Kill the Hare that Steals your Milk by Beating its Vomit: Common Defenses against Witchcraft in Europe

As you study the folklore and anti-witch superstitions of European countries, you begin to notice more and more common themes. For example, in Sweden, the mjölkhare, or milkhare, a hare bound to a witch in a satanic pact (or a transformed object that may or may not be in the shape of a hare like the Icelandic tilberar or “carrier” (Benedikz 14), brought to life by the devil or unholy acts and rituals, such as feeding it blood (Nildin-Wall and Wall 67)) steals milk from cows by suckling them, bringing what it consumes back in its stomach to the witch who owns it, sometimes vomiting up some of the milk as it goes, if it’s taken in too much; this is actually a type of fungi (Nildin-Wall and Wall 72). In Serbia, they have witch-vomit, a fungus resembling the throw-up of an unweaned child and believed to be the remains of a child’s heart after a witch had eaten it and then thrown it up, since she couldn’t digest it fully. It was used to cure sick children under a curse when properly prepared (Vukanović 228, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). However, the excrement of witches in other parts of Serbia was a white, foamy liquid found in the woods that would kill you if you touched it (Vukanović 16, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans I”).

In Ireland, the witch herself turns into a hare to steal milk (Kinahan 258, “Connemara Folklore”), as certain Scandinavian witches did as well (Nildin-Wall and Wall 67), and she could also steal butter more directly by gathering dew from the grass on the first of May (Duncan 185, “Further Notes from County Leitrim”), among other means. Dogs couldn’t catch Irish witches when they were disguised as hares, but they could injure the hare, in which case the witch would be recognizable from her injury (Duncan 183-184, “Folklore Gleanings from County Leitrim”). In England, a witch transformed into a hare can only be shot with a silver bullet made out of a sixpenny piece (Banks 74), or by a sixpenny piece marked with a cross (Gregor 284). In Scandinavia, only a silver bullet would hit a witchhare or milkhare. (Nildin-Wall and Wall 69).

These examples come from, variously, northern, western and eastern Europe, and despite the disparate origins, there are obviously common themes and similarities: hares, silver, milk and various types of fungus all feature, intertwined. This pattern holds true for cultures all across the continent when you look at charms, habits, practices and beliefs used to counter witchcraft in day-to-day life. From Finland to Russia to Spain, there are numerous similarities between different defenses against witchcraft.

As already mentioned, witches were often associated with hares, but there were also other animals. In Ireland, hedgehogs were often associated with witches (Kinahan 104, “Notes on Irish Folklore”), while in Normandy, having toads found in your house was considered strong evidence for witchcraft in and of itself (Monter 578-9). In England, wasps, flies and bees were common witch familiars, and ferrets were also sometimes claimed as familiars, similar to the weasel, stoat or polecat skins worn by witches in certain areas (Newman 22-23); another source names cats and hares as the animals witches most often transformed into, and says that dogs, mice, crows, rooks and bees were less common but still present (Murray 188); in Essex, it was believed that all witches had white mice as familiars (Maple 181). In more modern times in Cambridgeshire there are reports of a witch turning into a pig or having a pig as a familiar, and being associated with pigs in general and defending them (Wherry and Jennings 188). Witches were also accused of causing plagues of lice and other vermin (Newman 21). In France, witches often turned into goats or sheep (Murray 188). Romanian witches, or strigoi, turned into dogs, cats, wolves, horses, pigs or toads (Eliade 158), while Serbian witches turned into butterflies, hens or turkeys, while in other parts of the central Balkans they could also turn into toads, owls, various black birds, eagles, bitches, cats and mice. Croats believed that witches turned into cats to “suck” people at night, causing swollen breasts. In Herzegovina it was believed that witches could grow bat-like wings, when anointed with special ointments made out of ingredients like human fat cooked in baby’s blood with herbs, or the concentrated excrement of black swine (Vukanović 11-12, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans I”).

