Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/215

 Rh farmer, saying, “Master, there is a horsedealer in the village who wishes to dispose of this mare, and asks five hundred francs for her.” “She is sold,” said the farmer; “come in, and I will give thee the money.” “But it’s without the bridle,” said the shepherd; “he requires to have that back.” “Be it so,” said the farmer, laughing; “the bargain stands.” He counted out the money, the shepherd pocketed it, then took off the bridle, and, behold! the woman stood before them. Shedding bitter tears, she fell at her husband’s feet, promising never again to do the like, on which he forgave her, and the shepherd was bound over to secrecy.

The Danish version of the story is slightly different. In it the victim is unconscious of the cause of his declining health and strength till he learns it from a Wise-man The Wise-man gave him an ointment to apply to his head at night. The tingling it produced awoke him, and, lo! he was standing outside Tron Church in Norway with a bridle in his hand. He had torn it off in scratching his head. He flung the bridle over his mistress, transformed her into a handsome mare, rode her home, had four new shoes fastened on her, sold her to her husband; and taking off the bridle, there she stood, with horseshoes nailed to her hands and feet. The indignant husband turned her out-of-doors, and she never was able to free herself from the iron shoes.

On these histories my friend, the late Canon Humble, wrote: “The stories of witches turning men and women into horses must have originated in places where the real animal was not to be had without the transformation. Witches were dreadful harriers of horseflesh, but were effectually excluded from stables which were guarded by a horseshoe nailed upon or over the door. This is still very commonly done in the county of Durham as elsewhere. I remember a farmer there telling me how one of his horses had been more than once ridden by the witches, and he had found it in the morning bathed in sweat, but he had nailed a horseshoe over the stable door, and hung some broom over the rack, and the horse had not been used by the witches