black cats, serpents and other black creatures. This was the origin of the widespread superstition about black cats and other black animals. In medieval Flanders, in a ceremony called Kattenstoet, black cats were thrown from the belfry of the Cloth Hall of Ypres to ward off witchcraft.

Witch trials were common in both Europe and America during this period. During the notorious Salem witch trials in New England in 1692-93, one of