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p.22 T. saw 2 cats, black and red. "What did the cats do? Tituba did not know. Had the cats hurt or
threatened her? They had scratched her. What had they wanted of her? They had wanted her to hurt the
children. They had forced her to pinch the children. Did the cats suck Tituba? No, she would not let
them."
p.82 Bridget Bishop (owner of shuffle-board and cider teenage hangout) was testified against by Wonn,
slave of John Ingerson. He "told a story of frightened horses, the vanishing shape of B.B.(at the time B.
Oliver), the appearance of an unknown cat, and mysterious pinchings and pain."
p.124 Martha Carrier: 7 yr. old daughter Sarah was induced to confess that "a cat, identifying itself as M.
C., had carried Sarah along to afflict people when her mother was in prison."
THE ANIMALS OF FINNISH WITCHTRIALS
I have studied over 1200 finish witch trials 1520-1700 (with PD Marko Nenonen) and there is a certain
role of animals. "Para" was a small "cat-like" animal, used to steal milk and a butter called cow lucky
especially in swedish speaking west coast in Finland. The "Para" was not found out by judges, but it had
a long folk tradition. There are many examples where a neighboug was accusing another by stealing
"butter lucky" with "para".
"Para" is just the same "trollcat" as it was in Sweden and Norway. You can find "Para" in court
protocolls in western part (Swedish speaking part) in Finland (1520-1600), but not in finnish speaking
parts on the country. So "Para" can't be shamanistic (Lappland) phenomenom, but it surely is known all
parts of Scandinavia.
As time goes, You could find "Para" in finnish speaking areas too, but in in 1500-1700. So we have
learned it from swedish speaking people. But, as we are dealing with animals, you can find other animals
than "trollcat" too. We have cases with "trolldog" which I mean the Devil with a shape of a dog. Some of
our accused had meet the devil with a shape of a dog (and a coat).
We have at least one case with a "metapmorphose", where people have been accused of being
"werewolves". In Estonia the tradition of those being wolves in night time was strong. There were many
cases like that.
I think, the idea of "trollcats" is not shamanistic, it is surely Scandinavian!
There is quite a lot of articles abou "Para" (Trollcat) but only few of them would be available in english.
But, there is one point we have to keep in mind. People were ACCUSED of having "Para" and they were
CONVICTED to using witchcraft, but they were never CONVICTED TO HAVING PARA! The matter
of trial was not, is there really animal shaped "butter stealing" para, but it was a question of practicing
witchcraft or superstition!
In Scandinavia we have very old "lore", written by one historian about 1200-1300, were a man was killed
by "Mara" (bad dream animal?) because he had not kept his promise to his Finnish wife.
Another instance of using "para", other than trying have luck in stealing butter, was a "Finnish way" to
use a bear as a helper for killing someone's cattle. People believed that some (almost always a man)
people had ability to force bears to kill enemy's horse or cattle. But I have no idea, if the bear wanted
some price of it's doings (nourishment or protection).
Even in the oldest witch trials (before people had any idea about satanistic pact with devil) witches were
believed to use some animals as a helper of their maleficium. So, this belief must be older than the
christian theory of pact.
The bear cases seems to be common way to do harm among finnish speaking people. In some rare cases
the helper was a wolf. In some cases (1670s) the helper was a dog, but it seems that the dog was not
really an animal, but it was a Devil with a shape of a dog.
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