Notebook of Ghosts

Welcome to a new series: Indiana Folk Beliefs. For the next five weeks (We are on the final week!), 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.

It is our final week (I CAT believe it) and I am ending on a high note. What kind of things about cats will claw their way out of Indiana folklore?

Some Folk Beliefs

• If a cat howls around a house a night, death is coming. (Monroe County, around 1860-1870)
• It is bad luck to kill a cat.
• It is good luck for a stray cat to enter a home, especially if the cat is black.
• When a quilt is finished, all the girls present should take a side of the blanket, put a cat in the center, and toss the cat up and down. The girl the cat jumps towards first will be the first to marry.
• Want to see who your future husband will be? Just before midnight, open all the doors and do everything backwards (such as walking). In complete silence, set a place at the tale for each girl present. The girls will then take their place when. At the stroke of midnight, a hard wind will blow, cats will begin to squall, and your future husband will enter.
• Cats will mutilate a corpse.
• Cats will suck the breath out of a sleeping person.
• When moving houses, don’t bring your broom or cat.
• Cats draw lightning and shouldn’t be held during storms.
• If a black cat crosses your path, walk backwards ten steps.
• If a cat play with their tail, bad weather is on the way.
• If a cat washes their face, company will come.
• A woman who loves a cat will be an old maid.

A Folk Tale

There was once a man who had a gristmill in southern Indiana who was unable to get help at night. Why? An enormous cat with fiery eyes would come closer and closer towards the night worker, yowling and screaming. No one was hurt by the cat, but no one stayed long enough for the cat to reach them.

A brave man volunteered to take the night shift. The mill owner provided pay, and room and board at his home. The new worker joined the owner for a home-cooked meal, prepared by the owner’s wife. Then, he started his shift with a butcher knife for protection.

As expected, the cat appeared. The cat got louder and closer. When the cat suddenly jumped towards him, he slashed off a front paw with the knife. The cat disappeared.

The next morning at breakfast, the worker asked why the wife of the house was missing from the table. The mill owner explained his wife got her hand cut off the night before. Yep, she was a witch.

And a Favorite News Clipping

Source: The Kokomo Tribune, 12 Oct 1939, Thu.

Sources

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

Busse, Ora S. “Indiana Folk Beliefs, Omens, and Signs.” Hoosier Folklore, vol. 6, no. 1, 1947, pp. 14-26.

Halpert, Herbert & Paul G. Brewster. “Folk Beliefs and Practices from Southern Indiana.” Hoosier Folklore Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 2, 1943, pp. 23-38.

Halpert, Violetta Maloney. “Death Beliefs fro Indiana.” Midwest Folklore, vol. 2, no.4, pp. 205-219.