Georgie and friends |
Chica here, in my She-Devil outfit trying to lure Joey into my deadly clutches. I will do the honors of the tale today!
You have all heard of shapeshifters - witches who were believed to be able to shift their shape into that of an animal, usually of a cat, to carry out their evil deeds. Well...at the Tomb of Lady Ann Smith of Edmondthorpe, Leicesterhire, who died in 1652, her statue bears a strange red stain on its wrist. Tradition says she was a witch who turned herself into a huge black cat. One night her butler struck a black cat on the paw with a cleaver. It vanished but the next day, Lady Ann displayed a wounded wrist. The cat's bloodstains remained on the kitchen floor until 1920 when the flagstones were taken up. In her tomb, Lady Ann's wrist mysteriously bleeds under the right circumstances!
Lady Ann's tomb |
Seventeenth century Scottish witch Isabel Gowdie revealed the magic formula she used to turn herself into a cat which was to repeat this verse:
"I shall go intill an catt,
With sorrow, and sych, and a blak shott;
And I sall goe in the Divellis nam,
Ay will I come hom againe."
Be careful out there on this night when the veils are thin between worlds! And watch out for black cats...it could be someone you know!!! Happy Halloween from all of us!