There were also certain magical effects supposed to be brought about by the use of certain words. Martin Tulouff (1563) claimed that he could bewitch cows so that they gave blood instead of milk, by saying 'Butyrum de armento', but he admitted that he also used powders to accomplish his purpose.[656] Isobel Gowdie (1662) described how the witches laid a broom or a stool in their beds to represent themselves during their absence at a meeting. By the time that this record was made the witches evidently believed that the object took on the exact appearance of the woman, having forgotten its original meaning as a signal to show where she had gone. The words used on these occasions show no belief in the change of appearance of the object:

'I lay down this besom [or stool] in the Devil's name, Let it not stir till I come again.'

Her statements regarding the change of witches into animals I have examined in the section on Familiars (p. 234). The words used to effect these changes are given in full. When a witch wished to take on the form of a hare she said:

'I sall goe intill ane haire, With sorrow, and sych, and meikle caire; And I sall goe in the Divellis nam, Ay quhill I com hom againe.'

To change into a cat or a crow the last two lines were retained unaltered, but the first two were respectively,

'I sall goe intill ane catt, With sorrow, and sych, and a blak shot'

or

'I sall goe intill a craw, With sorrow, and sych, and a blak thraw.'

To return into human form the witch said:

'Haire, haire, God send thee caire. I am in an haire's liknes just now, Bot I sal be in a womanis liknes ewin now.'

From a cat or a crow, the words were 'Cat, cat, God send thee a blak shott' or 'Craw, craw, God send thee a blak thraw', with the last two lines as before. When the witch in animal form entered the house of another witch, she would say, 'I conjure thee, Goe with me'; on which the second witch would turn into the same kind of animal as the first. If, however, they met in the open, the formula was slightly different, 'Divell speid the, Goe thow with me,' the result being the same.[657]

The Somerset trials record the words used for cursing anything. These were simply 'A Pox take it', the curse being supposed to take effect at once. If the curse were pronounced over an image of a person the words were 'A Pox on thee, I'le spite thee'.[658]

Alexander Elder's grace over meat is probably a corrupt form of some ancient rite:

'We eat this meat in the Divellis nam, With sorrow, and sych, and meikle shame; We sall destroy hows and hald; Both sheip and noat in till the fald. Litle good sall come to the fore Of all the rest of the litle store.'[659]

The 'conjuring of cats' was a distinct feature, and is clearly derived from an early form of sacrifice. The details are recorded only in Scotland, and it is possible that Scotland is the only country in which it occurred, though the sanctity of the cat in other places suggests that the omission in the records is accidental.

In the dittay against John Fian, 1590, he was 'fylit, for the chaissing of ane catt in Tranent; in the quhilk chaise, he was careit heich aboue the ground, with gryt swyftnes, and as lychtlie as the catt hir selff, ower ane heicher dyke, nor he was able to lay his hand to the heid off:—And being inquyrit, to quhat effect he chaissit the samin? Ansuerit, that in ane conversatioune haldin at Brumhoillis, Sathan commandit all that were present, to tak cattis; lyke as he, for obedience to Sathan, chaissit the said catt, purpoiselie to be cassin in the sea, to raise windis for distructioune of schippis and boitis.'[660] Agnes Sampson of the same Coven as Fian confessed 'that at the time when his Majestie was in Denmark, shee being accompanied by the parties before speciallie named, tooke a cat and christened it, and afterwards bounde to each part of that cat, the cheefest parte of a dead man, and severall joyntis of his bodie: And that in the night following, the saide cat was convayed into the middest of the sea by all the witches, sayling in their riddles or cives, as is aforesaid, and so left the said cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This doone, there did arise such a tempest in the sea, as a greater hath not bene seene.'[661] The legal record of this event is more detailed and less dramatic; the sieves are never mentioned, the witches merely walking to the Pier-head in an ordinary and commonplace manner. The Coven at Prestonpans sent a letter to the Leith Coven that—

'they sould mak the storm vniuersall thro the sea. And within aucht dayes eftir the said Bill [letter] wes delyuerit, the said Agnes Sampsoune, Jonett Campbell, Johnne Fean, Gelie Duncan, and Meg Dyn baptesit ane catt in the wobstaris hous, in maner following: Fyrst, twa of thame held ane fingar, in the ane syd of the chimnay cruik, and ane vther held ane vther fingar in the vther syd, the twa nebbis of the fingars meting togidder; than thay patt the catt thryis throw the linkis of the cruik, and passit itt thryis vnder the chimnay. Thaireftir, att Begie Toddis hous, thay knitt to the foure feit of the catt, foure jountis of men; quhilk being done, the sayd Jonet fechit it to Leith; and about mydnycht, sche and the twa Linkhop, and twa wyfeis callit Stobbeis, came to the Pier-heid, and saying thir words, 'See that thair be na desait amangis ws'; and thay caist the catt in the see, sa far as thay mycht, quhilk swam owre and cam agane; and thay that wer in the Panis, caist in ane vthir catt in the see att xj houris. Eftir quhilk, be thair sorcerie and inchantment, the boit perischit betuix Leith and Kinghorne; quhilk thing the Deuill did, and went befoir, with ane stalf in his hand.'[662]

Beigis Todd was concerned in another 'conjuring of cats', this time at Seaton.

'Eftir thay had drukkin togidder a certane space, thay, in thair devillische maner, tuik ane katt, and drew the samyn nyne tymes throw the said Beigis cruik; and thaireftir come with all thair speed to Seaton-thorne, be-north the [3]et.... And thay thaireftir past altogidder, with the Devill, to the irne [3]et [iron gate] of Seatoun, quhair of new thay tuik ane cat, and drew the samyn nyne tymes throw the said Irne-[3]ett: And immediatlie thaireftir, came to the barne, foiranent George Feudaris dur, quhair thai christened the said catt, and callit hir Margaret: And thaireftir come all bak agane to the Deane-fute, quhair first thai convenit, and cuist the kat to the Devill.'[663]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 465: Danaeus, ch. iv.]

[Footnote 466: Boguet, pp. 131-9.]

[Footnote 467: Pleasant Treatise, pp. 5-7.]

[Footnote 468: Lea, iii, p. 501.]

[Footnote 469: Remigius, pt. i, pp. 89, 91.]

[Footnote 470: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 139, 163, 164.]

[Footnote 471: W. G. Stewart, p. 175.]

[Footnote 472: Danaeus, ch. ii.]

[Footnote 473: Cooper, p. 90.]

[Footnote 474: Rymer, i, p. 956.]

[Footnote 475: Chartier, iii, p. 45.]

[Footnote 476: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]

[Footnote 477: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 123.]

[Footnote 478: Bodin, p. 187.]

[Footnote 479: Melville, p. 396; see also Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 210-12, 239, 246.]

[Footnote 480: F. Hutchinson, p. 43.]

[Footnote 481: Spalding Club Misc., i, pp. 121, 125.]

[Footnote 482: Boguet, p. 411.]

[Footnote 483: Cannaert, p. 46.]

[Footnote 484: Id., p. 50.]

[Footnote 485: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 131.]

[Footnote 486: Michaelis, Historie, pp. 334-5.]

[Footnote 487: Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.]

[Footnote 488: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 68, 126, 128.]

[Footnote 489: Id. ib., p. 148.]

[Footnote 490: Spalding Club Misc., i, p. 171.]

[Footnote 491: Boguet, p. 131.]

[Footnote 492: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 72, 131.]

[Footnote 493: Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, i, 89.]

[Footnote 494: Moret, Mysteres Egyptiens, pp. 247 seq.]

[Footnote 495: Spalding Club Misc., i, pp. 97-8. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 496: Ib., i, p. 144. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 497: Ib., p. 149.]

[Footnote 498: Ib., p. 153. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 499: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 123.]

[Footnote 500: F. Hutchinson, Historical Essay, p. 43.]

[Footnote 501: Compare the account of the Forfar witch-dance. Kinloch, p. 120.]

[Footnote 502: Boguet, pp. 131-2.]

[Footnote 503: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 210.]

[Footnote 504: Compare the dittay against Bessie Thom, who danced round the Fish Cross of Aberdeen with other witches 'in the lyknes of kattis and haris'. Spalding Club Misc., i, 167.]

[Footnote 505: Boguet, p. 127.]

[Footnote 506: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]

[Footnote 507: More, p. 232.]

[Footnote 508: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 245-6. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 509: Id., iii, p. 606. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 510: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]

[Footnote 511: Sinclair, p. 163.]

[Footnote 512: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 210.]

[Footnote 513: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 212.]

[Footnote 514: Surtees Soc., xl, pp. 195, 197.]

[Footnote 515: Danaeus, ch. iv.]

[Footnote 516: De Lancre, op. cit., p. 211.]

[Footnote 517: Spalding Club Misc., i, pp. 165, 167. Spelling modernized. The account of the Arab witches should be compared with this. 'In the time of Ibn Munkidh the witches rode about naked on a stick between the graves of the cemetery of Shaizar.' Wellhausen, p. 159.]

[Footnote 518: Pleasant Treatise of Witches, p. 6.]

[Footnote 519: Reg. Scot, Bk. iii, p. 42. La volta is said to be the origin of the waltz.]

[Footnote 520: Lea, iii, p. 501.]

[Footnote 521: Remigius, p. 82.]

[Footnote 522: E. Monseur, p. 102.]

[Footnote 523: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 141.]

[Footnote 524: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 239, 246.]

[Footnote 525: Spalding Club Misc., i, pp. 114-15. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 526: Id., i, p. 149. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 527: Spottiswoode Miscellany, ii, p. 68.]

[Footnote 528: Kinloch, p. 129. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 529: Sinclair, p. 163.]

[Footnote 530: Burns Begg, pp. 234, 235.]

[Footnote 531: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 127.]

[Footnote 532: Id. ib., p. 150.]

[Footnote 533: Id. ib., p. 211.]

[Footnote 534: Danaeus, ch. iv.]

[Footnote 535: Sinclair, p. 219.]

[Footnote 536: Kinloch, p. 120.]

[Footnote 537: Sharpe, p. 131.]

[Footnote 538: Boguet, p. 132.]

