• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Witch Bottles & Other Artefacts

TheQuixote

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Sep 25, 2003
Messages
3,268
BBCi 28/1/04

I'm still on the look out for a naturally holed flint. Very effective against people trying to use witchcraft against you and every time I go to a beach I spend most of the time sorting through pebbles, rather than building sandcastles.:D

Does anyone else have any related info or tales on protective customs or superstitions?

.............................................................................................


Artefact recalls witches' shadow

By Greig Watson
BBC News Online, Nottingham



The bottle contained pins, hair and a leather strap
A chilling reminder of our superstitious past has been unearthed from a rural farmhouse.
The "witch bottle" was discovered buried in old foundations in the Lincolnshire village of Navenby.

Containing bent pins, human hair and perhaps urine, the bottles were supposed to protect a household against evil spells.

Dated to about 1830, it is evidence the fear of dark forces persisted far longer than previously thought.

Discovered by accident during building work, the artefact initially sat unrecognised in a cupboard. Jo Butler, the house's owner, described what they found.

She said: "The builder was breaking up foundations with a pick and he came across the bottle.

"We saw it contained metal bits and this kind of strap but had never heard of witch bottles and put it under the stairs."

It was only recognised when taken to a open evening held by the archaeology department of Lincolnshire County Council.

How to spot a witch

Disease endemic among crops, cattle and people
Animal companion or 'familiar', most often a toad or cat
A squint, being the mark of the evil eye
Floats when thrown, bound, into water
"Devil's marks" which do not feel pain or bleed
Confession after prolonged torture

Finds Liaison Officer Adam Daubney first identified the artefact.
He said: "It was an incredible moment. It was the first one I had physically seen and they are really quite rare artefacts, so to have that handed in was quite something."

The "bottle", in this case more likely to have been a glass inkwell or candlestick, had been damaged during discovery but still had its contents.

Mr Daubney said: "It seems a bit like voodoo, using human hair and pins but it's not entirely clear why these items where used.

"One theory is that the pins were put in urine so when the witch went to the toilet, it felt like they were passing the sharp metal.

"What the bottles were intended to do was bounce back spells on the sender.

"Even if you did not know who the witch was, you would make one of these and sit back to see who died, then that person was the witch."

Death sentence

Britain in the late 1500's, and for 100 years after, was gripped by the "Witchcraze".

This saw hundreds of women persecuted and sometimes executed, for alleged involvement in black magic.

The most famous British trials were at Berwick, then in Scotland, in 1591 and Pendle, Lancashire in 1612.

Rural Echoes

Such traditions do tend to linger in more rural areas like Lincolnshire and Norfolk but this is very rare

Adam Daubney, Finds Liaison Officer
Most "witches" were hanged, rather than the burning at the stake of popular imagination.

Protecting hearth and home from such malignant forces took various forms, including putting shoes beneath the floorboards and walling up cats.

Witch bottles, often made from stoneware, were most common in the 1600's, at the height of the witchcraft scares.

The Navenby example, however, has been dated at 1830, a time when such beliefs were thought to have been dying out.

"This late date is really incredible," said Mr Daubney. "Such traditions do tend to linger in more rural areas like Lincolnshire and Norfolk but this is very rare."

He added: "It could be either that the people who made this really believed in witches or it could be a kind of harmless tradition, a little like throwing salt over your shoulder.

"But the care with which this has put together, with a leather strap to hold it, could suggest the former."

The bottle is being conserved and will go on display at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln later this year.
 
Thanks for the links Beany and Scarlett:)

Here's another custom- similar to the walling or burying of an old boot or shoe into the foundations of a house;

Hearts used in witchcraft

When a domestic animal died from an unidentified disease (and not many animal diseases were readily identifiable until recent times), it seemed only natural to our ancestors to suspect witchcraft. A sheep's heart or a bullock's heart stuck with pins and hidden in a chimney or other recess of a house was a protection for the remainder of the livestock. as long as it remained in it's secret hiding-place no witch could harm the surviving animals. In the 1820's, a Devonshire farmer lost most of his livestock because of some mysterious malady. At last he was prevailed upon to consult a local wizard, who advised him to stick the heart of the next animal that died full of pins, cover it with salt and bury it. The wizard told him that all the trouble was caused by three persons, whom he would meet on his way home. They would come in the guise of three hares. This happened. After the farmer had buried the heart, his stock began to recover, and there were no more losses. More drastic was the ritual of burning the heart in a very hot fire, which would force the witch to appear. He or she could then be prevailed upon to remove the evil spell.

