The Bells and Witchcraft Legends

This illustration is from An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch: "Dean Turned to a Mule."

George Lyman Kittredge wrote about his research of "accessible materials for a history of Elizabethan witchcraft" in Witchcraft in Old and New England (1929) —

 

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, indeed, we have ample evidence for the currency in Britain of almost every superstitious belief or practice that enters into the witch-creed, be the witchcraft white or black.  We hear of charms and sortilege and soothsaying and divination and prophecy and necromancy, of detective sorcery for stolen goods, of mirror magic or crystal gazing, of abuse of the consecrated wafer and of baptismal water for good purposes and bad; of holy texts repeated backward or intermingled with profane formulas or misapplied to occult ends; of the winning of love and favor by spells or secret arts; of witchcraft for murder or bodily harm; of familiar, spirits and house-haunting poltergeister and serviceable domestic cobolds; of demons of the storm; of demoniacal possession; of devils in the guise of pygmies or of animals; of witches in beast-form who, if wounded, show the wound when they return to humanity; of milk-stealing witchcraft; of spectral evidence, when devils appear in the likeness of innocent women; of incubus and succubus and demon offspring; of invocation and conjuration of evil spirits; of the diabolical compact and homage to Satan — of everything, in short, except the Witches' Sabbath, and that is an institution that does not appear at all in the trials of the Elizabethan age.

 
Kittredge explained at the beginning of his book:  "In considering the tenacity of the popular belief on this subject, we should never forget that the essence of witchcraft is maleficium . . ."  The witch is thought to be able to effect supernatural crimes.  Researched by Kittredge, perceptions of witchcraft recorded in extant manuscripts from preceding centuries show some noticeable correlations with published testimonials chronicling details of the 19th Century Bell Witch 'talking poltergeist' case.  The blog article last week mentioned reports involving vanished milk yet there are other noticeable parallels to be found in An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch (1894) by M. V. Ingram.  Excerpts from the books by Kittredge and Ingram as featured in this article are presented using contemporary grammar.

 

Kittredge acknowledged in the Preface: "In view of some recent works on witchcraft, it seems only prudent to avow that I have no belief in the black art or in the interference of demons in the daily life of mortals."  He wrote about the witchcraft beliefs: "A witch, as we all know, often takes the shape of a hare, and in this guise she may suck your cow dry or drink up the milk . . . she may bewitch your cream; then the butter 'will not come.'  Everybody past middle life remembers this piece of folk-lore and is prepared with the remedy: plunge a red hot iron—a poker, a spit, or best of all a horseshoe — into the cream.  That will reverse the spell and may burn the witch, who is actually or mystically present in the churn . . ."

Among the reminiscences in Ingram's An Authenticated History, the daughter of Bell family friend Theny Thorn recounted having heard about an occasion of a poker being thrust into a churn with the result of neighbor Kate Batts soon thereafter being found nursing a burnt hand; however, this was evidently an inconsequential turn of events as Mrs. Batts apparently remained an accepted member of the community. 

In Ingram’s case study of the ‘Bell Witch’ there are testimonials that the voice of the haunting presence sometimes identifying not only with people (living or deceased) but also with animals in the vicinity of the Bell farmstead.

 

"Do you remember that bird you thought sung so sweet the other morning?"  "Yes," replied Porter.  "Well that was me."  Then continued the witch, "Bennett, didn’t you see the biggest and poorest old rabbit that you ever saw in your life as you came on here this evening?"  "Yes," replied Mr. Porter.  "Well that was me," said the witch, and then bursted into laughter.

Here is another anecdote.

 

Next came the exclamation or inquiry, "Where is Jerusalem?"  (Jerusalem was a member of the witch family.)  No one replying, the same voice answered, "There he is on the wall."  All eyes were at once turned to discover a large black bug crawling on the wall.  Mr. Bell remarked, "Well, if that is Jerusalem, I will kill him," and he did kill the bug.  The witch laughed heartily, exclaiming, "Lord Jesus, what a fool I did make of old Jack Bell."

