Irish Witchcraft and DemonologySeymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt)
History
Irish Witchcraft and Demonology
Seymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt)
Demonology; Witchcraft -- Ireland
"One of the men who had held her in a fit swore she had nothing visible on
her arms when he took hold of them, and that all in the room saw some
worsted yarn tied round her wrist, which was put on invisibly; there were
upon this string seven double knots and one single one. In another fit she
cried out that she was grievously tormented with a pain about her knee;
upon which the women in the room looked at her knee, and found a fillet
tied fast about it; her mother swore to the fillet, that it was the same
she had given her that morning, and had seen it about her head; this had
also seven double knots and one single one."
"Her mother was advised by a Roman Catholic priest to use a counter-charm,
which was to write some words out of the first chapter of St. John's
Gospel in a paper, and to tie the paper with an incle three times round
her neck, knotted each time. This charm the girl herself declined; but the
mother, in one of the times of her being afflicted, used it. She was in a
violent fit upon the bed held down by a man, and, recovering a little,
complained grievously of a pain in her back and about her middle;
immediately the company discovered the said incle tied round her middle
with seven double knots and one single one: this was sworn to by several.
The man who held the Afflicted was asked by the Judge if it were possible
she could reach the incle about her neck while he held her; he said it was
not, by the virtue of his oath, he having her hands fast down."
"The Afflicted, during one of her fits, was observed by several persons to
slide off the bed in an unaccountable manner, and to be laid gently on
the ground as if supported and drawn invisibly. Upon her recovery she told
them the several persons who had drawn her in that manner, with the
intention, as they told her, of bearing her out of the window; but that
she reflecting at that time, and calling upon God in her mind, they let
her drop on the floor."
"The Afflicted, recovering from a fit, told the persons present that her
tormentors had declared that she should not have power to go over the
threshold of the chamber-door; the evidence declared that they had several
times attempted to lead her out of the door, and that she was as often
thrown into fits as they had brought her to the said threshold; that to
pursue the experiment further they had the said threshold taken up, upon
which they were immediately struck with so strong a smell of brimstone
that they were scarce able to bear it; that the stench spread through the
whole house, and afflicted several to that degree that they fell sick in
their stomachs, and were much disordered." The above were the principal
facts sworn to in the Court, to which most of the witnesses gave their
joint testimony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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