Hunnam otherwise Marchant, who was accused for witchcraft; she, this
informante, and Elizabeth Jackson, and Eliz. Dale, did accordingly
searche the body of the saide Anne Hunnam, otherwise Marchant, and did
finde a little blue spott upon her left side, into which spott this
informant did thrust a pinne att which the sd. Ann Hunnam never moved
or seemed to feel it, which spott grows, out of her ffleshe or skin at
her waste of a great bignesse. Elizabeth Dale informeth upon oath,
that she did, together with Margery Ffish, searche Ann Hunnam,
otherwise Marchant, her bodye and saith that their was found on her
left buttock a blue spott growing out of her fleshe or skin like a
greate warte.[312]
The Kentish witch, Mary Read of Lenham, in 1652, 'had a visible Teat, under
her tongue, and did show it to many, and it was likewise seen by this
Observator.'[313] In the case of the Salisbury witch, Anne Bodenham, in
1652, 'Women searched the Witch in the Gaol, and they delivered on their
oaths at the Assises, that they found on her shoulder a certain mark or
Teat, about the length and bignesse of the Niple of a Womans breast, and
hollow and soft as a Niple, with a hole on the top of it: And searching
further, they likewise found in her secret place another Teat, soft, and
like the former on her shoulder.'[314] In Yorkshire again, in 1654,
Katherine Earle was accused, 'and the said Katherine hathe beene searched,
and a marke founde upon her in the likenesse of a papp'.[315] At St.
Albans, about 1660, there was a man-witch, who 'had like a Breast on his
side'.[316] In the same year at Kidderminster a widow, her two daughters,
and a man were brought to trial; 'the man had five teats, the mother three,
and the eldest daughter one. When they went to search the woman, none were
visible; one advised to lay them on their backs, and keep open their
mouths, and they would appear; and so they presently appeared in
sight.'[317] Alice Huson, of Burton Agnes, Yorks, in 1664, stated that 'I
have, I confess, a Witch-pap, which is sucked by the Unclean Spirit'.[318]
Abre Grinset, of Dunwich, Suffolk, in 1665, said, 'The Devil did appear in
the form of a Pretty handsom Young Man first, and since Appeareth to her in
the form of a blackish Gray Cat or Kitling, that it sucketh of a Tett
(which Searchers since saw in the place She mentioned).'[319] In the same
year, also in Suffolk, Rose Cullender was tried for witchcraft:
'The searchers [six women] began at her head, and so stript her naked,
and in the lower part of her belly they found a thing like a teat of
an inch long, they questioned her about it, and she said, that she had
got a strain by carrying of water which caused that excrescence. But
upon narrower search, they found in her privy parts three more
excrescencies or teats, but smaller than the former: this deponent
farther saith, that in the long teat at the end thereof there was a
little hole, and it appeared unto them as if it had been lately
sucked, and upon the straining of it there issued out white milky
matter.'[320]
Temperance Lloyd, a Devon witch, was tried in 1682: 'Upon search of her
body this informant did find in her secret parts, two teats hanging nigh
together like unto a piece of flesh that a child had suckt. And each of the
said teats was about an inch in length.'[321] Bridget Bishop, one of the
New England witches, was tried in 1692: 'A Jury of Women found a
preternatural Teat upon her Body; But upon a second search, within 3 or 4
hours, there was no such thing to be seen.'[322] Elizabeth Horner, another
Devon witch, tried in 1696, 'had something like a Nipple on her Shoulder,
which the Children [who gave evidence] said was sucked by a Toad'.[323]
Widow Coman, an Essex witch, died a natural death in 1699: 'Upon her death
I requested Becke the midwife to search her body in the presence of some
sober women, which she did and assured me she never saw the like in her
life that her fundament was open like a mouse-hole and that in it were two
long bigges out of which being pressed issued blood that they were neither
piles nor emrods for she knew both but excrescencies like to biggs with
nipples which seemed as if they had been frequently sucked.'[324] Elinor
Shaw and Mary Phillips were executed in Northampton in 1704 for witchcraft:
'The Infernal Imps did Nightly Suck each of them a large Teat, or pieces of
red Flesh in their Privy Parts.'[325]
The positions of the marks are worth noting. Of the coloured mark it will
be seen from the evidence given above that there were certain well-defined
positions, which is in itself a strong suggestion of the artificial
character of this mark. In France the usual position was the left shoulder;
in the Basses-Pyrenees the left eye, the left side, and the thigh were also
commonly marked; the variations given by Boguet are the abdomen, the back,
and the right side of the neck. In England it seems that only the hand and
wrist were marked; in Somerset the exact position was between the upper and
middle joints of the fourth finger of the right hand, probably the
'ring-finger', but whether on the outer or inner surface is not recorded.
