Quotes from Karen Maitland

Besides, I'm not sure they let ferrets into Heaven and I'd miss old Mavet.

The monk, Gregory the Great, tells how a nun, in her greed, ate a lettuce without first making the sign of the cross to protect herself against the evil spirits that hide between its leaves, and so she became possessed by a demon. Greetwell

I truly believed that the creation of hope was the greatest of all the arts, the noblest of all the lies.

the howling began as first one starving dog threw back its head, then another and an other until the whole valley was echoing with the raw, wretched grief of them. It was as if every poor beast in the world was screaming out against what they had witnessed that day.

If anyone fears theft, let him scatter caraway seeds among those things of value and if a thief should try to steal them he shall be held in that place. Likewise, if a woman fears her husband may stray she should sew caraway seeds into his clothes, so that no other woman may steal him away from her. Mistress

Witches have the power to raise storms by whistling or shaking out their hair. Others do it by christening a dead cat, then tying parts of a human corpse to it before flinging it into the sea. Lincoln

You're] Too impatient to let anything brew to its full strength. What have I always told you? You have to raise a skeleton one bone at a time afore you can set it dancing,

mortals who wish to gather it must first release a black hen which the Devil will not be able to resist chasing,

A witch may take the form of a magpie, for it would not enter the Ark with Noah, but remained outside to cackle in glee at the drowning world. Smithfield,

Some call its twins berries the testicles of Uranus

The young man's buttocks gleamed round and firm in the lamplight, the pale brown skin stretched tight and flawless, so smooth that it made you long to reach out and stroke it. But for the nervous tightening of the muscles under the skin, they looked as if they belong to the statue of a god.

Some say the customer the cripples wedding dates back to the time before men were christian. It is said that marrying two cripples together in the graveyard at the community's expense well turn away Divine wrath and protect the village from whatever pestilence or sickness rages around it.

Death by fire. That was something they all knew about, even those who hadn't seen it, hand't smelt the stench that hangs round a town for days, hadn't heard the screams that echo night after night through your dreams; even those who had not witnessed a burning had heard tell of it and shuddered.

Preach comfort to the rich and you will grow fat; preach hell to the poor and you will starve with them. [p. 319 of 465, chapter 20]