In ancient times, there existed is cogas, the coghe (witches). They were women who lived normal lives but who, on particular occasions, could transform into animals, especially flies and cats, by anointing their bodies with certain unguents. Once transformed, they would enter the rooms where infants slept, sucking their blood, leaving them exhausted and sometimes dead.
The mothers of Villacidro greatly feared these women, and when they had a small child, they took every precaution to protect them from the dreaded cogas di Villacidro. The most common remedies included placing an inverted tripod in front of the door, leaning an upside-down broom against it, or leaving an old, toothless sickle so that the coga would stop to count the teeth. However, since she could only count to seven, she always had to start over until the night passed, and thus she had to resume human form without having done any harm. But the most powerful defense was the invocation to San Sisinnio. Devoted mothers of Villacidro kept a small image of this saint attached to their doors.
A neighborhood woman was known as a coga, but no one had ever managed to stop her. One night, the father of a small baby heard strange noises coming from the room where his little son was sleeping in su brazzollu (the cradle). Suspicious, he grabbed su suadori (the fire-blowing tube) and, with muffled steps, headed towards the room where the little one rested. He immediately spotted a black cat stealthily approaching the cradle. Very quickly, he brought the heavy iron down on the cat’s back. With a feline leap, it vanished into the night.
The next day, the neighbor was seen leaving her house leaning on a stick, and she was heard cursing the child’s father: “Eh, gei fìasta presciàu nottèsta! Giustizia ti cruxiada cun maus attottu!” (Eh, how furious you were last night! May justice persecute you with those hands!). Everyone then understood that the woman was a coga, and from then on, the neighbor ceased to “cogare.”
Gian Paolo Marcialis
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