In Scotland the position is very varied, the right hand, the right side,
the shoulder, the back, the neck, and the loin; at Aberdeen the position on
the right hand is still further defined as being on the back and on the
third finger, i.e. the 'ring-finger'.
Reginald Scot does not distinguish between the two kinds of marks, when he
says that if the witch 'have anie privie marke under hir arme pokes, under
hir haire, under hir lip, or in her buttocke, or in her privities; it is a
presumption sufficient for the judge to proceed to give sentence of death
upon her'.[326] But from the positions in which supernumerary nipples are
known to occur, it would seem that he is speaking of the 'little Teat' and
not of the coloured mark. In six out of the thirty-two cases of
supernumerary nipple cited above, the number of nipples is not given;
though from the context it would appear that more than one was often found
on each of the accused. If, therefore, we allow two apiece for those cases
not definitely specified, there were sixty-three such nipples, an average
roughly of two to each person; the number varying, however, from one to
five (this last being a man). The position of the nipple on the body is
given in forty-five out of the sixty-three cases: abdomen 2, axilla 1,
buttock 1, fundament 3, groin 2, pudenda 30, shoulder 3, side 3, under
tongue 1. In writing of supernumerary nipples and _mammae erraticae_
Williams quotes cases recorded by modern observers, in which the accessory
organ occurred on the abdomen, axilla, inguinal region, outer side of
thigh, shoulder, and face.[327]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 221: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 398.]
[Footnote 222: Id. ib., p. 145.]
[Footnote 223: Bourignon, _Vie_, p. 201.]
[Footnote 224: Id., _Parole_, p. 85; Hale, p. 26.]
[Footnote 225: Id., _Vie_, p. 211; Hale, p. 29.]
[Footnote 226: Id. ib., p. 223; Hale, p. 37.]
[Footnote 227: Ravaisson (the years 1679-81).]
[Footnote 228: Reg. Scot., Bk. II, p. 36 (quoting from _C. Agrippa_).]
[Footnote 229: _Narrative of the Sufferings of a Young Girle_, p. xxxix.]
[Footnote 230: Ib., pp. xl, xli.]
[Footnote 231: Kinloch, pp. 124, 125.]
[Footnote 232: Glanvil, ii, p. 291.]
[Footnote 233: Philobiblon Society, viii, p. 24.]
[Footnote 234: Potts, B 2.]
[Footnote 235: Horneck, pt. ii., pp. 317-20.]
[Footnote 236: Howell, vi, 669; J. Hutchinson, _Hist. of Massachusetts_,
ii, p. 44.]
[Footnote 237: Mackenzie, Title x, pp. 47, 48.]
[Footnote 238: Reginald Scot, Bk. III, pp. 40-2.]
[Footnote 239: W. Forbes, ii, 33, ed. 1730.]
[Footnote 240: Potts, B 4, D 3.]
[Footnote 241: Mackenzie, p. 47, ed. 1699.]
[Footnote 242: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 182.]
[Footnote 243: Id. ib., p. 131.]
[Footnote 244: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 322.]
[Footnote 245: Danaeus, ch. ii, E 1.]
[Footnote 246: Lord Fountainhall mentions a case where a pregnant woman
excepted the unborn child, at which the devil was very angry. _Decisions_,
i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 247: Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.]
[Footnote 248: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 123.]
[Footnote 249: Bourignon, _Vie_, p. 214; Hale, p. 31.]
[Footnote 250: Glanvil, ii, pp. 136, 148.]
[Footnote 251: _Isobel Inch_, p. 16.]
