Browse:Witch Rides Horse (Volume 1, entries 457–463)
Witch Rides Horse
Volume 1, entries 457–463. Source context: SPIRITS → THE HAG - WITCH IN HAG FORM. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 457
I remember at one time the hags used to ride our horses. A young man and I - it was in the summertime in the month of July - we had been out visiting and in coming home, its being so hot, we decided to go up in the barn loft to sleep. That was right over de horses stable: So we opened both doors [of the loft] and there is where we laid. So each of us went to sleep. And at one time he was asleep and I was awake, and I heard the horses scrumbling in the stable. What was the matter I did not know. So finally, I got up and went downstairs in the stable, and when I got down there, the doors was open and the horses were out in the yard running to and fro. But what was on the horses I know not. I did see that there was a little knot upon their manes up around the shoulders. They tie this knot in his mane and use it as stirrups [witches' stirrups] and ride it until it drops dead. When we got the horses in the stable the horses were all wringing wet. [old Point Comfort, Va., (27), Ed.; Norfolk Co., Va.,1929.]
Entry 458
My father had a grey horse at home. He bought him from a very old man and this was his [the old man's] riding horse. Ev'ry morning he would find two little stirrups tied in his mane. The horse wouldn't get fat. Ev'ry morning my father would comb that all out nicely, each night when we get through feeding, and the next morning those two little knots would be tied in there. You would hear the horse groaning and groaning at nighttime. Someone told us that the old man was riding the horse and to turn the horse around the other way in the stall. After that the horse got all right. It was that old man. It was sold in his estate and he didn't want anyone to have it.
Entry 459
I had a horse that was real poor with a long mane. I combed that mane out every morning. I would get up the next morning and it was all tied up with stirrups from witches riding him. It looked like the more I fed him, the horse kept getting thinner. I told him what to do. I told him to go and get him a broom, drive a nail up behind the stable door, hang this broom up there. If this witch comes there, she has to count every straw in that broom before she can get a ride, then day will be on her and she will have to leave.
Entry 460
Now, I have seen this. I can say this. My uncle had a horse, a little black horse. He did dray work around the streets, hauling trunks and boxes and things for folks in town. And I've had him come and show us dat horse any number of mornings. She'd be soakin' wet, hardly could move de next day. And he'd show it to me for the fact and say to me, "De witches has rode dis horse last night." And then he has also showed me her mange [mane] de next day. It would be all pladed [plaited] up where they had developed over night. Now, what did that?
(Was there any way to protect the horse?)
No. De only thing, he had horseshoes stuck up over de doors.
Entry 461
In 1877 I lived wit a man by de name of Mr. Charlie B. My father hired me there for carrying Water for de women folks and bringing in kindling and stuff for the women. I was eleven years old and a little ways into twelve. A man from Snow Hill by the name of Mr. John S. - and in that time a horse and carriage was de fastest way to get along - he had a bay horse, come to Mr. Charlie B. And this horse, one day his mane was all tangled and mingled. And he wanted to lick me over it. Mr. Charlie B. told him, "No, that boy ain't bothered that horse, because my horse is so often like that when I go to take them out. And I know he didn't bother him." And he saved that man from cracking me. If you want to keep the witches from tangling them, you nailed a horseshoe right over the barn door with the points down to keep the witches from riding the horses.
Entry 462
They claim that a witch-hag would go to a stable and get a horse and get on his back backwards and come to your house and go through the keyhole while you were sleeping and ride you to death. That is [now] called stagnation of the blood.
Entry 463
I remember one night I was living on a farm all alone. Whilst being there, I had been told that this place was witchy, so I minded it not. So I went there to live. And after staying there for a period of time a witch came to my home. And I was told how to capture this witch. So I captured this witch. So after capturing this witch I had her on my way to the stable and she turned into a horse, a beautiful grey nag. After I put her in the stable, I was so delighted with my new horse that I hardly could sleep. I wanted day to come so bad so I could go down to the blacksmith shop and have my nag shod all round. So finally, the next morning - I stayed all night by her in the stable - and the next morning before breakfast I take my nag to the blacksmith shop and had her shod all round. After she had been shod I carried her back to the stable and put her up in the stable. One of the neighbors round there had taken violently ill. What was the trouble, nobody knowed. So they sent for the doctor. The doctor came. I told the doctor about my new pony. So I went to the stable to get my nag to show the doctor and when I got there de nag was gone. When I heard of this neighbor being so sick, deathly ill, I went to see her. And when I went to see her she refused to let me look at her hands and also her feet. I persisted on doing that and den I got help so I should examine her. After I examined her I found she had horse- shoes on each feet and on each hand. She was deathly tormented with those nails. She had den turned to a natural human form. (About 1886, near Hampton, Virginia. This is an example of a folktale told as a personal experience.) [This is my comment in 1936, after informant left room.]