Notebook of Ghosts

Welcome to a new series: Indiana Folk Beliefs. For the next five weeks, I will be sharing a new theme each week. These will be short and sweet posts. You’ll notice some of these folk beliefs expand beyond the Hoosier state.

Last week, I shared a Hoosier folktale about a witch bewitching a housewife’s butter in Giro, Indiana. The housewife won in the end. Will a hunter have the same success against three shape-shifting witches?

Today’s tale is from Shelby County, Indiana, back when it was heavily wooded and only a few log cabins sprinkled the landscape. Three sisters, believed to be witches or fairies, lived in one of these cabins. It was rumored that when they left the house to explore the woods, they transformed into wild animals.

One of the local pioneers and a famed hunter planned an epic hunt in the woods, preparing and gathering the best weapons. On the first day, he traveled deep into the woods and came across three fawns. The skilled hunter was unable to shoot any of the fawns. He returned home frustrated, deciding to check his weapons for issues after a night’s sleep.

In the morning, the hunter checked his guns and found no problems. Maybe he was nervous and needed to practice his shot? After practicing his shot, and with success, he knew that was not the case. He went back into the woods, ready to get a kill. Again he came across the fawns, and again he missed.

The next day, he headed into town with hopes of buying a new gun and cartridges. He was greeted by his curious friends at the store, who asked how many deer he had killed. The hunter, ashamed, explained he was unsuccessful. After his friends poked fun at his failure, an older hunter walked over.

This older hunter explained that these fawns were most likely the witches and that they could only be killed with silver bullets. The determined hunter went home with this new information and melted down his silver coins into bullets.

Early the next morning, he went into the woods with his new silver bullets. He happened upon the fawns again, which were galloping and enjoying the outdoors. He took his shot, hitting one the fawns in the leg.

The two other fawns disappeared when they heard the shot. The injured fawn continued after them with an injured leg, slowly. The hunter followed the hurt fawn through the woods and watched it eventually walk into a cabin and disappear, being replaced by a beautiful, young, and limping woman.

The hunter entered the house to ask the woman if she had seen the injured fawn. Instead he saw two more beautiful young women standing around a bed. In the bed was the woman he had noticed in the doorway, lying with a wounded foot. He asked her sisters what had happened, and they explained she had stepped on a sharp stone.

The hunter, finally figuring it out, asked the three sisters if they were the rumored witches that turn into animals. They said yes. Gasp!

The three sisters soon disappeared from the area after the incident.

Sources

Baker, Ronald L. Hoosier Folk Legends. Indiana University Press, 1982.