I was reading Rosemary's Baby recently and bumped into a reference to one Thomas Weir, an infamous witch. There was an interesting tale associated
with him that I thought relevant to the GW short story "The Walking Sticks". It is said that he "derived his power from his walking stick, topped by a carved human head, giving rise to later accounts that it had often been seen parading down the street in front of him." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Weir.