Witches and Trudes
Both of these only exist within the female sex, but can nonetheless be distinguished from another. It is understood that witchcraft represents a spell which is infernal and in opposition to the miracles coming from God. Spells can be learned from the black art, into which people are initiated via a pact with the Evil One. Thus, witchcraft is something learned, while truding is something one is born with. If a mother uses a spell in order to ease her birth, then the Evil Enemy tries to lure these children in particular. Thanks to this magical influence, such children — if female — are born with the drive to trude. But male children are driven to theft (the “Bilwez Cut!”).
Young trudes are inclined towards becoming old witches. For once they are lost to honest labor and to love, they easily submit themselves to the Evil Enemy. Then they will learn all the methods for harming and ruining their neighbors, but they themselves do not prosper, for their profits won through such methods always vanish again quickly. For the Prince of Darkness is poor and needy, and pure gold and silver cannot be found in his possession. He can not create anything, only ruin it. For this reason, his followers also come to ruin in body as in soul, for all the shining illusions will only last for a short time.
But because all wealth is denied to the Evil One, he and all of his servants are robbed of their beauty, and all are marked before the Lord. A witch can be spotted from afar by her gait, and her face rarely conceals her nature. But if she also has reddish, glinting eyes, then it is clear what is going on. In this manner, trudes can be spotted at first glance, for her eyebrows grow into the opposite direction from the temples to the root of the nose, and the more coarsely they grow upwards, the more their owners should be avoided.
It is the same way with men who practice the Bilwez Cut, for they are entirely bald on the front of the head above the forehead. If such evildoers are husband and wife, then their depredations become without limit. In general, the trude steals all power and strength from her husband by taking it for herself, and in such houses the wife will be the witch of the entire household. Witches and trudes want to eat fatty food, and everything must be baked with a lot of lard. Many neighbors cannot comprehend how such households, which often only have two or three cows in the stable, can not only enjoy milk and lard throughout the year in abundance, but also sell them in significant amounts. But such lard does not run out, and a normal housewife watches as the lard she has bought herself becomes less and less, and she doesn’t know how they do it.
But whoever knows the secrets behind this can easily do it themselves. They only need to sieve Trinity wax and put it into lard or even in dishes baked with it. Then they can convince themselves that the food is the real deal, even though it might actually be cow patties and other bizarre things.
However, this is already part of witchcraft. The true profession of the trudes is to squeeze humans and animals at night. In part they do this out of lust, and in part out of hatred if they want to stalk someone. Among animals, they particularly like to ride horses at night so that they are still drenched in sweat in the morning. In contrast, they abhor pigs and they can trude them as little as they can snakes.
The trudes are one of the most widely feared ills in the countryside, and there are innumerable measures which are supposed to help against them — but frequently they fail to work. A horseshoe which has been found with all nails still inside; a billy goat, or merely its horn; the shoes put next to the bed with the tips pointing outwards; pushing the chair next to the bed back and forth once before you lie down; the Trudenstein, the Trudenfuß, and many other tools exist which occasionally help — or don’t. It is too difficult for most people to find the right protective method.
If someone is being truded, but still wakes up in time and hears how the trude rushes out of the room, it is common practice to call after her and tell her that she should come tomorrow and borrow something. If the trude indeed hears this, then she must come in the next morning without fail and fetch something she can borrow. Then you know instantly which neighbor has been the trude. But this method always causes a lot of strife, as the trude of course does not want anyone to know that she is such a monster. And even less does a poor neighbor, who happens to arrive in order to borrow something by chance, want to suffer such an unjust accusation. Then there will often be a lot of strife between the womenfolk of the village. Everyone then sides with one side or another, and wild feuds arise.
But there are a few men — not many — who have the knowledge and power to spot a trude without fail. This knowledge is only encountered extremely rarely, and is kept in great secrecy. But the method is this: If a man is being truded, he strives to jump up quickly and let some urine drop into an earthenware flask which is kept ready for this purpose. He must then quickly and firmly cork it in the three names of the Devil, and from that moment on the trude can no longer urinate. It becomes impossible, she will be bed-ridden, fall deathly ill, and neither methods of the black arts nor even a physician will be able to help her. She must go to that man by herself, and prostrate herself before his feet and ask him for help. If he is merciful enough to help her recover, he only needs to hang the flask into the chimney at an odd-numbered hour, and then pour its contents into flowing water before the sun goes up or down. But he has to do so into the direction counter to the flow of the stream, and in one go. If this is done faithfully, then the trude is wholly free again.
It is also a common belief that if you are being truded, you will be able to reach for the trude, and that you are then able to grab her. However, as long as it stays night, you will only ever have a bundle of straws in your hand, and only with the dawning day will the trude become visible in her bodily form. For all truding occurs only in spirit, and the body of the trude remains at its usual place during this. But no matter how much the body is shaken, it will seem as if it is dead, for the soul is not within it for this duration. For this reason, trudes can get into places through the slightest gaps, through keyholes and so forth — similar to witches, who may hide between the bark and the wood. The trude also likes to attack small children, especially those born out of wedlock, as well as mothers who have recently given birth, and thus the midwives need to take great care.