A rabbit is also a factor when Ingram mentioned a case of "authenticated phenomena"  preceding that of the Bells in Tennessee —

 

No one now doubts the authenticity of the Epworth ghost—"Jeffry."  Rev. John Wesley published the whole story himself in the Arminian Magazine for October, November and December, 1784.  The demonstrations commenced very much like the Bell Witch, by knocking and other noise just by Mr. Wesley's bed.  For some time the Wesley family hooted at the idea of the supernatural, but investigation finally settled them in this conclusion beyond a doubt.  It continued to gather force just as did the Bell Witch but never to the extent of talking or speaking.  When spoken to, the answers were in groans and squeaks, but no intelligent utterance.  It was seen several times and looked like a badger.  The man servant chased it out of the dining room once, when it ran into the kitchen, and was like a white rabbit.  Miss Susannah Wesley relates details which point to the presence of a disembodied Jackobite, the knocking being more violent at the words "our most Gracious Sovereign Lord," when applied to King George I, as generally used by Mr. Wesley in his prayers.  This being noticed, when Mr. Wesley omitted prayer for the royal family no knocking occurred, which Mr. Wesley considered good evidence.

The 'Bell Witch' case was the first of two eventful cases involving families where the Bell surname is prominent.  During my 1995 interviews with Centrahoma Bell / Mc Wethy family members experiencing the 'talking poltergeist' phenomena, Maxine Mc Wethy described an incident when the haunting presence known as 'Michael' once stated "HELP ME, MAXINE" in relation to a pet dog.

 
Although Ingram himself had "no theory to present regarding the Bell Witch phenomena," in the next century there was another ‘talking poltergeist’ case where the haunting presence made declarations of being different animals.  During one incident chronicled in the 'Gef the talking mongoose' case from the Isle of Man the statement was heard: "I am the Holy Ghost!"

Kittredge wrote: "Among the practical advantages of Witchcraft, the detection of thieves and the recovery of lost or stolen goods have always held a distinguished position."  One 1549 account involved William Wycherley of St. Sepulchre's parish.  The tailor and conjurer confessed that he has "used the crystal to invoke the spirit called Scariot, which he called diverse times into the crystal, to have knowledge of things stolen, which spirit has given him knowledge hundred times, and thereby men have been restored to their goods."

In our own day, people have benefitted from consulting authentic psychics, mediums and channelers with some convincing documentation available on such websites as You Tube.  (Some articles providing links for examples: 1, 2, 3, 4)
 

The memoirs of John Bell's son, Richard Williams Bell, includes a description of an incident when an unseen communicator was heard to say: "I am the spirit of an early emigrant, who brought a large sum of money and buried my treasure for safe keeping until needed.  In the meanwhile I died without divulging the secret, and I have returned in the spirit for the purpose of making known the hiding place, and I want Betsy Bell to have the money."  After family members unsuccessfully dug for the treasure as Richard remembered: "That night the 'spirit' appeared in great glee, laughing and tantalizing the men for being so easily duped . . ."

During my 1995 audio tape-recorded interviews with Centrahoma family members experiencing the 'talking poltergeist' phenomena, I mentioned the buried treasure incident that had occurred to the preceding Bell family and Bill Mc Wethy commented, "He pulled the same trick here . . . There've been various places out in the yard over here."  Maxine quoted the spirit: "YOU HAVE TO DIG."  (EVP: "BUT NOT FOR MONEY").

I mentioned in a previous Centrahoma article a revealing passage found in The Bell Witch of Middle Tennessee (1930) by Harriet Parks Miller.  A quotation found in Miller's report shows an understanding of the "invisible agency of tangible action" that wasn't so precisely explained in other published accounts of the Bell family's phenomenal experiences: "You know, as I've said before, I am anything and everything, here, there and everywhere.  Just now I'm the spirit of an early emigrant . . ."
 

An extraordinary anecdote correlating with a described sequence of events in the 'Bell Witch' case appeared in the fifteenth century.  Kittredge wrote:

 

Once upon a time St. Macarius was besought to help a girl who appeared to have been transformed into a mare "per phantasias magicas."  He perceived in a moment that the metamorphosis was not actual, but simply due to demonic illusion for he saw the girl where others saw the mare.  By prayer and by anointing he brought it about that she once more looked to others and to herself like what she really was.

 
An example of people experiencing altered states of consciousness in an experience that a superstitious person might superficially equate with 'demonic possession' was mentioned in a previous article.  Some unexpected descriptions of uncanny experiences during the Tennessee 'Bell Witch' case involve Dean, a slave owned by John Bell.  Dean's wife was named Kate, which was also the Bell family's customary nickname for the haunting presence.  M. V. Ingram interviewed her younger sister, Ibby Gunn, 86 years old, and quoted what she knew about the interactions between Dean and the manifesting spirits.  (Although Ingram used phonetic spelling of words for transcripts of descriptions of some of the incidents involving the slaves, contemporary grammar is provided for these selected excerpts.)

