Halloween and Hunky Punk

 In Somerset the punkey night celebrations which take place on the last 

Thursday of October is closely linked with Samhain. The Punkey lantern 

is similar to the Halloween pumpkin although punkeys are usually made 

from hollowed out mangel wurzels or turnips. The communities that still observe

 this custom  around Hinton St George and Lopen believe that it originated 

when the local men visited Chiselborough Fair and drank too much cider then had 

difficulty finding their way home. The women scooped out the mangel wurzels, 

placed candles inside and went out in the dark lanes to find their inebriated  husbands 

and take them home. 

The children now make them and traditionally proceed around the villages 

begging for money and singing the punkey song

'It's Punkey Night tonight

It's Punkey Night tonight

Give us a candle, give us a light

It's Punkey Night tonight'

Apparently in the old days any mean householder would get a banger through his letterbox!

This is all very similar to the Halloween festivities, although  during  punkey 

night there is no fear of the witches that are abroad during Halloween. 

Lanterns are made to keep away the evil spirits. 

There is another macabre custom that is practised on this night. 

It is believed that all the images of people that are going to die in the forthcoming 

year will pass through the church yard and into the church. If you are brave enough to 

wait in the porch you may see them but beware many people have seen their own 

spectre and have died in the following months.

There are other ways to stop witches entering your house, coloured glass witch 

balls will deflect an evil glance, glass rolling pins filled with salt and charmwands 

will delay a witch while she counts the decorative seeds and spirals. 

Bottles stuffed with red thread will do the trick, place them up the chimney, under 

hearths or above the door to stop the witch from gaining entrance.

If the witch gains some of her intended victims hair or nail cuttings or urine, these

 can be used in a counter spell. The heating of the urine with pubic hair, pins and 

broken glass will cause the witch pain and will make her reveal herself. 

To house the Hag, you must doe this,

Commix with meale a little pisse

Of him bewitch; then forthwith make

A little wafer or cake;

And this rawly bake't will bring

The old Hag in. No surer thing.

Herrick

If you are bothered by vampires place a handful of blackberries on  your window sill, they will be kept busy obsessively counting the seeds in the fruit until sunrise!

The Rollright Stones

These stones date back to the neolithic times and are made up of the King stone 

which stands slightly to one side of the seventy seven stones called the 

whispering knights. These lean together looking as though they are plotting 

against the King. He was leading his army towards the Cotswold Ridgeway 

in his campaign to become High King of England. On his way up the hill 

the King met a witch, she addressed him

'Seven long strides thou shalt take

And if Long Compton  thou can see

King of England thou shalt be'

not to be outdone the King quipped back

'Stick, stock, stone

As King of England I shall be known'

Saying that he began to walk up the hill but a hillock reared up suddenly

before him and blocked his view of the distant village.

The witch sang out

'Rise up stick and stand still stone

For King of England thou shall be none

Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be

And I myself an eldern tree'

The King and all his men instantly turned to stone and the witch turned

 into a elder tree close to the stones to guard against the spell being broken.

For many years it was the custom for people to gather at the stones on 

Midsummer Eve to cut the elder tree, if it bled it would bring fertility to the land. 

Some believed that the King stone would move its head if the tree bled. 

The stones are also believed to confirm fertility upon woman who touch

 their bare breasts to the stones at midnight. 

The King and his knights are said to be asleep in a cavern under the stones

 ready to be awoken in time of need, very much like the Arthurian legend.

Dragons

The faerie gold on Cadbury Hill in Somerset is guarded by a huge green 

dragon; every day it flies from it's lair on Castle Neroche to Cadbury 

and then back again.

Many years ago the hill fort was inhabited by faeries, here they lived in 

underground homes along the sides of the hill and in their caves they stored 

their treasures and grain from the surrounding plain. They were driven from 

the hill by the sound of the newly erected bells from a nearby church. 

The sound of the iron bells hurt their ears so much that they left without 

all their possessions, leaving the gold still in it's underground cave.

The faerie treasure can not be found by mortals, for the harder you dig for it the 

deeper it will sink the earth of Cadbury Hill. The dragon has been guarding it ever since.

It was a beautiful  day when we visited the hill, I didn't bother looking for the 

treasure as I didn't want to anger the dragon!

A charm to find who has bewitched your cow!

Talking of bewitchment..

Is your cow acting strangely?

 Is she moody and depressed?

 If so she may be bewitched.

To find who has bewitched her put a pair of breeches upon 

the cow's head and beat her out of the pasture with a good 

cudgel upon a Friday, and she will run right to the 

witch's door and strike thereat with her horns.

Reginald Scott The discovery of Witchcraft 1584

As well as guarding your cattle against witches Reginald also gives advice on how to guard your children from witchcraft.

He (the devil) teacheth witches to make ointments of the bowels and members of children, whereby they ride in the air and accomplish all their desires. So as, if there be any children unbaptized or not guarded with the sign of the cross or orisons (uh?) then the witches may and do catch them from their mothers sides at night or out of their cradles... and after burial steal them out of graves and seethe them in a cauldron until their flesh be made potable.

So to guard against this a crust of salted bread under the baby's pillow will keep off witches but to be sure  hang garlic among the bedclothes. Though efficacious against baby stealers a knife jammed point upwards near the cradle is perhaps not to be recommended for babies ( also used to deter faeries) but the best way is to get the child christened as soon as possible.

Wonderful mirrors by Steven Shipp

These beautiful mirrors are handmade by west country artist Steven Shipp.

He is well known around the area for his artwork and accepts 

commisions for his paintings and mirrors.

Are you bewitched?

 In the 16th century girdle measuring was a common practice for 
wise women to see if evil spirits or faeries have invaded a persons body. 
Any unexplained weight gain especially after an illness was considered 
very suspicious. Their girdle or belt would be measured and if  the wise 
woman believed it to have increased in size charms and incantations 
would be said over it. Then the belt would be measured again and if it did
not show a reduction in size it would be chopped into bits and buried. 
This was supposed to be a sure fire way of getting rid of unwanted possesions.

Faeries and Folklore of the British Isles

I have found another remedy for those bewitched dating from 1683- Doctor Lilly's Last Legacy
Take two horseshoes, heat them red hot and nail one on the threshold of the 
door but quench the other in the urine of the party bewitched; then set the 
urine over the fire in a pot or pipkin and put the horseshoe into it. Make the 
urine boil, with a little salt unto it., and three horseshoe nails until it is 
almost consumed: what is not boiled away cast into the fire. Keep then your 
horseshoes and nails in a clean cloth or paper and use the same manner three times.
 It will be the more effectual if it be done at the change of full of the moon.

Hairy Meg the Brownie from Scotland

A hundred years ago Hairy Meg lived in the farmhouse at Achnarrow near Glenlivet Scotland. As per usual she did all the work and was regularly rewarded with a bowl of milk and a piece of oat cake.

After a particularly bad year on the farm, the crops failed and the animals died, the farmer decided he couldn't afford to keep the rest of the servants so he sacked them all much to Hairy Meg's disgust. She was so upset that she went on strike refusing to do any of the chores and throwing pots and pans around the farmhouse.

Hairy Meg made such a nuisance of herself that the farmer had to relent and give all the servants back their jobs and immediately Hairy Meg regained her temper.

You can tell she was happy!

( she reminds me of my old history teacher!!)

Aberdeen Brownies have no separate toes of fingers while in the Scottish lowlands they have a hole instead of a nose while others have no mouths just huge noses.

Faeries and Folklore of the British Isles 2006