OF THE WITCH’S POWERS OF TRANSFORMATION.
Those of our readers who are not very well acquainted with the theory
of witchcraft will not be a little surprised, at the unaccountable
activity of its agents, who are capable of paying not only proper
attention to their own private affairs, but likewise of carrying on
almost all the business of the Evil One in this land. In order to
obviate all surprise on this head, be it remembered, that they are
endowed with as ample powers of transmigration (at their institution
into the craft) as any other of Satan’s spiritual agents; consequently
there is no similitude from their own proper likenesses to that of a
cat or a stone, but they can assume at pleasure. Hence the speed and
privacy with which they attain their evil ends.
One of the most ordinary disguises of a “_Ban-Buchichd_”[G] is the
similitude of a hare. This transformation she finds exceedingly
convenient while performing her cantrips in the field--bewitching
farming implements--destroying corn and grass--holding communion with
the sisterhood, and similar pieces of business. It enables her to
execute her undertakings with greater expedition, and flee more fleetly
on any emergency, than she could do in any other character.
A second is the likeness of a cat--by personating which, she procures
admission to the inmost recesses of a house, to deposit her infernal
machinery, without exciting the least suspicions of her real character
and intentions.
A third is her transformation into a stone, which is a common practice
with the witch in the season of agricultural operations, by which she
is afforded great opportunities of mischief to the farmer’s interest.
The wily witch will penetrate into the ground, and place herself in
the line of the plough, and as it passes her she will creep in betwixt
the sock and the culter. The plough is consequently expelled from the
ground for a considerable space, and a “_bauk_” is the consequence.
For these insidious and barefaced acts of iniquity, the witch, if
discovered, seldom escapes with impunity. Stopping the cattle, the
ploughman will take hold of the stone, bestowing upon it the most
abusive and opprobrious epithets, and dashes her with all his might
against the hardest substance he can find, as a mark of his hatred and
contempt for her character.
A fourth is her transformation into the shape of a raven; which now
in a great measure supersedes the use of her ancient and renowned
hobby-horse the broom, on which she formerly walloped with such
surprising velocity. This similitude is commonly assumed by her when on
excursions to any distance, to attend the counsels of Satan--to hold
communion with the sisterhood--or to attend some important enterprise.
The witch likewise assumes the character of a _magpie_ on occasions
of sudden emergency which require immediate conference with a number
of the members of the craft. The likeness of this bird, which is
of a domestic character, and fond of hopping and picking about the
doors, screens the witch from suspicion, as she visits another witch’s
dwelling. Hence, when a number of magpies convene together side by
side on a house-top, it is no wonder that their appearance should
occasionally excite suspicion. But we humbly think that mere suspicion
by no means justifies that hostility of temper which in several
districts the inhabitants are led to entertain against the whole
race of magpies, merely because the witches sometimes assume their
similitude. These suspicions are no doubt a good deal heightened by the
circumstance of the poor magpie’s being a little endowed with the gift
of prophecy. As a foreteller of minor events--such as the coming of
visitors, the change of weather, and such-like little occurrences--the
magpie has never been excelled; and notwithstanding the illiberal
conduct of its human neighbours, those little qualities are always
exerted by the magpie for their comfort and convenience.
On the morning of that auspicious day on which the factor, the
parson, or any other of the country gentry of equal importance, is
to pay a visit to the lord of the manor on which the magpie may have
pitched her residence, she will approach the house, and, by her
incessant chattering, announce to the inhabitants the coming of the
consequential stranger. The state apartment, perhaps rather deranged,
is consequently arrayed in proper order; and the necessary provisions
to entertain the expected guests are timeously procured, which, but for
the magpie’s generous and ill-rewarded premonition, could not perhaps
be provided for the occasion.