Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/76

 ( .s yournal of American Folk-Lore.

��NOTES AND QUERIES.

Two Witch Stories. — Of the stories given below, the first seems evi- dently of old English origin. The second may be of negro derivation; both agree in the feature that in each case the witch is unknown to the husband.

i. The Brothers who married Witches — Once there was a man who kept a store, and his wife was a witch, but he did n't know it. They kept hav- ing things stolen from the store, and could n't find out who took them. It was really the clerk that stole them, and the storekeeper's wife always helped him to get away, for after he 'd stolen anything she 'd say, " Over the woods and over the water, follow me." And then he 'd fly off with her to some safe place, where he could hide the things, and then fly back to the edge of the town, and from there he 'd walk to the store, so he could n't never be caught. At last the storekeeper watched one night, and caught the clerk stealing, and they was going to hang him for it. But when he was on the gallows, the witch came along and said, " Off the gal- lows, and over the water, follow me." And so he got off clear.

The storekeeper had a brother that had a wife that was a witch, too. This brother was a miller, and he had a heap of trouble about getting any one to tend the mill nights, because the men he 'd get would either get scared away, or else if they stayed they surely got killed. Anyhow, the miller got one man that said he was n't afraid to stay and watch, if they 'd give him a sword and a butcher-knife. So they gave them to him, and he lighted a row of lights, and took his sword and his knife and laid down to watch. Pretty soon in came a lot of black cats, — miaou, miaou, — and one of them began to go around and spat out the lights with her paw. The man, he got up and cut at her with the sword, and cut off her paw, and then they all ran out and left him. He found a hand lying there and picked it up. and it had a gold ring on it, like one the miller's wife wore. In the morning the miller's wife was sick, and they sent the man that watched for the doctor. When the doctor came, he found her in bed in a great deal of misery, and he asked her to let him feel her pulse. She put out her left hand to him. and kept her right hand all the time under the bed-clothes. The doctor, he asked her to put out her right hand, and when he got hold of it he found it was cut off. And that week she died.

2. The Snake-Wife. — Once there was a man that had a snake for a

wife. But he did n't know she was a snake, till one day one of his friends

said to him : " Do you know you got a snake for a wife ? She don't look

like a snake, — looks like a woman ; but she is a snake, and I '11 tell ye

! know. When she bakes bread she allers bakes two batches, some

for you that 's got salt in it. an' some for herself that ain't got any in.

if ye want to ketch her, I '11 tell ye how to do. You jest put a pinch

of salt into the bread she makes fer herself." So he watched his chance

nd put in the salt, and sure 'nuff, when she ate a piece o' that bread she

urned into a snake, and run up the chimney fast as she could go. And

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