How brooms, cauldrons and pointed hats became essential equipment for witches

Where did the story of that top navy begin? This turns out to be quite a difficult question to answer.

(How villains like the Wicked Witch set the standard.)

Witches wear black because it is the color of night and the color of fear, Walter Stephenssaid a professor of Italian studies at Johns Hopkins University. Basically, black was also a common – and budget-friendly – ​​color for clothing. But when it comes to why they’re sharp and oversized, things get stickier. History is filled with a dizzying number of potential sources. Stephens said they could be derived from the dunce caps that heretics were forced to wear, or possibly from the 17th century, Puritan, pilgrim-style. Wide-brimmed black conical hats were also worn daily for members of a new religion called Quakerism in the 1600s (a religion believed to meddle in satanic goings-on and witchcraft, according to Puritan thought). Tall, tapered hennins were commonly worn by medieval noblewomen as a fashion, a trend that eventually made its way into the countryside. Some historians believe that the pointed black hat originated from similar items worn by medieval alewives which dominated the beer trade in England (and occupied a position on the fringes of society) to help them be seen in the market.

Some theories are not so harmless and link the phenomenon to anti-Semitic prejudices. Some argue that the pointed hat may derive from a conical hat called the Judenhut that Jews were forced to wear to identify themselves in the 13th century in medieval Europe. In 1431, Hungarian law for the first time required witchcraft offenders to wear a “Jewish peaked cap” in public. And that crooked, flared nose could also be linked to Jewish stereotypes. Some scholars believe it may be a caricature of the aquiline nose used to depict Jews, who, like witches, were persecuted at various times throughout the Middle Ages.

And what about the idea that witches possess warts? A likely descendant of the “witch’s sign”, according to some historians, a nod to the special teat a witch would use to nurse her familiars (animal companions).

Black cats and spiders and toads, oh!

Early modern people in the British Isles and Europe believed in witchcraft and the supernatural, and in times of duress could blame alleged witches for unfavorable events. Failed crops? Sick animals? Such misfortunes could be caused by the harmful magic of a witch. Witch hunt and accusations of witchcraft began in the early 15th century and continued for the next 300 years. Witchcraft superstition grew in the 17th century, and popular and intellectual belief held that the devil and his minions were abroad in the land. Between 1400 and 1750 alone, between 50,000 and 100,000 innocent people in mainland Europe and the British Isles were declared witches and put to death by burning or hanging.

Once a witch’s pact with the devil was made, common belief held that he would give the witch a familiar, or pet, with all sorts of magical powers. They were sometimes known as imps. A witch can also receive a companion passed down from another witch. Sometimes even witches shared them. Black cats are the most recognizable incarnation of familiars today, but they could also be toads, rats, mice, owls, dogs, birds, goats, or even spiders, flies, or snails.

Just as the witch was said to do Satan’s bidding, so the familiars did what the witch told them to do. They could serve as messengers, helpmates or even spies. Many were known to have quite memorable names as recorded by Matthew Hopkinsthe self-appointed “witch general” of England: things like Pyewacket, Peck in the Crown, Griezel Greedigut, and Vinegar Tom.

Family members feature heavily in witch trial testimony and were used as some of the most telling evidence that a suspect was practicing the dark arts. Specifically, in 1566, Agnes Waterhouse, a widow from the village of Hatfield Peverel, England, confessed that she had a cat named Satan that she used to kill and injure people. In 1645, Hellen Clark testified at her trial that the devil came to her house as a white dog she named Elimanzer. Just feeding the Rutterkin cat was enough to be considered as evidence in the trial of Margaret and Phillipa Flower of Beresford.

It was a mutually beneficial arrangement: the witches had a companion and fellow helper in misdeeds, and the familiars had a place to live and plenty of food to eat. Some were known to eat human food such as bread and milk. But most familiars used to suck the witch herself. As for sources of lactation, fingers, moles or warts might be sufficient.