On the other hand, animals could also have apotropaic power against witches. In Spain, animals with points were powerful: the horns of a stag, boar tusks, rooster spurs, crab claws and stag-beetle horns were all made into amulets (Hildburgh 79); in Macedonia, wild boar tusks were made into horse-collars to protect the animals from witches and other malignant supernatural beings (Vucanović 236, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). In Montenegro, on the first of March, when witches were especially active, the ashes on the hearth were stirred with goat or cattle horns (Durham 190). In Croatia, wolf fur and teeth were used to protect children from witches, while in Serbia cat’s claws and fur were used similarly. In the same area, the anus of a chicken was considered to have protective powers when prepared right. In Albania, snake’s heads were used as charms when the snake was caught on certain days (Vuckanović 227, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”).

Witchcraft was also meant to hurt animals. Domestic animals, especially cows, were the focus of maleficium across the entire continent. For the most part, witches were responsible for three main types of evil-doing: cursing or bewitching humans, causing illness, bad luck, and the death, illness or injury of children especially; causing bad weather, hail, storms or draughts; and hurting or harming livestock, other farm animals and, especially, cows, or otherwise harming milk production. As previously mentioned, witches stole milk from cows by using familiars or enchanted objects (Nilden-Wall 67; Kinahan 258, “Connemara Folklore”; Duncan 185, “Further Notes from County Leitrim”). They could also sicken animals, or cause them to behave oddly or become possessed by demons or the devil. For example, in England it was believed that a witch could put up barriers that horses or cattle would not or could not cross unless it was broken with a charm, or by placating the witch who had put it there (Banks 75

Because so much maleficium was focused on farm animals, there were multitudes of ways to break the curses, block them, or prevent them. Horses stopped in place by a witch could be freed by passing a knife blade underneath their hooves (Banks 75). In Scotland, cows were sensitive to witchcraft after calving, especially for the first time: they would be bound with an apron worn by a married mother temporarily, and then protected with a “seal” or charm for several weeks; sometimes, some of their hair would be cut off to protect them; and they would also be given water with a live coal dropped into it to drink (Gregor 278).

In Scotland, burying a live cat and ox in a pit with salt would cure sick animals, transferring the curse on the herd to the two dead animals (Blécourt 298). Similarly, in England, the ears of sick animals would be burned and then buried, destroying the sickness along with the body parts, healing the animal itself (Briggs 124), or parts of a pig’s ears and tail would be burned (Newman 28); in Scotland, a sick cow would be measured, and the part of the tail longer than one span would be cut off and burned (Gregor 282). The heart of a cow was sometimes pierced with nails and then burned to drive off a curse or to break it (Briggs 183). In certain parts of England, cutting hanks of hair off of a sick cow and burning them could cause the cow to get better (Rudkin 254). In Germany, if you had a bewitched ox you would kill and skin it, and hang the hide in the window to prevent the disease from spreading (Briggs 181); in the Holstein region specifically, to prevent infection of the rest of the herd, a sick cow would be beheaded. The head would be smoked and then put in a window, looking away from the house towards the neighbors, which would deflect the illness towards other people’s cattle. The body was buried. Straw that had been urinated on by milkless cows was also burned to return their milk (Briggs 181-183). Along the same lines, burning a witch in effigy could break her powers; giving cursed milk that had sickened a woman to an animal, killing it, would cure her (Monter 586); and milking a cow in effigy could make it give milk again (Gregor 284).

Just as killing, destroying or hurting something representative of the curse could break it, so could it hurt the witch who had cast it. It was believed that, for example, boiling the milk of a sick cow would harm the witch, because some part of the witch’s magic was bound to the cow to cause the illness, and so “hurting” the milk would in turn cause the witch pain, because of that bond (Blécourt 298). There are a multitude of similar beliefs: in Scotland, the milk was heated with pins, forcing the witch to reveal herself (Gregor 279); in France, a witch could be hurt by scalding milk from a sick cow with a heated poker (Briggs 182); in England, a witch killed a flock of goslings, and by baking two live ones in an oven, she was discovered when she started to scream in agony, becoming covered in burns. There were incidents very similar to the latter example involving sickly piglets, ducks that wouldn’t lay, and scoring a sick pig with a poker (Newman 28).