[Footnote 252: Kinloch, p. 125. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 253: Burns Begg, p. 239.]
[Footnote 254: Id., pp. 223-4.]
[Footnote 255: Id., p. 237.]
[Footnote 256: Lea, iii, p. 536.]
[Footnote 257: De Lancre, _L'Incredulite_, p. 38.]
[Footnote 258: Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]
[Footnote 259: _Pleasant Treatise_, p. 88.]
[Footnote 260: Bodin, _Fleau_, p. 172.]
[Footnote 261: _Examination of Joan Williford_, p. 4.]
[Footnote 262: Davenport, p. 1.]
[Footnote 263: _Mrs. Joan Peterson_, p. 4.]
[Footnote 264: Bourignon, _Vie_, p. 223; Hale, p. 37.]
[Footnote 265: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 136.]
[Footnote 266: Green, p. 14.]
[Footnote 267: _Surtees Soc._, xl, p. 196.]
[Footnote 268: Increase Mather, p. 205.]
[Footnote 269: Lemoine, _La Tradition_, vi (1892), p. 106.]
[Footnote 270: Monseur, p. 84.]
[Footnote 271: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 131.]
[Footnote 272: _Highland Papers_, vol. iii, p. 6.]
[Footnote 273: Ib., vol. iii, p. 12.]
[Footnote 274: Ib., vol. iii, p. 13.]
[Footnote 275: _Highland Papers_, vol. iii, p. 22.]
[Footnote 276: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 321.]
[Footnote 277: Howell, vi, 660; J. Hutchinson, ii, p. 31.]
[Footnote 278: J. Hutchinson, ii, p. 36.]
[Footnote 279: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 617.]
[Footnote 280: Id., i, pt. ii, pp. 239, 246.]
[Footnote 281: Burns Begg, x, pp. 224, 227, 232, 239.]
[Footnote 282: Scot, Bk. III, p. 43; see also Danaeus, ch. iii.]
[Footnote 283: Mackenzie, title x, p. 48.]
[Footnote 284: Forbes, ii, p. 33.]
[Footnote 285: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 120, 165. Spelling
modernized.]
[Footnote 286: Boguet, pp. 315, 316, 317.]
[Footnote 287: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 195, 399.]
[Footnote 288: _Isobel Inch_, p. 16.]
[Footnote 289: Whitaker, p. 216.]
[Footnote 290: Hale, p. 46.]
[Footnote 291: Howell, iv, 854-5.]
[Footnote 292: Kinloch, pp. 124-6.]
[Footnote 293: Bourignon, _Vie_, p. 223.]
[Footnote 294: Sharpe, p. 132.]
[Footnote 295: _Highland Papers_, iii, p. 17.]
[Footnote 296: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 136, 148, 156.]
[Footnote 297: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 291.]
[Footnote 298: _Scots Magazine_, 1814, p. 200.]
[Footnote 299: _Narrative of the Sufferings_, pp. xli, xliv.]
[Footnote 300: Sinclair, p. 259.]
[Footnote 301: Thompson and Miles, ii, p. 341.]
[Footnote 302: _Journal of Anatomy_, xiii, pp. 438, 447.]
[Footnote 303: Id., xiii, p. 153.]
[Footnote 304: _Alse Gooderidge_, pp. 8, 9.]
[Footnote 305: _Elisabeth Sawyer_, B 3, obv. and rev.]
[Footnote 306: Howell, iv, 838, 843, 848, 849, 850, 851.]
[Footnote 307: _Four Notorious Witches at Worcester_, p. 4. The place is
wrongly given: it should be Essex, not Worcester.]
[Footnote 308: Davenport, p. 15.]
[Footnote 309: Gerish, _The Divel's Delusions_, p. 12.]
[Footnote 310: _Surtees Soc._, xl, p. 30.]
[Footnote 311: Id., xl, p. 38.]
[Footnote 312: _County Folklore_, ii, p. 139.]
[Footnote 313: _Prod. and Trag. Hist._, p. 6.]
[Footnote 314: Bower, p. 28.]
[Footnote 315: _Surtees Soc._, xl, p. 69.]