[Footnote 539: Michaelis, Hist., p. 336.]

[Footnote 540: Van Elven, v (1891), p. 215.]

[Footnote 541: Pleasant Treatise of Witches, p. 5.]

[Footnote 542: Potts, G 3, I 3, P 3.]

[Footnote 543: Examination of Joan Williford, p. 6.]

[Footnote 544: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139-40.]

[Footnote 545: Id., p. 138.]

[Footnote 546: Id., p. 149.]

[Footnote 547: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 163.]

[Footnote 548: Spottiswoode Misc., ii, p. 67.]

[Footnote 549: Kinloch, p. 121.]

[Footnote 550: Id., p. 124.]

[Footnote 551: Id., p. 126.]

[Footnote 552: Id., p. 127.]

[Footnote 553: Id., p. 133. Dated = caressed.]

[Footnote 554: Burns Begg, p. 227.]

[Footnote 555: Id., p. 238.]

[Footnote 556: Sharpe, p. 131.]

[Footnote 557: The complete grace is given on p. 167. It will be seen that it is a corrupt version of some ancient form of words.]

[Footnote 558: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 612, 613. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 559: Scots Magazine, 1814, p. 200. Spelling modernized.]

[Footnote 560: Burr, p. 418.]

[Footnote 561: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 197.]

[Footnote 562: Id. ib., p. 148.]

[Footnote 563: Michaelis, Historie, pp. 335-6.]

[Footnote 564: Boguet, pp. 135-9.]

[Footnote 565: Cannaert, p. 45.]

[Footnote 566: Horneck, pp. 321-2, 327.]

[Footnote 567: Bodin, Fleau, p. 187.]

[Footnote 568: Melville, p. 395.]

[Footnote 569: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246. The ploughman, Gray Meal, who took a large part in the ceremonies, was an old man.]

[Footnote 570: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 210.]

[Footnote 571: F. Hutchinson, Hist. Essay, p. 42.]

[Footnote 572: Spalding Club Misc., i, p. 172.]

[Footnote 573: Boguet, p. 131.]

[Footnote 574: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 68, 401.]

[Footnote 575: Id., L'Incredulite, p. 805.]

[Footnote 576: Davenport, p. 2.]

[Footnote 577: Van Elven, La Tradition, v (1891), p. 215.]

[Footnote 578: Sinclair, p. 163. The account given by Barton's wife of the position of the candle on the Devil's person is paralleled by the peculiarly coarse description of the Light-bearers at the witch-sabbaths at Muenster. Humborg, p. 120.]

[Footnote 579: Kinloch, p. 120.]

[Footnote 580: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 139.]

[Footnote 581: Chambers, iii, p. 298.]

[Footnote 582: Stewart, p. 175.]

[Footnote 583: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 294.]

[Footnote 584: Holinshed, Ireland, p. 58.]

[Footnote 585: Boguet, p. 141.]

[Footnote 586: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 401-2.]

[Footnote 587: Michaelis, Hist., p. 337. The use of this phrase suggests that the sprinkling was a fertility rite.]

[Footnote 588: Fountainhall, i, pp. 14, 15.]

[Footnote 589: Law, p. 145.]

[Footnote 590: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]

[Footnote 591: Ravaisson, 1679-81, p. 336.]

[Footnote 592: Id., p. 333.]

[Footnote 593: Id., p. 335.]

[Footnote 594: Ravaisson, p. 335.]

[Footnote 595: Cotton Mather, pp. 120, 131, 158.]

[Footnote 596: J. Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts Bay, ii, p. 55.]

[Footnote 597: Burr, p. 417.]

[Footnote 598: Increase Mather, p. 210.]

[Footnote 599: Cotton Mather, p. 81.]

[Footnote 600: Cooper, p. 91.]

[Footnote 601: Chelmsford Witches, pp. 24, 26, 29, 30. Philobiblon Society, viii.]

[Footnote 602: Examination of John Walsh.]

[Footnote 603: Cannaert, p. 48.]

[Footnote 604: Whitaker, p. 216.]

[Footnote 605: Stearne, p. 29.]

[Footnote 606: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 617.]

[Footnote 607: Cotta, p. 114.]

[Footnote 608: Danaeus, ch. iv.]

[Footnote 609: R. Scot, Bk. III, p. 44.]

[Footnote 610: Holinshed, Ireland, p. 58.]

[Footnote 611: Philobiblon Society, viii, Chelmsford Witches, pp. 29, 30.]

[Footnote 612: Id. ib., viii, p. 34.]

[Footnote 613: Examination of John Walsh.]

[Footnote 614: Remigius, pt. i, p. 54.]

[Footnote 615: Spalding Club Misc., i, p. 120; Burton, i, p. 252.]

[Footnote 616: Pitcairn, ii, pp. 542-3.]

[Footnote 617: From an unpublished trial in the Justiciary Court at Edinburgh. The meaning of the word laif is not clear. The Oxford dictionary gives lop-eared, the Scotch dictionary gives loaf. By analogy with the other accounts one would expect here a word meaning a hen.]

[Footnote 618: Highland Papers, iii, p. 18.]

[Footnote 619: Lemoine, vi, p. 109.]

[Footnote 620: Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]

[Footnote 621: Id., Bk. II, p. 32.]

[Footnote 622: Boguet, p. 205.]

[Footnote 623: Ravaisson, p. 334, 335.]

[Footnote 624: Sharpe, p. 147.]

[Footnote 625: Chambers, iii, p. 450.]

[Footnote 626: Scot, Bk. III, p. 42.]

[Footnote 627: Sinistrari de Ameno, p. 27.]

[Footnote 628: See, amongst others, the account of Mary Johnson (Essex, 1645), who was accused of poisoning two children; the symptoms suggest belladonna. Howell, iv, 844, 846.]

[Footnote 629: Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]

[Footnote 630: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 128.]

[Footnote 631: Kinloch, p. 121.]

[Footnote 632: Bodin, Fleau, pp. 187-8.]

[Footnote 633: Boguet, p. 141.]

[Footnote 634: Cannaert, p. 50.]

[Footnote 635: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 133.]

[Footnote 636: La Tradition, 1891, v, p. 215. Neither name nor place are given.]

[Footnote 637: Bourignon, Parole, p. 87.]

[Footnote 638: Scot. Hist. Soc., xxv, p. 348. See also Ross, Aberdour and Inchcolme, p. 339.]

[Footnote 639: Prod. and Trag. History, p. 7.]

[Footnote 640: Tryall of Ann Foster, p. 8.]

[Footnote 641: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 211, 235, 238.]

[Footnote 642: De Lancre, L'Incredulite, p. 772.]

[Footnote 643: Spalding Club Misc., i, pp. 120, 124.]

[Footnote 644: From the record of the trial in the Justiciary Court of Edinburgh.]

[Footnote 645: Sharpe, p. 132.]

[Footnote 646: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 164.]

[Footnote 647: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]

[Footnote 648: From the record of the trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]

[Footnote 649: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 123, 400.]

[Footnote 650: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 604, 608.]

[Footnote 651: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139, 141. I have pointed out that the cry of 'A Boy' is possibly the Christian recorder's method of expressing the Bacchic shout 'Evoe'. See Jour. Man. Or. Soc., 1916-17, p. 65.]

[Footnote 652: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 401, 461, 462, 464.]

[Footnote 653: Bodin, p. 190.]

[Footnote 654: The names of the smaller islands are often compounded with the name of this deity, e.g. Li-hou, Brecq-hou, &c.]

[Footnote 655: Law, p. 27 note.]

[Footnote 656: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]

[Footnote 657: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 607-8, 611.]

[Footnote 658: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 139, 148, 149.]

[Footnote 659: Pitcairn, iii, p. 612. Sych = sighing, lamentation.]

[Footnote 660: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 212.]

[Footnote 661: Newes from Scotland, see Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 218.]

[Footnote 662: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 237.]

[Footnote 663: Id., ii, p. 542.]



VI. THE RITES (continued)

WITCHES' RAIN-MAKING AND FERTILITY RITES

1. General

In common with many other religions of the Lower Culture, the witch-cult of Western Europe observed certain rites for rain-making and for causing or blasting fertility. This fact was recognized in the papal Bulls formulated against the witches who were denounced, not for moral offences, but for the destruction of fertility. The celebrated Decree of Innocent VIII, which in 1488 let loose the full force of the Church against the witches, says that 'they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, the grass and herbs of the field'. Adrian VI followed this up in 1521 with a Decretal Epistle, denouncing the witches 'as a Sect deviating from the Catholic Faith, denying their Baptism, and showing Contempt of the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, treading Crosses under their Feet, and, taking the Devil for their Lord, destroyed the Fruits of the Earth by their Enchantments, Sorceries, and Superstitions'.

The charms used by the witches, the dances, the burning of the god and the broadcast scattering of his ashes, all point to the fact that this was a fertility cult; and this is the view taken also by those contemporary writers who give a more or less comprehensive account of the religion and ritual. Though most of the fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to us were used by the witches either for their own benefit or to injure their enemies, enough remains to show that originally all these charms were to promote fertility in general and in particular. When the charm was for fertility in general, it was performed by the whole congregation together; but for the fertility of any particular woman, animal, or field, the ceremony was performed by one witch alone or by two at most.

The power which the witches claimed to possess over human fertility is shown in many of the trials. Jonet Clark was tried in Edinburgh in 1590 'for giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members';[664] and in the same year and place Bessie Roy was accused of causing women's milk to dry up.[665] The number of midwives who practised witchcraft points also to this fact; they claimed to be able to cause and to prevent pregnancy, to cause and to prevent an easy delivery, to cast the labour-pains, on an animal or a human being (husbands who were the victims are peculiarly incensed against these witches), and in every way to have power over the generative organs of both sexes. In short, it is possible to say that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the better the midwife the better the witch.

The Red Book of Appin,[666] which was obtained from the Devil by a trick, is of great interest in this connexion. It was said to contain charms for the curing of diseases of cattle; among them must certainly have been some for promoting the fertility of the herds in general, and individual animals in particular. It is not unlikely that the charms as noted in the book were the result of many experiments, for we know that the witches were bound to give account to the Devil of all the magic they performed in the intervals between the Sabbaths, and he or his clerk recorded their doings. From this record the Devil instructed the witches. It is evident from the confessions and the evidence at the trials that the help of the witches was often required to promote fertility among human beings as well as among animals. The number of midwives who were also witches was very great, and the fact can hardly be accidental.

