The usual form in which familiar spirits are reported to converse with witches, is that of a cat. A witch, who was tried about half a century before the time of Shakespeare, had a cat named Rutterkin, as the spirit of one of these witches was Grimalkin; and when any mischief was to be done she used to bid Rutterkin _go and fly_, but once when she would have sent Rutterkin to torment a daughter of the countess of Rutland, instead of _going_ or _flying_, he only cried _mew_, from whence she discovered that the lady was out of his power, the power of witches being not universal, but limited, as Shakespeare has taken care to inculcate: _Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost._ The common afflictions which the malice of witches produced were melancholy, fits, and loss of flesh, which are threatened by one of Shakespeare's witches: _Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine._ It was likewise their practice to destroy the cattle of their neighbours, and the farmers have to this day many ceremonies to secure their cows and other cattle from witchcraft; but they seem to have been most suspected of malice against swine. Shakespeare has accordingly made one of his witches declare that she has been _killing swine_, and Dr. Harsenet observes, that about that time, _a sow could not be ill of the measles, nor a girl of the sullens, but some old woman was charged with witchcraft_. _Toad, that under the cold stone, Days and night has, thirty-one, Swelter'd venom sleeping got; Boil thou first i'the charm'd pot_. Toads have likewise long lain under the reproach of being by some means accessory to witchcraft, for which reason Shakespeare, in the first scene of this play, calls one of the spirits Padocke or Toad, and now takes care to put a toad first into the pot. When Vaninus was seized at Theleuse, there was found at his lodgings _ingens Bufo Vitro inclusus, a great toad shut in a vial_, upon which those that prosecuted him, _Veneficium exprebrabent, charged him_, I suppose, _with witchcraft_. _Fillet of fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bakae: Eye of newt, and toe of frog;-- For a charm, &c_. The propriety of these ingredients may be known by consulting the books _de Viribus Animalium_ and _de Mirabilibus Mundi_, ascribed to Albertus Magnus, in which the reader, who has time and credulity, may discover very wonderful secrets. _Finger of birth-strangled babe, Ditch deliver'd by a drab_;--