This section is from the book "Kentucky Superstitions", by Daniel Lindsey Thomas, Lucy Blayney Thomas. Also available from Amazon: Kentucky Superstitions.
3773. To become a witch, go to a mountain top at dawn, shoot through a handkerchief at the rising sun, curse Jehovah three times, and own the Devil as master. When you shoot through the handkerchief, blood will fall from it..........Mountains
3774. To become a witch: the candidate goes with the Devil to the top of the highest hill at sunrise nine successive days and curses God; the Devil then places one hand on the candidate's head and one on his feet, and receives the promise that all between his hands shall be devoted to his service. Mountains
3775. To become a witch, you shoot at the moon nine times with a silver bullet, cursing God each time ..................................Mountains
3776. You can become a witch by taking a spinning-wheel to the top of a hill, giving yourself up to the Devil, and waiting until the wheel begins to turn. The witches will then come to instruct you.. Mountains
3777. One who teaches witchcraft to more than three people will herself lose the power.........Mountains
3778. If a witch goes to church, she will sit with her back toward the minister..........Northern Kentucky
3779. If an old woman has but one tooth in her mouth, she is a witch.......................Mountains
3780. A witch frequently takes the form of a black cat.
3781. When a witch is at her mischief, she is invisible to everybody except the person bewitched. Mountains
3782. A witch can kill a person or animal with a witch or hair ball, which is made by rolling a small bunch of hair from a squirrel, horse, or cow into a hard, round ball.........................Mountains
3783. By rubbing a hand over a gun, a witch can put a
"spell" on it, so that its shot will not hit anything ..................................Mountains
3784. A witch can put a "spell" on a dog, and thus make him back-track on a deer's trail. She rubs her hand over the dog........................Mountains
3785. If you find a small egg in a hen's nest, you will have trouble, for it is a witch-egg.........................................Northern Kentucky
3786. If a horse's mane is matted in the morning, the witches have ridden him during the night.
3787. If you ride your horse on the same day that you have found witch stirrups in his mane, he will throw you.
3788. Tie strands of a horse's mane or tail together, to keep off witches.
3789. Plait your horse's mane with corn shucks, to prevent witches from riding him. .Western Kentucky
3790. Witches transfer milk from the victim's cow to their own cows .........................Mountains
3791. A witch can obtain butter by merely squeezing the handle of an ordinary table fork.
3792. If you burn the wisp of the bushy part of a cow's tail, the animal will cease to be bewitched..........................................Mountains
3793. A bewitched cow is cured by the witch-doctor's taking some hair from the sick cow's back and boiling some of her milk over the fire into which the hair had been thrown....................Mountains
3794. If your cow is bewitched, shut the door, do not let her have anything to eat, and then milk her in silence without looking up............Mountains
3795. To free butter from a witch's control, put a horse-bridle over the chum........Blue Grass Negroes
3796. If the butter will not come, drop a red hot horseshoe into the milk to kill the witches; then the butter will come.......................Mountains
3797. For bewitched milk, heat the filings from a horseshoe and put them into the milk. The butter will then come, and by next day something disastrous will happen to the witch that will establish her identity...........................Mountains
3798. To avert a witch charm, put a spindle into the churn.............................Mountains
3799. If butter will not come, put a hot poker into the churn. You will thus drive away witches.........................................Mountains
3800. If the butter will not gather, put a dime into the bottom of the churn.................Mountains
3801. Money should be put into the churn to keep away witches ............................Mountains
3802. To keep witches off, let some drops of. the cow's milk fall on a piece of silver..........Mountains
3803. To keep witches off, keep a piece of silver in a glass of water and sprinkle the cow's back with the water every few days.........Western Kentucky
3804. When a cow is bewitched, the charm may be broken by cutting her tongue with a silver coin sharpened on a grindstone.....................Mountains
3805. Never go to bed with your shoes higher than your head, for if you do, the witches will be after you for three months....................Mountains
3806. If you are awake at eleven, you will see witches and black cats at twelve.................Mountains
3807. If a fire that you are attempting to make goes out three times, you are bewitched. .Central Kentucky
3808. If a spider is consumed through falling into a lamp, witches are near....................Blue Grass
3809. The twitching of the eye is a sign that one is bewitched.
3810. If you step on a crack in a sidewalk, a witch will appear and seize you.
3811. It is unwise to keep egg shells because witches go to sea in them. Burn the shells.
3812. The witch-hazel leaf should not be plucked and carried about you. Witches conjure with it.
3813. A person that does not believe in witches cannot be bewitched.
3814. Witches cannot cross running water.
3815. Take a chew of tobacco to keep off the witches......................................Mountains
3816. A piece of rattlesnake skin worn in the clothing keeps witches away..................Mountains
3817. One penny will prevent the witches from riding you...........................Western Kentucky
3818. If you put a silver dollar under your head, the witches cannot trouble you...........Mountains
3819. A piece of silver in the pocket or a silver ring on the finger or on the horse's bridle will keep the witches away..............................Mountains
3820. To keep off witches and evil spirits, you must take off your hat and turn it around.
3821. A negro with a rabbit foot, mounted on a white horse in the dark of the moon in a cemetery, will break a witch spell..................Mountains
3822. If a jack-o'-lantern gets on your back, it will ride you until morning. Avert this fate by turning your coat wrong side out.
3823. When you lie on the ground, draw circles around you with a willow fork, to keep off the witches.
3824. If when you see a bunch of hair near the door you fail to pick it up, the witches will overtake you before midnight......................Mountains
3825. A witch cannot step over a broom.
3826. Witches will not trouble you at night, if you sleep with a Bible under your head.........Mountains
3827. If you are troubled by witches, it is a good plan to sleep with a meal sifter over the face. When the witches come to worry you, they are compelled to pass back and forth through every mesh. By this time you will have had sufficient sleep and can get up......................Western Kentucky
3828. If you han ga bread sifter on a door-knob at night, you will find witches in it the next morning...................................Louisville Negroes
3829. Draw a picture of a witch that is tormenting you and shoot through it with a silver bullet.
3830. Get rid of a witch by shooting her picture over running water.........................Mountains
3831. You may kill a witch by shooting at her picture over running water. If you shoot the picture under other conditions, you may break the charm but may not hurt the witch..............Mountains
3832. If you are about to break a witch's charm by shooting her picture with a silver bullet, she can break the charm, provided she or a member of her family borrows anything from you or your family..........................................Mountains
3833. You can remove a witch's charm and also kill her by driving a nail through her picture near the heart, and then by striking it once each day for nine days ..................................Mountains
3834. You can break a witch's hold on you by boiling ragweed in a pot, beating it all the time. She can break the charm by borrowing from you or having any of her family do so..............Mountains
3835. You can cure a bewitched person by removing daily one twig from a bundle of nine willow twigs which you have gathered...................Mountains
3836. If you are afflicted with witches, a hoodoo ball made of gum and purchased with a piece of silver will scare away the witches... North-eastern Kentucky
3837. To break the charm of a witch, spit on the brush end of a broom, once for the witch and once for each member of her family. Brush it down the rear of the fireplace; then place the broom across the front door. Finally send for her. She can do you no further harm unless you give or lend her salt or something else......................Mountains
3838. To drive off a witch, place a dime under the hearth..................................Mountains
3839. To remove a witch's hold on a person, cut the witch out of the victim's leg................Mountains
 
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