Whitlock, R. (1979) In Search of Lost Gods A Guide to British Folklore Phaidon Press: Oxford p75
 
Have not heard of such a cure for cattle illness in Ireland. In our family it usually involves my Ma scuttling about shaking Holy Water on sick calves. When they recover she attributes it to this nonsense. Couldn't be the penicillen - oh, no!

However on a related topic, a story I heard from my father (a cynic and it still puzzles him). A neighbour of ours had removed the horns from a bullock. The traditional way, with a saw. It was a bit late in the year for this - resulting in heat and flies and such. The bullock bled from the head for days and got very weak. A vet gave him a blood transfusion but the bleeding continued. The animal would not eat either and was getting close to death when the neighbour heard of some old man who 'had the cure' for cattle bleeding. He went and tracked down this old codger and brought him to the shed where the animal was. The old man threw down his hat on the ground and put one knee on it and said a few prayers over the animal. My Da swears blind that as soon as the man's knee touched the cap the bleeding stopped. The animal recovered. This happened in the 1980s. What is odd about it is that it seems some form of faith healing - but surely the point of that is that the ill person has faith, how could the bleeding bovine have faith? Secondly, the man did not apply anything to the animal (cobwebs, or the like) he just said a few silent prayers. All very odd, I have no explanation for it.
 
Sounds like my Mother! It weren't the antibiotics that got rid of my chest infection, but her homemade raspberry vinegar and olive oil mixture!

I think in Scotland (The Highlands), they used to believe that hanging Rowan or Mountain Ash branches in cattle byres was a protection against witchcraft too.
 
Southsea beach, just north of the Isle of Wight is very good for stones with natural holes.

Kath
 
Don't tempt me Stonedoggy!

I'm obsessed with finding a stone with a natural hole. I know they are not meant to have any luck unless you find it yourself. It's like looking for a four-leafed clover, in summer I can sit for hours on a lawn. Sad I know!:goof:
 
Oh yeah. My Ma believes that you should bring home the 'palms' (actually bits of conifer) from the church on Palm Sunday and put them up in the house, usually the hallway. This is to keep away illness. I have found them in the calf shed too, undoubtedly put there secretly so she can avoid another mocking.
 
Witch Bottles

Lincolnshire Witch Bottle - Like passing needles in your pee!

A chilling reminder of our superstitious past has been unearthed from a rural farmhouse. The "witch bottle" was discovered buried in old foundations in the Lincolnshire village of Navenby.

Containing bent pins, human hair and perhaps urine, the bottles were supposed to protect a household against evil spells.

Dated to about 1830, it is evidence the fear of dark forces persisted far longer than previously thought.

Discovered by accident during building work, the artefact initially sat unrecognised in a cupboard. Jo Butler, the house's owner, described what they found.

She said: "The builder was breaking up foundations with a pick and he came across the bottle.

"We saw it contained metal bits and this kind of strap but had never heard of witch bottles and put it under the stairs."

It was only recognised when taken to a open evening held by the archaeology department of Lincolnshire County Council.

Finds Liaison Officer Adam Daubney first identified the artefact.

He said: "It was an incredible moment. It was the first one I had physically seen and they are really quite rare artefacts, so to have that handed in was quite something."

The "bottle", in this case more likely to have been a glass inkwell or candlestick, had been damaged during discovery but still had its contents.

Mr Daubney said: "It seems a bit like voodoo, using human hair and pins but it's not entirely clear why these items where used.

"One theory is that the pins were put in urine so when the witch went to the toilet, it felt like they were passing the sharp metal.

"What the bottles were intended to do was bounce back spells on the sender.

"Even if you did not know who the witch was, you would make one of these and sit back to see who died, then that person was the witch."

Death sentence

Britain in the late 1500's, and for 100 years after, was gripped by the "Witchcraze".

This saw hundreds of women persecuted and sometimes executed, for alleged involvement in black magic.

The most famous British trials were at North Berwick, in Scotland, in 1591 and Pendle, Lancashire in 1612.

Most "witches" were hanged, rather than the burning at the stake of popular imagination.

Protecting hearth and home from such malignant forces took various forms, including putting shoes beneath the floorboards and walling up cats.

Witch bottles, often made from stoneware, were most common in the 1600's, at the height of the witchcraft scares.

