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In honour of the Halloween season, we present an excerpt of Making Witches: Newfoundland Traditions of Spells and Counterspells by Barbara Rieti.
I asked Paul the same question I asked everyone I spoke with: Had he ever heard about “putting up a bottle” to break a spell? At this, the children burst into laughter; they knew what I was talking about. After a moment of surprise Paul embarked on the following story, growing more animated as he went on. Susan offered critical clarification at key points.
Paul: Oh! That happened to me. That happened to me, I gotta tell you. You heard that, did you? Yeah, well, I’ll tell you this one now. It was a Monday morning, just after we got married, I suppose, and so anyway, I had to go up to the store for something, and Susan was here washing clothes, I believe she had sheets and all that stuff washed. Anyway I went to get aboard the car, and when I went out I had a flat tire. So I thought to myself, well that’s all right, got the pump and I started to pump him up, this tire, and when I started to pump him up I looked through under the car, and the other one went flat, before me eyes, eh? So here was two flat tires, now, right off the bat, I didn’t even have a chance to move. So at the same time, a big gale of wind, a squall of wind hit, and sheets went everywhere, wet sheets on the clothesline, all out over the garden, busted line. So Susan come in, in a big rage, I was out there changing tires, and she looked out through the window here, and she said, “Well, everything’s happening,” she said, “and now,” she said, “they got my wedding ring split in two.” Her wedding ring just split in two.
Susan: And our wedding picture split in two.
Paul: And our wedding picture split in two. All this happened, now, a Monday morning, in about an hour, everything going to pieces. So I got in a rage. And I started to swear. I said, “Brother,” I said, “you’ll die.” So I go and gets the bottle. And I pissed into it. I put the cover on good and tight and I turned the oven on and put it in the oven. I said, “You’ll bust, you son of a B, you’ll bust.” And about two hours later I’d say, or three hours, the helicopter was landed on the other side to pick up this woman who was gone to the hospital piss-bound blocked solid!
Click to read a review of the book by Atlantic Books Today.
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Happy Halloween from all of us at the MQUP!
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