When searching for a Halloween-themed topic for my end-of-October blog post, I remembered the book by Rik Smits titled The Puzzle of Left-handedness.¹ Smits is a left-handed science journalist and his book is an historical catalog of the negative attributions made about left-handers over the centuries. Halloween is the witching season. If left-handedness had ever been associated with witchcraft, I thought I would find details of this link in Smits’s book. I was in luck when the table of contents revealed a chapter titled Witchcraft and Pogroms.

Smits begins the chapter by stating that the Devil and his cohorts are depicted as left-handed in European art. In the days when people feared witches, this trait would make left-handers easy targets to be branded as accomplices of the Devil and persecuted as witches. Other groups, such as Jews and gypsies, were singled out in this way. Thousands of witch trials happened over the years but left-handedness was never seen as a sign of a witch. Smits argues that witch hunters spared left-handers because left-handers did not separate themselves from society as a distinctive group like Jews and gypsies. For this reason, they did not arouse curiosity and suspicion about secretive practices such as witchcraft. Smits also claims that left-handers were excluded from witchcraft consideration because of their group size, namely, 10% of the population. Most people’s family and circle of friends would include at least one left-hander. Persecution of left-handers would entail the considerable personal cost of accusing and, perhaps, losing a close friend or relative.

Smits also describes circumstances where individuals are accused of witchcraft based on physical characteristics. In certain African countries, albino children are seen as possessing evil powers and persecuted. Albinism is an inherited disorder where a person has little to no melanin (a dark brown or black pigment) production. This results in colorless skin, eyes and hair. In other instances, individuals, mainly women, are targeted because of an unusual appearance. This could be a distinctive wart, oddly-shaped scar or a peculiar birthmark. The presence of an extra nipple, which Smits states is not uncommon, is a powerful indicator of the presence of a witch. Often the significant characteristic is shielded by clothing, like a birthmark on a buttock. The hidden location is additional evidence for the secret mark of a witch. According to Smits, left-handers escape persecution again because their unusual physical characteristic is overt and not hidden from sight. Left-handedness will not suddenly emerge on a fateful day like the revelation of a previously hidden birthmark or scar.

I assumed that Smits’s book would reveal how left-handers were and are targeted as witches. Instead, his tale is one of a left-handedness exemption. Out of curiosity, I scoured the internet for pictures of witches to see how their handedness was depicted. Most of my search results were cartoon or graphic images intermingled with a few photos of witches from movies like The Wizard of Oz. Most artists are right-handed so it is not surprising that most witches are drawn as right-handed. I found only one drawing where the preferred action hand was on the left.

Happy Halloween to left-handers! Relax about wearing a witch costume this season. It will be just that, a make believe costume, and not a reflection of reality.

¹Smits, R. (2011). The puzzle of left-handedness. London: Reaktion Books Ltd.