(_For the Mirror._)
The following is extracted from a book of Prophecies, called Muhamedys,
which is held in veneration by the Turks:--"The Turkish emperor shall
conquer Rome, and make the pope patriarch of Jerusalem; and he shall,
some time after, profess the Mahomedan faith. Christ shall then come,
and show the Christians their error in not having accepted the Alcoran;
and instruct them that the dove which came down from heaven was not the
Holy Ghost, but was Mahomet, who shall be again upon earth thirty
years, and confirm the Alcoran by new miracles. After that time the
power of the Turks shall decline, till they retire into Desert Arabia,
and then there shall be an end of the world. Their overthrow shall be
accomplished by a people from the north, called _caumico fer_,
(yellow-haired sons.) The ruin of Constantinople shall happen in sultan
Mahomet's time; and then the Turks shall be reduced to so few in
number, that sixty Turkish women shall have but one husband among
them." W. G. C.
* * * * *
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS, &c.
(_Concluded from page 58._)
We have formerly alluded to the well-known feats of the weird
sisterhood on the broomstick; but it is affirmed that on these
occasions the spirit left its earthly abode, the body being previously
anointed with the ointment we have described. We cannot better
illustrate this question (the possibility of which has been the
subject-matter of many grave dissertations amongst the literati of
those times) than by giving the substance of the following singular
"Confession," which with many others equally interesting, was made in
1664, (the later days of the profession) before Robert Hunt, Esq., a
"justice with fat capon lined," in the county of Somerset, and in the
presence of "several grave and orthodox divines."
Elizabeth Styles, of Stoke Triston, in that county, was accused by
"divers persons of credit," of the crimes of witchcraft and sorcery.
She was afterwards found guilty by a jury at Taunton, but died before
the sentence could be carried into effect. She confessed "that the
devil, about ten years since, appeared to her in the shape of a
handsome man, and after of a black dog; that he promised her money, and
that she should live gallantly, and have the pleasure of the world for
twelve years, if she would, with her blood, sign his paper, which was
to give her soul to him, and observe his laws, and that he might suck
her blood. This, after four solicitations, the examinant promised to
do; upon which he pricked the fourth finger of her right hand, between
the middle and upper joints, (where the sign at the examination
remained), and with a drop or two of her blood, she signed the paper
with an O. Upon this the devil gave her sixpence, and vanished
with the paper. That since he hath appeared to her in the shape of a
man, and did so on Wednesday sevennight past, but more usually he
appears in the likeness of a dog, and cat, and a fly like a miller, in
which last he usually sucks in the poll, about four of the clock in the
morning, and did so January 27, and that it usually is pain to her to
be so suckt." When she desired to do harm, she called _Robin_; on his
appearance she opened her wants, saying, _O Satan, give me my purpose._
That a short time before, she and other witches had met a "gentleman in
black" in a field, about nine o'clock at night, to devise torments for
one Elizabeth Hill, who had come under their ban; they brought a waxen
image of her, and the "man in black" took and anointed it, saying, _I
baptize thee with this oyl_; and using other words. "He was godfather,
and the examinant and Ann Bishop were godmothers." They called it
Elizabeth; and the black man and weird sisters stuck thorns into
various parts of the luckless image. "After which, they had wine,
cakes, and roast meat, (provided by the gentleman in black,) which they
did eat and drink; and they danced and were very merry," &c. Many of
these unhallowed meetings took place afterwards, and their entertainer,
the gentleman in black--man or devil--seems to have been a regular
_gourmand_, "and never failed to bring with him abundance of excellent
cheer." The customary bill of fare was "wine, good ale, cakes, meat, or
the like." The spirit was, also, rather musical, for he "sometimes
played sweetly on the pipe or cittern," the ladies keeping time with a
dance, (we fear narrowly approaching the modern waltz.) On the whole
they seem to have had joyous doings of it, and wonder ceases that the
demon gained so many proselytes amongst the old women. These nocturnal
meetings were generally held for a similar purpose with the foregoing;
and it appears from the confession before us, that they were conveyed
to them by supernatural means--by that simplest, though despised engine
of loco--(or to coin a a word) aëro-motion--a broomstick. They were
obliged to anoint themselves on these occasions "with an oyl the spirit
brought them;" and they were soon transported to the place of
appointment, using these words in their transit, _"Thout, tout, a tout
tout, throughout and about!"_ and on their return they say "Rentum,
tormentum!" Such is the information conveyed in the confession of
Elizabeth Styles, before these "grave and orthodox divines!"
