viii Foraging Through Folklore Ella Leith

Witches and milk, goats and herbs

Ella Leith

Why is Galega officinalis known as Goat’s Rue? It is not related to Common Rue (Ruta graveolens), the Herb of Grace traditionally used to sprinkle holy water and to protect against the Evil Eye and various poisons. No, this Goat’s Rue is mildly toxic to mammals, although it has been cultivated as a fodder for livestock and used to stimulate milk production— ‘not only [to] increase the amount of milk, but also improve its quality’ (Mabey, 1988:221). Yet Goat’s Rue doesn’t seem to have been particularly associated with either goats’ milk or goats’ health; that honour goes to Dittany (Origanum dictamnus). Galega officinalis, meanwhile, has little to do with goats beyond its byname— a possible explanation for which is the ‘disagreeable odour’ it emits when bruised (Grieve, 1971:696).

Goat’s Rue does, however, have a folkloric role in relation to milk products more generally. Before the industrialisation of dairy production, collecting milk and making butter and cheese were daily tasks in rural households that possessed a milking goat, sheep or, ideally, cow. Across Europe, this was seen as women’s work; ‘men were believed to lack the necessary patience and care’ for milking and churning, and ‘rural women were skilled with all aspects of dairy work ... [which] was hard, physical work’ (Spencer, 2019). Without refrigeration, milk had to be promptly converted into butter and cheese— a simple ‘cottage cheese’ for most families, as ‘making hard or farmhouse cheese was a long, skilled process limited to the bigger houses and farms’ (ibid.). Cheese-making requires rennet, the enzymes found in the lining of a calf’s stomach, but those with only a few livestock would need to improvise. Enter Goat’s Rue. One of its bynames, shared with Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum), is Cheese Rennet, and it has been used as a rennet substitute since at least the seventeenth century, as recorded by the botanist Nicholas Culpeper (Grieve, 1971:697).

There are a few other links between herbs, goats, the folklore of dairy production, and the supernatural. Since dairy was central to most families’ diet and livelihood, ‘if a cow lost her milk, it could prove disastrous for a hard-up family’ (Spencer, 2019). So, protecting livestock from threats and theft was paramount. Hedgehogs were believed to be dastardly milk-stealing creatures who drank milk directly from cows’ udders (whether this is true or not is still hotly contested— see Baldwin, 2021), and ‘a now uncommon bird called the nightjar was colloquially called ‘the goatsucker’, for its unsubstantiated habit of suckling milk from goats’ (Spencer, 2019). But much worse were milk-stealing witches. These nefarious women would either transform themselves into or send out creatures to thieve milk. The creature of choice was usually a hare (called a mjölkhare or milk-hare in Scandinavian tradition, and a harehag in Ireland). Take this 1937 tale from Mrs. Paddy Brady of County Cavan, Ireland:

'I know of a woman who turned herself into a hare. Her name was Mrs. Hutchinson, a Protestant woman who lived in the townland of Ryeforth ... She went to my grandfather's ... and sucked the milk from the cows. Grandfather saw her; he got his gun, loaded it with a crucked sixpence, fired at the hare and hit her on the head. She ran away, and he ran after her to her house, where he found the woman in bed with her head bleeding. He made her promise never to do that again and she did not.' (Mrs. Paddy Brady, in Ni Dhuibhne, 1993:77).

But witches didn’t need to go out and steal the milk in person. They could also use a charm to steal someone else’s ‘milk profit’ remotely, such that when a woman went to milk her cow, the udder would release only water, blood or nothing at all; meanwhile, the witch would be sitting at home, her own pail filling with the fresh milk. There were a number of ways to steal the milk profit, including herbal charms. In a catalogue of the botanicals named in 260 Polish and Lithuanian witch-trials (1509-1775), Plantain (Plantago spp.) and Bryony (Bryonia alba) are identified as having been used to magically steal or spoil dairy products— bathed in a bowl of milk, the latter would draw more milk from neighbouring cattle and, indeed, from vermin (Ostling 2014:194). There was, Ostling says, power in herbs, words, and stones that witches could exploit; the latter two combine in the use of Witches’ Stones, also called ‘butter and milk stones’. James Laurenson (1899-1983) of Fetlar, Shetland, recalled in an interview in 1975 that a local woman received butter and milk stones as a wedding gift:

“Naw watch them an guard them well,” th’auld witch said. “But they’re priceless. And while ye have them an keep them ye’ll never want.” ... She hed to hot them in the fire, gat them wi the tongs, ... an she took them three times waddergates [anti-clockwise] and three times sungates [clockwise], see? ... An then she’d to point to the house."Tak aa fae until aa is teen, what might blaa dee fae da been.” [Take all from until all is taken, white milk blow you from the bone]. ... She tried it out an it worked, for curiosity she tried it."