[Footnote 316: Gerish, _Relation of Mary Hall_, p. 24.]
[Footnote 317: Howell, iv, 827 note.]
[Footnote 318: Hale, p. 58.]
[Footnote 319: Petto, p. 18.]
[Footnote 320: Howell, vi, 696.]
[Footnote 321: Id., viii, 1022.]
[Footnote 322: Mather, p. 137.]
[Footnote 323: F. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay_, p. 62.]
[Footnote 324: Gilbert, p. 6.]
[Footnote 325: _Witches of Northamptonshire_, p. 6.]
[Footnote 326: R. Scot, Bk. II, ch. 5.]
[Footnote 327: _Journal of Anatomy_, xxv, 225 seq.]
IV. THE ASSEMBLIES
There were two kinds of assemblies; the one, known as the Sabbath, was the
General Meeting of all the members of the religion; the other, to which I
give--on the authority of Estebene de Cambrue--the name of Esbat, was only
for the special and limited number who carried out the rites and practices
of the cult, and was not for the general public.
The derivation of the word Sabbath in this connexion is quite unknown. It
has clearly nothing to do with the number seven, and equally clearly it is
not connected with the Jewish ceremonial. It is possibly a derivative of
_s'esbattre_, 'to frolic'; a very suitable description of the joyous gaiety
of the meetings.
1. _Sabbath_
_Locomotion._--The method of going to the meetings varied according to the
distance to be traversed. In an immense majority of cases the means of
locomotion are not even mentioned, presumably therefore the witches went on
foot, as would naturally be the case in going to the local meeting or
Esbat, which was attended only by those who lived near. There are, however,
a few instances where it was thought worth while to mention that the
worshippers walked to the meeting. Boguet (1598), who yields to none in his
accounts of magical means of going to the Sabbath, says, 'les Sorciers
neatmoins vont quelquefois de pied au Sabbat, ce qui leur aduient
principalement, lors que le lieu, ou ils font leur assemblee, n'est pas
guieres eslongne de leur habitation', and cites in confirmation the
evidence of George and Antoinette Gandillon and their father Pierre, Clauda
Ianprost, Clauda Ianguillaume, Iaquema Paget, Gros Iaques, the two brothers
Claude and Claude Charloz, Pierre Willermoz, l'Aranthon, Pernette Molard,
Ianne Platet, and Clauda Paget.[328] Iaquema Paget's account of how she and
Antoine Tornier went to a meeting on their way home from the harvest field
(see p. 121), proves that they were on foot. The Lang-Niddry witches (1608)
clearly walked, they 'convenit thame selffis at Deane-fute of Lang-Niddry
... thaireftir thay past altogidder to the said Beigis hous in Lang-Nydry
[where they drank]; and thaireftir come with all thair speid to
Seaton-thorne be-north the zet; quhair the Devill callit for the said
Christiane Tod, and past to Robert Smartis house, and brocht hir out....
And thay thaireftir past altogidder, with the Devill, to the irne zet of
Seatoun.... And thaireftir come all bak agane to the Deane-fute, quhair
first thai convenit.'[329] The distance from Lang Niddry to Seaton Castle
is under a mile. Isaac de Queyran (1609), a young fellow of twenty-five,
told de Lancre that those living at a distance flew home through the air,
the near ones returned on foot.[330] Barthelemy Minguet of Brecy was tried
in 1616: 'Enquis, de quelle facon sa femme fut au Sabbat la premiere fois.