Witches were called in to perform incantations during the various events of a farm-yard. Margrat Og of Aberdeen, 1597, was 'indyttit as a manifest witche, in that, be the space of a yeirsyn or theirby, thy kow being in bulling, and James Farquhar, thy awin gude son haulding the kow, thow stuid on the ane syd of the kow, and thy dochter, Batrix Robbie, on the vther syd, and quhen the bull was lowping the kow, thow tuik a knyff and keist ower the kow, and thy dochter keapit the sam, and keist it over to the agane, and this ye did thryiss, quhilk thou can nocht deny.'[667] At Auldearne the Coven, to which Isobel Gowdie belonged, performed a ceremony to obtain for themselves the benefit of a neighbour's crop. 'Befor Candlemas, we went be-east Kinlosse, and ther we yoaked an plewghe of paddokis. The Divell held the plewgh, and Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, our Officer, did drywe the plewghe. Paddokis did draw the plewgh as oxen; quickens wer sowmes, a riglen's horne was a cowter, and an piece of an riglen's horne was an sok. We went two seueral tymes abowt; and all we of the Coeven went still wp and downe with the plewghe, prayeing to the Divell for the fruit of that land, and that thistles and brieris might grow ther'.[668] Here the ploughing-ceremony was to induce fertility for the benefit of the witches, while the draught animals and all the parts of the plough connoted barrenness for the owner of the soil.

The most detailed account of a charm for human fertility is given in the confession of the Abbe Guibourg, who appears to have been the Devil of the Paris witches. The ceremony took place at the house of a witch-midwife named Voisin or Montvoisin, and according to the editor was for the benefit of Louis XIV or Charles II, two of the most notorious libertines of their age.

'Il a fait chez la Voisin, revetu d'aube, d'etole et de manipule, une conjuration en presence de la Des Oeillets [attendant of Madame de Montespan], qui pretendait faire un charme pour le (Roi) et qui etait accompagnee d'un homme qui lui donna la conjuration, et comme il etait necessaire d'avoir du sperme des deux sexes, Des Oeillets ayant ses mois n'en put donner mais versa dans le calice de ses menstrues et l'homme qui l'accompagnait, ayant passe dans la ruelle du lit avec lui Guibourg, versa de son sperme dans le calice. Sur le tout, la Des Oeillets et l'homme mirent chacun d'une poudre de sang de chauve-souris et de la farine pour donner un corps plus ferme a toute la composition et apres qu'il eut recite la conjuration il tira le tout du calice qui fut mis dans un petit vaisseau que la Des Oeillets ou l'homme emporta.'[669]

The ecclesiastical robes and the use of the chalice point to this being a ceremony of a religious character, and should be compared with the child-sacrifices performed by the same priest or Devil (see pp. 150, 157).

An anti-fertility rite, which in its simplicity hardly deserves the name of a ceremony, took place at Crook of Devon in Kinross-shire. Bessie Henderson 'lykeways confessed and declared that Janet Paton was with you at ane meeting when they trampit down Thos. White's rie in the beginning of harvest, 1661, and that she had broad soals and trampit down more nor any of the rest'.[670]

2. Rain-making

The rain-making powers of the witches have hardly been noted by writers on the subject, for by the time the records were made the witches were credited with the blasting of fertility rather than its increase. Yet from what remains it is evident that the original meaning of much of the ritual was for the production of fertilizing rain, though both judges and witnesses believed that it was for storms and hail.

One of the earliest accounts of such powers is given in the story quoted by Reginald Scot from the Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1487, a century before Scot's own book:

'A little girle walking abroad with hir father in his land, heard him complaine of drought, wishing for raine, etc. Whie father (quoth the child) I can make it raine or haile, when and where I list: He asked where she learned it. She said, of hir mother, who forbad hir to tell anie bodie thereof. He asked hir how hir mother taught hir? She answered, that hir mother committed hir to a maister, who would at anie time doo anie thing for hir. Whie then (said he) make it raine but onlie in my field. And so she went to the streame, and threw vp water in hir maisters name, and made it raine presentlie. And proceeding further with hir father, she made it haile in another field, at hir father's request. Herevpon he accused his wife, and caused hir to be burned; and then he new christened his child againe.'[671]

Scot also gives 'certaine impossible actions' of witches when he ridicules the belief

'that the elements are obedient to witches, and at their commandement; or that they may at their pleasure send raine, haile, tempests, thunder, lightening; when she being but an old doting woman, casteth a flint stone ouer hir left shoulder, towards the west, or hurleth a little sea sand vp into the element, or wetteth a broome sprig in water, and sprinkleth the same in the aire; or diggeth a pit in the earth, and putting water therein, stirreth it about with hir finger; or boileth hogs bristles; or laieth sticks acrosse vpon a banke, where neuer a drop of water is; or burieth sage till it be rotten; all which things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the meanes that witches vse to mooue extraordinarie tempests and raine'.[672]

More quotes Wierus to the same effect: 'Casting of Flint-Stones behind their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Air, or striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot.'[673]

The throwing of stones as a fertility rite is found in the trial of Jonet Wischert, one of the chief witches at Aberdeen, and is there combined with a nudity rite. 'In hervest last bypast, Mr. William Rayes huikes [saw thee at] the heid of thi awin gudmannis croft, and saw the tak all thi claiss about thi heid, and thow beand naikit from the middill down, tuik ane gryte number of steynis, and thi self gangand baklenis, keist ane pairt behind the our thi heid, and ane wther pairt fordward.'[674]

3. Fertility

Every contemporary writer who gives a general view of the religion and ritual observes the witches' powers over human fertility. Boguet says, 'Ils font encor cacher & retirer les parties viriles, et puis les font ressortir quand il leur plait. Ils empeschent aussi tantost la copulation charnelle de l'home & de la femme, en retirant les nerfs, & ostant la roideur du membre; et tantost la procreation en destournant ou bouchant les conduicts de la semence, pour empescher qu'elle ne descende aux vases de la generation.'[675] Scot, who quotes generally without any acknowledgement and often inaccurately, translates this statement, 'They also affirme that the vertue of generation is impeached by witches, both inwardlie, and outwardlie: for intrinsecallie they represse the courage, and they stop the passage of the mans seed, so as it may not descend to the vessels of generation: also they hurt extrinsecallie, with images, hearbs, &c.'[676] Bodin also remarks that witches, whether male or female, can affect only the generative organs.[677] Madame Bourignon says that the girls, whom she befriended,

'told me, that Persons who were thus engaged to the Devil by a precise Contract, will allow no other God but him, and therefore offer him whatsoever is dearest to them; nay, are constrained to offer him their Children, or else the Devil would Beat them, and contrive that they should never arrive to the State of Marriage, and so should have no Children, by reason that the Devil hath power by his Adherents, to hinder both the one and the other.... So soon as they come to be able to beget Children, the Devil makes them offer the desire which they have of Marrying, to his Honor: And with this all the Fruit that may proceed from their Marriage. This they promise voluntarily, to the end that they may accomplish their Designs: For otherwise the Devil threatens to hinder them by all manner of means, that they shall not Marry, nor have Children.'[678]

Glanvil, writing on the Scotch trials of 1590, speaks of 'some Effects, Kinds, or Circumstances of Witchcraft, such as the giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members. For which Jannet Clark was accused.'[679] In the official record Jonet Clark was tried and condemned for 'gewing of ane secreit member to Iohnne Coutis; and gewing and taking of power fra sindrie mennis memberis. Item, fylit of taking Iohnne Wattis secreit member fra him.'[680]

Sexual ritual occurs in many religions of the Lower Culture and has always horrified members of the higher religions both in ancient and modern times. In fertility cults it is one of the chief features, not only symbolizing the fertilizing power in the whole animate world, but, in the belief of the actors, actually assisting it and promoting its effects.

Such fertility rites are governed by certain rules, which vary in different countries, particularly as to the age of girls, i.e. whether they are over or under puberty. Among the witches there appears to have been a definite rule that no girl under puberty had sexual intercourse with the Devil. This is even stated as a fact by so great an authority as Bodin: 'Les diables ne font point de paction expresse auec les enfans, qui leurs sont vouez, s'ils n'ont attaint l'aage de puberte.'[681] The details of the trials show that this statement is accurate. 'Magdalene de la Croix, Abbesse des Moniales de Cordouee en Espaigne, confessa que Satan n'eust point copulation, ny cognoissance d'elle, qu'elle n'eust douze ans.'[682] Bodin and De Lancre both cite the case of Jeanne Hervillier of Verbery in Compiegne; she was a woman of fifty-two at the time of her trial in 1578. She 'confessa qu'a l'aage de douze ans sa mere la presenta au diable, en forme d'vn grand homme noir, & vestu de noir, botte, esperonne, auec vne espee au coste, et vn cheual noir a la porte, auquel la mere dit: Voicy ma fille que ie vous ay promise: Et a la fille, Voicy vostre amy, qui vous fera bien heureuse, et deslors qu'elle renonca a Dieu, & a la religion, & puis coucha auec elle charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec les femmes.'[683] De Lancre also emphasizes the age: 'Ieanne Haruillier depose qu'encore sa mere l'eust voueee a Satan des sa naissance, neantmoins qu'il ne la cognut charnellement qu'elle n'eust attainct l'aage de douze ans.'[684] De Lancre's own experience points in the same direction; he found that the children were not treated in the same way as adults, nor were they permitted to join in all the ceremonies until after they had passed childhood.[685]

The same rule appears to have held good in Scotland, for when little Jonet Howat was presented to the Devil, he said, 'What shall I do with such a little bairn as she?'[686] It is, however, rare to find child-witches in Great Britain, therefore the rules concerning them are difficult to discover.