The continuation of this theory was that it was possible to hurt a witch by hurting her familiars. Whipping the “milk” left behind by milkhares (actually a gelatinous fungus, as mentioned) or burning it would force animal’s owner to appear, pained by the abuse even when it wasn’t the witch herself who had stolen the milk while transformed (Nildin-Wall and Wall 72), as was sometimes the case. Hurting an animal associated with the witch would hurt her in turn.

This also applied to humans suffering witchcraft. For example, in England witch-bottles could be used to hurt or kill a witch, or to force her to break a curse. You took the urine of a victim of witchcraft, and some nails, pins, thorns or needles, sometimes bent and sometimes with bits of the victim’s hair or nails, and put them together into a jar. If the jar was buried or hidden, it would cause the witch strangury or difficulty urinating or expelling waste, until they came and begged to be released, at which time they could be forced to break the curse. If the jar was heated until it exploded, the witch would die. (Merrifield 195). Older witch-bottles had pieces of felt or cloth cut into the shapes of hearts, and one was found with the actual heart of an animal, also pierced with pins, possibly a hare—a creature closely tied to witchcraft (Merrifield 202). A written spell to protect against witchcraft specified that a witch-bottle be prepared with a frog’s liver pierced with pins and a toad’s heart pierced with thorns; there are obvious similarities here to the burning of a cow’s heart spiked with nails mentioned previously. Many witch-bottles, especially older ones, were buried in doorways, under hearthstones and in paths, indicating a possible relationship with German protective jugs, which were buried underneath the house. (Merrifield 202). As late as the 1930s, people in parts of England were aware of witch-bottles as a cure against witchcraft, prepared with water and the victim’s hair; however, speaking to the witch would break the spell (Wherry and Jennings 189). In Germany, putting the urine of a sick person in a glass with wax and cloth would make the witch appear, and she could then be prevented from leaving (Briggs 181). Urine could also reveal whether or not a person had been cursed, depending on how it reacted when put on a hot iron (Briggs 176).

There are parallels to the difficulty urinating caused by English witch-bottles in other cultures. In Germany, a bucket of water underneath the bed would have the same effect, forcing the witch to come (Briggs 181). Along similar lines, once a year in Bosnia the young men of each village would inflate a goat skin, and witches would arrive, begging them to release it because it caused them to swell as well. They could then threaten to reveal them to the village if they committed any evil that year (Vukanović 222, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). In Esslingen, there are reports of a cursed girl’s excrement being burned, causing the witch’s face to become burned as well.

Pins, needles, thorns and other sharp objects were commonly used to protect against witches, as modeled by the witch-bottles. In England, locks of hair from the neck and the body were buried with pins and needles to break a bewitchment (Rudkin 249). Serbians sometimes named children “Trnovica,” meaning “thorn,” to protect them against evil, including witches (Vukanović 230, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). Trees with thorns were also considered to have the power to ward of witches (Vukanović 228, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). In Morocco, thorns, bristles and needles were protective amulets against witches, and in Spain broken needles and pieces of broken mirror served the same purpose (Hildburgh 79). Scratching witches with a pin until they bled would break a curse and cure an illness in England (Tongue 324). Other times it was specified that it needed to be a silver pin, and that it must be kept covered in the witch’s blood, to keep the witch from cursing you (Gregor 279). Another variation was that seeing the witch’s blood after scratching her was enough to break a curse (Newman 22). Sticking a pin into the shadow of a witch (Briggs 130) or her footprint would cause her pain, as if it had pricked her flesh (Wherry and Jennings 188). In Ireland, having some of a witch’s hair could make her powerless against you (Newman 20).

