Witches in Biscay

Witches in Biscay

Here are several stories of witches in Biscay: sorceress of Zeanuri, the summit of Morga, a small glass of wine, five towers, hue horse, the fisherman and the little dog, two witches who are friends of wine, maria minez, a mysterious whistle, the witches of askondo, wind of witches.

The sorcerer of Zeanuri

One day of the year of the year 1572, someone declared in a laconic way “that in the church of Cenauri and its surroundings there are many wizards and witches who do a lot of evil”. A certain Pedro de Aranguren went further by denouncing Juan De Goitia and his eldest daughter of having practiced acts of witchcraft, superstition and exorcism. Obviously, his specialty was to prevent newlywed couples from having successful carnal relationships.

The accuser assured that the famous witch, without his noticing it, had left him awkward for coitus by hanging on the clothes.

El denunciante aseguré that the mentada bruja, y sin que el se percatase, lo habia dejado inhâbil para el coito colo: candole en la ropa un saquito de lienzo, que contenia “el; euero de una culebra, y como una hebra de hilo negro, y otra hebra de hilo nuevo de la tierra, y otra hebra de hilo blanco, y un poquito de cera colorada con su pabilo, y un poco de estopa, y un pedazo de insignia de bula con otro pedazo de lienzo, in which estaba the bula con sus cabos de hilo blanco ”.

Mayora traté de defenderse alegando que todos los dichos objectos "eran cosas benditas, porque de un modo u otro habfan sido bendecidos en la iglesia". Ademâs, nego que, si por descuido se los habia puesto ella, no se los puso a sabiendas.

Finally, Juan de Goitia hubo to satisfy a multa of seis mil maravedfs, to cumplir an afio of destierro from Zeanuri. In Mayora the condené a "que fuese sacada de la carcel donde estaba en bestia de albarda, atadas las manos y colgadas del pescuezo las cosas de hechicerfa, y que fuese trafda a la vergiienza publica con voz de prego-nero", very mil maravedfs de multa y dos afios de destierro de todo el Sefiorfo from Bizkaia. Por su parte, the vfc-tima of tan “terrible” hechizos logro curarse de su impo-tencia, sf, pero porque se gasté sus buenos dineros en misas y acudiendo has a curandero from Urdufia, that if no….

The summit of Morga

It was said that witches lived in the sorginzilo (witches' hole in Basque), on a hill located near the parish church of Morga. For this, the neighbors of this village avoided coming to this place after dark.

However, a brave girl from the village bet with her friends that she was able to go alone to the disturbing cave of this summit and to utter some impertinence against the inhabitants of the place in which she obviously did not believe.

Certainly she did but we cannot confirm it because of the reckless, the only thing that we found was an intimate garment that she wore that evening. It was clinging to brambles at the entrance to the cave, completely torn and with bloodstains.

A small glass of wine

One night, a man from Murueta was walking back from the tavern to his house. He was walking jerkily, the result of a very dewy evening when, passing through the Etxebartxukolanda esplanade, he suddenly found himself in the middle of a circle of women. These women were scantily clad and our man despite his confusion, thinking of wanton, planted himself in front of them and began to look at them insolently.

The women did not seem embarrassed by the impertinence of the night owl, nor did they cover their nudity. On the contrary, some of them approached the drunk casually, looking at him insolently in their turn, said to him:

- Ask us what you want, tonight we are in a good mood, we will give it to you !.
- What I want ? what I want ? the man inquired, looking at them with greedy eyes and repeated winks.
- Yes! What you want! They confirmed.

The man remained thoughtful for a moment, cleared his throat and said:
- So, in that case, I want a glass of wine!
Amid the laughter, other women approaching the drunkard with small glass of wine in hand handed it to him very affectionately.

The man took the glass, held it up for a moment, as if to toast with them and drink it dry. After a few belching and drying his lips with the back of his sleeve, he exclaimed:
- God ! what a delicious wine!

With these words the women began to scream like mad as they left the place, running desperately. Finally, opening and closing his eyes, the drunkard found himself on the esplanade all alone, his glass in his hand. It didn't take long for him to run home like crazy despite his condition. And for good reason, he had just looked in his glass and saw with horror and disgust that it was full of filthy bugs.