Another rule appears to have been that there was no sexual connexion with a pregnant woman. In the case of Isobel Elliot, the Devil 'offered to lie with her, but forbore because she was with child; that after she was kirked the Devil often met her, and had carnal copulation with her'.[687]

Since the days of Reginald Scot it has been the fashion of all those writers who disbelieved in the magical powers of witches to point to the details of the sexual intercourse between the Devil and the witches as proof positive of hysteria and hallucination. This is not the attitude of mind of the recorders who heard the evidence at the trials. 'Les confessions des Sorciers, que i'ay eu en main, me font croire qu'il en est quelque chose: dautant qu'ils out tous recogneu, qu'ils auoient este couplez auec le Diable, et que la semence qu'il iettoit estoit fort froide; Ce qui est conforme a ce qu'en rapporte Paul Grilland, et les Inquisiteurs de la foy.'[688] 'It pleaseth their new Maister oftentimes to offer himselfe familiarly vnto them, to dally and lye with them, in token of their more neere coniunction, and as it were marriage vnto him.'[689] 'Witches confessing, so frequently as they do, that the Devil lies with them, and withal complaining of his tedious and offensive coldness, it is a shrewd presumption that he doth lie with them indeed, and that it is not a meer Dream.'[690]

It is this statement of the physical coldness of the Devil which modern writers adduce to prove their contention that the witches suffered from hallucination. I have shown above (pp. 61 seq.) that the Devil was often masked and his whole person covered with a disguise, which accounts for part of the evidence but not for all, and certainly not for the most important item. For in trial after trial, in places far removed from one another and at periods more than a century apart, the same fact is vouched for with just the small variation of detail which shows the actuality of the event. This is that, when the woman admitted having had sexual intercourse with the Devil, in a large proportion of cases she added, 'The Devil was cold and his seed likewise.' These were women of every class and every age, from just above puberty to old women of over seventy, unmarried, married, and widows. It is unscientific to disbelieve everything, as Scot does, and it is equally unscientific to label all the phenomena as the imagination of hysterical women. By the nature of things the whole of this evidence rests only on the word of the women, but I have shown above (pp. 63-5) that there were cases in which the men found the Devil cold, and cases in which the women found other parts of the Devil's person to be cold also. Such a mass of evidence cannot be ignored, and in any other subject would obtain credence at once. But the hallucination-theory, being the easiest, appears to have obsessed the minds of many writers, to the exclusion of any attempt at explanation from an unbiassed point of view.

Students of comparative and primitive religion have explained the custom of sacred marriages as an attempt to influence the course of nature by magic, the people who practise the rite believing that thereby all crops and herds as well as the women were rendered fertile, and that barrenness was averted. This accounts very well for the occurrence of 'obscene rites' among the witches, but fails when it touches the question of the Devil's coldness. I offer here an explanation which I believe to be the true one, for it accounts for all the facts; those facts which the women confessed voluntarily and without torture or fear of punishment, like Isobel Gowdie, or adhered to as the truth even at the stake amid the flames, like Jane Bosdeau.

In ancient times the Sacred Marriage took place usually once a year; but besides this ceremony there were other sexual rites which were not celebrated at a fixed season, but might be performed in the precincts of the temple of a god or goddess at any time, the males being often the priests or temple officials. These are established facts, and it is not too much to suppose that the witches' ceremonies were similar. But if the women believed that sexual intercourse with the priests would increase fertility, how much more would they believe in the efficacy of such intercourse with the incarnate God of fertility himself. They would insist upon it as their right, and it probably became compulsory at certain seasons, such as the breeding periods of the herds or the sowing and reaping periods of the crops. Yet as the population and therefore the number of worshippers in each 'congregation' increased, it would become increasingly difficult and finally impossible for one man to comply with the requirements of so many women.[691] The problem then was that on the one hand there were a number of women demanding what was in their eyes a thing essential for themselves and their families, and on the other a man physically unable to satisfy all the calls upon him. The obvious solution of the problem is that the intercourse between the Chief and the women was by artificial means, and the evidence in the trials points clearly to this solution.

Artificial phalli are well known in the remains of ancient civilizations. In ancient Egypt it was not uncommon to have statues of which the phallus was of a different material from the figure, and so made that it could be removed from its place and carried in procession. The earliest of such statues are the colossal limestone figures of the fertility-god Min found at Koptos, dating to the first dynasty, perhaps B.C. 5500.[692] But similar figures are found at every period of Egyptian history, and a legend was current at the time of Plutarch to account for this usage as well as for the festival of the Phallephoria.[693] Unless the phallus itself were the object of adoration there would be no reason to carry it in procession as a religious ceremony, and it is easily understandable that such a cult would commend itself chiefly to women.[694]

The phallus of a divine statue was not always merely for adoration and carrying in procession; the Roman bride sacrificed her virginity to the god Priapus as a sacred rite. This is probably the remains of a still more ancient custom when the god was personated by a man and not by an image. The same custom remained in other parts of the world as the jus primae noctis, which was held as an inalienable right by certain kings and other divine personages. As might be expected, this custom obtained also among the witches.

'Le Diable faict des mariages au Sabbat entre les Sorciers & Sorcieres, & leur joignant les mains, il leur dict hautement

Esta es buena parati Esta parati lo toma.

Mais auant qu'ils couchent ensemble, il s'accouple auec elles, oste la virginite des filles.'—Ieannette d'Abadie, aged sixteen, 's'accusoit elle mesme d'auoir este depucellee par Satan.'[695]

The occasional descriptions of the Devil's phallus show without question its artificial character:

In 1598 in Lorraine 'es sagte die Alexia Dragaea, ihre Bulschafft haette einen [Glied] so starcken etc. allezeit gehabt, wenn ihm gestanden, und so gross als ein Ofengabel-Stiel, dessgleichen sie zugegen zeigte, denn ohngefehr eine Gabel zugegen war, sagte auch wie sie kein Geleuth weder Hoden noch Beutel daran gemerckt hat'.[696]

'Iaquema Paget adioustoit, qu'elle auoit empoigne plusieurs fois auec la main le membre du Demon, qui la cognoissoit, et que le membre estoit froid comme glace, long d'vn bon doigt, & moindre en grosseur que celuy d'vn homme. Tieuenne Paget et Antoine Tornier adioustoient aussi, que le membre de leurs Demons estoit long et gros, comme l'vn de leurs doigts.'[697] 'Il a au deuant son membre tire et pendant, & le monstre tousiours long d'vn coudee.—Le membre du Demon est faict a escailles comme vn poisson.—Le membre du Diable s'il estoit estendu est long enuiron d'vne aulne, mais il le tient entortille et sinueux en forme de serpent.—Le Diable, soit qu'il ayt la forme d'homme, ou qu'il soit en forme de Bouc, a tousiours vn membre de mulet, ayant choisy en imitation celuy de cet animal comme le mieux pourueu. Il l'a long et gros comme le bras.—Le membre du Diable est long enuiron la moitie d'vne aulne, de mediocre grosseur, rouge, obscur, & tortu, fort rude & comme piquant.—Ce mauuais Demon ait son membre myparty, moitie de fer, moitie de chair tout de son long, & de mesme les genitoires. Il tient tousiours son membre dehors.—Le Diable a le membre faict de corne, ou pour le moins il en a l'apparence: c'est pourquoy il faict tant crier les femmes.—Jeannette d'Abadie dit qu'elle n'a iamais senty, qu'il eust aucune semence, sauf quand il la depucella qu'elle la sentit froide, mais que celle des autres hommes qui l'ont cognue, est naturelle.'[698]

Sylvine de la Plaine, 1616, confessed 'qu'il a le membre faict comme vn cheual, en entrant est froid comme glace, iette la semence fort froide, & en sortant la brusle comme si c'estoit du feu'.[699] In 1662 Isobel Gowdie said, 'His memberis ar exceiding great and long; no man's memberis ar so long & bigg as they ar.'[700]

The artificial phallus will account as nothing else can for the pain suffered by many of the women; and that they suffered voluntarily, and even gladly, can only be understood by realizing that they endured it for motives other than physical satisfaction and pleasure. 'There appeared a great Black Goat with a Candle between his Horns.... He had carnal knowledge of her which was with great pain.'[701] 'Presque toutes les Sorcieres rapportent que cet accouplement leur est le plus souuent des-agreable, tant pour la laideur & deformite de Satan, que pour ce qu'elles y ont vne extreme douleur.[702] 'Elle fuyoit l'accouplement du Diable, a cause qu'ayant son membre faict en escailles il fait souffrir vne extresme douleur.'[703] At the Sabbath in the Basses-Pyrenees, the Devil took the women behind some sort of screen, and the children 'les oyent crier comme personnes qui souffrent vne grande douleur, et ils les voyent aussi tost reuenir au Sabbat toutes sanglantes'.[704] As regards brides, 'En cet accouplement il leur faict perdre vne infinite de sang, et leur faict souffrir mille douleurs.'[705] Widow Bush of Barton said that the Devil, who came to her as a young black man, 'was colder than man, and heavier, and could not performe nature as man.'[706]

The physical coldness of the Devil is vouched for in all parts of Europe.[707]

'Toutes les Sorcieres s'accordent en cela, que la semence, qu'elles recoiuent du Diable, est froide comme glace: Spranger & les Inquisiteurs, qui en ont veu vne infinite, l'escriuent ainsi. Remy, qui a fait le procez a plus de deux milles Sorciers, en porte vn tesmoignage irrefragable. Ie puis asseurer au semblable, que celles, qui me sont passees par les mains, en ont confesse tout autant. Que si la semence est ainsi froide, il s'ensuit qu'elle est destituee de ses esprits vitaux, & ainsi qu'elle ne peut estre cause d'aucune generation.'[708]

Isobel Gowdie and Janet Breadheid of Auldearne both said that the Devil was 'a meikle, blak, roch man, werie cold; and I fand his nature als cold within me as spring-well-water'. Isobel continues, 'He is abler for ws that way than any man can be, onlie he ves heavie lyk a malt-sek; a hudg nature, verie cold, as yce.'[709]