Scissors could also be used to protect against witches or to enact counter-curses. A pair of scissors was opened in the shape of a cross over doorways in Spain would prevent a witch from going through it (Hildburgh 79), and in England scissors were sometimes used with sieves to identify witches in a form of divination (Blécourt 298). In Serbia, babies were crossed three times with scissors before being laid in their cradles, and scissors were left under their pillows, sometimes open, or they were left next to the infant in the cradle, along with other objects (Vukanović 229, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”).

Knives, too, were used as a defense against witches. As previously mentioned, in England passing a knife underneath the hooves of horses who had been bewitched so that they wouldn’t move forward would break the curse (Banks 75). In Scandinavia, cutting butter with a knife would show whether it had been made from milk stolen by a milkhare, since that would make it bleed (Nildin-Wall and Wall 75). Knives were especially important in the Balkans, where black-handled non-folding penknives, made according to specific rituals (IE made from one piece of iron or steel at night by a naked blacksmith and his wife, etc.) were believed to be very powerful defenses in particular, but even a regular knife would be kept by the bed so that if a witch came at night to choke someone, her cheek could be cut so that she was recognizable the next day. Knives were kept in cradles to protect the baby, or placed under the pillow or cradle along with other sharp objects such as carding combs. In some areas, sickles were hung over the door for the first forty days or six months of a child’s life. (Vukanović 229-230, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”), to keep witches from entering the house. In Ireland, a knife was also described specifically as black-handled when it was used to kill a log transformed into a monster or demon (Duncan 178, “Further Notes from County Leitrim”).

Certain metals, specifically iron and silver, and sometimes copper, could protect against witches or defend against them, independently of whether or not they had a cutting edge or point. Sometimes, these metal objects would be specifically imbued with power, like the hearth-chains of the Balkans, which could prevent a witch from leaving the house if turned upside down or tied into knots; scare away witches when dragged through the streets on Christmas Eve; and keep witches away from the livestock if tied over the hearth (Vukanović 226, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). Silver coins were specifically mentioned as the way to kill a witchhare in both Scandinavia (Nildin-Wall and Wall 67) and England (Gregor 284). In Germany, a shilling would protect the milk of a cow (Gregor 278). Iron witch-bottles were found in the Fens of England (Porter 121), and in Iceland a witch who transformed himself into a leather sack full of water was destroyed when he was beaten with an iron bar specifically (Craigie 226). (It is interesting to note that Iceland and Normandy are the two areas in Europe where the majority of witches were male; for this reason, I used the male pronoun here.) In England, iron was believed to turn away the evil eye (Wight and Brown 134), and a Romanian charm against witchcraft and evil specifically mentions iron tools used to destroy the devil (Gaster 132). In England, there were reports of a male witch or wizard who was buried with an iron stake driven through the coffin and corpse to make him “lay quiet” (Rudkin 255). Similarly, in the Balkans, dead witches rose to do evil after they had been dead and buried ten years, and so the tendons of a suspected witch were cut with a black-handled knife to keep her from leaving her grave (Vukanović 22, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans I”).

Metal was often used to keep witches from entering or exiting a building, such as putting scissors, knives or other objects over a door, and it was often used in combination with ways of calling witches to a house, either by hurting them by hurting something they had cursed (for example, scalding what milk can be gotten from a cursed cow) or by other means. Non-metal objects were used as well. Crosses of rowan or mountain-ash wood were placed over stable doors on certain days in Scotland, and over the doors of houses on other days to keep witches from using them for midnight rides (Gregor 277). In Germany, putting the urine of a sick person in a glass with wax and a cloth, similar to a witch-bottle, would cause the witch to appear or arrive, and she could then be kept inside the room by putting a broom, bread and salt over the doorway (Briggs 181). In parts of the central Balkans, witches are known to change into moths or flies and enter houses to suck peoples’ blood (Durham 190) and to steal milk. To protect against this, moths were caught and sprinkled with salt, and a charm said over them before they were released. The next day the witch would approach the house asking for salt, and she would be shown in and offered a seat and hospitality while someone tried to light her on fire with coals (Vukanović 226, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”).