Respond, qu'elle y fut transportee par le Diable, lequel la rapporta apres
le Sabbat, & que la seconde fois qu'elle y a este, elle y fut de son pied
avec luy, & s'en retourna de son pied, & qu'elle n'y a iamais este que ces
deux fois.'[331] Helen Guthrie of Forfar (1661) said that 'herselfe,
Isobell Shyrie, and Elspet Alexander, did meit togither at ane aile house
near to Barrie, a litle befor sunsett, efter they hade stayed in the said
house about the spaice of ane houre drinking of thrie pintis of ale
togidder, they went foorth to the sandis, and ther thrie other women met
them, and the divell wes there present with them all ... and they parted so
late that night that she could get no lodging, but wes forced to lye at ane
dyk syde all night.'[332] Christian Grieve, of Crook of Devon (1662),
acknowledged 'that ye came to the foresaid meeting immediately after your
goodman and the rest went to bed, and that ye locked the door and put the
key under the same, and that ye and the said Margaret Young your neighbor
came foot for foot to the foresaid meeting and that ye stayed at the
foresaid meeting about the space of two hours and came back again on your
foot, and the foresaid Margaret Young with you, and found the key of the
door in that same place where you left it, and declared that neither your
husband nor any other in the house was waking at your return'.[333] At
Lille (1661) the girl Bellot, then aged fifteen, said that 'her Mother had
taken her with her when she was very Young, and had even carried her in her
Arms to the Witches Sabbaths or Assemblies'.[334] At Strathdown (eighteenth
century) the witches went along the side of the river Avon to
Craic-pol-nain, fording the river on foot.[335]
In the cases cited above there is nothing in the least bizarre or
extraordinary, but there are other methods recorded of reaching the distant
meetings. Sometimes the obvious means was by riding on a horse; sometimes
the witches were accused, or claimed the power, of flying through the air,
of riding in the air on a stick, of riding on animals or human beings,
which latter were sometimes in their own natural form and sometimes
enchanted into the form of animals.
The following instances are of those who rode to or from the meetings on
horseback. Agnes Sampson of North Berwick (1590) said that 'the Devil in
mans likeness met her going out in the fields from her own house at
_Keith_, betwixt five and six at even, being her alone and commanded her to
be at _North-Berwick_ Kirk the next night: And she passed there on
horse-back, conveyed by her Good-son, called Iohn Couper'.[336] Boguet
(1608) mentions, in passing, the fact that the witches sometimes rode on
horses.[337] The Lancashire witches (1613), after the meeting at Malking
Tower, 'went out of the said House in their owne shapes and likenesses. And
they all, by that they were forth of the dores, gotten on Horseback, like
vnto foals, some of one colour, some of another.'[338] This was the usual
mode of locomotion among the Lancashire witches, for Margaret Johnson
(1633) said that at the meeting at Hoarstones 'there was, at y^t tyme,
between 30 and 40 witches, who did all ride to the said meetinge'.[339]
Isobell Gowdie (1662) said, 'I haid a little horse, and wold say, "Horse
and Hattock, in the Divellis name!"'[340] The most detailed account is from
Sweden (1669):
'Another Boy confessed too, that one day he was carried away by his
Mistriss, and to perform the Journey he took his own Father's Horse
out of the Meadow where it was, and upon his return she let the Horse
go in her own ground. The next morning the Boys Father sought for his
Horse, and not finding it, gave it over for lost; but the Boy told him
the whole story, and so his Father fetcht the Horse back again.'[341]
We now come to the marvellous and magical means of locomotion. The belief
in the power of witches to ride in the air is very ancient and universal in
Europe. They flew either unsupported, being carried by the Devil, or were
supported on a stick; sometimes, however, an animal which they rode passed
through the air. The flying was usually preceded by an anointing of the
whole or part of the body with a magical ointment.
The earliest example of unsupported flying is from Paul Grilland (1537),
who gives an account of an Italian witch in 1526, who flew in the air with
the help of a magic ointment.[342]
Reginald Scot (1584) says that the ointment 'whereby they ride in the aire'
was made of the flesh of unbaptized children, and gives two recipes:
[1] 'The fat of yoong children, and seeth it with water in a brasen
vessell, reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the
bottome, which they laie up and keepe, untill occasion serueth to use
it. They put hereunto Eleoselinum, Aconitum, Frondes populeas, and
Soote.' [2] 'Sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the blood of a
flitter mouse, solanum somniferum, and oleum. They stampe all these
togither, and then they rubbe all parts of their bodys exceedinglie,
till they looke red, and be verie hot, so as the pores may be opened,
and their flesh soluble and loose. They ioine herewithall either fat,
or oil in steed thereof, that the force of the ointment maie the
rather pearse inwardly, and so be more effectuall. By this means in a
moonlight night they seeme to be carried in the aire.'[343]
So far this is only hearsay evidence, but there is also a certain amount of
first-hand testimony, the witches declaring that they actually passed
through the air above ground, or had seen others do so.