Another point which goes to prove that the intercourse was by artificial means was that pregnancy did not follow, except by special consent of the woman. Jeannette d'Abadie, aged sixteen, said, 'Elle fuyoit l'accouplement du Diable, a cause qu'ayant son membre faict en escailles il fait souffrir vne extresme douleur; outre que la semence est extresmement froide, si bien qu'elle n'engrosse iamais, ni celle des autres hommes au sabbat, bien qu'elle soit naturelle.'[710] Boguet remarks, 'Il me souuient, qu'Antoinette Tornier, & Antoinette Gandillon, estans interroguees, si elles craignoient point de deuenir enceintes des [oe]uures du Diable; l'vne respondit qu'elle estoit trop vieille; l'autre que Dieu ne le vouloit pas permettre.'[711] According to Jeanne Hervillier, the Devil 'coucha auec elle charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec les femmes, horsmis que la semence estoit froide. Cele dit elle continua tous les huict ou quinze iours.... Et vn iour le diable luy demanda, si elle vouloit estre enceinte de luy, ce qu'elle ne voulut pas.'[712] But when the witch was willing to have a child, it is noticeable that there is then no complaint of the Devil's coldness. At Maidstone in 1652 'Anne Ashby, Anne Martyn, and one other of their Associates, pleaded that they were with child pregnant, but confessed it was not by any man, but by the Divell.... Anne Ashby and Anne Martyn confessed that the Divell had known them carnally, and that they had no hurt by it.'[713]

The Devil appears to have donned or doffed his disguise in the presence of his worshippers, and this was often the case at the time of the sexual rites, whether public or private:

'Il cognoist les Sorcieres tantost en forme d'homme tout noir, & tantost en forme de beste, comme d'vn chien, d'vn chat, d'vn bouc, d'vn mouton. Il cognoissoit Thieuenne Paget, & Antoine Tornier en forme d'vn homme noir: Et lors qu'il accouploit auec Iaquema Paget, & Antoine Gandillon, il prenoit la figure d'vn mouton noir, portant des cornes. Francoise Secretain a dit que son Demon se mettoit tantost en chien, tantost en chat, et tantost en poule, quand il la vouloit cognoistre charnellement. Or tout cecy me fait de tant mieux asseurer l'accouplement reel du Sorcier, & de la Sorciere auec le Demon.'[714]

In the Basses-Pyrenees Marie d'Aspilcouette 'disoit le mesme, pour ce qui est du membre en escailles, mais elle deposoit, que lors qu'il les vouloit cognoistre, il quitoit la forme de Bouc, & prenoit celle d'homme.'[715] 'Il entra dans sa chambre en forme d'ung chat et se changea en la posture d'un home vestu de rouge.'[716] At an attempt to wreck a ship in a great storm 'the devil was there present with them all, in the shape of a great horse.... They returned all in the same likeness as of before, except that the devil was in the shape of a man.'[717] 'The Deivill apeired vnto her, in the liknes of ane prettie boy in grein clothes.... And at that tyme the Deivil gaive hir his markis; and went away from her in the liknes of ane blak doug.'[718] 'He wold haw carnall dealling with ws in the shap of a deir, or in any vther shap, now and then. Somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg, etc., and haw dealling with ws.'[719] 'Yow the said Margaret Hamilton, relict of James Pullwart ... had carnall cowpulatiown with the devil in the lyknes of ane man, bot he removed from yow in the lyknes of ane black dowg.'[720] The most important instance is in Boguet's description of the religious ceremony at the Sabbath: 'Finalement Satan apres auoir prins la figure d'vn Bouc, se consume en feu, & reduit en cendre.'[721]

The witches' habit of speaking of every person of the other sex with whom they had sexual intercourse at the Sabbath as a 'devil' has led to much confusion in the accounts. The confusion has been accentuated by the fact that both male and female witches often used a disguise, or were at least veiled. 'Et pource que les hommes ne cedent guieres aux femmes en lubricite, c'est pourquoy le Demon se met aussi en femme ou Succube.... Ce qu'il fait principalement au Sabbat, selon que l'ont rapporte Pierre Gandillon, & George Gandillon, pere & fils, & les autres, lesquels disent tout vnanimement, qu'en leurs assemblees il y a plusieurs Demons, & que les vns exercent le mestier de l'homme pour les femmes, & les autres le mestier des femmes pour les hommes.'[722] 'The Incubus's in the shapes of proper men satisfy the desires of the Witches, and the Succubus's serve for Whores to the Wizards.'[723] Margaret Johnson said the same: 'Their spirittes vsuallie have knowledge of theire bodies.... Shee also saith, that men Witches usualie have woemen spirittes and woemen witches men spirittes.'[724] The girls under Madame Bourignon's charge 'declared that they had daily carnal Cohabitation with the Devil; that they went to the Sabbaths or Meetings, where they Eat, Drank, Danc'd, and committed other Whoredom and Sensualities. Every one had her Devil in form of a Man; and the Men had their Devils in the form of a Woman.... They had not the least design of changing, to quit these abominable Pleasures, as one of them of Twenty-two Years old one day told me. No, said she, I will not be other than I am; I find too much content in my Condition; I am always Caressed.'[725] One girl of twelve said definitely that she knew the Devil very well, 'that he was a Boy a little bigger than her self; and that he was her Love, and lay with her every Night'; and another girl named Bellot, aged fifteen, 'said her Mother had taken her with her [to the Sabbath] when she was very Young, and that being a little Wench, this Man-Devil was then a little Boy too, and grew up as she did, having been always her Love, and Caressed her Day and Night.'[726] Such connexions sometimes resulted in marriage. Gaule mentions this fact in his general account: 'Oft times he marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or their Familiar, or to one another; and that by the Book of Common Prayer (as a pretender to witchfinding lately told me in the Audience of many).'[727] This statement is borne out in the trials: 'Agnes Theobalda sagte, sie sey selbst zugegen auff der Hochzeit gewesen, da Cathalina und Engel von Hudlingen, ihren Beelzebub zur Ehe genommen haben.'[728] The Devil of Isobel Ramsay's Coven was clearly her husband,[729] but there is nothing to show whether the marriage took place before she became a witch, as in the case of Janet Breadheid of Auldearne, whose husband 'enticed her into that craft'.[730] I have quoted above (p. 179) the ceremony at the marriage of witches in the Basses-Pyrenees. Rebecca Weste, daughter of a witch, married the Devil by what may be a primitive rite; he came to her 'as shee was going to bed, and told her, he would marry her, and that shee could not deny him; shee said he kissed her, but was as cold as clay, and married her that night, in this manner; he tooke her by the hand and lead her about the chamber, and promised to be her loving husband till death, and to avenge her of her enemies; and that then shee promised him to be his obedient wife till death, and to deny God, and Christ Jesus.'[731] At Edinburgh in 1658 a young woman called Anderson was tried: 'her confessioun was, that scho did marry the devill.'[732] The Swedish witches in 1670 confessed that at Blockula 'the Devil had Sons and Daughters which he did marry together'.[733] Giraldus Cambrensis gives an account of a 'spirit' in the form of a red-haired young man, called Simon, who 'was begotten upon the wife of a rustic in that parish, by a demon, in the shape of her husband, naming the man, and his father-in-law, then dead, and his mother, still alive; the truth of which the woman upon examination openly avowed'.[734]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 664: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 206; Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 301.]

[Footnote 665: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 207.]

[Footnote 666: J. G. Campbell, pp. 293-4. The book was in manuscript, and when last heard of was in the possession of the now-extinct Stewarts of Invernahyle.]

[Footnote 667: Spalding Club Misc., i, p. 143.]

[Footnote 668: Pitcairn, iii, p. 603. 'Toads did draw the plough as oxen, couch-grass was the harness and trace-chains, a gelded animal's horn was the coulter, and a piece of a gelded animal's horn was the sock.']

[Footnote 669: Ravaisson, 1679-81, p. 336.]

[Footnote 670: Burns Begg, p. 224.]

[Footnote 671: Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 60.]

[Footnote 672: Id., Bk. III, p. 60.]

[Footnote 673: More, p. 168.]

[Footnote 674: Spalding Club Misc., i, p. 93.]

[Footnote 675: Boguet, p. 211.]

[Footnote 676: R. Scot, p. 77.]

[Footnote 677: Bodin, pp. 125-7.]

[Footnote 678: Bourignon, Vie, pp. 222-3; Hale, pp. 37-8.]

[Footnote 679: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 301.]

[Footnote 680: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 206.]

[Footnote 681: Bodin, p. 465.]

[Footnote 682: Id., p. 465. The trial was in 1545, Magdalene being then forty-two. See also Pleasant Treatise, p. 6.]

[Footnote 683: Id., p. 227.]

[Footnote 684: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 183.]

[Footnote 685: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 145, 398.]

[Footnote 686: Kinloch, p. 124.]

[Footnote 687: Arnot, p. 360.]

[Footnote 688: Boguet, p. 68.]

[Footnote 689: Cooper, p. 92.]

[Footnote 690: More, p. 241.]

[Footnote 691: 'The Deuill your maister, beand in liknes of ane beist, haid carnall [deal] with ilk ane of you.'—Spalding Club Misc., i, p. 149.]

[Footnote 692: Petrie, pp. 7-9; Capart, p. 223.]

[Footnote 693: Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, xviii, 5.]

[Footnote 694: On the other hand, the female generative organs were also adored, and presumably by men. This suggestion is borne out by the figures of women with the pudenda exposed and often exaggerated in size. Such figures are found in Egypt, where they were called Baubo, and a legend was invented to account for the attitude; and similar figures were actually known in ancient Christian churches (Payne Knight, Discourse on the Worship of Priapus).]

[Footnote 695: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 132, 404.]

[Footnote 696: Remigius, pt. i, p. 19.]

[Footnote 697: Boguet, pp. 68-9.]

[Footnote 698: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 68, 224-6.]

[Footnote 699: Id., L'Incredulite, p. 808.]

[Footnote 700: Pitcairn, iii, p. 610.]

[Footnote 701: F. Hutchinson, Historical Essays, p. 42.]

[Footnote 702: Boguet, p. 69.]

[Footnote 703: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 132.]

[Footnote 704: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 219.]

[Footnote 705: Id. ib., p. 404.]

[Footnote 706: Stearne, p. 29.]