Five rounds

One night a hot discussion animated a group of Elorrio spinners on the merits or not of doing a few laps around the church.
- If you take a walk around the church nothing happens, affirmed one of them.
- If you do three rounds you turn into a witch insisted another.
- If you do five laps, the clever geniuses of the night will delight you, assured a third.

In short, all these women gave their opinions on these thoughts with more or less conviction.

Well, not exactly all of them, no, because there was one silent breastfeeding her baby while the others were discussing. But the latter, when the baby in her arms had finished, entered into the discussion with her neighbors, saying in a decided tone:

- I bet you that I am able at this very moment to make five turns of the church to prove to you that you are all wrong !.
The girls first looked at her speechless, very surprised.
But as the girl insisted on her proposal, finally all agreed to participate with small coins on this improvised bet.

Finally the betting spinner left the house a few moments later, with her baby in her arms, taking the path to the parish church, followed with some fear by the other spinners.

And, without realizing it, she made a complete turn around the temple. Then she made another, and another, and yet another. But at the time of concluding the last one, in the silence of the night, a strange voice, disagreeable and demonic, sprang up which says in Basque:

- Ezkerrak besuan darojazun umetxu orri bestela etziñien luzaruan bizi izango!
Which means:
- Thank the little one you carry in your arms because otherwise you would not have lived long!

These spinners never made bets again, and the gambler wanted to start stubbornly again on this worrying affair.

Never again!

Hue horse!

Returning one night from Amoroto's tavern to his house, Pedro de Otxabio found himself facing a horse standing in the middle of the path to Arbifie. The latter not moving, our night owl shouted to him:
- Hue! horse !

The animal did not make the slightest movement to move away or let it pass so the man repeated:
- hue! horse ! but the animal remained in its positions.
The night owl was about to cry out a third time when he saw that the horse shook itself threateningly. He got goose bumps.

Then, when the man tried very gently to retrace his steps to move away, felt that the horse, in addition to snorting again, had started to advance towards him, not without concealing bad intentions.

It was at this point that the man started to run like a madman towards the tavern arriving there in an instant, feeling in his neck the breath of the horse which was about to reach him. Luckily, in front of this inn there was a cross and passing in front of it, the man crossed himself. At the same moment, he discovered that the horse had disappeared and, in its place, a horrifying old woman who was running annoyed, fleeing the scene.

There was no doubt for Pedro de Otxabio that that night he had met a witch.

The fisherman and the little dog

A fisherman from Bermeo who was returning one night from the wharf to his house, carrying an oar and a basket full of fish over his shoulder, passed a little dog in his path which stood in front of him, barking like a madman. The man was not afraid but yelled at him to make him leave. The latter not seeming to obey him, the sailor kicked the ground several times, even pretending to kick him.

Better, instead of fleeing, the dog redoubled its barking, still planted threateningly in front of the man. Finally, weary of so many cries, the fisherman grabbed his oar and struck it with a terrible blow which ended up causing the animal to flee with its tail between its legs until it lost sight of it.

The next day, an old woman from the village, hobbling with her foot gashed, came to the fisherman's house, shouting:
- Assassin, criminal, I am going to denounce you to justice because last night you hit me with an oar!

The man remained silent when he saw and listened to this old woman, rubbed his chin, finally shrug his shoulders in a gesture of indifference and replied:

- If you report me for assault, I will report you for witchcraft, what do you think?
The old woman looked at him intently with eyes full of hatred, but not only did she not answer but turned around and walked away from where she had come, muttering a few curses.

Of course there was no denunciation.

Two wine-friendly witches

It is said that somewhere in Bizkaya, transformed into ants, the witches entered a hall where the barrels of wine were kept through the keyhole and spent their time drinking good wine. Shortly before dawn, they took the opposite path, quietly slipping away. So one night, then another and another… until one night, while they were satisfied with this particularly delicious good wine, one of them couldn't help but exclaim. :

- God, how good this wine is!
She immediately resumed the appearance of a normal woman. The other witch shouted:
- What a stupid thing! How could you say such a thing?

Finally, as it was dawning, the one with the appearance of an ant quietly slipped away but the other remained trapped, unable to escape. When day broke, the young man from the market finds himself in the middle of the barrels with a completely naked woman, half drunk, trembling with cold and fright, almost falling backwards. But recovered quickly and as soon as the surprise passed gave him a blanket to cover himself. Thus, not without having forced her to tell his misadventure, the boy learned his story.

