Witchcraft: sterility or the knotting of the Aiguillette

Today, Monday, October 31, is Halloween, a day when children will play scare each other while trying to collect as many candies as possible.

A tradition that comes to us from our Irish neighbours.

But we didn’t expect them when it comes to witch stories!…

Here is one below:

Today the clouds are playing in the sky, it’s a pleasant day.

Next to the kiosk, a cyclist stopped and spread out his menu on a bench: ham, pâté, sausage, cheese and marvels and a bottle of rosé.

I walk past him and strike up a conversation: “Are you going to have a bite to eat? »

“Yes, and you will notice that I only have products from the country! The small cold omelet is also eggs from my house.

I come from Golfech. Everyone is afraid of the plant, but I have been working there for 20 years and I am in good health.

I’ve decided to go as far as Lourdes I’m 61 and I’m still cycling!, he says, spreading the pâté on a large slice of brown bread

– What are you doing at the plant?

– I maintain the towers of the power plant, I mow the grass, I trim the hedge, this for 20 years.

I have time off during the week and I take the opportunity to read. I read a lot of stories from the country.

I know all the Gascon tales of Joseph de Pesquidoux.

I also tell stories, tales, witchcraft stories in particular!

I go to schools, associations that ask me.

– When you have finished your cheese and your wonders, will you tell me a story?

– I could tell you a story that I told recently in an association, a story where it is a question of sterility and witchcraft, the knotting of the aiguillette!

In the past, when we got married, the first objective was to have children and the couple who did not have any, it was not very well seen!

It was above all the man who was made responsible for the situation, it was said that he was “coueou” in patois, that is to say sterile.

This sterility could only come from the devil through the intermediary of the dead, wandering souls, disembodied, evil spirits, lodged in certain people reputed to be evil.

Each village had its witch, “la marca” who had power.

It was therefore necessary to do everything to prevent him from acting before the celebration of the wedding.

She entered the church where the wedding was taking place and she made “the fatal gesture” which consisted in tying a string either in secret behind a pillar or in her pocket.

The testicles were thus tied and the couple could not have children.

And if we dropped a small stone at that moment, it was terrible because the testicles would fall like stone!

Different practices were recommended to ward off the spell.

Before the couple arrived, the bridesmaids and groomsmen stamped their feet hard to prevent the marca from returning.

You could also grease the door seals with pork fat

It was also necessary that the day before, the bridegroom secretly go to urinate in the keyhole of the church to keep the mark away.

He had to put coarse salt in his left pocket and a crown in his left shoe and in his right pocket a small piece of paper on which was written the enigmatic formula “Avi Gazi Tor”.

Before sunrise, he had to look east and shout “Yemon!” three times. »

A coin was also to be placed in the left shoe of the bride

During the ceremony, the spouses should not turn their hands palm outwards, which is probably why the bride held her bouquet of flowers without ever letting go.

It was also necessary to avoid touching the bride and groom with a concealed wooden stick.

In the midst of the psychosis of the Aiguillette knotting, in the 17th century, we see that people were going to get married in a neighboring village where the brand would not follow them.

Only then did they return home for the wedding feast!

The panic was such that there was even a local danger of depopulation!

Today, young people take the lead and no longer wait for the consecration of marriage.

This is also what was also done at the time, this means seeming to be the most effective against bad luck! »

Pierre Dupouy