Fire, salt and bread all figured regularly into protections against witches, combined with other elements of counter-curses or protections or alone. Fire stands out because witches were often burned, indicating a potential tie; but there were many other ways in which it appeared or featured. In Ireland coals were never taken from a house if a woman inside was sick because it would harm her further (Kinahan 257, “Connemara Folk-Lore”) and taking coals out of a house while someone was churning would keep the butter from forming. (Kinahan 258, “Connemara Folk-Lore”). To break a witch’s power to steal your milk in the Balkans, as mentioned, she was lit on fire when she entered the house (Vukanović 226, “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans II”). Also previously mentioned, cows in Scotland would be given water with coals dropped into it to protect them against witches (Gregor 278). Heating or burning animals associated with witches would cause the witch pain, as previously stated, and on at least one occasion, in Ireland, a hedgehog was burned as a witch after being observed to swim; they were animals associated with witchcraft, as they were believed to steal eggs and milk (Kinahan 104, “Notes on Irish Folklore”). In Normandy, objects that had been used to curse someone were burned to help break the curse (Monter 577). In England, a cure that healed a sick child was to throw anything found in his blankets into the fire—in this case, a toad (Briggs 209). In England, in more modern times, matches were believed to drive away witches, and especially crosses drawn with matches (Tongue 323). The color red, which may or may not be symbolic of fire, was considered protective against witches in Russia (Ryan 76), Scotland (Gregor 277; Goodare 304), and the Balkans (Vukanović 226, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”; Durham 191).

Salt also protected against witches, actively driving them away in England when carried around in a pocket, and blocking enchantments (Tongue 323). They were added to some witch-bottles, presumably to increase their potency or effectiveness. In Germany, salt and a shilling would protect milk, and salt around a churn would protect the butter (Gregor 278). As mentioned, salt was used to drive away and detect witches in the form of moths in the Balkans (Vukanović 226, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”) and also placed in cradles to help keep the infant safe (Vukanović 229-231, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”). Salt, bread and a broom placed by the door in Germany could keep a witch from leaving a room (Briggs 181), and something stolen and eaten from a witch’s house in Lorraine (Briggs 127), sometimes specifically bread and salt (Briggs 179), would break a curse (Briggs 127).

Bread was also a common defense against witches, and together with salt it formed most of the forms of ingested counter-witchcraft, and ways to protect against curses, even when not eaten. In the Balkans, taking the first mouthful of food eaten at the end of the Lenten fast out of your mouth and then whistling through it later would allow you to summon witches (Vukanović 221, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”), and bonfires were built and a black hen roasted over them and then eaten on certain days of the year. Witches were believed to turn into black hens, and it symbolized killing (and then eating) the witch herself (Vukanović 224-225, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”). In Russia, male witches known as koldun protected weddings from malicious “alien” witches from other villages, who would otherwise cause the bride to fart and the wedding party to turn into werewolves, among other calamities; part of this protection involved a ritual bath for the bride where the koldun wiped sweat from her with a whole raw fish, which was then cooked and eaten by the groom (Ryan 78-79). During the seventeenth century in northern Norway there were reports of “consuming” the knowledge of witchcraft through eating bread, beer or milk, among other substances. These occurrences can be linked to ergotism, or the incidental consumption of lysergic acid produced by fungal infections on certain grass species; LSD is a synthetic derivative of lysergic acid, and ergot is considered highly psychoactive when ingested (Alm 404-405). Garlic was considered a strongly apotropaic in the Balkans, and it was consumed in addition to being worn, placed in cradles and rubbed on the body, especially the armpits and nipples (Vukanović 221, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”; Vukanović 229, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”). Interestingly, another plant in the Allium family, Siberian chives (Allium schoenoprasum ssp. sibiricum) were also believed to be apotropaic in Finnmark (Alm 410).

