Witches in Alava

Witch stories in Alava

Here are stories of witches in Alava: The Scalded Cat, The Witch of Montoria, The Witch of Tobillas, The Witches' Revenge.

The scalded cat

In Orbiso, a group of women used to meet in the evening to gossip. But sometimes the next day, all over the neighborhood, we knew what had been said the day before. So for several consecutive days.

During one of these evening meetings, she noticed that near them was a black cat. So they secretly decided for the next day to bring a cauldron of boiling oil. So they did and when the cat appeared, got ready to pour the contents of the cauldron on him. The cat fled, meowing in pain.

But, oh! Surprise! The next morning, one of the women from the village appeared with her head scalded, her face covered with enormous blisters.

The witch of Montoria

She was an old woman who wandered from village to village in the southern lands of Alava, with such a reputation as a witch and sorcerer that everyone, seeing her, ran away from her path like madmen to avoid hexes. To get an idea of the panic that this woman was causing and at the risk of appearing exaggerated, the peasants who knew her related this:
One day, in a house in Peñacerrada, people were killing the pig.

They had already bled him, cut his ears, his feet and were finishing taking him outside to ventilate him when a curvy old woman appeared, serious and with a mischievous look, dressed entirely in black. Approaching the pig, the latter, despite being dead, belly open, without ears or legs, began to run to hide in his enclosure. The old woman, hunched over, was none other than the famous witch of Montoria.

The Witch of Tobillas

One night, sleeping in his hut, a shepherd from Tobillas, a village belonging to the village of Valdegovia, was awakened with a start by barking. At first he didn't care much and tried to continue sleeping. Not only did the barking not stop, but its intensity increased and the shepherd came out to drive the animal away. When he saw that huge dog in front of the door, menacing, with gleaming fangs under the full moon.

It was not a normal dog. As he also looked like a human, this strange dog with a we know what clever, the shepherd returned to his cabin, took a stick that he always had at the foot of his bed just in case ... and hit him so violent on the head that any other dog would have perished instantly.

But, not only did he not die despite the enormous wound and the loss of a lot of blood, he rushed at the aggressor as if to ask him another blow. But the man did nothing, and he took it well, the animal ended up moving away with its tail between its paws, grumbling in a way that seemed to the shepherd to be a devilish attitude.

The following night, the shepherd discovered an old woman from the village with her head bandaged, and the latter seeing him moved away with a strange look, the man concluded that this woman was a witch and that, transformed into a dog, was the one who had come to bark near his cabin. As in addition, the man had boasted of his success with some friends, this old woman of Tobillas was not long, because of the popular malicious work which is the rumor, to be taken like the official witch of the village. .

Revenge of the witches

A shepherd from Salinillas de Buradón owned a large flock of sheep. One day an old beggar asked her for alms. The shepherd gave him nothing, content to start a ritual:
- God protects you !
The old woman threatened him irascibly:
- You'll remember me!
And of course the shepherd remembered the beggar. That same day, all of his sheep began to get sick and died, one after another, until the last.