File talk:WitchFinder.jpg

Why is the anorexic bull called "Vinegar" and the black rabbit, er, thing, named "Sugar"? Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 20:10, 28 February 2009 (EST)

The pamphlet text (The Discovery of Witches by Matthew Hopkins, 1646) is transcribed here. The familiars depicted are described as:

1. 'Holt', who came in like a white kitling. [sic, I'm guessing 'kitten'.]

2. 'Jarmara', who came in like a fat Spaniel without any legs at all, she said she kept him fat, for she clapt her hand on her belly and said he suckt good blood from her body.

3. 'Vinegar Tom', who was like a long-legg'd Greyhound, with an head like an Oxe, with a long taile and broad eyes, who when this discoverer spoke to, and bade him goe to the place provided for him and his Angels, immediately transformed himselfe into the shape of a child of foure yeeres old without a head, and gave halfe a dozen turnes about the house, and vanished at the doore.

4. 'Sack and Sugar', like a black Rabbet.

5. 'Newes', like a Polcat.

It doesn't say why the familiars are thusly named, although it does say about the other imp names listed (Elemanzer, Pyewacket, Peckin the Crown, Grizzel, Greedigut) that they are names "which no mortall could invent". Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 20:23, 28 February 2009 (EST)

Incidentally, it turns out that there is a feminist play about the trials named after Vinegar Tom. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 20:24, 28 February 2009 (EST)