We thus learned of the adventure of the two witches in love with good wine.

Maria Minez, witch

During her first pregnancy, Maria Minez frequently thought that she was pregnant with the devil. In addition, she often repeated to her neighbors:
- If the pregnancy is to be successful, I must give birth to the antichrist! If it is the devil, I must also give birth to an antichrist!

Those who heard it hastily moved away, crossing themselves, terrified and a bigot blurted out:
- So little fear of God!
Maria's pregnancy came to term and gave birth to a wonderful baby girl whom they named Catalina (Katalintxe for friends).

Maria found herself pregnant again and for the second time she spent days repeating:
- This time, yes, it's the demon and I'm going to give birth to an antichrist… where I die when the day comes!

Her prognosis was verified not that she had given birth to an antéChrist but after several dizziness, flatulence and farts of very different intensity, Maria died suddenly during her second childbirth.
- She died as she wanted: slammed, exhausted and without giving birth! exclaimed relieved some neighbors re-signing.
- And without confession! added the bigot.

But if Maria did not give birth to an antichrist, it is certain that she had given birth to a witch. This is what was said of Catalina, her daughter, during the trial which took place in Bilbao in the middle of the 16th century. If the mother was saved from this trial it is because she was already dead. These are the things of history.

A mysterious whistle

One night, back from his work and absorbed in his thoughts, Prasku the coalman was passing over Arkiola. He heard a continuous whistle which made him look all around him but as he saw no one, he continued his walk.

The next night, passing the same spot, Prasku was again surprised by the same continuous whistle, and, again, looked around. As he still saw no one, he hurled a curse thinking he was the victim of a prankster and resumed his walk even more annoyed.

But on the third night, still passing the same spot and hearing that whistle again, Prasku made up his mind to dutifully inspect the area, convinced that there was someone posted there, certainly a joker. Yet he did not see anyone this time either on this esplanade surrounded by rocks except for a single tree with twisted and bare branches, with a very stylized trunk.

The next day, Prasku, who could not get this strange whistle out of his thoughts and willing to solve this riddle, decided to go to the place before sunset, determined to surprise the one who hissed it like this every evening. He had planned everything well. He would go to the plaza and hide behind the one tree. He would be armed with a thick and solid club.

"Let's see if the funny guy would still want to whistle after meeting him!" "

But Prasku could not hide behind the tree that evening, no, because he discovered with unspeakable astonishment and panic, that there was no tree there nor the slightest trace that there had been one. , one day.

Prasku, the coalman, left running this esplanade at the top of Urkiola which seemed to him the most sinister place and never passed by there again.

Never again, not even once, never did he see this place again in all of his remaining life.

The witches of Askondo

One evening, a young spinner from the Inzunza farm came home from work. Passing in front of the entrance to an Azkondo cave, which is opposite the cave of San Lorenzo, an old woman with a very disturbing face came out on the path and complained:
- If you dare to stop by here next time, we'll teach you a lesson!

The young girl continued on her way, furious at the insolence of an old stranger, and arrived home without incident. The following night, back home from her job as a spinner and remembering the old woman's words, not only did she not take them into consideration to change the route but arrived in front of the entrance to the cave and stood there with her arms crusaders, defiant.

Nothing more was known of this young spinner. Having never returned to the farm and never found her trail, it is believed that she was captured by the witches living at Azkondo Cave.

Witches Wind

It used to be said that the owner of the Gonzogarai farm in Ziortza was very accustomed to slander. So much and so much slander for anything that annoyed him that he ended up worrying his own family and even his neighbors.
- This habit that you have to curse all the time, one day you will have setbacks! his best friends often told him.

Yet he ignored it.
- Cursed be! what inconvenience do you bring me? What an inconvenience! he annoyed when he heard these things.

And indeed he had a setback, a big setback. One evening, when as usual he was throwing one of the worst backbiters in the world, a violent swirling wind rose around him, the one we call "sorginhaize" (wind of witches), engulfed him and raised him to several. meters of altitude in front of the fear of the witnesses. Then, as suddenly as he had risen, the wind ceased and the slanderer fell to the ground and remained helpless forever. Since that day, the owner of Gonzogarai never dared to curse again.