[Footnote 707: The following references are in chronological order, and are only a few out of the many trials in which this coldness of the Devil is noted: 1565, Cannaert, p. 54; 1567, De Lancre, Tableau, p. 132; 1578, Bodin, Fleau, p. 227; 1590, Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 219; 1598, Boguet, op. cit., pp. 8, 412; 1645, Stearne, p. 29; 1649, Pitcairn, iii, p. 599; 1652, Van Elven, La Tradition, 1891, v, p. 215; 1661, Kinloch and Baxter, p. 132; 1662, Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 611, 617; 1662, Burns Begg, x, pp. 222, 224, 231-2, 234; 1678, Fountainhall, i, p. 14; 1682, Howell, viii. 1032; 1705, Trials of Elinor Shaw, p. 6.]

[Footnote 708: Boguet, p. 92.]

[Footnote 709: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 611, 617.]

[Footnote 710: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 132.]

[Footnote 711: Boguet, p. 78.]

[Footnote 712: Bodin, p. 227.]

[Footnote 713: A Prodigious and Tragicall Historie, pp. 4, 5.]

[Footnote 714: Boguet, p. 70.]

[Footnote 715: De Lancre, Tableau, p. 225.]

[Footnote 716: H. G. van Elven, La Tradition, 1891, v, p. 215. Place and names not given.]

[Footnote 717: Kinloch, pp. 122, 123.]

[Footnote 718: Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.]

[Footnote 719: Id., iii, pp. 611, 613.]

[Footnote 720: Scots Magazine, 1817, p. 201.]

[Footnote 721: Boguet, p. 141.]

[Footnote 722: Id., p. 65.]

[Footnote 723: Pleasant Treatise of Witches, p. 6. The remembrance of the numerous male devils at the Sabbath survives in the Samalsain dance in the Basses-Pyrenees, where the male attendants on the King and Queen of the dance are still called Satans. Moret, Mysteres Egyptiens, p. 247.]

[Footnote 724: Baines, i, pp. 607-8, note.]

[Footnote 725: Bourignon, Parole, pp. 86, 87; Hale, pp. 26, 27.]

[Footnote 726: Id., Vie, p. 211, 214; Hale, pp. 29, 31.]

[Footnote 727: Gaule, p. 63.]

[Footnote 728: Remigius, p. 131.]

[Footnote 729: Record of Trial in the Edinburgh Justiciary Court.]

[Footnote 730: Pitcairn, iii, p. 616.]

[Footnote 731: Howell, iv, 842.]

[Footnote 732: Nicoll's Diary, p. 212. Bannatyne Club.]

[Footnote 733: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 323.]

[Footnote 734: Davies, p. 183. Cp. also the birth of Merlin. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerary, Bk. I, xii, 91b.]



VII. THE ORGANIZATION

The cult was organized in as careful a manner as any other religious community; each district however was independent, and therefore Mather is justified in saying that the witches 'form themselves after the manner of Congregational Churches'.[735]

1. The Officer

The Chief or supreme Head of each district was known to the recorders as the 'Devil'. Below him in each district, one or more officers—according to the size of the district—were appointed by the chief. The officers might be either men or women; their duties were to arrange for meetings, to send out notices, to keep the record of work done, to transact the business of the community, and to present new members. Evidently these persons also noted any likely convert, and either themselves entered into negotiations or reported to the Chief, who then took action as opportunity served. At the Esbats the officer appears to have taken command in the absence of the Grand Master; at the Sabbaths the officers were merely heads of their own Covens, and were known as Devils or Spirits, though recognized as greatly inferior to the Chief. The principal officer acted as clerk at the Sabbath and entered the witches' reports in his book; if he were a priest or ordained minister, he often performed part of the religious service; but the Devil himself always celebrated the mass or sacrament. In the absence of all direct information on the subject, it seems likely that the man who acted as principal officer became Grand Master on the death of the previous Chief. Occasionally the Devil appointed a personal attendant for himself, who waited upon him on all solemn occasions, but does not appear to have held any official position in the community.

Estebene de Cambrue (1567) said that 'elle a veu au Sabbat vn Notaire qu'elle nomme, lequel a accoustume de leuer les defauts de celles qui ont manque de se trouuer au Sabbat.'[736] At the North Berwick meetings (1590), there were several officers, of whom Fian was the chief.

'Robert Griersoun being namit, they all ran hirdie-girdie and wer angrie: for it wes promisit he sould be callit "Ro^t the Comptroller, alias Rob the Rowar," for expreming of his name.—Johnne Fiene wes ewer nerrest to the Devill, att his left elbok; Gray Meill kepit the dur.—The accusation of the saide Geillis Duncane aforesaide, who confessed he [Fian] was their Regester, and that there was not one man suffered to come to the Divels readinges but onelie hee.—[Fian's confession] That at the generall meetinges of those witches, he was always present; that he was clarke to all those that were in subiection to the Divels service, bearing the name of witches; that alway hee did take their oathes for their true service to the Divell; and that he wrote for them such matters as the Divell still pleased to commaund him.'[737]

Elizabeth Southerns, otherwise known as old Mother Demdike (1613), 'was generall agent for the Deuill in all these partes'.[738] The 'eminent warlok' Robert Grieve of Lauder (1649) 'was brought to a Confession of his being the Devils Officer in that Countrey for warning all Satans Vassals to come to the Meetings, where, and whensoever the Devil required.... The Devil gave him that charge, to be his Officer to warn all to the meetings; (as was said before,) in which charge he continued for the space of eighteen years and more.'[739] The evidence concerning Isobel Shyrie at Forfar (1661) is too long to quote, but it is clear that she acted as the officer.[740] Isobel Gowdie (1662) says definitely, 'Johne Young, in Mebestowne, is Officer to owr Coeven', and remarks in another part of her confession that 'Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, owr Officer, did drywe the plewghe'.[741] The only indication of a change of personnel is given by Janet Breadheid, of the same Coven as Isobel Gowdie.

'Johne Taylor, my husband, was then Officer, bot Johne Young in Mebestoune, is now Officer to my Coeven. Quhan I cam first ther, the Divell called tham all be thair names, on the book; and my husband, than called thame at the door.... Whan we haid Great Meittingis, Walter Ledy, in Penick, my husband, and Alexander Elder, nixt to the Divell, wer Ruleris; and quhan ther wold be but fewar, I my self, the deceassit Jean Suthirland, Bessie Hay, Bessie Wilsone, and Janet Burnet wold rule thaim.'[742]

In Somerset (1664) Anne Bishop appears to have been the chief personage under the Devil, in other words the Officer.[743] At Paisley (1678) Bessie Weir 'was Officer to their several meetings.—Bessie Weir did intimate to him [John Stewart], that there was a meeting to be at his house the next day: And that the Devil under the shape of a black man, Margaret Jackson, Margery Craige, and the said Bessie Weir, were to be present. And that the said Bessie Weir required the Declarant to be there, which he promised.'[744] In New England (1692) it appears that both Bridget Bishop and Martha Carrier held high rank, and were probably Officers.

One duty seems to have been delegated to a particular individual, who might perhaps hold no other office, or who might, on the other hand, be the chief official; this was the manager, often the leader, of the dance. As pace seems to have been an essential in the dance, the leader was necessarily active and generally young. At North Berwick (1590) 'John Fein mussiled led the ring'.[745] In Aberdeen (1596) Thomas Leyis was the chief person in the dance; 'thow the said Thomas was formest and led the ring, and dang the said Kathren Mitchell, becaus scho spillet your dans, and ran nocht so fast about as the rest.'[746] Isobel Cockie of the same Coven was next in importance; 'in the quhilk danse, thow was the ring leader nixt Thomas Leyis.'[747] Mr. Gideon Penman (1678), who had once been minister at Crighton, went to the Sabbaths, where the Devil spoke of him as 'Mr. Gideon, my chaplain'.[748] The witches said that 'ordinarily Mr. Gideon was in the rear in all their dances, and beat up those that were slow'. This Mr. Gideon seems to be the same person as the 'warlock who formerly had been admitted to the ministrie in the Presbyterian times, and now he turnes a preacher under the devill.—This villan was assisting to Satan in this action' [giving the sacrament] 'and in preaching.'[749]

The personal attendant of the Devil is rare. At Aberdeen (1596) Issobell Richie was accused that 'at that tyme thow ressauit thy honours fra the Dewyll, thy maister, and wer appoynted be him in all tymes thairefter, his speciall domestick servand and furriour'.[750] John McWilliam Sclater (1656) was appointed cloak-bearer to the Devil.[751]

The Devil's piper was also an official appointment in Scotland, but does not occur elsewhere. John Douglas of Tranent (1659) was the Devil's piper,[752] and so also was a man mentioned by Sinclair: 'A reverend Minister told me, that one who was the Devils Piper, a wizzard confest to him, that at a Ball of dancing, the Foul Spirit taught him a Baudy song to sing and play.'[753]

The Queen of the Sabbath may perhaps be considered as an official during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though in early times she was probably the chief personage in the cult, as Pearson has pointed out.[754] It is not unlikely that she was originally the same as the Queen of Elfhame; in Scotland, however, in the seventeenth century, there is a Maiden of the Coven, which was an important position in the Esbat but entirely distinct from the Queen of Faery, while in other places a woman, not the Queen, is often the officer and holds the highest place after the Grand Master.

Elizabeth Stile of Windsor (1579) said that 'mother Seidre dwelling in the Almeshouse, was the maistres Witche of all the reste'.[755] Marion Grant of Aberdeen (1597) confessed that 'the Devill thy maister causit the dans sindrie tymes with him and with Our Ladye, quha, as thow sayes, was a fine woman, cled in a quhyte walicot'.[756] In France (1609) the custom seems to have been universal, 'en chasque village trouuer vne Royne du Sabbat', who sat at the Devil's left hand during the celebration of the mass and received the offerings of the faithful.[757] The witches called her both the Grande Maitresse and the Reine du Sabbat.[758] Isobel Gowdie's confession (1662) shows that the Queen of Elthame was not the same as the chief woman of the Coven, for she saw the Queen only on going into the fairy-howe, while the Maiden of the Coven was at each meeting. 'We doe no great mater without owr Maiden.—Quhan we ar at meat, or in any vther place quhateuir, the Maiden of each Coven sittis abow the rest, nixt the Divell.'[759] In New England (1692) Deliverance Hobbs confessed that 'the said G. B. preached to them, and such a woman was their Deacon'.[760]

2. The Covens

The word coven is a derivative of 'convene', and is variously spelt coven, coeven, covine, cuwing, and even covey. The special meaning of the word among the witches is a 'band' or 'company', who were set apart for the practice of the rites of the religion and for the performance of magical ceremonies; in short, a kind of priesthood.