The Navenby example, however, has been dated at 1830, a time when such beliefs were thought to have been dying out.

"This late date is really incredible," said Mr Daubney. "Such traditions do tend to linger in more rural areas like Lincolnshire and Norfolk but this is very rare."

He added: "It could be either that the people who made this really believed in witches or it could be a kind of harmless tradition, a little like throwing salt over your shoulder.

"But the care with which this has put together, with a leather strap to hold it, could suggest the former."

The bottle is being conserved and will go on display at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln later this year.



I wonder how common these were in the 19th Century? This is the first reference to them in foundation I've seen for this century.
 
Rowan Tree

Quixote said:
I think in Scotland (The Highlands), they used to believe that hanging Rowan or Mountain Ash branches in cattle byres was a protection against witchcraft too.

................................................................................
Folklore

The Rowan tree is one of the most sacred trees in Scottish folk tradition. “Scottish tradition does not allow the use of the tree’s timber, bark, leaves or flowers, nor the cutting of these, except for sacred purposes under special conditions.” (Fife)

Rowan is one of the trees associated with Saint Brighid, the Celtic patroness of the arts, healing, smithing, spinning and weaving. Spindles and spinning wheels were traditionally made of Rowan in Scotland and Ireland. Rowan trees planted near stone circles in Scotland were especially powerful. Scottish Fairies were said to hold their celebrations within stone circles protected by Rowan trees. Modern interpretations of the Celtic Ogham place Rowan, called Luis , as the sacred tree of February.

Rowan twigs were placed above doorways and barns to protect the inhabitants against misfortune and evil spirits. It was one of the trees sacred to Druids and used for protection against sorcery and evil spirits. The Druids burnt Rowan on funeral pyres, for it also symbolized death and rebirth. The Druid Ovates and Seers burnt Rowan in rites of divination and to invoke spirits, and Druids used Rowan wood in rites of purification. Ancient Bards considered the Rowan the “Tree of Bards”, bringing the gift of inspiration. Rowan is one of the nine sacred woods burnt in the Druids’ Beltaine fire. Rowan is also associated with dragons and serpents - sacred Rowans were once guarded by dragons.

In America, the Rowan is usually referred to as Mountain Ash. Most sources maintain that the word “Rowan” is derived from the Norse word rune, which means charm or secret, and runa, which is Sanskrit for magician. However according to Elizabeth Pepper, Rowan is a Scottish word, derived from the Gaelic rudha-an, which means “the red one”.

Rune staves were often cut from the rowan tree for amulets by the Norse people who invaded Scotland. In the Christian era, the twigs have been used for protection against witches, sorcery, negative magic and the Evil Eye. Twigs tied in a cross with red thread are affixed to doors and barns to keep the inhabitants and livestock from being enchanted, saying this charm, “Rowan tree and red thread, will put witches to their speed.” . Walking sticks made of rowan are used to protect the user from the spirits of the woods.

Rowan is also called the Witch Tree, or Wicken Tree, and can be used for divining precious metals, just as hazel can divine water. Witches used Rowan to increase their psychic powers, for spells of healing, success, protection, and often used the wood for their magic wands.

History

Practicing folk magic was a sign of witchcraft to the 17th Century Scots. Margaret Barclay was brought to trial for witchcraft in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1618. The damning evidence found in her possession was a Rowan charm – a Rowan twig tied with red thread for protection. (Pepper)

http://www.druidry.org/obod/trees/rowan_susa.html

...........................................................................................
 
I've got a witch ball... i'm sure you've seen them. It looks, like an enormous christmas tree bauble. The idea was you hung them in your window and if a witch saw it's reflection would be scared off. Must have been a big window that this hung in, it's yellow glass, about a foot across and weighs a ton. I got it from an antique shop in Haworth, Yorkshire, where apparently witch balls were once widely used. It's pretty old, maybe Victorian. My girlfriend is convinced the one I've got really IS a christmas bauble but it must have hung on a tree as big as the one in Trafalgar Square if it is! Whatever, I like it.

in Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley there's a cow's heart studded with dozens of nails, which was found under the floorboards of a local house, which is apparently a charm to ward off witchcraft or a curse.

They've also got some fine witch canes, which look like barleycorn twist, clear glass walking sticks full of 'hundreds and thousands' (the cake decoration). The Idea was that again, you hung it in your window, and If a withc saw it, would try to count the 'hundreds and thousands' but not be able to do it before dawn when the witch would have to go into hiding. To my ETERNAL regret, I came accross a pair of these in Brick lane Market in London a couple of years back. At the time I just couldn't afford the £30 the bloke wanted for them :rolleyes: and I've kicked myself ever since.
 