They were also gifted by the "gentleman in black" with various other
wonderful powers and attributes. They could transform themselves into
the likeness of any animal in the creation, and therefore the better
execute their schemes of devilry; but, it appears, that they always
wanted that essential part--the tail; and there was a trial gravely
reported by a Lancashire jury, that a soldier having been set to watch
a mill from the depredations of some cats, skilfully whipped off the
leg of the largest, which lo! the next morning, was changed into the
arm of an old witch (who had long been suspected) in the neighbourhood!
This useful faculty of transformation also extended, in some measure,
to the persons of others; for Dr. Bulwer gives the following _easy
recipe_ for "setting a horse or ass' head" on a man's neck and
shoulders:[3]--"Cut off the head of a horse or an ass _(before they be
dead, otherwise the virtue or strength thereof will be less
effectual,)_ and take an earthen vessel of a fit capacity to contain
the same. Let it be filled with the oyl or fat thereof; cover it
close, and daub it over with loam. Let it boil over a soft fire for
three dayes, that the flesh boiled may run into oyl, so as the bones
may be seen. Beat the hair into powder, and mingle the same with the
oyl, and _anoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seem to
have horses or asses' heads!_ If beasts' heads be anointed with the
like oyl made of a man's head, (we suppose cut off while the said man
was 'alive!') they shall seem to have men's faces, as divers authors
soberly affirm!"
[Footnote 3: Shakspeare must have derived from this hint, the similar
transformation in "The Midsummer Night's Dream."]
After dwelling on the dark and malignant qualities of witches, it is
but justice to give a few of the charms which, for a small
remuneration, they would bestow for the benefit of those who sought
their assistance in the hour of trouble. These charms were possessed of
various degrees of virtue, _ex. gratiae._
_Against the toothache._--Scarify the gums, in the grief, with the
tooth of one that hath been slain. Otherwise, _galbes, gabat, galdes,
galdat_. Otherwise say, "O horsecombs and sickles that have so many
teeth, come heal me of my toothache!"
These very simple remedies, if popular, would soon send the concocters
of nostrums for the teeth into the Gazette.
_To release a woman in travail._--Throw over the top of the house where
the woman lieth in travail, a stone, or any other thing that hath
killed three living creatures: namely, a man, a wild boar, and a
she-bear.
_Against the headache._--Tie a halter round your head wherewith one
hath been hanged.
_Against the bite of a mad dog._--Put a silver ring on the ringer,
within which the following words are engraven: _hobay, habas, heber_;
and say to the person bitten by a mad dog, "I am thy saviour, lose not
thy life;" and then prick him in the nose thrice, that at each time he
bleed. Otherwise take pills made of the skull of one that is hanged,
&c.
_To find her that bewitched your kine._--Put a pair of breeches upon
the cow's head, and beat her out of the pasture with a good cudgel,
upon a Friday, and she will run right to the witch's door, and strike
thereat with her horns.
We are exceeding our limits, else we should have added several other
pithy receipts, almost worthy of her who made the noted one against the
creaking of a door--"rub a bit of soft soap on the hinges." The most
celebrated and precious charm, however, (for the above are mostly
against every-day occurrences) was the _Agnus Dei_, which was a
"preservative against all manner of evil, a perfect catholicon; and
blessed indeed was the individual who possessed a treasure so
valuable." It was "a little cake, having the picture of a lamb carrying
a flag, on the one side, and Christ's head on the other side, and was
hollow; so that the Gospel of St. John, written on fine paper, was
placed in the concavity thereof;" and was a sovereign remedy against
lightning, the effects of heat, drowning, &c. &c. In some of the above
charms there is a little humour to be found; and as we have previously
observed, such are the effects of faith, that like the amulets of the
east (may not our own sprigs of witch-elm, &c. be so called?) they may
have had in many cases the desired effects in averting disease.
Reginald Scot furnishes us with directions "how to prevent and cure all
mischief wrought by charms or witchcraft." To prevent the entry of a
witch into a house, nail a horse-shoe in the inside of the outermost
threshold. We believe this rule is still in practice. Also it was a
custom in some countries to nail a wolf's head, or a root of garlic,
over the door, or on the roof of a house. And our Saviour's name, &c.
with four crosses at the four corners of a house, was a protection. The
Romish custom of driving out evil spirits by the smoke of sulphur, is
well known. "Otherwise the perfume made of the gall of a black dog, and
his bloode besmeared on the posts and walls of a house, driveth out of
the doores, both devils and witches." A sprig of witch-elm sewn in the
collar of the doublet, was celebrated amongst our great grandmothers as
a specific against the malignant deeds of the weird sisterhood.
But we must draw this article to a close. We may well rejoice that we
live in the nineteenth century; and that the disgusting infatuation and
baleful doctrines of witchcraft are gone for ever.