A disease that infects sheep and cattle. Highly infectious, the word literally means “death” and was used during the Middle Ages with that meaning. It was believed that a need fire could cure it. In some regions of England, the word means “curse,” especially a curse place on livestock or the land itself.
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Alice Markham-Cantor, author of the new Once & Future Witch Hunt.
My 9x-great-grandmother, Martha Carrier, was hanged in the Salem witch trials. She wasn't a witch. She wasn't an herbalist or a...