THING LIKE A BLACK DOG

THING LIKE A BLACK DOG 

"Such creatures appeared almost monstrous, a physical manifestation of the moral distortion of the witch. Agnes Francis kept as a familiar a toad, or ‘a thynge lyke a blacke dogge with a face like an ape, a short tail, and a peyre of hornes.’ During her trial, Agnes’ daughter described how she had seen her mother carrying ‘the thing’ in her hands."

Helen Parish, “Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils”: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials

 

I love a good, bizarre witch familiar. Working on these reminded me of the exhibit I went to see at Cornell University in 2017 called The World Bewitched. It was a collection of historic books and documents related to witchcraft and witch trials. And it included some great illustrations of familiars!

Here's Ulrich Militor's Hexen Mystery from 1545: "This woodcut shows a procession of witches, replete with a cat familiar and a witch shapeshifted into a cat."

This next one is from 1688, credited to R.B. (a pseudonym of Nathaniel Crouch) and titled The Kingdom Of Darkness: "The woodcut depicts witches and familiars, including a dog, cat, and owl."

Tomorrow I'll be continuing this week of magical monsters with yet another witch familiar!