to the volost (Ryabinsk) and put in a cold one. In the volost they were told that for such deeds all peasants would be punished by the zemstvo chief, since now they are not ordered to believe in sorcerers and witches. Returning home, the peasants announced to Tatyana's husband, Antipas, that they would probably decide to send his wife to Siberia, and that they would agree to give their sentence if he did not put out a bucket of vodka to the whole society. While drinking, Antip swore and swore that not only did he not see, but never even noticed any tail on Tatiana in his life. At the same time, however, he did not hide the fact that his wife threatened to turn him into a stallion whenever he wanted to beat her. The next day, Tatyana came from the volost, and all the peasants came to her to agree that she would not conjure in her village, spoil no one, and not steal milk from the cows. For yesterday's beatings, they generously asked for forgiveness. - She swore that she would fulfill the request, and a week later an order was received from the volost, in which it was said that such stupid things should not happen in the future, and if something like this happens again, then those responsible for this will be punished by law, and, moreover, about this will be brought to the attention of the zemstvo chief. The peasants listened to the order and decided by all means that the witch must have bewitched the authorities, and that therefore, henceforth, one should not reach him, but should deal with his own court.

Note - a story about a witch

In the village of Terebenevo (Zhizdrinsky district, Kaluga province), the seven-year-old girl Sasha told her mother that she and her aunt Marya, with whom she lived as a nanny, flew every night to the bald mountain.
- When everyone falls asleep, the lights go out, Aunt Marya will fly in as a magpie and chirp. I will jump out, and she will throw me a magpie skin, I will put it on - and we will fly. On the mountain we will throw off the skin, make fires, brew a potion to give people water. A lot of women flock: both old and young. Marya has fun - she whistles and dances with everyone, but I'm bored on the sidelines, because everyone is big, and I'm the only one small.
Sasha told the same thing to her father, and this one rushed straight to Marya:
- Atheist, why did you spoil my daughter? Marin's husband interceded: he pushed the fool out the threshold and closed the door behind him. But he did not let up - and to the headman.
The headman thought, thought, and said:
- No, I can't act here - go to the priest and the parish.
He thought, thought the father and decided to take his daughter to church, confess her, take communion and try to see if the priest would undertake to reprimand her. However, the girl herself refused confession.
- Witches do not pray and do not confess! And in the church she turned her back to the iconostasis. The priest refused to chastise and advised the girl to be thoroughly flogged.
- What kind of magpie did she throw off, where did she fly? And you, fool, believe the chatter of a child?
Meanwhile, at the hut of the alarmed father, the crowd of men and women does not disperse, and the girl continues to chatter her nonsense.
In the volost, the complainant was believed and Marya was recognized as a sorceress. The clerk rummaged through the laws and announced:
- No, brother, nothing can be done against the devil: I did not find any article against her.
Suspicion fell on Marya, and the fame of the witch began to grow. The neighbors began to follow her every step, remember and notice all sorts of little things. One told me that she saw Marya washing herself, leaning over the threshold into the street; the other - that Marya drew water for days, the third - that Marya collected herbs on the night of Ivan Kupala, etc. Every step of the unfortunate woman began to be interpreted in a bad way. The boys around the corner began to throw stones at her. Neither she nor her husband could show themselves on the street - they almost spit in the eyes.
“If only you, father, would stand up for us!” the priest’s husband begged Maryin. The priest tried to convince the crowd and calm Marya, but nothing helped, and, in the end, the innocent and meek Marya died in consumption.
15 years have passed since that time. Sasha has grown up a long time ago, she assures me for a long time; that her story was pure fiction, but now no one believes her anymore: the girl entered in full sense and realized that this should not be told. She is a good girl, but not a single suitor will marry her: no one wants to marry a witch.
Probably, she, sitting in old girls, will also have to turn to the fortune-telling business, especially since such activities are almost not dangerous and very profitable. Neither daring fellows, nor red-haired girls, nor deceived husbands, nor jealous wives will pass by the fortune tellers, because even today, as in the old days, faith in “dryness” lives in people. There is no need for bald mountains, or roadside uprisings, and village rubbles are enough to, learning the innermost secrets, diligently engage in love spells and lapels of loving and cold hearts: both to your advantage and to help outsiders. In such cases, there is still a lot of room for clever people, no matter how this tricksters are called: witches or soothsayers, fortune-tellers or healers, grandmothers or whisperers.

