![]() Some of the earliest documented witch bottles consist of salt glazed stoneware jugs known as Bartmann jugs, Bellarmines, or "Greybeards". ![]() Folk magic contends that witch bottles protect against evil spirits and magical attack, and counteract spells cast by witches they are countermagical devices, the purpose of which is to draw in and trap harmful intentions directed at their owners. Since at least the early modern period it has been a common custom to hide objects such as written charms, dried cats, horse skulls, concealed shoes, and witch bottles in the structure of a building. But at last they understood by her, that her Husband was a Wizard, and had bewitched this Mans Wife and that this Counter-practice prescribed by the Old Man, which saved the Mans Wife from languishment, was the death of that Wizard that had bewitched her. Yes, saith she, you have killed my Husband, he told me so on his Death-bed. They askt her what she meant and thought her distracted, telling her they knew neither her nor her Husband. And his Wife began to mend sensibly and in a competent time was finely well recovered But there came a Woman from a Town some miles off to their house, with a lamentable Out-cry, that they had killed her Husband. Take your Wive’s Urine as before, and Cork, it in a Bottle with Nails, Pins and Needles, and bury it in the Earth and that will do the feat. But now I will put you in a way that will make the business sure. Ha, quoth he, it seems it was too nimble for you. Yes, says he, and told him the event as is above said. ![]() He askt him if he had followed his direction. Who answered, as ill as ever, if not worse. Not long after, the Old Man came to the house again, and inquired of the Man of the house how his Wife did. It was but a dead Spright, he said, and he would put him in a course to rid his Wife of this languishment and trouble, He therefore advised him to take a Bottle, and put his Wives Urine into it, together with Pins and Needles and Nails, and Cork them up and set the Bottle to the Fire well corkt, which when it had felt a while the heat of the Fire began to move and joggle a little, but he for sureness took the Fire shovel, and held it hard upon the Cork, And as he thought, he felt something one while on this side, another while on that, shove the Fire shovel off, which he still quickly put on Again, but at last at one shoving the Cork bounced out, and the Urine, Pins, Nails and Needles all flew up, and gave a report like a Pistol, and his Wife continued in the same trouble and languishment still. The Old Man bid him and his Wife be of good courage. One of the earliest descriptions of a witch bottle in Suffolk, England, appears in 1681 in Joseph Glanvill’s Saducismus Triumphatus, or Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions:įor an old Man that Travelled up and down the Country, and had some acquaintance at that house, calling in and asking the Man of the house how he did and his Wife He told him that himself was well, but his Wife had been a long time in a languishing condition, and that she was haunted with a thing in the shape of a Bird that would flurr near to her face, and that she could not enjoy her natural rest well. The earliest surviving mention of a witch bottle is from 17th century England. They are described in historical sources in England and the United States. A witch bottle is a counter-magical item used as protection against witchcraft.
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