In the Holy Night during mass, someone who kneels on a footstool made out of nine types of wood will be able to spot all witches and trudes within the congregation, as those will kneel ass-forwards, with their backs towards the high altar. But those who do so have to take care that they will be back at home in their chamber before mass ends, for if the witches find them on the road, they will assault them, claw at their faces, and strive to make their victim blind if possible. A young man in Schondorf has regretted his brazenness as recently as in the year 52, and was bedridden until Easter because of such mistreatment.
Once the trudes get older and they suffer from ailments, as it is usually the case with people who leave such wanton lives, then they seek to learn secrets methods to regain their strength, as well as ruin neighbors who thrive in a Christian lifestyle and better their lots, as they envy them and develop an infernal hatred against them. In these circumstances, it is particularly herbs and their hidden power which they try to learn about. And usually they progress quickly in this knowledge, for one learns from the other, and all witches desire to multiply the followers of the Devil, which is to the woe of the Christians. For on the orders of their infernal master, they must harm their fellow humans as much and whenever possible, and he then provides them with the alleged profits out of such actions.
In this way, one of their main arts is withdrawing milk from cows which do not belong to them. There are innumerable methods for this. For not only can they enter a stable at night which foolishly lacks Christian protective blessings, and there have an easy time milking the true udders of the cows throughout the entire night. They also are able to milk from grass sacks, milk cloths, and fence posts as if they were milking the udders of another person’s cows. If someone wants to milk such cows in the morning, they will of course not provide a single drop of milk — but should a little milk still be left, then it will have a gruesome smell and be unpalatable. They can even milk oxen for hours, and a few summers ago one of them was caught when she had nearly filled a mighty milk bucket with the best milk. Naturally, this caused no small ruckus, and the witch was almost beaten to death because of this trick.
But it isn’t enough that they strive to steal the use of their cattle from their poor victims, they also try to ruin the animals through spells. One of their most dangerous tricks is to bury a bundle in stables which spreads the plague, and as long as this bundle remains in the stable, no animals will prosper there. In the same manner, they summon mice on the fields and toads into houses; they cause wild weather by whipping water, especially at night. And it is easy to recognize if such weather was created by witches if it is accompanied by a downpour, for no downpour is sent by God at night. In the same manner, they can raise a storm in whose whirlwinds they can hide and carry grain or hay home with them.
However, witches do not only inflict their infernal malice on animals, but on humans as well and ensorcel them with diseases which cannot be cured by any medicine. For not all diseases have their origin within the human body. It seems that God sometimes permits the Evil One to inflict plague on a person because of their sins, and as a trial and purification of their soul. Such illnesses cannot be cured by a common medicine, and this in particular is a sign that the sickness has been inflicted on a human through evil, hostile forces.
In such circumstances, people turn towards the white or the black art, depending on one’s inner good or evil inclination. The white art consists of the knowledge of blessings and blessed verses, and the secret powers of herbs and of nature in its whole. With these, people then seek to dissolve the curse caused by the black art. The right application of the white art, as it has been revealed to beings particularly blessed by God, is extraordinarily difficult. And as it is practiced by so many wholly uneducated people these days, this practice is often embellished with and likes to borrow from or mix holy and infernal things. For this reason, it is believed that priests alone have a chance of providing some assistance.
But since it might be impossible to find even a single one among hundreds of priests who is actually studying this, let alone believe in such matters, poor sufferers who waste away without relief must turn to people who seem scarcely credible. For this reason, and because of increasing Godlessness, the black art is spreading more and more, and even with otherwise blessed incantations, invocations of the Devil might show up. With such manifold, horrible ills afflicting humans and animals alike, the terror of such curses is truly great, and people fear those more than the one who alone can inflict a lasting punishment.
While it is common to hear all sorts of careless speeches about such topics, you will never hear claims that this or that woman is a witch. Everyone tries to avoid this, for it is believed that they have been given the power to hear such talk, and also to punish those who make such claims. If it nevertheless occurs that two people tell each other such in secret, then they add that “today is a holy Monday”, or whatever the current day of the week is. And then the spoken word is supposedly protected. But it is like beaver’s musk in everyone’s mouths, and a wanton, sacrilegious conversation can be muted by such a brazen speech.
The journeys of witches and trudes to uncanny places at night is well-known. Strangely enough, the “Devil’s gaps” and other wild ditches, as well as high-lying wastelands and old places of execution serve as such gathering spots. They venture abroad every Saturday night, and thus no young men should court at windows on these evenings. But this is only true in the lowlands, and in the mountains it is believed that this applies to Thursday evenings. The main night of the trudes is the first night of May. Then, all witches must appear before their master and ride through the chimney on a broom. For this reason, they always make a mighty fire on their hearth, and then venture forth through this smoke. The fleshly intercourse with the Evil Enemy also tends to happen on these nights, and during this changelings are sired. Exchanging these with the children of Christian people is a horrible plague. But it can only occur in the first moments of birth, and only with wanton midwives who do not practice Christian diligence.