called in his native city, the Syrian Byblus, Astarte. To redeem himself
from the curse upon his board and bed,--for he had recently married a fair
wife,--he applied to a wise astrologer. The sage heard his case, and
advised him, as his only remedy, to go on a certain night, at its very
noon, to a spot just without the gates, called the Pagan's Tomb,--to
station himself on the roof of it, and to recite, at a prescribed moment,
a certain formulary, with which his counsel, learned in magical law,
furnished him. On the Pagan's Tomb accordingly the young man placed
himself at the noon of night, and awaited his deliverance. And presently,
towards the confines of morning, was heard a sound of sad and solemn
music, and of much wailing, and of the measured tread of a long
procession. And there drew nigh a mournful company of persons, who might
have seemed men and women, but for their extraordinary stature, and their
surpassing majesty and beauty: and the young man remembered the words of
the magician, and knew that before him was the goodly company of the gods
whom his forefathers in past generations had worshiped. One only of that
august and weeping band was borne in a chariot--the god Saturn--perhaps by
reason of his great age; and to Saturn he addressed his prayer, which was
of such potency that Saturn straightway commanded Astarte to release the
petitioner from the curse she had laid upon him.
We have been able merely to indicate how wide a field lies beyond the
proper domain of medieval witchcraft. It would be curious to trace the
similarity of the Heathen and Christian superstitions, or rather the
derivation of one from the other. But we must reserve this subject to some
other occasion, and conclude with repeating the wish with which we
commenced, that some competent hand would undertake to trace through all
its ramifications the obscure yet recompensing subject of Magic and
Witchcraft.
THE END.
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, PRINTER,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Since they were written, Sir Walter Scott's 'Demonology and
Witchcraft' has been published, a book replete with interesting historical
notices.
[2] Faustus, who is a sort of Delolme in matters infernal, has an able
treatise on the subject, entitled 'Mirakel- Kunst- und Wunder-Buch, oder
der schwartze Rabe, auch der dreifache Höllen Zwang genannt,' in which the
political system of Lucifer's dominions is examined. Dionysius the
Areopagite indeed is not more exact in his calendar of the celestial
hierarchy. Perhaps these treatises are the common parents of the modern
'Blue Books.'
[3] Reginald Scott's 'Discoverie of Witchcraft' contains an army-list or
muster-roll of the infernal forces. Thus the Duke of Amazeroth, who seems
to be a sort of brigadier-general, has the command of sixty legions, etc.
[4] Satan is a mere third-rate spirit, as they will find by consulting a
list of the Infernal Privy Council for 1669, contained in Faust's 'Black
Raven.' But we are not told the exact date of his deposition from his
primacy. It is singular that both in the book of Job, where he is
mentioned for the first time, and in the Scandinavian mythologers, he
appears in a similar character--"The Ranger," or "Roving Spirit of
Tartarus." See Whiter, Etymologicon, vol. iii., in which very learned,
though now forgotten work, there is much diabolical erudition.
[5] Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren. Yet, like Cato the Censor, Lucifer
may have taken to study late in life.
[6] Lotichius, Oratorio super fatalibus hoc tempore Academiarum periculis:
1631. Lotichius took the trouble to compose a Latin poem on the subject of
his triumphal entry. A book entitled 'Mammon' had some reputation in its
day. The acknowledged author's name indeed is Harris; yet some commentator
of the year 2150 will perhaps suggest that it was 'Old Harry's Mammon.' We
have seen worse "conjectural emendations."
[7] Colloquia Mensalia.
[8] Legenda Aurea Jacob. de Voragine, leg. 123.
[9] _Ibid._ leg. 21.
[10] Or even a bishop. See Southey's pithy and profitable tale of
'Eleemon, or a Sinner Saved.'
[11] In the case of St. Lydvina, when he pleaded his case in person, and
thought it a clear one, he was fairly laughed out of court, "deriso
explosoque Dæmone." (Brugmann, Vita Lydvinæ, p. 290.) He was hoaxed in a
still more ingenious manner by Nostradamus, who having agreed that the
devil should have him, if he was buried either in the church or out of it,
left directions that he should be buried in a hole in the wall. Sometimes
however he was the gainer in such equivocal compacts,--as, for example, in
the case of the monk who was to live so long as he abstained from sleeping
between sheets. The monk always slept in a chair; but in an unlucky hour
Satan caught him as fast as a top with his head between _the sheets_ of a
sermon, and claimed his bond.
[12] Inferno, canto vi.
