"Vinegar Tom, who was like a long-legg'd Greyhound, with an head like an Oxe, with a long taile and broad eyes, who when this discoverer spoke to, and bade him goe to the place provided for him and his Angels, immediately transformed himselfe into the shape of a child of foure yeeres old without a head, and gave halfe a dozen turnes about the house, and vanished at the doore."
Mathew Hopkins, The Discovery Of Witches
This guy, like the disembodied creature from a week ago, is a witch's familiar. These were thought to be supernatural sidekicks that would run errands for a witch and just do their general bidding. I suppose coco macaques & tilberies are also familiars in that sense.
For reference I used the frontspiece to Hopkins' The Discovery Of Witches which has an illustration depicting a witch and all her familiars. She's sitting in a chair and pointing to a bunch of goofballs and saying "My imps names are..." and then proceeds to list them.
While most of the familiars look like regular animals: a cat, a shaggy dog, a rabbit and a mouse...but the one named Vinegar Tom is very bizarre. He's a long dog with an ox head? Well, that's where this gets personal. My partner and I have used this illustration to name many of our cats. Vinegar, Grizzell & Pyewackett (RIP). Here's a picture of Vinegar (stripey) & Grizz (graybie) on a cat tree.
And while this is an illustration of Vinegar's namesake I have actually drawn him before. He was my reference for the Cat Of Ulthar way back in 2011!
This guy, like the disembodied creature from a week ago, is a witch's familiar. These were thought to be supernatural sidekicks that would run errands for a witch and just do their general bidding. I suppose coco macaques & tilberies are also familiars in that sense.
For reference I used the frontspiece to Hopkins' The Discovery Of Witches which has an illustration depicting a witch and all her familiars. She's sitting in a chair and pointing to a bunch of goofballs and saying "My imps names are..." and then proceeds to list them.
While most of the familiars look like regular animals: a cat, a shaggy dog, a rabbit and a mouse...but the one named Vinegar Tom is very bizarre. He's a long dog with an ox head? Well, that's where this gets personal. My partner and I have used this illustration to name many of our cats. Vinegar, Grizzell & Pyewackett (RIP). Here's a picture of Vinegar (stripey) & Grizz (graybie) on a cat tree.
And while this is an illustration of Vinegar's namesake I have actually drawn him before. He was my reference for the Cat Of Ulthar way back in 2011!
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