 

"The first time Dean saw the spiritation he said it appeared like a big black dog, just trotting along before him tipity tipity tip, to the door, and then vanish . . .

 

". . . just going all to pieces, rising like sparks when you chunk the fire.

 

"Then Kate took and made Dean a witch ball out of her hair, and put in some spunk, foxfire and such, and some brimstone and camfire, then wrapped it all over with yarn and hair, and gave Dean the ball to keep the dog from hurting him.  So the next night, coming along the road whistling he was, something said, 'Dean what makes you whistle so lonesome, just that way.'  Dean says, 'Because I'm going to see my wife.'  Then it says, 'Dean, what's that you've got in your pocket?'  Dean says, 'Nothing.'  Then it says, 'Dean you know that's a lie, because you've got fox fire wrapped up in your wife's hair to pester me.  I'll show you Mr. Smarty you can't cungergate me that way,' just so.  Dean got down on his knees to pray.  Then it says, 'Lord Jesus, Dean, what a fool you is; don't you know you can't pray like old Sugar Mouth [family friend James Johnson]?  Get up from there and show your foxfire.'  Says Dean, says he, just so 'In the name of the Lord what's you going to do to me?'  Then it says, 'Except you give me that ball I'm going to turn you to a horse and ride you across the river to the stillhouse.'  Then Dean took the ball out of his pocket, and it commenced swelling bigger than a fodder stack, and he had to drop it, he did, and the ball busted and took fire, blazing up, and almost stunk his breath away.  But that wasn't nothing; there was that same black dog with his mouth wide open grinning just ready to jump on him, and Dean he came down with his ax, he did, and split that dog's head wide open, and staved the ax clear down in the ground so deep he couldn't find it no more.  The dog turned over and over three times, kicked, and then jumped up out of sight and fell kerflop on that foxfire, and the ball rose right up and shot off in a blaze like a star.

 

"[Dean said] Then Kate took and made me another ball and put some other spiritifications in it, except what was in the first ball . . .

". . .the next time I went by the wood pile and took an axe on my shoulder, because I depend a heap on my axe, and went along out of the gate whistling like I didn't care for nothing, and going along up the lane, there sat that same black dog with two heads and both mouths open grinning at me, he was, showing his big white teeth.

 

"Says I, 'What's your name?'  'My name is Black Dog; you know me, you black rascal, because you've split my head open with your axe' . . .

 

"Then says I, 'What you want?'  Just so, then it says, 'Except you give me that ball I'm going to turn you to a horse and ride you over the river to the still-house.'  Then I remembered again what Kate and Uncle Zeke said, how there wasn't no dependence in what an Indian spirit said, and if I give up that ball I'd be a dead n----- right there, cause that ghost were mad.  Then I solved to depend on that ball and my axe, and said, 'I ain't going to give you my ball, and I'll split you clean open to the tail except you get out of my way,' just so.  Then it says, 'Say your prayers Dean,' and I commenced getting weak, and dropped my axe, because I felt a curious spell creeping on me.  Then something said, 'Pick up your axe Dean,' and I stooped over feeling for the axe and couldn't find it, and couldn't get up no more, and there I stood on my hands and feet.  Then something said, 'He's too high behind to tote double.'  Another said, 'That's all right, level him down.'  Then something jerked my tail, and I kicked backwards with one foot and it fell kerflop in the road.  About this time the old jack[ass] brayed and one witch said, 'Darn, bad luck, that spoiled the job; he's nothing but a damn mule.'  The other one said, 'Well, you can't make nothing but a mule out of a damn n-----, no how.'  Then they commenced cussing and fussing about which one was going to ride before and behind.  One says, 'The mule hasn't got no mane for stirrups and bridle to hold to, and my arms are too short to catch his ears.'  Then they both hopped up; the little witch got on behind and said, 'Now let's ride him to hell for breakfast.'  Then the big witch stretched both hands out and took me by the ears, and quicker than they knew nothing I tucked my head, jumped backwards, and kicked them clean over my back, and sat them witches down cowhallup on the other side of the fence in the field, and I took out and went tearing up the lane, and never stopped running until I got to Kate's door and commenced pawing until I pawed the door open, and there sat Kate mending my old britches, and seeing her by the light it took the spell off, and I was myself again."

