31/10/2017
You can't go out without that this evening!
Happy Halloween!
A Witch's Toolkit, procured from a professional witch — "a pleasing woman of about forty" — in Naples, Italy in 1897.
The toolkit includes a padlock for securing the action of the charm upon an enchanted person who must obey until it is unlocked; a magnet for carrying on the person and drawing a lover irresistibly; a horse-shoe and a stone whorl to protect against witchcraft, often fastened behind a house door; and an old flint and two steels, purpose unknown but related to fire-making.
These objects came to the Folklore Society via Alfred Cort Haddon. They were donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1965.
PRM 1965.3.216b: objects.prm.ox.ac.uk/pages/PRMUID185846.html