The Janara, in popular belief Benevento, especially in that country, is one of many species of witches who inhabited the ancient tales.

The name may derive from Dianara, ie "priestess of Diana," or from Latin ianua, "door" was just before the door, which, according to tradition, it was necessary to place a broom, or a bag with a grain of salt; the witch, forced to count the threads of the broom, or grains of salt, he lingered until the rising of the sun, whose light appears to have been his "mortal" enemy

Witches beneventane gathered under a huge walnut tree on the banks of the river Saturday and the motto "sut a l'acqua sutt o vento sott a la noce de binivénto" (under the water, under the wind, under the walnut of Benevento ) held their Sabbath on which worshiped the devil in the form of dog or goat


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The Janara went out at night and sneaking into the stables of horses to take a horse and ride it all night. Also had a habit of doing braids the mane of a young mare kidnapped, leaving a sign of his presence. It happened sometimes that the mare exhausted from the long ride not bear the tremendous effort that had been subjected, dying of fatigue. To prevent the abduction of the mares they used to in the past and even today, put a lot of salt or a broom in front of the doors of the stables, as the janara could not resist the temptation to count the grains of salt or wire broom and while she had been busy in counting the day would come and would have to flee.

The janara usually was an expert when it comes to medicinal herbs, and she was able to recognize among other powers even those with narcotics or drugs, which he used in his magical practices, such as the manufacture of ointment that allowed her to become incorporeal with the same nature wind.

Contrary to all the other witches, the Janara was lonely and so many times, even in the personal life of every day, had an aggressive character and acid.

Tradition says that to be able to catch, you had to grab her by the hair, his weak point. At that point, the question "that tie Mman," that is what you have in your hands, you had to answer "rai and steel" so that you could deliver; if on the contrary he had answered "capigli", ie hair, Janara would respond "and I sciulie comm n'anguilla," that I svivolo away like an eel, and would thus liberated giving himself to flee. Also it was said that those who would be able to capture the janara when it was incorporeal, she would offer protection janare on the family for seven generations in exchange for freedom.

Is credited to janare also the feeling of suffocation that sometimes it feels during sleep, it was thought that the janara he enjoyed jumping on people trying to suffocate them, it was said that this happens especially to young men.

Also it was believed that children who had suddenly manifested in physical deformations, were passed during the night through the tripod that was used in the hearth to support the cauldron. "The 'janara the passat is' u dint treppčte", trans .: "The janara it has passed through the tripod."...

Probably the legend was born in the period of the Lombard kingdom of Benevento, because although almost all the inhabitants of the city had converted to Christianity, some still secretly worshiped pagan gods in particular the goddesses Isis, Diana and Hecate whose cult is still testified monuments scattered around the city.
This Egyptian obelisk in the center of Benevento

After the arrival of the Lombards themselves pagans, maybe some of the pagans were joined them in worship of trees present in Lombard religion and worship of the golden viper dear to Isis, hence perhaps born legends of infernal orgies that were held Saturday nights under the huge walnut.

In every village there are several stories of Sannio Benevento on janare but you have to admit that these are very similar to each other, often by changing only the place where the incident happened and the dialect in which it is told, of course, every village has its witch.

Below are some of the most recurrent.

It was found here a sheet that tells of a lumberjack beneventano passing at night to one of these places had displease him to attend the Sabbath, ceremony where you worship Satan and every Christian symbol was put in reverse. He ran home he told his wife all that he had seen: "There were women who trod the cross with some other men who dedicated themselves to the wildest orgies and others who sprinkled blood. In the midst of all this, I saw a dog that horrendous siedeva on a throne ... ". The next morning the man was found murdered. Another story related to the figure of Janara is one that identifies an almost foolproof method to recognize them when they are in human form: according to this rumor, just go to Mass on Christmas Eve and, once finished, get out and wait to see the latest women abandon the church. According to the story these would be the Janare that, in human form, they attended (for some sort of retaliation mystical-religious) to function most sacred of all Christendom.