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Alice the Witch had a great night last night. She'd had a Halloween night house party with five of her closest friends from Witch College that she hadn't seen for ages. They had been drinking and gossiping and laughing until the sun had almost come up. Even their familiars had behaved well too (except for Gertie's which had a minor argument with the snake and the toad).

Each guest had brought some of her favourite party food with them (the Spider Soup in particular had been fantastic).

However, this morning she discovered that each of her friends had left something important behind. Even her own head was a bit fuzzy and she could only remember a few details of who had brought what, the order in which they had arrived, or which familiar each of them had brought.

Question: Can you help Alice remember which witch had brought each of the dishes and help her reunite her friends with their possessions?

  1. Neither the witch who brought a rat, nor the one who left without her glasses, nor Janice, nor the one who brought Pumpkin Pie arrived second at the party.
  2. Ethel, the guest who brought the Savoury Slime, the one that left without her hat, the one with a pet bat, and the one that arrived third were all different witches.
  3. The Liquorice Leeches arrived before the witch who left her cauldron behind who arrived before Gertie.
  4. The owner of the rat arrived before the witch who forgot her ruby slippers, but after the one who brought Cobweb Cookies.
  5. Frances arrived at almost the same time as the witch who brought her toad.
  6. Ethel arrived either directly before or directly after the witch with a snake.
  7. The cauldron-forgetter and the rat owner were not the same witch, in fact exactly one witch arrived between them.
  8. The witch who left her wand behind arrived two positions from the owner of the cat.
  9. At least one witch arrived between Gertie and the owner of the cat.
  10. At least one witch arrived between Hettie and the rat-owner.
  11. Either the witch who forgot the hat or the witch who forgot the cauldron was also the owner of one of the mammals.
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  • $\begingroup$ For point 8: "two positions from" -> one or two persons bettween the two? $\endgroup$ – The Dark Truth Nov 1 '15 at 11:30
  • $\begingroup$ @thedarktruth One witch in between $\endgroup$ – Gordon K Nov 1 '15 at 12:11
  • $\begingroup$ Does hint 1 imply that the 4 witches are all different? Does hint 11 imply that one of the 2 witches doesn't have a mammal? $\endgroup$ – Sleafar Nov 1 '15 at 13:33
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    $\begingroup$ @Sleafar. Looking at your grid there's one thing I noticed. You didn't eliminate the snake and the toad from Gertie. It's not in one of the 11 hints but implied in the text: "Gertie's which had a minor argument with the snake and the toad". There might be more hints in the text beside the 11 hints $\endgroup$ – Ivo Beckers Nov 1 '15 at 19:56
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    $\begingroup$ @IvoBeckers Good point, I ignored that part completely. But this doesn't solve problem 2. $\endgroup$ – Sleafar Nov 1 '15 at 20:00
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The answer is 

1   Ethel   Liquorice Leeches   Glasses     Cat
2   Hettie  Savoury Slime       Cauldron    Snake
3   Janice  Cobweb Cookies      Wand        Toad
4   Frances Spider Soup         Hat         Rat
5   Gertie  Pumpkin Pie         Slippers    Bat

With all clues I got to this state: enter image description here

At this point I had to start guessing. First I decided between Cat on number 1 or 2. Number 2 lead to a solution that contradicted one of the hints so Cat was number 1.

This lead me to a state were I could choose between Bat on number 2 or 5. Number 2 lead to a sollution that contradicted one of the hints so Bat was number 5. And this also directly lead to an solution so that was the answer

btw, I used the tool on http://www.jsingler.de/apps/logikloeser/ to help with the grid

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    $\begingroup$ Well done! Sorry about the error earlier. $\endgroup$ – Gordon K Nov 2 '15 at 0:41

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