Why would the witch want to count the 'hundreds and thousands'?
 
I imagine it would be something similar to vampires having to count grains of rice, or something. I'm not sure about that, either...
 
Why would the witch want to count the 'hundreds and thousands'?

Good question! I think the caption in the museum said that Witches were curious. I was never convinced of this either.
 
Witches also have a counting instinct which forces them to count all that they see. So a witch-riding can be avoided by leaving items in her path - a sieve, she will be forced to count all the holes; a broom, she will count all the straws. Some people scatter mustard seeds or sand throughout the house. The witch is caught before she has time to count each grain.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/projects/riedy/list1.html
*you will have to scroll down the page for the entire quote

I'm not sure this really clarifies why a witch has the impulse to count, IIRC it's a recurring theme in folklore though. Grimm's Tales certainly have a fairy story that includes a young girl foiling a witch in this way, I'm not sure but I also think the theme is included in Baba Yaga stories [?].
 
I got my beautiful holed flint mudlarking on the Isle of Dogs, its roughly triangular with a perfect round hole almost big enough to stick your finger in, it has a real Goddess feel to it, in a non figurative sort of way.
 
Hi I'm a newbie (so please be gentle with me). I know Quixote wants to find a naturally holed stone personally, but if you do decide that you can't live without one I can supply you with one found on the beach at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. The beach is positively littered with gifts from the sea (and I give thanks whenever I find them). Basically, I've got loads and loads of them.

Hang them over your door, over your bed (but don't let them fall on yer head and knock you out in the night, of course!) or tie string to one and use it as a key ring type thing in order to protect your home and dreams. There is a big explanation about naturally holed stones in the Oxford Dictionary of English folklore.
 
Hello,

If you are looking for protection from Witches, might I suggest you come in contact with someone from the Cape Verdean islands. There is a talisman in the Cape Verdean culture called the 'Conte di Ouij' and basically it is protection against the evil eye, etc. It is given to mothers with new babies to pin to their (the baby's)undergarments and older people carry them around on necklaces and on safety pins. I wear mine on a necklace.
Should it ever pop in a cloud of dust, someone's trying to do something to you.
It is very effective and it is a very ancient talisman and it works. It's just one of those things you don't question. You should check it out.

WW
 
holey stones

93,

Brighton beach, thousands of holey hagstones to peruse..


93 93 93

Peter Grey
 
MYSTERIOUS AMBER LIQUID IS PURE NECTAR FOR HISTORIANS

BY DAVID LEWINS

11:00 - 13 March 2004

Mystery surrounds a phial of amber liquid which miraculously survived intact when the Bath wall it was hidden in was demolished. The discovery has baffled local historians, but one theory is that it was part of a superstitious practice to ward off witches.

Phil Andrews, from Park Lane, Bath, had joked with builders about finding any hidden chambers in the wall they were knocking down in his garden.

But he was stunned when they handed him the clear glass phial, filled with an amber liquid.

"It's a small, clear glass phial, about 6ins long," said Mr Andrews.

"I imagine they get found all the time, but to be intact with the liquid in must be pretty rare.

"It's amazing that it was unscathed when the wall was being knocked down."

Why the phial was hidden inside the wall is a mystery, but it does raise the possibility that the amber liquid inside might be an illicit substance.

"I suppose it could be anything, like opium or laudanum," said Mr Andrews.

"It looks like the glass neck was supposed to be snapped and there's only enough liquid in there for one dose."

Historians have said that if the phial was hidden in the wall when it was built, it must be more than a century old.

The wall was originally part of the grounds of Stratton House, a grand Victorian private house which is now a Methodist residential home.

But Carol Britton, manager of the home, said the wall could be even older than the Stratton House, which neighbours the Park Lane property.

The house had been privately owned until it was turned into a maternity home and then a residential home in the 1950s.

The two-metre high stone wall is being demolished and rebuilt as part of renovations to the garden.

And the phial has left historians scratching their heads because there is no known practice of putting items in walls around this time.

But building historian Jean Manco, who has written several books about Bath, said there are records of 'witch bottles' being built into walls to protect households against evil spells.

The problem with this theory, said Mrs Manco, was that this was a practice prevalent up until the 17th century.

