The black witches were evil ones that used necromancy and other supernatural practices usually intending to cause pain, suffering or worse. They had mastered the incantations and mixtures of nasty stuff like eye of newt, toe of toad and so forth to call up the spirits. It wasn’t just spells and potions either. They could make what was called ‘devil’s shoes’ that could take them long distances in a blink of an eye. It was said that the Queen once went to a dance late into the night at one end of the kingdom and was seen the next day at a festival clear at the other side, a four day trip on a fast horse. The initiates had ceremonies in which spirits would possess them and they would take the appearance, mannerisms and voice of a pagan goddess or a famous dead person. Or a hag could give a person some food with a potion in it and tum that person into a slave who would clean house and do the laundry for her. The Wakened Sleep they called it, only with Snow White it was deep sleep.
Yes, Snow White was a young beauty with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony. And how she could cock! She said her stepmother the Queen made her work in the kitchen of the castle where she learned to cook and clean and sew and do laundry and all sorts of other household chores. Then she reached her teenage years and her beauty was so obvious that it couldn’t be hidden in the kitchen. Already Prince Karl from a neighboring kingdom was secretly courting her by pretending to be a delivery man and slipping into the castle to spend time with her. The servants warned her that the Queen was so jealous of her beauty that she was planning to kill her. Finally she ran into the woods and hid but she knew she couldn’t stay there. She had heard that we dwarves weren’t afraid of the Queen and she had no power over us so she came to us. We told her that if she would cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly she could stay as long as she liked.