Tradition / Region: Belgian Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Cat, Witch
The Myth
During the time of Napoleon I, a Belgian soldier was returning home from war, passing through a Prussian village.
As he walked through the town, he noticed a woman sitting outside her house. She was smoking a pipe, but something about her seemed wrong—on her backside there was a dark, unnatural stain. The soldier immediately suspected that she was a witch.
Without hesitation, he took his rifle from his shoulder, loaded it with a consecrated bullet, and fired—just grazing her.
He then continued his journey back to Belgium, where he was required to stay for several days.
There, he encountered a woman who bore strange signs: she had a black patch at the back of her skirt and a wound on her nose that refused to heal. The injury lingered unnaturally, as if it could not recover.
It became clear that this was the same being he had shot before.
The wound remained open because it had been inflicted by a consecrated bullet—something believed to harm witches in a way that could not be undone.
Sources
de Cock, A. (1921). Vlaamsche sagen uit den volksmond. In Amsterdam: Maatschappij voor goede en goedkoope lectuur, from https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/cock001vlaa01_01/colofon.php p. 37.