Laughing witches for sale in a shop in Combarro. (Diane Slawych photo)

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COMBARRO, SPAIN -- Imagine Peggy's Cove with witches and a Galician accent and you'll get some idea of the town of Combarro in northwest Spain. The picturesque fishing community is built on stone above the sea where many of the homes, public buildings, eye-catching granaries, and shops are also built of stone.

Along with its unusual appearance, one of the first things you notice here are the witches. The souvenir dolls adorned in colourful attire come in all shapes and sizes and are sold year-round in nearly every shop on the quiet, narrow streets.

"It may have to do with the time of the Inquisition, when many innocent women were declared witches and burned," speculates our guide Diego Fernandez Lamas. "On the other hand, only 40 years ago we had no social security so people use to go to witches when they were ill, so the witches tradition in Galicia is connected more with the good witches."

As for the souvenir versions, people buy them to put in their homes for good luck, our guide explains. Known locally as "meigas" or "brujas," many of them wear tall black pointy hats and carry broomsticks, but their faces are often friendly or even comical-looking.

I wonder if the life-size meigas bring more luck. The question is how would you squeeze one of the 1.5-metre-high characters into your suitcase, or deal with the reaction from Canadian customs officials who've never heard of Combarro and its good luck witches tradition.

When shopping for witches make sure you buy the right one. You'll have to use your instinct on this because, no doubt, every shop keeper will tell you their witches are all good -- and they're probably right.

"In Galicia we have two kinds of witches, like everywhere in the world, the good witches and the bad witches," maintains Lamas. About four decades ago when most of the Galician population were farmers, there was the belief, he says, that an evil eye could be cast not only against people but also against animals.

"Sometimes the animals were ill, and people had no money for an animal doctor, so they use to go ask witches and the witches use to say, 'what happened is a neighbour made an evil eye on your cow and that's the reason she's dying,' or something like that." Hmmm!

As he speaks, I'm admiring a particular "bruja" with a price tag of 34 euros, when a black cat appears on the scene. What's a witches town without a black cat? I turn in the other direction to avoid it crossing my path.

Locals, as it turns out, have their own methods of warding off bad luck. At one point our guide raises his hand in the air and makes a fist, then pokes his thumb through two of his closed fingers. "This is what you do if you think someone's giving you the evil eye," Lamas advises. "But keep your hand in your pocket when you do it because if you point at them they may be offended."

Alternatively you can buy an amulet shaped like the protective hand gesture which you can put on a chain and wear around your neck.

Aside from the witches, another common feature of Combarro are the horreos (raised granaries). Constructed of either stone, wood, or a combination of the two, they were traditionally used to store corn. Even this piece of local architecture includes features designed to counter negative forces. Lamas says a cross, typically found on the top of one side of the horreo, is there to ward off bad witches, while a carved stick-like feature on the opposite side is designed to keep the devils away!

If that isn't enough you can recite a special incantation over a flaming bowl of Queimada (pronounced, "kay-MAH-da") -- a traditional Galician cocktail made with aguardiente (Galician grappa), sugar, coffee beans and lemon rinds. Tradition states that while reading the verse aloud and stirring the concoction with a ladle, all demons will be scared away -- likely toward a small beach outside of Combarro called Areas Gordas or Fat Sins.

Between the Galician cocktail, good luck witches, the crosses on the stone granaries, and the anti-evil eye amulets -- it seems Combarro has all the bases covered when it comes to divine protection!

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IF YOU GO

If you encounter a bad witch or suspect someone is giving you the evil eye, try making this hand gesture to ward off evil, right. It will likely be unnecessary though as there are mostly only good witches in Combarro according to guide Diego Fernandez Lamas (pictured here).

Air France flies to Vigo, Spain. From there it's 34 km or about a half hour drive to Combarro. Air France serves several destinations in northern Spain, a region known as Green Spain. The airline flies from Toronto to Vigo and to Bilbao via Paris daily. As of Nov. 9, the airline will also serve Oviedo, Spain twice a day from Paris. For more, check airfrance.ca or call 1-800-667-2747. For details on Galicia check tourgalicia.es.