However, a witch bottle dating from 1830 was discovered in January in the Lincolnshire village of Naveby.

It was discovered in the foundations of a farmhouse and although it was damaged, it still had its contents, a leather strap, pins and human hair.

The bottles are designed to bounce spells back on the sender, and research suggests they could contain anything, from bent pins and human hair to urine.

Most witch bottles date to the 1600s - the height of the witch craze - but this discovery suggests the belief had not died out by the 1830s.

There are also records of homeowners and builders deliberately concealing clothes and other items, from coins and documents to charms and even dried cats.

Again, these are connected to superstition and folklore about protecting the house and its inhabitants.

Stephen Clews, curator of the Roman Bath's museum, said there were examples of "time capsules" being buried throughout history.

However, he said the best way find out what the bottle was and what it was doing in a wall would be to identify the liquid inside.

The bottle's surroundings in the wall could also provide clues, but these have since been demolished.

Source
 
Amber nectar? probably wee!
We still carry out the custom of "crying the neck" down here in several parishes. This is a ceremony in which a patch of corn is left in a corner of the field last to be harvested. This patch is then cut by hand in the ceremony, and then held aloft to the four cardinal points in sequence. The reaper repeats a chant at each point with a call and answer from the watchers ending in "I 'ave 'ee, I 'ave 'ee, I 'av 'ee" . The ears of corn are then twisted and bound into a corn dolly. The dollies are these days given out to any children present, and the ceremony ends with a harvest hymn and blessing.
However, I've attended ceremonies in earlier days where the ritual was carried out by both a pagan and a reverend, one delivering the ritual in Cornish and the other in English. The last dolly was then taken in procession to the local church where it was hidden behind the rood screen until the next harvest. ( followed by pasties then drinking:D )
 
American witch bottles

Bottles of hoodoo taken from Vermilion River

By KEVIN BLANCHARD
[email protected]
Acadiana bureau


Advocate staff photo by Bryan Tuck
Bayou Vermilion District Watershed Projects Manager Paul LaHaye holds one of the spells, revealing the nearly illegible writing of the spells, some of it crossed out and unreadable.
LAFAYETTE -- Among the soda bottles and lost basketballs floating down the Vermilion River, there are things much odder and mysterious.
The Vermilion River could be called a one-way hoodoo highway.

Over the years, more than four dozen ordinary, little brown plastic prescription bottles have been found in the murky water -- each filled with blue or pink powder and strange, rambling spells meticulously written on scraps of paper.

Paul LaHaye, the watershed projects manager with the Bayou Vermil-ion District, oversees the collection of tons of debris pulled from the river each year.

Each time one of the brown bottles surfaces, LaHaye dries out the contents and places them in a plastic baggy or cardboard box labeled "Voodoo," that sits in his office.

Some of the district's workers won't pick up the bottles for fear of the "powerful magic," LaHaye said.

And while LaHaye isn't superstitious, he said he still tries to treat the items with respect.

"These are cultural artifacts," LaHaye said.

Inside each bottle are pieces of torn or folded paper containing tiny, nearly indecipherable cursive script, colored powder and sometimes cayenne pepper or seeds.

LaHaye has ventured to read some of the spells. A co-worker even started to help transcribe one of the more readable spells, but stopped when she started feeling nauseated, LaHaye said.

"Your power is no more on me ... your spell by witchcraft is broken ... undone, gone," one of the spells reads. "Please help us great mother. Send his witchcraft back to him and destroy him with his own witchcraft."

Most of them end, LaHaye said, with "Thank you spell for favors granted in the name of ..."

"There's a hoodoo out there for somebody," LaHaye said.

Most of the spells seem to be written in the same tiny handwriting. Each could have taken hours of labor, as sheets of paper were filled, then torn and folded, for each spell, LaHaye said.

It's likely that the spells were written by a practitioner of what academics classify as Southern Rootwork or Southern Hoodoo, said Ray Brassieur, a professor of anthropology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Brassieur cautioned against trying to track down the person writing the spells.

To pry into such a secret and personal agreement between client and practitioner -- in a way like a priest and confessor --would be improper, Brassieur said.

The practice was famously documented in the South during the 1930s and 1940s by Harry Middleton Hyatt, Brassieur said.

The type of folk magic practiced involves "sympathetic magic," the idea that "whatever you do to that item, a like thing happens in reality," Brassieur said.

"Bottle" spells, like the ones being found in the Vermilion, are common, Brassieur said.

