Witches’ Feasts

Witches’ Feasts. Descriptions of sabbath feasts note the absence of salt and the use of pea flour instead of wheat flour for bread. Meats consumed were often the flesh of stolen dogs or cats, sometimes rotted and considered a delicacy. Accounts include the consumption of children’s corpses and the use of corpses in cooking. During witch trials, some accused were found guilty of impaling stolen children. Only liquors were consumed, rejecting wine, oil, salt, and all church-blessed substances. These descriptions reflect medieval and early modern fears and imaginative portrayals of witch gatherings as grotesque and abhorrent.