In 1598 'Thieuenne Paget racontoit, que le Diable s'apparut a elle la
premiere fois en plein midy, en forme d'vn grand homme noir, & que
comme elle se fut baillee a luy, il l'embrassa & l'esleva en l'air, &
la transporta en la maison du prel de Longchamois ... & puis la
rapporta au lieu mesme, ou il l'auoit prise. Antide Colas disoit, que
le soir, que Satan s'apparut a elle en forme d'vn homme de grande
stature, ayant sa barbe & ses habillemens noirs, il la transporta au
Sabbat, & qu'aux autres fois, il la venoit prendre dans son lict, &
l'emportoit comme si c'eust este vn vent froid, l'empoignant par la
teste.'[344]
Isaac de Queyran (1609), whose evidence has already been quoted, said that
the witches living at a distance flew home through the air.[345] In France
(1652) 'lors qu'elle vouloit aller aux danses, elle se oindoit d'ung onguen
qui lui estoit donne par vn sorcier envoye par le diable. Que lors elle
s'en alloit comme ung vent aux dictes danses avecque les aultres.'[346] At
Crook of Devon (1661) Bessie Henderson confessed 'that ye was taken out of
your bed to that meeting in an flight'.[347] The most detail comes from an
English source: the Somerset witches (1664) claimed that they habitually
flew through the air by means of a magical oil and magical words. Elizabeth
Style said:
'Before they are carried to their meetings, they anoint their
Foreheads, and Hand-wrists with an Oyl the Spirit brings them (which
smells raw) and then they are carried in a very short time, using
these words as they pass, _Thout, tout a tout, tout, throughout and
about_. And when they go off from their Meetings, they say, _Rentum,
Tormentum_ ... all are carried to their several homes in a short
space.' Alice Duke gave the same testimony, noting besides that the
oil was greenish in colour. Anne Bishop, the Officer of the Somerset
covens, confessed that 'her Forehead being first anointed with a
Feather dipt in Oyl, she hath been suddenly carried to the place of
their meeting.... After all was ended, the Man in black vanished. The
rest were on a sudden conveighed to their homes.'[348]
The belief that the witches actually rode in the air seated on some
concrete object, such as an animal, a human being, or a stick, is both
ancient and universal, and is reflected in the ecclesiastical and civil
laws, of which the earliest is the decree of the ninth century, attributed
to the Council of Ancyra. 'Certeine wicked women following sathans
prouocations, being seduced by the illusion of diuels, beleeve and
professe, that in the night times they ride abroad with _Diana_, the
goddesse of the _Pagans_, or else with _Herodias_, with an innumerable
multitude, vpon certeine beasts ... and doo whatsoeuer those fairies or
ladies command.'[349] The laws of Lorraine (1329-46) decree that 'celui qui
fera magie, sortilege, billets de sort, pronostic d'oiseau ou se vanteroit
d'avoir chevauche la nuit avec Diane ou telle autre vielle qui se dit
magicienne, sera banni et payera dix livres tournois'.[350]
The witches themselves confirmed the statements about riding on animals to
the Sabbath. Rolande du Vernier (1598) confessed 'que lors qu'elle y fut,
elle y alla sur vn gros mouton noir, qui la portoit si viste en l'air,
qu'elle ne se pouuoit recognoistre'.[351] De Lancre says that the witches
'se font porter iusqu'audit lieu, sur vne beste, qui semble parfois vn
cheual, & parfoys vn homme'.[352] Margaret Johnson (1633) 'saith, if they
desyre to be in any place upon a sodaine, theire devill or spirit will,
upon a rodde, dogge, or any thinge els, presently convey them
thither'.[353] One of Madame Bourignon's girls, then aged twelve (1661),
declared that 'her said Lover came upon a little Horse, and took her by the
Hand, asking her if she would be his Mistress, and she saying Ay, she was
catched up into the Air with him and the other Girls, and they flew all
together to a great Castle'.[354] The Swedish witches (1669) said: