Sabina and others:--

I found among some old notes of mine a good example of
a Cunning Man who was also a practicing Christian,
namely the famous John Wrightson of Stokesley who
flourished in Co. Durham and N. Yorkshire in the 1830s
and 40s. He was a vet by profession, and a strongly
religious man who was often chosen as godfather to
children. This strikes me as significant, for you
couldn't easily be godfather if the vicar thinks you
unsuitable, even if the parents like you. He must have
been in good repute as a churchgoer.

His methods were a mix of magical and religious. To
cure a man thought to be bewitched he would lay a
pigeon across the man's feet and keep it there till it
died (a fairly well known bit of folk medicine, then
put the patient's nail-clippings and hair-clippings
into a hole in the bird's throat, stick pins through
its beak and into its heart, and drop it in the fire.
As it burned, he would read Psalms aloud --- and
something would come scratching at the outside of the
door, which was assumed to be the witch, forced to
return to lift her spell. 

My sources for Wrightson were William Henderson "Notes
on the Folklore of the Northern Counties of England"
(1866, and 2nd ed. 1879), and J C Atkinson, "Forty
Years in a Moorland Parish" (1891). Unfortunately I
didn't keep record of which details came from which
book, so can't now give a precise ref.

Jacqueline




--- Sabina Magliocco <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hi Andrija,
> 
> I'll reply to the list, since others may be
> interested in this.  I was told she was initiated
> into her craft as a teenager by a relative on
> Christmas Eve, at midnight mass, when the power was
> passed to her at the moment of the elevation of the
> host.  But she also told me she apprenticed for
> years with an older witch, not a relative, who
> taught her.  Since my project is still in its
> initial stages, I may be able to learn more from her
> about this process from future conversations.
> 
> On vile who kill men by drawing them into their
> dance: in Sardinian folk legend, there is a very
> similar motif, but ascribed to the souls of the
> dead.  The legend usually goes like this:
> 
> A shepherd, returing from transhumance or from
> pasturing his flock, sees what appears to be a
> circle dance at a country chapel.  Thinking it a
> religious festival, he stops and joins in the dance.
>  But when he rests his arms against the shoulders of
> his dancing companions, he finds their forms are
> incorporeal.  At that moment, he realizes he has
> joined the dance of the dead.  Silently he leaves
> the dance, picks up his saddlebags and returns to
> the village.  Had he remained in the dance, he would
> have danced to his death. (A version of this legend
> can be found in my book _The Two Madonnas: the
> Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community_, 2nd
> edition Waveland 2005).
> 
> As the late, great Katharine Briggs and other
> folklore scholars have long noted, in European
> folklore there is significant overlap between the
> spirits of the dead, fairies, and at times witches.
> 
> Sabina
> 
> 
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 15:11:29 +0100
> >From: Endymion <[log in to unmask]>  
> >Subject: Re: Cunning Folk  
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >   ----- Original Message -----
> >   From: "Sabina Magliocco"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> >   > Thanks for this, Jacqueline.  I do agree with
> your
> >   elucidation below.  The
> >   woman who claimed to be a witch told me, in
> response
> >   to a question about the
> >   kind of magic she did, "I do what I have to do."
> 
> >   Since she is known in the
> >   community as an unwitcher, I took this to mean
> that
> >   she has no qualms about
> >   helping a client by doing harm to another
> villager.
> >   >
> >
> >   Did she say how she acquired her unwitching
> talents?
> >
> >   Andrija
> Sabina Magliocco
> Associate Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> California State University
> 18111 Nordhoff St.
> Northridge, CA  91330-8244
> 



	
	
		
___________________________________________________________ 
Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com