The Coven was composed of men and women, belonging to one district, though not necessarily all from one village, and was ruled by an officer under the command of the Grand Master. The members of the Coven were apparently bound to attend the weekly Esbat; and it was they who were instructed in and practised magical arts, and who performed all the rites and ceremonies of the cult. The rest of the villagers attended the Esbats when they could or when they felt so inclined, but did not necessarily work magic, and they attended the Sabbaths as a matter of course. This view of the organization of the religion is borne out by the common belief in modern France:

'Il est de croyance generale qu'il faut un nombre fixe de sorciers et de sorcieres dans chaque canton. Le nouvel initie reprend les vieux papiers de l'ancien.—Les mauvaises gens forment une confrerie qui est dirigee par une sorciere. Celle-ci a la jarretiere comme marque de sa dignite. Elles se la transmettent successivement par rang d'anciennete. Il n'existe que cette difference de rang entre les sorciers et les sorcieres. Ceux-la se recrutent aussi bien parmi les gens maries que chez les celibataires.'[761]

The 'fixed number' among the witches of Great Britain seems to have been thirteen: twelve witches and their officer. The actual numbers can be obtained, as a rule, only when the full record of the trial is available; for when several witches in one district are brought to trial at the same time they will always be found to be members of a Coven, and usually the other members of the Coven are implicated or at least mentioned.

The earliest account of a Coven is in the trial of Bessie Dunlop (1567); when Thom Reid was trying to induce her to join the society, he took her 'to the kill-end, quhair he forbaid her to speik or feir for onye thing sche hard or saw; and quhene thai had gane ane lytle pece fordwerd, sche saw twelf persounes, aucht wemene and four men: The men wer cled in gentilmennis clething, and the wemene had all plaiddis round about thame and wer verrie semelie lyke to se; and Thom was with thame.'[762] Clearly this was a Coven with Thom as the Officer, and he had brought Bessie to see and be seen. The witches tried at St. Osyth in Essex in 1582 were thirteen in number.[763] At the meeting of the North Berwick witches (1590) to consult on the means to compass the king's death, nine witches stood 'in ane cumpany', and the rest 'to the nowmer of threttie persons in ane vthir cumpany'; in other words, there were thirty-nine persons, or three Covens, present.[764] At Aberdeen (1596-7) sixty-four names of witches occur in the trials; of these, seven were merely mentioned as being known to the accused, though not as taking part in the ceremonies, and five were acquitted; thus leaving fifty-two persons, or four Covens. Out of these fifty-two, one was condemned and executed at the assize in 1596 and twelve in 1597, making in all thirteen persons, or one Coven, who were put to death.[765] The great trial of the Lancashire witches in 1613 gives a grand total of fifty-two witches, or four Covens, whose names occur in the record. This includes the three Salmesbury witches mentioned by Grace Sowerbuts, whose evidence was discredited as being the outcome of a 'Popish plot' to destroy the three women as converts to the Reformed Church; but as the record shows that the other accused witches were tried on similar charges and condemned, it may be concluded that other causes occasioned the acquittal. Taking together, however, only those witches who are mentioned, in these trials, as having actually taken part in the ceremonies and practices of witchcraft in the neighbourhood of Pendle, it will be found that there were thirty-nine persons, or three Covens.[766] In Guernsey in 1617 Isabel Becquet confessed that—

'at the Sabbath the Devil used to summon the Wizards and Witches in regular order (she remembered very well having heard him call the old woman Collette the first, in these terms: Madame the Old Woman Becquette): then the woman Fallaise; and afterwards the woman Hardie. Item, he also called Marie, wife of Massy, and daughter of the said Collette. Said that after them she herself was called by the Devil: in these terms: The Little Becquette: she also heard him call there Collas Becquet, son of the said old woman (who [Collas] held her by the hand in dancing, and some one [a woman] whom she did not know, held her by the other hand): there were about six others there she did not know.[767]

At Queensferry in 1644 thirteen women were tried and seven executed for witchcraft.[768]

At Alloa (1658), though thirteen persons, or one Coven, were brought to trial, the word is used to indicate a smaller number: 'Margret Duchall lykewayis declared that ther was sex women mair besyd hir self that was in thair cuwing' [then follow the names of the six].—'Jonet Blak confessed severall meetings with the abowenamed cuwing.—Kathren Renny being asked quhat meetingis scho had with the diwell, and the rest of hir cuwing, scho ansuered scho had severall meitingis with all tham abowenamed.'[769] Little Jonet Howat of Forfar (1661) said, 'Ther was thair present with the divell besyd hirselfe, quhom he callit the prettie dauncer, the said Issobell Syrie, Mairie Rynd, Hellen Alexander, Issobell Dorward, and utheris whoise names shoe did not know, to the number of 13 of all.'[770] The trial of Jonet Kerr and Issobell Ramsay at Edinburgh (1661) gives the names of thirteen persons, or one Coven.[771] At Crook of Devon (1662) there were tried twelve women and one man, i.e. one Coven.[772] Isobel Gowdie of Auldearne (1662) gives the most detail concerning the Covens: 'Jean Mairten is Maiden of owr Coeven. Johne Younge is Officer to owr Coeven.—Ther ar threttein persons in ilk Coeven.' Her evidence shows that there were several Covens in the district: 'The last tyme that owr Coven met, we, and an vther Coven, wer dauncing at the Hill of Earlseat, and befor that we ves beyond the Meikle-burne; and the vther Coven being at the Downie-hillis, we went besyd them.—[She and four others] with the Divell, wer onlie at the making of it [a charm], bot all the multitude of all owr Coevens got notice of it, at the next meitting ... all my owin Coeven gott notice of it werie schortlie.' She also notes that each member of her Coven 'has an Sprit to wait wpon ws, quhan ve pleas to call wpon him'. Janet Breadheid, of the same Coven as Isobel Gowdie, gives the names of thirty-nine persons, or three Covens, who were present in the Kirk of Nairn when she was admitted into the Society.[773] In Somerset (1664) the number of accused was twenty-six persons, or two Covens.[774] At Newcastle-on-Tyne (1673) Ann Armstrong stated that at the meeting at the 'rideing house in the close on the common' she saw ten men and women whom she knew and 'thre more, whose names she knowes not'. At another meeting 'at Rideing Millne bridg-end she see the said Anne Forster, Anne Dryden, and Luce Thompson, and tenne more unknowne to her.—Att the house of John Newton off the Riding, the said Lucy wished that a boyl'd capon with silver scrues might come down to her and the rest, which were five coveys consisting of thirteen person in every covey.' At a large meeting at Allensford, where a great many witches were present, 'every thirteen of them had a divell with them in sundry shapes.' It is also noticeable that Ann Armstrong mentions twenty-six persons by name as having been at various meetings to her knowledge.[775] At Paisley (1692) thirteen persons of high position brought an action for libel against six others for saying that they, the thirteen, had drunk the Devil's health in the house of one of them; the libellers were punished, but the number of persons libelled suggests that the accusation might have been true.[776]

3. Duties

An important part of the organization was the system of reporting to the Grand Master everything which had happened since the previous Great Assembly. The chief work of the Covens was the performance of magical rites, either publicly at the Esbats or privately in the houses of the witches and their neighbours. As these rites, especially when performed privately, were more or less in the nature of experiments, the results were reported and when successful were recorded in writing for future use. The book in which the records were made remained in the hands of the Devil, who in this way had always a store of well-tried magical spells and recipes to kill or cure, from which he could instruct his followers as occasion demanded.

The position of the Devil as the instructor of the witches is to be found in most of the trials in Great Britain. Cooper states this plainly: 'He deliuers unto his Proselite, and so to the rest, the Rules of his Art, instructing them in the manner of hurting and helping, and acquainting them with such medicines and poysons as are vsuall herevnto.'[777] Bessie Dunlop (1567) never attempted to cure any disease without first consulting Thom Reid, 'quhen sundrie persounes cam to hir to seik help for thair beist, thair kow or yow, or for ane barne that was tane away with ane evill blast of wind, or elf-grippit, sche gait and sperit at Thom, Quhat mycht help thame?—Sche culd do nathing, quhill sche had first spokin with Thom.'[778] Alison Peirson (1588) learnt her craft from Mr. William Simpson, her mother's brother's son, who lived among the fairy folk; 'the saide Mr Williame tauld hir of ewerie seiknes and quhat herbis scho sould tak to haill thame, and how scho sould vse thame; and gewis hir his directioune att all tymes.'[779] Agnes Sampson, the Wise Wife of Keith (1590), always asked the Devil's advice in serious cases; 'she had a familiar spirit, who upon her call, did appear in a visible form, and resolve her of any doubtful matter, especially concerning the life or death of persons lying sick.'[780] Grissel Gairdner of Newburgh (1610) was executed for consulting with the 'Devill, and seiking of responssis fra him, at all tymes this fourtene or fyftene [3*]eir bygane, for effectuating of hir devillisch intentiones'.[781] Elspeth Reoch in Orkney (1616) confessed that the fairy man, whom she met, told her 'he wald lerne her to ken and sie ony thing she wald desyre'.[782] Isobel Haldane of Perth (1623) also obtained all her information as to life and death from the man with the 'grey beird' whom she met among the fairy folk.[783] Jonet Rendall, another Orkney witch (1629), stated that 'the devill apperit to you, Quhom ye called Walliman, claid in quhyt cloathis with ane quhyt head and ane gray beard, And said to you He sould learne yow to win almiss be healling of folk'[784] Sandie Hunter was only moderately successful in curing cattle till he covenanted with the Devil, who 'came to him in the form of a Mediciner, and said, Sandie, you have too long followed my trade, and never acknowledged me for your Master. You must now take on with me, and be my servant, and I will make you more perfect in your Calling. Whereupon the man gave up himself to the Devil. After this, he grew very famous throw the Countrey, for his Charming and cureing of diseases in Men and Beasts.'[785] Reginald Scot says that the witches were taught by the Devil to make magical ointments, and that he 'supplied their want of powders and roots to intoxicate withal'.[786] It was the Devil who pointed out which graves were to be opened in order to obtain the material for working magic; and when the bodies had been exhumed and dismembered, he told the witches how to use the fragments.[787] It was the Devil who made[788] or baptized[789] the wax and clay images, and who stuck the first thorn or pin into them.[790] It was the Devil who held the mock plough at Auldearne, and taught the witches of that place all the charms they knew. 'We get all this power from the Divell', says Isobell Gowdie.[791] It was the Devil who instigated and superintended the wrecking of the bridge at Cortaquhie, concerning which Helen Guthrie said, 'shee her selfe, Jonnet Stout, and others of them did thrust ther shoulderis againest the bridge', and Isobel Smyth confessed, 'Wee all rewed that meitting, for wee hurt our selves lifting.'[792]

