John,

You have your anthropology a bit confused. The people who embedded cats and
chickens in the walls were not "witches." They were church-going folks who kept
their feet in pagan ways to carry on traditions and "just in case it were
true." There are entire museums dedicated to the oral history and documentation
of shoe, cat, chicken, and other wardings in England and Wales. The British
archaeologists treat homeowner discoveries much like American museums treat the
discovery of rock paintings; by sending teams out to make a photograph,
recovery, and record. The U.S. Army boot and campaign hat discovered at Fort
Rosecrans (circa 1904) were entirely bricked-in a small cavity to the side of the flue
in a chimney and the find is now added to a list of finds at the Shoe Museum
in London. The cats mummified in grotesque positions as proof positive they
did not go in the stucco willingly. Cats are used in England as indoor "pets" to
keep vermin down in kitchens, basements, attics and barns. Dogs live outside
and are very little use in chasing down rats, mice, cockroaches, etc. Some
peasant families keep chickens in the kitchen to clean up droppings and vermin.
Thus, it does make perfect sense the church-going Christians who lived a life
steeped in local traditions and old customs would have embedded a live cat,
live chicken, old boot, old shoe, or old hat in the walls to protect the future
residents. Most literature indicates that the lads returning from World War I
were responsible for terminating those old ways. There is some fine literature
on the subject, none of which is readily at hand for me to cite today.

After the Berlin Wall went down and thousands of Europeans immigrated to the
United States, I begin interviewing people who worked in restaurants. I found
people from Romania, Greece, and Transylvania continued with the old ways and
still practice here in America. Hey, this is cultural anthropology 101.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.