Witch do you believe in?

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Saturday, 31 May 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• It was believed that an army attacking a castle in the early Middle Ages in Britain could invoke supernatural forces to their aid if they marched anti-clockwise round the castle walls.
• Many superstitions have arisen over butterflies. Sicilians believe that good luck will follow if a butterfly comes into the house and will prevent it flying out again. British and U.S. superstition recommends anyone who needs a new pet of clothes to bite the head off a butterfly.
• Belief in the existence of vacuums used to be punishable under Church law.
• It was once commonly believed that a witch's power could be nullified by bleeding her or by destroying her blood in a fire, hence the practice of burning at the stake. Sometimes uncooperative witches were burned with green wood, which took longer to kill them.
• The horseshoe assumed additional power in the Middle Ages when the fear of witchcraft was at its peak. It was believed that witches travelled on brooms because they feared horses, and that any reminder of a horse, especially its iron shoe, warded off a witch. A woman accused of witchcraft was buried with a horseshoe nailed on the top of her coffin to prevent resurrection.
• The taboo against whistling backstage comes from the pre-electricity era when a whistle was the signal for the curtains and the scenery to drop. An unexpected whistle could cause an unexpected scene change.
• The Cornish people of Cornwall, England, once thought it was unlucky to wash a baby's head for the child's first 12 months of life.
• Tomb robbers believed that knocking Egyptian sarcophagi's noses off would forestall curses.
• If you're missing a cow, legend has it that if you hold a daddy longlegs by its back legs, one of its front legs will point in the direction of the missing cattle.
• Seven out of 10 people believe in life after death.
• Horse brasses were used to protect horses from witches.
• It was once believed that inhaling a horse's breath would cure whooping cough.