WOMAN AS WITCH 43 



was not allowed on her holy days. The picture of 

 primitive woman taming the cat and the dog, domesti- 

 cating the smaller animals, including the pig, the goat, 

 and the goose, is brought clearly out in their becoming 

 the companions and symbols of the primitive goddess ; 

 just as the broom, the distaff, and the pitchfork, the ears 

 of corn, and the apple, show her activity in the direc- 

 tion of domestic economy and in the earliest forms of 

 agriculture. 



I cannot do better than conclude the witchcraft 

 evidence of woman's primitive ascendency by referring 

 to one out of the many local mother -goddesses who 

 were converted into local saints by early Christianity. 

 The one which I will consider is Walpurg, from whom 

 the name of the great witch-gathering Walpurgisnacht 

 takes its origin. According to the legend, Walpurg 

 was a female missionary who accompanied St. Boniface 

 and was canonised as a virgin saint of the Catholic 

 Church. But let us see the real nature of Walpurg in 

 folklore and local usage. Many wells or springs are 

 associated with her name ; the waters of these wells 

 heal diseases. Her bones, or the stone on which they 

 were formerly exhibited, exuded oil, and this oil was 

 sold or carried off by pilgrims in little bottles to cure 

 toothache and relieve the pangs of childbirth. The 

 exuding began on Walpurgisnacht, on which occasion 

 her oil was also drunk as old ale. On May Day in 

 1720 the priests from no less than forty parishes came 

 to Attigny, one of the shrines of Walpurg, to share in 

 the distribution of oil. Lutheran women who had 

 been assisted in childbirth by the oil entered the 



