his door. Into this he now leaped, and by its virtue was able to resume his proper form. The first thing he did was to seek the magic rod, and, finding it still in his house, he struck the witch on the head. She became a skinless[324] cat, and in that form haunted the guilty Princess for her sins; while Mengot was ever afterwards distinguished by the name of Scot.’ The second tale is to this effect: ‘Michael Scotti the wizard was a mighty master of witchcraft. There came to him one day a young lady, richly dressed, and wearing a thick veil. She told him that she wished to become a witch that she might cast a spell upon the child of a man who had forsaken her for another woman, now his wife; for she said that to bewitch this child would be the best revenge she could have. Michael was willing to content her; but we must here remark that wizards and witches gain their power, either at birth or as a legacy from some dying person who has the gift. In either of these cases, when the wizard or witch takes the form of an animal, both body and soul are present wherever the form may appear. If, on the other hand, any one becomes a witch of her own desire, as in the case before us, her spirit may move and act under such a form, but her body lies all the while where she left it. But to our tale. ‘Michael accordingly took his Magic Book, and the skin of a cat, and kindling some hempen fibre[325] in an earthen pot, he commenced to read his spells, which had such effect that the spirit of the young lady entered into the skin of the cat. In the form of that animal she then went about her business, while her body remained still in the chair where she was sitting. At her return the wizard read again in his book, whereupon the spirit of the new-made witch returned to her body as before. Michael gave her a book of this kind, and the skin he had used, and every night she turned herself into a witch, and became so wicked as to cast ill upon many children, and even on an infant brother of her own.