Halloween Myths

It has always been believed that a witch keeps a special animal called a "familiar". A familiar is an animal shaped spirit who willingly serves their owner in different roles as well as bewitching people. The most well known of these spirit animals is a black cat, although less common animals were used, such as crows and ravens. Black cats were known to be shape shifters as were ravens.
People thought that witches could transform themselves into black cats by reciting a spell and then being able to travel about doing things unnoticed. This was obviously a myth.