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A selection of references of the Bucca in printed works - includes reference & page numbers
Pages 4-5
It must not be forgotten that a witch, in former days, was regarded as one who had denied the Christian faith and sold her soul to the Devil - in Cornwall, Bucca-Dhu, the black spirit.
Page 11
To Propitiate ‘BUCCA’ or the evil spirit
At harvest time in the fields: throw bread over the shoulder and spill a little beer
At harvest time in the fishing coves: leave fish on the shore to ensure good luck.
Page 12
[In reference to a witch kneeling under a white thorn tree at cross-roads. Such trees were rumoured to have taken root from stakes driven into the gaves of suicides.] These graves, moreover, were visited by Bucca-Dhu who, with [Their] headless hounds, each night visited all graveyards to see if any spirits had wandered abroad.
No page number given
The Bucca was the name of a spirit that it was thought necessary to propitiate. At harvest a piece of bread was thrown over the left shoulder to ensure good luck. (see CRYING THE NECK). The Bucca or Puck was probably a taboo substitute for a god. At Newlyn in the last century pilchards were thrown over the left shoulder onto the shore to secure a good catch. It is likely that Bucca replaced a much older god of the woodland and harvest which may have been the male consort of the goddess.
Page 127
As we have clearly seen, the ‘true breed’ of Cornish and West Country witch is a practitioner of ‘double-ways’, and by long standing tradition these twin powers to bless and to blast are derived from the ‘Old One’ of many names; Bucca Dhu, ‘Old Nick’, and The Devil being but three.
Page 128
In old West Country belief, the gifts imparted via the witch’s diabolic compact with the Bucca Dhu; the Black God or Devil, include the ability to send forth one’s will or ‘spirit’ in bestial form, or else via the received familiar spirit, to carry out the double-ways work of the witch and convey her magical influence upon man or beast.
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