However, during the Burning Times any small animal that was kept in the house was a suspect. Records show that accused witches were forced to confess that they used cats and other small creatures as their guides. It was also firmly believed that witches could take the shape of cats. The accusers sometimes claimed that they were followed or tormented by witches in the shape of cats.

In 1718 William Montgomery of Caithness alleged that hordes of cats gathered outside his house nightly and talked in human language; he claimed to have killed two of them and wounded another one night and awoken the next morning to hear that two old women had been found dead in their beds and another badly injured.



Cat hair and bones were often ingredients of charms and spells, and even now a few hairs from a cat are supposed to increase the power of a spell. This now appears more common in England than in America where the hair of a wolf appears to have taken over.

In previous centuries the tail of a black cat was believed to cure a stye if stroked over the afflicted eye, and a tortoiseshell cat's tail was considered to remove warts.

I was told at one time in our history every cat was to be given two names; 'One for a secret, plus another so to befuddle the devil'. This saying was based on the belief that one person could gain power and ascendancy over another simply by knowing his or her real name; by giving the household cat two names, once for common use and one secret and never revealed to outsiders, the pet which had the run of the household could be protected from becoming a tool of evil or of outside infiltration. I am so glad that I was not around during that period.



One is never sure as to how these customs were started. Some due to ignorance of the time, some to rumors. Mainly though Fear of the unknown!