 

Kittredge mentioned several descriptions of manifestations of black dogs in Witchcraft in Old and New England, including: ". . . we hear of the rescue of a midnight wayfarer, attacked by an evil spirit in the guise of a black dog which was about to eat him up.  He called upon the glorious martyr [King Henry VI] for help and the creature vanished."

 

Kittridge also mentioned:

 

Witch narratives from Britain and the Continent abound in examples of sufferers who vomited or voided bones, pins, nails, needles, bits of lead, farthings, whetstones, nutshells, rushes, balls of wool or hair, and so on, which the witch had somehow conveyed into the system.

 

Bell Witch case study author M. V. Ingram wrote about phenomena involving pins and needles in the chapter "Theny Thorn" — "Reminiscences From the Girl Who Associated Most With Betsy Bell."  The chapter is derived from an interview with Partheny Thorn Gooch's daughter, Lucinda E. Rawls.

 

. . . a witch doctor insisted that he could relieve Betsy of the spell if she would take his medicine, and she readily agreed to take his prescription.  Mother remonstrated with Betsy against taking the awful dose, but she persisted that she would take anything that anybody would give her, [even] if it was poison, to get rid of her excruciating pest, and so she did swallow it down.  It very soon made her deathly sick, as the conjurer promised it would, and immediately a copious evacuation of the stomach followed.  The excrement was examined and found to be literally full of pins and needles, and Kate, the witch, fairly roared with laughter, and said that fellow was the only conjurer who had ever done any good.  He had made Bets throw up pins and needles enough to supply the whole community, and if he would give her another dose of that stuff, he would get enough to set up a pin and needle store.  The witch doctor really believed that the pins and needles were ejected from the girl's stomach, and was astounded by the result of his own practice.  There could be no mistake that they were real brass pins and needles.  Mother gathered up a number and kept them as long as she lived.  I have seen the pins and needles myself.  As a matter of course Betsy could not have lived with such a conglomeration in her stomach, and the only solution of the matter was that the witch dropped the pins and needles in the excrement unobserved; just as it pulled off her shoes, disheveled her hair, gave her and her mother hazelnuts, and many other miraculous performances that no one could ever account for.

 

Here is an excerpt from my Centrahoma interviews as published in the case study Testament (1997) concerning Maxine Mc Wethy's experience with a hatpin.

 

M: . . . We all went in there and sat on the couch.  I had an ash tray and cigarettes.  All at once, something stuck in my leg and I jumped up and spilled my ash tray.  It was a hat pin about that long stuck in my leg.

Q: This is classic.  Classic.

M: It had been hanging right up there holding up a calendar.

Q: When the nail hit me in the head, it didn't draw any blood.  (EVP: "JUST ABOUT")

M: The hat pin was about that long with a pearl top on it and I don't know where the thing is now but that scared that Indian boy so bad he won't come back.

Considering the details of the 19th Century 'Bell Witch' case and the contemporary Bell / Mc Wethy family case, the denouement of the varied circumstances reveals how people can have diverse involvements—and states of awareness—with an omnipresent Superconsciousness (or Spiritual Force) that is often expressed by the word 'God.'  Cases of transcendental communication selected for preceding blog articles offer perspectives on this subject.  Charles Bailey Bell's 1934 case study The Bell Witch: A Mysterious Spirit included handed-down recollections of John Bell Jr.'s conversations with the 'Spirit.'  The transcript includes the response to John Jr.'s anger and uncertainty about the Spirit.

 

". . . such Spirits as I sometimes get a vacation, even banishment from their abode; but I will tell you there are thousands of human beings now living on this earth who are worse than I; they are only restrained by their fellow beings.  If, after reaching their future abode, their Spirit could return to this earth, they would raise a thousand times more Hell than I have done.  Don’t forget that each one of you will have a Spirit, and that men on earth are best controlled through Spiritual influence.  If this influence is not recognized finally, the world will be lost.  As you think of me now, you would add millions of others to your thoughts and think a thousand times worse of most of them, if their Spirits came back on earth.  There are Spirits millions of years old, John, that never have been connected with a body, but were created Spirits.  Here on earth only the physical part of man, under mental control, is visible to his fellows.  What a difference, John, if you knew what they are thinking!  I know what you are thinking now."