The Witch in Folk-lore.
We have already learned to look to the folk-tales for the most trustworthy indications of popular belief, and here the dark shadow of witchcraft overclouds much of their delicate fancy. Here we find the witch taking many forms—of an old woman in trouble, of a white hind with golden horns, of a queen. Others, like the archwitch Kâlarâtrî or “black night,” are of repulsive appearance; she has dull eyes, a depressed, flat nose. Her eyebrows, like those of the werewolves or vampires of Slavonia,[7] meet together; she has large cheeks, widely parted lips, projecting teeth, a long neck, pendulous breasts, a large belly, and broad, expanded feet. “She appears as if the Creator had made a specimen of his skill in producing ugliness.” Like the Jigar Khor she obtains her powers by eating human flesh, or like modern witches, who claim to possess the Dâyan kâ Mantra or Dâkinî’s spell, by which she can tear out the heart of her victim.
The powers of such witches are innumerable. They can find anything on earth, can open or patch up the sky, possess second sight, can restore the dead to life, can set fire to water, can turn stones into wax, can separate lovers, can metamorphose the hero into any shape they please. They control the weather and cause storms and tempests. If they follow one they hate and measure his footsteps in the dust, he at once becomes lame.[8]
They carry on their unholy revels in cemeteries and cremation grounds. They meet under the leadership of the dreaded Bhairava, as German witches assemble on the Blocksberg. So Diana Herodias leads the Italian witches who meet at the walnut tree of Benevento, as those of Cornwall collect at Trewa.[9]
Many witches obtain power over the fever demon. She fastens a string round the hero’s neck, and by a spell turns him into an ape. She often kills a child, and the heroine, like Genoveva, is falsely accused, and expelled from her home, until the plot is discovered and she is restored to her husband’s love. Lastly, we have the conflict between the powers of good and evil, the benevolent and malignant witch, which forms one of the stock incidents of the European folk-tales.[10] The malignant, liver-eating witch is naturally associated with the tomb-haunting badger. One of them appeared quite recently at Ahmadâbâd, and being supposed to carry off children in the disguise of a badger, was called Adam Khor, or the devourer of the sons of men.[11]