Witches could also fashion a Witches’ Ladder to be used as a remote udder, sometimes made from ‘hairs taken from the tails of the cows whose milk was to be stolen’: a knot was tied in the rope for each cow, and by pulling at the knots as if she were milking, and at the same time uttering a spell, the witch brought the milk into her pail. (Chambers, 1870:329) More commonly, Witches’ Ladders were made of rope; in Bohemia, this would be cut from the bell-rope so that ‘you can milk all the cows within sound of the bell’ (Frazer 1887:82). Over in Scotland, Bryce Whyte (1914-2006) told the following story in 1975 about a young Aberdeenshire woman (‘she didnae call hersel a witch, but she could do witchcraft’) from whom he used to buy milk as a child. A friend of hers argued with a local farmer about whether or not witchcraft was real:

'He says, “I’ll bet ye five pound”— an that was a lot a lot o money at that time —he says, “there is such a thing ... as witchcraft.” ... An they come to this woman where we used tae get the milk. She went an tied up a string tae the roof, ye know? An she says tae this other farmer, “Now I dinnae want tae do this, but ... I’ll show ye. Because if I don’t do it ... ma freend’s gonnae lose five pound. An he can’t afford tae lose five pound.”... She says, “Jest you get a pail, put the pail under the string, ye know the way tae milk a coo?” “Oh aye,” he says, “I know the way tae milk a coo.” An she says, “Well, there’s the stool. Set down. Milk that string,” she says, “same as if ye were milkin a coo.” He did that, the milk come. He says, “Ah no,” he says, “It’s a trick.” ... She says, “I’m no touching the string, ... it’s you that’s doin it.” ... He filled the pail wi milk and then ... there was some bleed started tae come. ... An she says, “You’re doin a foolish thing. ... Ye should give it up now,” she says, ... “that’s yer prize coo ye’re milkin.” True enough, when the farmer arrived home, his prize cow was at death’s door.'

There were, predictably, charms to protect yourself against milk theft or to restore stolen milk profit— also involving herbs. Field Mustard (Sinapis alba), for example, is referenced in a witch-trial in Poznań, 1544: To prevent milk-theft, mark cattle with a cross of mixed egg, honey, and mustard; protection lasts as long as the mustard is bitter and the honey is sweet. (Ostling 2014:190)

As well as herbs, goats themselves were used to defend milking cows. A longstanding belief in rural England was that a goat in your cattle herd would keep the cows calm and healthy. Pseudo-scientific explanations have been given: the bad smell of the goats ‘keeps off diseases and promotes good condition’ (Fowler, 1915:213), or ‘if any illness were about to attack the cattle, it would fall first on the billy-goat, and the cattle would escape’ (Gardner, 1933: 218). However, as Gardner observes, ‘this is quite contrary to modern ideas of infection ... [and] seems to fall more into line with the ... idea of the scapegoat’ (Gardner, 1933:218). Goats were thought to ward off the Evil Eye (Foster, 1917:451) and, in Montenegro, were particularly associated with protection from witches. For example, after ritually burning household rubbish accumulated in Winter, drawing a cross in the ashes with a goat's horn ensured no witches could sneak inside in Spring (Durham, 1933:163). But beware: the goat is also one of the animals in whose form the Devil may appear (Murray, 1917), and you do need take care that the goat you keep with your milking cows isn’t itself a witch in disguise. At a trial in Jämtland, Sweden, in 1651, two children recounted seeing a creature called a bära or milk-carrier running towards their cattle:

'The boy threw his knife over it and it fell over and started kicking its feet. While they were looking at it a goat came along and wanted to chase them off. They fought against it and it was transformed into the accused woman. (Wall, 1993:74) At the end of that tale, the witch promised the children riches, so they gave the bära back to her, and off she went.'

She could still be out there, so keep an eye on your cows...

Image: Francesco Londonio. Young Woman Milking a Goat. Accessed July 13, 2021. Open access: available as part of an Open Artstor collection. https://jstor.org/stable/10.2307/community.27 022437

References Baldwin, M. (2021) ‘European Hedgehog Diet and Feeding Behaviour— Folklore’, article on Wildlife Online, wildlifeonline.me.uk, accessed 12/07/2021. Chambers, R. (1870) Popular Rhymes of Scotland. W & R Chambers: London and Edinburgh Durham, M. (1933) ‘Whence Comes the Dread of Ghosts and Evil Spirits?’ in Folklore, 44(2):151-175 Foster, J. J. (1917) ‘Goat and Cows’ in Folklore, 28(4):451-451 Fowler, J. T. (1915) ‘Goats and Cattle’ in Folklore, 26(2):213-213 Frazer, J. G. (1887) ‘A Witches Ladder’ in The Folk-Lore Journal, 5(1):81-84 Gardner, P. (1933) ‘Billy-Goats’ in Folklore, 44(2):218-218 Grieve, M. (1971) A Modern Herbal (Vol 2). Courier Corporation: Chelmsford, Mass. Mabey, R. (1988) The Complete New Herbal. Elm Tree Books: London Murray, M. (1917) ‘Organisations of Witches in Great Britain’ in Folklore (28:3),228-258 Ni Dhuibhne, É. (1993) ‘The Old Woman as Hare: Structure and Meaning in an Irish Legend’, in Folklore, 104:1-2, 77-85 Ostling, M. (2014) ‘Witches' Herbs on Trial’, in Folklore, 125(2):179-201 Rose, H. (1933) ‘The Folklore of the Geoponica’ in Folklore, 44(1): 57-90 Spencer, H. (2019) ‘From Cow to Kitchen: the Lore of Milking and Dairy Work’, article on Folklore Thursday blog, folklorethursday.com (03/01/2019; accessed 10/07/21) Wall, J. (1993) ‘The Witch as Hare or the Witch's Hare: Popular Legends and Beliefs in Nordic Tradition’ in Folklore, 104(1-2):67-76

The interviews mentioned can be found on the Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o’ Riches website, tobarandualchais.co.uk, the online portal for the School of Scottish Studies Sound Archives at the University of Edinburgh. James Laurenson – Track ID: 78534 Bryce Whyte – Track ID: 76722