“They play, in neo-latin mythology, a very interesting part, even to-day some traces of which are to be found. Wizards and witches, according to the councils, disguised themselves formerly as ‘cahouets’ and ‘cahouettes.’ Raphaël, Archbishop of Nicosie, capital of the island of Cyprus, in the year 1251, excommunicated all the ‘cahouets’ and the ‘cahouettes’ as well as those who supported and encouraged games of chance.--(_Constitutions_, _ch._ 15). And the Council of Nîmes, thirty years after, treats in the same manner witches and sooth sayers, ‘coavets’ and ‘coavettes.’ “In the hierarchy of Mithras, that type of the rising sun which bewitched the Gauls, the deacon, or minister was entitled ‘corneille’ or _rook_; and on the first day of the year, according to Porphyry, the initiates disguised themselves severally as beasts and birds.” Mr. Métivier ends by citing two authorities on ancient traditions concerning these birds. “Le corbeau est consacré à Apollon, et il est son ministre (_famulus_), voilà pourquoi il possède la faculté de prédire.” _Gérard Jean Voss_, _liv._ 3, _sur l’Idolâtrie_. “Je crois que ces cérémonies se célébraient près de Coptos, ville dont le nom était si fameux, et d’où vient l’Egypte. Dans les environs de cette cité, on voyait deux corbeaux, c’étaient les seuls.… Et il y avait là l’image d’Apollon, auquel les corbeaux étaient consacrés.” “La corneille est le symbole de l’amour conjugal.” _Nicolas Caussin, Jésuite, natif de Troyes_, _Notes sur Horapollo_. _Paris_, 1618, p. 165. [148] EDITOR’S NOTE.--These are also given in full, in French, with an English translation, by Mr. J. Linwood Pitts, F.S.A., (Normandy), in his _Witchcraft and Devil-Lore in the Channel Islands, etc._, 1886. Trials for Witchcraft, and Confessions of Witches. EDITOR’S NOTE.--The documents which follow are translated from the Records of the Royal Court preserved at the Greffe. Sir Edgar MacCulloch had copied out the depositions of the witnesses on loose sheets of paper, evidently meaning to incorporate them into his book. The “Confession of the Witches” in his MS. follows his essay on Witchcraft. 15TH MAY, 1581. Katherine Eustace and her daughter were accused by common consent of practising the art of witchcraft in the island. The wife of Collas Cousin deposed that having refused to give milk to the accused, saying that there were poorer people to whom she would rather give, her cow then gave blood instead of milk. Johan Le Roux deposed that having been seized with great pains in his knee, he believed himself to be bewitched by Katherine Eustace, so his wife went to the latter and threatened to denounce her to the Royal Court; after that he got better. 28TH OCTOBER, 1581.