Part of the spell is placing the bottle into running water or tidal streams -- with their symbolic ebb and flow, Brassieur said.

The practice is not as unusual as some people may think, Brassieur said.

But finding evidence of the practice is "surprising," Brassieur said.

Brassieur said he's yet to study the spells in detail and will be careful when doing so -- in order to protect people's privacy.

Generally, people who seek out the help of a hoodoo practitioner are looking for help with a specific problem in their life that, for whatever reason, "regular channels" and institutions like medicine or attorneys aren't a possibility, Brassieur said.

Likely, most of the clients are poor, without financial means to find help otherwise, Brassieur said.

There's also a cultural and traditional aspect, he said.

"They were taught that this is the way to control the world," Brassieur said. "They're continuing those traditions."

LaHaye -- who's degree is in anthropology -- sees the hoodoo bottles as one more aspect of the Vermilion River's unique personality.

He said he'll keep the bottles at the office so that the unique practice can be studied and appreciated -- despite the nagging feeling that maybe the bottles are better left undisturbed, like King Tut's Tomb.

"It makes you suspicious" anytime something strange happens at work, LaHaye said. "Maybe it's more than coincidence."
 
I've got a few nice holed flints. The one on the left is my favourite, I found it at Reculver. The top 2 on the right come from Kessingland, and the bottom 3 were all found within 5 minutes on Brighton beach. The hole in the bottom one is full of tiny crystals, but my camera's not good enough to pick them up.
 
WonderWoman said:
Hello,

If you are looking for protection from Witches, might I suggest you come in contact with someone from the Cape Verdean islands. There is a talisman in the Cape Verdean culture called the 'Conte di Ouij' and basically it is protection against the evil eye, etc. It is given to mothers with new babies to pin to their (the baby's)undergarments and older people carry them around on necklaces and on safety pins. I wear mine on a necklace.
Should it ever pop in a cloud of dust, someone's trying to do something to you.
It is very effective and it is a very ancient talisman and it works. It's just one of those things you don't question. You should check it out.

WW

Does this look like a bead with a blue eye on it? Someone pinned one onto my baby's pram in Miami ( or is this a totally different thing?)

Re stones with holes; I have a white stone with a hole in that I found er, outside my house - I kept it when I moved after reading that american indians look for a white stone with a hole in it after a baby is born, and I had a new baby at that point. It s not a flint though - does it need to be?
 
The Evil Eye - an article on the FT site talks about the blue eye bead amulets (I picked one up years ago in a junk shop but practically everyone I know has got one knocking about their house as a souvenir from Turkey or Greece)

Re: Holey Stones, I'm not too sure whether it has to be a flint but I do know that they were held to be the best protection/ bring the best luck etc. though.

I am now in possession of two holed stones that I picked up at Roker, Sunderland.

I had been on that beach more times than I can remember and have always scoured the sands for natural holed stones. When I found the first one I then noticed that right next to it was another holed stone, similar to how SilburyMoon describes theirs, in that it appears crystalline. Then my brother remarked: "Ooooh look! there's even more over there!" and yep, when I looked there was about a dozen more. :rolleyes:
 
I have got strings and strings of naturally holed stones hung around my garden, must be a couple of hundred at least. they were mostly found over the years at Durley Chine, near Bournemouth. Quite a few of them are flint
 
A mummified cat found under the floorboards of a house in Edinburgh. Apparently there are a couple in the museum as well. Picture at link.

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=234462007

IT is difficult to imagine them as anything other than cuddly family pets.

But hundreds of years ago, cats were seen as mystical creatures, associated with evil spirits.
Click to learn more...

So the discovery of a mummified cat - believed to be almost 180 years old - in a New Town basement is being put down not to a case of feline misadventure, but to witchcraft.

It is thought the animal was the unfortunate victim of a superstitious belief that dead cats could bring good luck to a building.

It is believed the cat has been trapped underneath the floorboards of the basement of 1 Rutland Square since it was built in the 1830s.

The cat remained relatively intact, with distinct feline features and a paw fixed against its face.
 
Please be aware that many of the things which pass in American antique shops as hand-blown glass "witch balls" are in actuality traditional Japanese glass fishing floats, equally hand-blown, used in quantities on fishing nets. I don't know if they are still used or not, but they often broke loose and drifted clear to foreign shores.

No dishonesty here on the part of tne shops, just mis-identification. And quite beautiful and quite collectible for what they really are.
 
Back
Top