The Witches of Willowmere

Chapter 12

That first evening was very quiet. Mrs. Hodge went upstairs at around eight o'clock to watch her favourite shows on the small television set in Myra's bedroom. Claire settled in the library to do her homework, then browsed her way happily along the bookshelves. Most of the volumes seemed to have belonged to Myra's uncle; a few looked very old, with leather bindings and fancy gilded endpapers. There were books on travel to exotic foreign countries—some so old that they referred to countries that no longer existed—on history, on mythology, on science. Claire picked up a few at random, glancing at chapters that interested her and at the copious notes Mr. Ramsay had made. She was grateful now that she had chosen to study cursive writing. She had done it in a mood of pure contrarianism, because no one else her age was interested in the skill, and here it was already paying dividends. She was beginning to feel as though she knew the man just from reading his scribbled comments in his books. She came across the book on the history of the witch hunts that Myra had lent her, and though she had not paid much attention to it before, she now found it unexpectedly intriguing. The chapter on witches' familiars, she noticed for the first time, had more of Mr. Ramsay's notes and jottings than any other chapter. Why had he been so interested in that particular aspect of witch lore?

She sat down in a comfortable chair and reread the chapter. Familiars were not just the traditional black cats of Halloween decorations, it said, but could also be toads, mice, rats, hares, hedgehogs, snakes, crows, dogs, and various other animals. One witch's familiar reportedly came to her in the night in the form of a ferret with fiery eyes and drank her blood like a vampire. Another witch had a spotted cat that granted her wishes. Familiars had magic powers of their own, since they were really not animals at all but demons in disguise: they could change from one kind of animal to another (the spotted cat, for instance, could also be a toad) or even take human form. A witch could also send her familiar on errands—to spy on people, for instance. But this was dangerous for the witch, because if the demon- animal was killed or injured while it was out on its mission, the same thing would happen to her.

For some reason, Uncle Al had underscored this last sentence twice and placed both an exclamation point and an asterisk beside it; a scribbled note at the bottom of the page read, "See Ritual Magic by Aubrey Johnson." Claire had noticed that title on one of the other bookshelves. Curious, she went and fetched the aged volume, blew the dust off its cover, and turned to the table of contents. Chapter 1, "Shamanism," had also been heavily underscored. She read the first paragraph, idly wondering what could have got Mr. Ramsay so excited.

"The term 'shamanism' is now widely used for various forms of primitive ritual and magical belief. The word comes to us from Siberia, where the native 'shamans' have performed their sacred rites for untold years. It is believed that these tribal magicians are served by spirits that appear in bird or animal form. By pure coincidence, it seems, similar beliefs are found the world over." Claire settled into an armchair with the book and read on, absorbed. "Among the Indians of North America, the guardian spirit usually appears as an animal, in a vision quest or other ritual. The Tlingit of the Northwest Coast believe that a medicine man has several spirit helpers known as yeks that manifest in bird or animal form. In Australia, the sorcerer's companion has the likeness of a lizard; among the Yoruba of Nigeria, his servants are owls; in New Guinea, snakes or crocodiles. The Cewa tribe has a tale about a magician who had several hyena spirits at his command . . ."

"Still up, are you?" asked Mrs. Hodge, appearing at the door of the library in a blue flannel dressing gown. "What's that you're reading?"

"Ritual Magic. It's an old book that belonged to Mr. Ramsay," Claire replied. "It's about witch doctors and their animal spirits. A man in Africa once told Mr. Ramsay about these magic spirit- animals. I guess that's how he first got interested in the subject. There's a story in this book about an African sorcerer who had a bunch of hyena spirits who went on errands for him. According to the story, they all died at the very same time as the man did." "You don't say? Gives me the creeps, that does."