The book in which the magical recipes were recorded must have been of great value to its owner, and one which he would not willingly allow to pass out of his hands. A volume of this kind was known to be extant till the beginning of the last century; it was called the Red Book of Appin. There are two stories as to how it was taken from the Devil, but both stories agree that it was obtained by a trick. It was in manuscript and contained charms for the cure of cattle, and was consulted when cows were bewitched and refused to give milk. It was also supposed to confer magical powers on the owner, who was said to know what the inquiry would be before the inquirer opened his lips; and it was in itself so magical that the owner had to wear a hoop of iron on his head when turning its leaves.[793] Another Devil's-book was carried away, apparently as a joke, by Mr. Williamson of Cardrona, who took it from the witches as they danced on Minchmoor, but they followed him and he returned it.[794]

The system of reporting everything to the Chief of the community makes it certain that he was supplied with such current information as made his knowledge of public and private affairs appear miraculous to the uninitiated. Even those who supplied that information had firm faith in his supernatural power to kill or cure, and believed with equal ardour in the charms which he taught them to make and use.

In reviewing the evidence it seems clear that the witches of the Covens were bound to exercise their powers in the intervals between the meetings; they were bound to attend those meetings, unless absolutely prevented, in order to learn new methods as well as to make their reports; and they were bound to obey the Grand Master's orders and to treat him with the deference and respect due to his exalted position.

4. Discipline

Discipline was maintained by a system of rewards and punishments, enforced or relaxed according to the personal character of the Chief. As a rule only the severer punishments are recorded, but occasionally there are indications of minor chastisements.

The contemporary writers make the system of rewards and punishments very clear:

'Satan calleth them togither into a Diuelish Sinagoge, and that he may also vnderstand of them howe well and diligently they haue fulfilled their office of intoxicating committed vnto them, and who they haue slaine.'[795] 'Such as are absent, and have no care to be assoygned, are amerced to this paenalty, so to be beaten on the palms of their feete, to be whipt with iron rods, to be pincht and suckt by their Familiars till their heart blood come, till they repent them of their sloath, and promise more attendance and diligence for the future.'[796] 'Taking account also of the proceedings of his other Schollers, and so approuing or condemning accordingly.'[797] Sometimes at their solemn assemblies, the Devil commands, that each tell what wickedness he hath committed, and according to the hainousness and detestableness of it, he is honoured and respected with a general applause. Those on the contrary, that have done no evil, are beaten and punished.'[798]

The usual punishment was beating, which was inflicted for various offences, chiefly disrespect or neglect of duty. At Arras in 1460 Jean Tacquet, a rich eschevin, 'had endeavoured to withdraw his allegiance from Satan who had forced him to continue it by beating him cruelly with a bull's pizzle.'[799] In Lorraine (1589) the Grand Master seems to have been peculiarly brutal:

'Jana Gerardina, Catharina Russa, und Francisca Fellaea bezeugten, dass sie mehr als einmal schwerlich mit harten Streichen haetten buessen muessen, wenn sie keinen Schaden oder Unglueck angestifft haetten. Und wie Nicolaea Morelia sagt, hat er sie dermassen zerschlagen, dass ihr der Athem davon ausgeblieben, und sie bey nahe gestorben waere; Uber welches sich dann nicht zu verwundern sey, sintemahl er eiserne Haende habe, mit denen er ihnen so unbarmhertzig die Koepffe zerschlagen, dass sie deren nicht mehr empfinden.'[800]

In the Lyons district (1598) 'les Sorciers rendent conte a Satan de ce qu'ils ont fait des la derniere assemblee, estans ceux la les mieux venus qui ont commis le plus de meschancetez. Les autres sont sifflez & mocquez de tous; l'on les fait mettre a l'escart, & sont encor le plus souuent battus & maltraitez de leur Maistre'.[801] According to Bodin, 'chacun Sorcier doit rendre compte du mal qu'il a faict sur peine d'estre bien battu.'[802] De Lancre says, 'Les Sorciers le vont adorer trois nuicts durant. Ceux qui par nonchalance, ou autre petit empeschement ne s'y trouuent, sont foueettez & battus a l'outrance.'[803] Alexander Hamilton (1630) stated that 'thair was ane new tryst appointed be him to be keipit wt thame altogidder within xiii days thereftir upon the cauldbit mure Quhilk meitting was nocht keipit be the said Alexr for the quhilk caus and breking of that tryst the said Alexr was maist rigorouslie strukin be the devill wt ane battoun at ane meitting keipit betuix thame schortlie thereftir upone gairnetoune hillis'.[804] In France (1652) two sisters were tried for witchcraft: 'Icelle confesse n'avoir faict mourir qu'un vaulx et d'avoir ete battu par le diable, deux fois, parce qu'elle ne vouloit faire mourir aultres personnes et bestiault.' The other sister was 'interrogee sy le diable ne luy avoit conseille de cracher la Sainte Hostie hors de sa bouche, ou bien ne la point recepvoir, dist que non, mais bien que le diable l'at une fois battue fort parce qu'elle l'avoit receu'.[805] The girls at Lille (1661) informed Madame Bourignon that the witches 'are constrained to offer him their Children, or else the Devil would Beat them'.[806] Isobel Gowdie's account is, as usual, very full:

'Som tymis, among owr felwis, we wold be calling him "Blak Johne", or the lyk, and he wold ken it, and heir ws weill aneughe; and he ewin then com to ws, and say, "I ken weill aneughe what [3*]e wer sayeing of me!" And then he vold beat and buffet ws werie sor. We wold be beattin if ve wer absent any tyme, or neglect any thing that wold be appointit to be done. Allexr Elder, in Earlseat, vold be werie often beattin. He is bot soft, and cowld never defend him self in the leist, bot greitt and cry, quhan he vold be scourging him. Bot Margret Wilson, in Auldearne, wold defend hir selfe fynelie, and cast wp hir handis to keip the stroakis off from hir; and Bessie Wilson would speak crustie with hir townge, and wold be belling again to him stowtlie. He wold be beatting and scurgeing ws all wp and downe with cardis [cords] and vther sharp scurges, like naked gwhastis; and we wold still be cryeing, "Pittie! pittie! Mercie! mercie, owr Lord!" Bot he wold haue neither pittie nor mercie. When he vold be angrie at ws, he wold girne at ws lyk a dowge, as iff he wold swallow ws wp.'[807]

The Swedish witches (1669) also had reason to complain of their Grand-Master's cruelty: 'heretofore it was sufficient to carry but one of their Children [to the meeting] or a strangers Child with them, but now he did plague them and whip them if they did not procure him Children.'[808] Among the Northumberland witches (1673):

'All of them who had donne harme gave an account thereof to their protector, who made most of them that did most harme, and beate those who had donne no harme.—At the said meeting their particular divell tooke them that did most evill, and danced with them first, and called every of them to an account, and those that did most evill he maid most of.—The devill, in the forme of a little black man and black cloaths, calld of one Isabell Thompson, of Slealy, widdow, by name, and required of her what service she had done him. She replyd she had gott power of the body of one Margarett Teasdale. And after he had danced with her he dismissed her and call'd of one Thomasine, wife of Edward Watson, of Slealy.'[809]

Punishments for minor offences are rarely recorded. At North Berwick (1590), when the witches returned after sinking a ship, 'seeing that they tarried over long, hee at their comming enjoyned them all to a pennance, which was, that they should kisse his buttockes, in sign of duety to him.'[810] At Aberdeen (1597) Christen Mitchell confessed that when the Devil asked her to join, 'thow ansuerit, I will enter in thy band, bot I will nocht byd thairin; and thairefter that the Devill gawe the a wisk, and thow fell on thy face one the dyk of that yaird.'[811] Beigis Tod, who belonged to one of the North Berwick Covens but was not tried till 1608, was late in arriving at a meeting, 'quhair the Deuill appeirit to thame, and reprovet the said Beigis Tod verrie scherplie, for hir long tayreing; to quhome scho maid this ansuer, "Sir, I could wyn na soner."'[812] At Lille if any witch desired to leave the religion, 'the Devil reproves them then more severely, and obligeth them to new Promises.'[813] Occasionally the witches kept discipline among themselves; this seems to have been the case only when the culprit prevented the proper execution of magical performances. At Aberdeen Thomas Leyis 'led the ring, and dang the said Kathren Mitchell, becaus scho spillit your dans, and ran nocht sa fast about as the rest.'[814] At Auldearne Isobel Gowdie described how the witches used flint arrow-heads: 'I shot at the Laird of Park, as he ves crossing the Burn of Boath; bot, thankis to God now, that he preserwit him. Bessie Hay gaw me a great cuffe, becaus I missed him.'[815] The former minister of Crighton, Mr. Gideon Penman, acted as the Devil's chaplain; 'ordinarily Mr. Gideon was in the rear in all their dances, and beat up all those that were slow.'[816] But a reasonable excuse for trifling misdemeanours could be accepted: 'The devill asked at Kathrine Moore quhair hir Husband was that he came not she answered there was a young bairne at home and that they could not both come.'[817]