Instead of normal, black pupils, a witch's pupil will be continually changing color. The boy's grandma continues with her catalog of witches' special traits. The smell, grandma says, is similar to "fresh dogs' droppings" (22). She also informs him that adults do not make these stink-waves which are so irritating to a witch. Grandma pauses to advise the boy not to bathe too often, because dirt can cover up the stink-waves coming off of a child. Witches have slightly larger nostrils than normal people because they have a very good sense of smell, especially attuned to smelling clean children. Witches are bald, but wear convincing wigs to look like normal women however, they can often be seen scratching their scalp because wearing a wig on a bald head will give the witches itchy sores. Witches wear gloves at all times because instead of regular fingernails they have claws like a cat. The boy's grandmother then informs him of the signs of a witch. The next night, the boy's grandmother continues telling him about witches this time she focuses on how one can recognize a witch, though she emphasizes that this can be difficult because they work hard to look just like normal women. The fifth, a boy named Leif, turned into a porpoise while on vacation with his family he played with his family for the rest of the afternoon and then swam away. The fourth was a little boy named Harald who turned into stone. The third was a little girl named Birgit who turned into a chicken and even laid big, brown eggs. The second child, from the Christiansen family, ate an apple given to her by a witch and was transported into a painting of a pasture with ducks that hung in her family's living-room she aged year by year in the painting and eventually disappeared. The first, a child named Ranghild, was playing outside with her sister and then went off with a "tall lady in white gloves" (10) and was never seen again. His grandmother lights one of her large, black cigars and tells him about the five children. When he doubts her, she tells him that she personally knows at least five children who have been taken or transformed by witches. She begins to tell him about witches, but she makes clear that these are not made up stories like some others. The next day, his grandmother starts to tell him stories to distract both of them from the tragedy. She tells him that he will live in Norway with her, since she could never leave. The boy is taken back to his grandmother's house and they stay up together crying and hugging. His parents both die instantly, but the boy is left almost entirely uninjured. One such Christmas, the boy and his family go to visit the grandmother and, while there, his immediate family gets in a terrible car crash on an icy road. They would always visit her in Norway at Christmas and in the summertime, and the boy would spend lots of time speaking in both Norwegian and English with her. He had been born in England but was very close to his maternal grandmother who lived in Norway. The story proper now starts, bringing us to a time when the narrator is seven years old. It turns out that the narrator is a man who had multiple experiences with witches as a child. However, a little help is given at the end of the chapter: "There are a number of little signals you can look out for, little quirky habits that all witches have in common, and if you know about these, if you remember them always, then you might just possibly manage to escape from being squelched before you are very much older" (5). The narrator even implies that the teacher reading the story to the class right at the moment could be a witch. A picture of two women is shown to emphasize the point that you cannot tell a regular woman from a witch just by looking at them. The narrator also makes it clear that only woman can be witches. The narrator says that there are not that many witches in the world anymore, only about 100 in most countries. Instead of doing this in the ways that other people might, like stabbing them or hitting them over the head, witches use their magic powers. The narrator goes on to inform the reader that real witches seem just like ordinary people, but they spend all their time plotting to kill children. As the narrator says, "This is not a fairy-tale. The Witches begins with a chapter directly addressing the reader and clearing up some points about the depictions of witches in the book.
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