[13] The trials at Arras, in 1459. Vide Monstrelet's Chronicle, vol. iii.
p. 84: Paris, 1572. But these were rather religious prosecutions against
supposed heretics, and the crime of witchcraft only introduced as
aggravating their offences.
[14] Christoph von Ranzow, a nobleman of Holstein, burned eighteen at once
on _one_ of his estates.
[15] Some of our readers may wish to see a specimen of this precious
production. We shall take a stanza or two, descriptive of the joke of
which the poor witch was the victim.
Ein Hexen hat man gefangen, zu Zeit die war sehr reich
Mit der man lang umbgaben ehe sie bekannte gleich,
Dann sie blieb darauf beständig es gescheh ihr Unrecht gross,
Bis man ihr macht nothwendig _diesen artlichen Poss_(!),
Das ich mich drüber wunder; man schickt ein Henkersknecht
Zu ihr ins Gefängniss 'nunter, den man hat kleidet recht
Mit einer Bärnhaute als wenns der Teufel wär;
Als ihm die Drut anschaute meynts ihr Buhl kam daher.
Sie sprach zu ihm behende, wie lestu mich so lang
In der Obrigkeit Hände? Hilf mir aus ihren Zwang,
Wie du mir hast verheissen, ich bin ja eben dein;
Thu mich aus der Angst entreissen, o liebster Bule mein!
Sie thet sich selbst verrathen, und gab Anzeigung viel
Sie hat nit geschmeckt den Braten, _was das war für ein Spiel_(!).
Er tröstet sie und saget, ich will dir helfen wohl;
Darum sey unverzaget, Morgens geschehen soll.
It bears the colophon "Printed at Smalcald in the year 1627."
[16] When these horrors were thus versified, it is not wonderful to find
them "improved" by the preachers of the time. At Riga, in 1626, there
appeared 'Nine Select Witch Sermons, by Hermann Sampsonius, superintendent
at Riga,' and many others in the course of that century.
[17] Criminal Law. Tit. x.
[18] Records of Justiciary. Trial of the Master of Orkney.
[19] Calef's Journal.
[20] Cobbett's State Trials.
[21] Trial of Bartie Paterson. Records of Scottish Justiciary. Dec. 18,
1607.
[22] In Wenham's case, Mr. Chauncy deposed that a cat belonging to Jane
Wenham had come and _knocked_ at his door at night, and that he had killed
it. This was founded on evidence at the trial.
[23] Rec. of Just. 1613, Dec. 1.
[24] See the 'Neue Necrologie der Deutschen, 1823,' for an account of
these remarkable appearances.
[25] Divina et Vera Metaphysica.
[26] Wordsworth's 'Dion.'
[27] The prefixed characters which Ashmole interprets to mean Responsum
Raphaelis seem remarkably to resemble that cabalistic-looking initial
which in medical prescriptions is commonly interpreted "Recipe."
[28] Dapper (Beschreibung von Amsterdam, p. 150) describes her as a
melancholy or hypochondriac girl. She was burned however as usual. These
rhyming or alliterative charms are of very remote antiquity. Cato, in his
treatise on Husbandry, recommends the following formulary for a sprain or
fracture: "Huat Hanat, Huat Ista, Pista Sista, Domiabo Damnaustra," or
"Motas Væta, Daries Dardaries, Astataries Dissunapiter."
[29] This, indeed, is an almost invariable feature in the witch trials,
and, if the subject could justify the discussion, might lead to some
singular medical conclusions.
[30] The trade of a pricker, as it was called, _i. e._ a person who put
pins into the flesh of a witch, was a regular one in Scotland and England,
as well as on the Continent. Sir George Mackenzie mentions the case of one
of them who confessed the imposture (p. 48); and a similar instance is
mentioned by Spottiswood (p. 448). Sir Walter Scott gives the following
account of this trade:--"One celebrated mode of detecting witches, and
torturing them at the same time, to draw forth confession, was, by running
pins into their body, on pretence of discovering the devil's stigma, or
mark, which was said to be inflicted by him upon all his vassals, and to
be insensible to pain. This species of search, the practice of the
infamous Hopkins, was in Scotland reduced to a trade; and the young
witch-finder was allowed to torture the accused party, as if in exercise
of a lawful calling, although Sir George Mackenzie stigmatizes it as a
horrid imposture. I observe in the Collections of Mr. Pitcairn, that, at
the trial of Janet Peaston of Dalkeith, the magistrates and ministers of
that market-town caused John Kincaid of Tranent, the common pricker, to
exercise his craft upon her, 'who found two marks of what he called the
devil's making, and which appeared indeed to be so, for she could not feel
the pin when it was put into either of the said marks, nor did they (the
marks) bleed when they were taken out again; and when she was asked where
she thought the pins were put in, she pointed to a part of her body
distant from the real place. They were pins of three inches in length.'