Garlic is just one of the many plants that were believed to provide protection against witchcraft. As previously mentioned, thorns were believed to provide protection against evil in the Balkans (Vukanović 230, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”; Vukanović 228, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”). The wood of trees with thorns, such as hawthorn, was especially prized for this reason, and cradles were often made out of it (Vukanović 228, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”). Other trees with apotropaic power may include juniper, fir, oak, wild cornel or dogwood, hazel, lime wood, yew, ivy wood, (Vukanović 228, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”), fig wood (Vukanović 19, “Witchcraft in the Balkans I”) and golden willow (Vukanović 232, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”). Rowan was considered extremely powerful against witches in Scotland where crosses were made out of its wood (Gregor 277; Gregor 284); in Ireland, rowan berries under a churn would keep witches from stealing the butter (Duncan 180, “Folklore Gleanings from County Leitrim”); in one Irish folktale, it was specified that witches cooked a dog on a spit of rowan wood (Newman 12). Herbs could also have powers, such as certain types of moss, coltsfoot, valerian, elecampane and bryony (Vukanović 228, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”), along with the aforementioned garlic. In Romania, nightshade was used to expel demons (Gaster 131).

To return to an earlier subject, many charms against witches involved putting something over the door to keep her in or out. In the Balkans especially there were charms to prevent a witch from leaving an area once she had been summoned, and other charms to reveal a witch while entrapping her at the same time. Some of the latter involved throwing an object imbued with power over a church during mass, especially an important mass such as the midnight Christmas mass. The objects thrown included a blessed log of fig wood; the bow or loop of a yoke for oxen, especially a black one, thrown once in some areas and three times in others; and a locked padlock that had been carried three times around the church. Other methods included turning around a tile on the roof of the church, sticking a pin into the threshold, circling the church with white thread, putting a certain type of moss over the door, and taking a specially made item such as a stool or a new kožuh (jacket) to the mass. This would either cause the witch to behave in a way that made her recognizable, or keep her from leaving the church, either by means of an invisible barrier or by causing her to become confused and unable to find the door or, in the last example, making her recognizable to the person wearing or using the object (Vukanović 19-20, “Witchcraft in the Balkans I”). A cross made out of pig’s bones tied with red thread could also keep witches confined within a church (Durham 191).

In these situations, the goal was not to catch the witch to kill her, but instead to break her power, because it would be lost when she was discovered or when she confessed voluntarily, and it could never be recovered (Vukanović 21, “Witchcraft in the Balkans I”). In the same way, in Normandy, a curse that was caused by being touched by a witch could be cured by a touch from the same witch (Monter 577). In Germany, summoning a witch who had caused an ill or divining who she was sometimes only led to asking the curse to be removed (Briggs 181); this was especially common in Luzern, Scotland and Bavaria (Blécourt 298). In some areas, such as the Balkans, discovering witches led to blackmailing them into leaving alone the discoverer’s family or village, lest they be revealed as a witch to the community (Vukanović 221, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”; Vukanović 222, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”; Vukanović 225, “Witchcraft in the Balkans II”).

Finally, it’s possible to defend against witches using Christianity, often combined with other methods. Metal crosses, or crosses drawn with matches, or scissors opened into the shape of a cross are all overtly tied to Christianity. In Scotland, blessing a witch (“God save you”) would make her disappear (Gregor 284). Spoken charms drawing heavily from the Christian tradition were used to protect against witches and other forms of evil in Romania even if they also drew from pagan traditions (Gaster 129). Crosses would protect against witches in Russia (Ryan 72). In the Basque country, during a period of witch hysteria, children in multiple villages spent the night in churches and the houses of parish priests, where they would be blessed before they slept so the witches couldn’t steal them away in the night (Gifford 11); in a similar fashion but for different purposes, German child witches were incarcerated in part to prevent the “infection” from spreading (Roper 107). Still, it is interesting to note how little of the superstitions against witches were specifically Christian, considering the role of Christianity in witchcraft trials.
There are clearly strong similarities between beliefs centering around witches in Europe, specifically in the themes of protective magic, whether as objects or actions.