kitwitch

In Norfolk, and perhaps elsewhere, a female attired in some grotesque and frightful manner, is called a kitch-witch or kitwitch, of which the etymology is not clear. Formerly the streets of Yarmouth were occasionally filled with them, making a sort of house to house visitation, and levying toll on some ground or other. They wore men's shirts over their own dresses, and had their faces smeared with blood. It was supposed that Kittywitch Row owes its appellation to this practice.

❧