Besides the fact, that the persons of old people especially sometimes
contain spots void of sensibility, there is also room to believe that the
professed prickers used a pin, the point or lower part of which was, on
being pressed down, sheathed in the upper, which was hollow for the
purpose, and that which appeared to enter the body did not pierce it at
all."--_Demonology and Witchcraft_, p. 297.
[31] Peter died in prison just in time to escape the flames. He was burned
in effigy however after his death.
[32] Lindon, cited by Wyttenbach, 'Versuch einer Geschichte von Trier,'
vol. iii. p. 110.
[33] Beyträge zur Beförderung einer nähern Einsicht in das gesammte
Geisterreich, vol. i. p. 284.
[34] The Abbé Fiard, one of the latest believers on record, has printed
the Requête at full length in his 'Lettres sur la Magie,' p. 117 _et seq._
[35] Even now a complaint of 'being bewitched' is occasionally made to
Justices of the Peace by the very ignorant or the very malignant.
[36] Trials and other Proceedings in Matters Criminal before the High
Court of Justiciary in Scotland, selected from the Records of that Court.
By Robert Pitcairn. Edinburgh.
[37] Holingshed, vol. i. pp. 50, 317.
[38] At the second marriage of Alexander III., Fordun, vol. ii. p. 128.
Boece, p. 294, ed. 1574.
[39] Boece, p. 149.
[40] In the case of Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow, 1466.--Buchanan.
Pitscottie.
[41]
"Quell' altro, che nei fianchi è così poco,
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
Delle magiche frode seppe il giuoco."--_Canto xx._
[42] As in the case of the witches at Forres, who attempted to destroy
King Duffus by the favourite pagan charm of roasting his image in wax, and
those burnt at Edinburgh for a similar attempt against James III., in
1479.
[43] Scot of Scotstarvet, Home of Godscroft, _passim_.
[44] Nov. 8, 1576. Pitcairn, vol. i. p. 48.
[45] Ibid. p. 51.
[46] Rec. of Just. May 27, 1601.
[47] News from Scotland, declaring the damnable life of Dr.
Fian.--Pitcairn, vol. i. p. 213.
[48] We need hardly remind our readers of the torture of Macbriar by the
Boots, before the Privy Council, in the 'Tales of my Landlord.'
[49] Old French, _Turquois_, a smith's pincers, from _torquere_.
[50] Sir James Melville, p. 294.
[51] Pitcairn, vol. i. p. 211.
[52] Crook--the hook from which pots are hung over a Scottish kitchen
fire.
[53] Just. Records, 1590-1610.
[54] Most of the cases here cited are found in the Justiciary Records,
from about 1605 to 1640.
[55] Feb. 4, 1629.
[56] Just. Records, Jan. 1630.
[57] Just. Rec., Dec. 1643.
[58] The paper is marked on the back, "Edinburgh, July 10th, 1662:
considered and found relevant by the Justice Depute." The part of Janet
Braidhead's deposition, which appears to have borne a similar marking by
the Justice Depute, is torn off.
[59] Her fellow-witch, Braidhead, was baptized by the very inappropriate
name of _Christian_.
[60] This seems to have been a common practice in the Infernal ritual. Law
gives the nicknames of the Renfrewshire witches, in the Bangarran Case.
(Memorials, p. 122.)
[61] Taking the form of foul and ominous birds was a favourite practice of
witches in all ages. Apuleius, in his character of Lucius, thus describes
the metamorphosis of his hostess at Larissa:--
"Pamphile divested herself of all her garments, and opening a certain
cabinet took out of it a number of boxes. From one of these she selected a
salve, and anointed herself from head to foot; and after much muttering,
she began to rock and wave herself to and fro. Presently a soft down
covered her limbs, and a pair of wings sprang from her shoulders: her nose
became a beak: her nails talons. Pamphile was now in form a complete owl.
Then uttering a low shriek she began to jump from the floor, and after a
brief while flew out of the window and vanished. She winged her way, I was
assured by Fotis, to some expectant lover. And this was the last I saw of
the old lady."
[62] Just. Records. Jan. 27, 1662.
[63] Vol. i. Decisions, p. 14.
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