Here are some examples from the practice of modern witches and fortune tellers

One peasant of the Oryol province seriously offended his newlywed wife and, in order to somehow rectify the matter, turned for advice to the vaunted old woman healer, who was rumored to be a notorious witch. The sorceress advised her patient to go into the meadows and find among the stakes (pegs on which haystacks are attached) three pieces of such that had stood driven into the ground for at least three years; then scrape shavings from each hundred heat, brew them in a pot and drink.
And here is another case from the practice of soothsayers.
“I don’t have washed water from my neighbors,” one girl who served with a rich merchant also complained to the well-known Kaluga witch, “he promised to marry and deceived. Everyone laughs, even the little guys.
“Just bring me a piece of his shirt,” the witch encouraged her, “I’ll give it to the church watchman, so that when he rings, he will tie this piece on the rope, then the merchant will not know where to go from longing, and he will come to you.” , and you laugh at him: I, they say, did not call you, why did you come? ..
Another poor girl also complained, wishing to marry a rich peasant who did not like her.
- You, if possible, get his stockings off his feet, - the witch advised. - I'll wash them and spit the water at night. And I will give you three grains: one you will throw in front of his house, and the other under his feet when he goes, the third when he comes ...
There are an infinite number of such cases in the practice of village witches, but it is remarkable that healers and witches are truly inexhaustible in the variety of their recipes. Here are a few more samples.
A man loves someone else's woman. The wife asks for advice.
“Look at the yard where the roosters are fighting,” the witch recommends, “take a handful of earth in that place and sprinkle it on the bed of your lovebird. She will quarrel with your husband - and again he will fall in love with his "law" (that is, his wife).
For dryness, girls are advised to carry bagels or gingerbread and apples under the left arm for several days, of course, primarily equipped with slander, in which lies the main, secretly acting force.
Only knowledgeable and chosen witches do not talk conspiracy words to the wind, but lay in the spoken things, exactly what will then heal, soothe and comfort, at will. It is as if a sore heart is filled with the most healing potion when they hear ears about the wish that the melancholy that has been pressing so far will go away “neither in singing, nor in roots, nor in trampling mud, nor in boiling springs”, namely, in that person, who offended, fell out of love or deceived with promises, etc. For lovers, witches know such words that, it seems, are better and sweeter than them and no one can come up with. They send dryness “to zealous hearts, to a white body, to a black liver, to a hot chest, to a violent head, to the middle vein and to all 70 veins, to all 70 joints, to the very love bone. Let this very dryness set fire to a zealous heart and boil hot blood, so much so that it would be impossible to drink it down or eat it in food, not to fall asleep, not to wash it off with water, not to go on a spree, not to cry with tears, etc. .
Only proceeding from the lips of witches, these words have the power to “print” someone else’s heart and lock it up, but even then only when there are slanderous roots in the hands, the hair of a loved one, a piece of his clothes, etc. They believe every promise and fulfill every order: they put a golik under the sled for young guys, if they wish that one of them would not marry this year, they burn his hair so that he walks like a lost one for a whole year. If you stain his undershirt or fur coat with sheep's blood, then no one will love him at all.
But the most real tool in love affairs is a mysterious talisman, which is obtained from a black cat or from frogs. From the first, boiled to the last degree, an “invisible bone” is obtained, making the person who owns it invisible. A bone is equivalent to self-propelled boots, a flying carpet, a hospitable bag and an invisibility cap. From the frog, two “lucky bones” are taken out, with equal success serving both for love spells and lapels, arousing love or disgust. These cat and frog bones are also mentioned in fairy tales with complete faith in their sorcery. These bones are obtained very easily; it is worth boiling a completely black cat in a pot - and you get a “hook and fork”, or you should put two frogs in an anthill to get a “hook and spatula”. They hook the one they want to attract to themselves (or imperceptibly attach it to a scarf). With a fork or spatula, they push her away from themselves when she has time to eat up or is completely disgusted. Few rituals are required and the preparation is not particularly difficult. From the ant heap it is necessary to lead backwards so that he cannot catch up when he goes to look for traces; then both tracks will lead into the forest, and there will be no trace out of the forest. In other cases, it is advised to go to that anthill for 12 nights in a row and go around it silently three times, only on the thirteenth night such a treasure is given into the hands. However, you can do without these approaches. Failure occurs only when the marked girl does not carry the hook fastened to her dress for three weeks in a row, etc. , now closes within the woman's kingdom. In this, of course, one must see great happiness and the undoubted success of enlightenment. Already from many places, and, moreover, famous for their superstition, one hears, for example, such encouraging news:
- In the old days there were a lot of witches, but now you don’t hear something.
- The current witch is most often a bawd. So that. witches not only die, according to the old custom, on Sila and Siluyan (July 30), drunk on stolen milk from other people's cows, but, by many undoubted signs, under the new order, they completely prepared for real death.

Due to remoteness or directly due to the lack of “bald” mountains, closets and especially baths are recognized as quite convenient for dates, and there is a “witcher” to supervise them. Throughout the south of Great Russia, this is either, or, which, according to the belief common to all Slavic peoples, walks after death and kills people.