She had written a book, Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture, and she was full of fairy tales. It was a source of great hilarity what she told us about the witch’s broomstick, that it symbolized a penis. In some tales, she said, witches rode not broomsticks, but men. And back in the time when those tales were told, a man who woke in the morning aching or sweaty might say that a witch had been riding him.
