Devil; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- United States
‘... He being further demaunded to what end y{e} Spirits, in the likenes
of Todes and the pictures of man or woman made in wax or clay, doo serue?
He sayde, that Pictures made in wax wyll cause the partye (for whom it is
made) to continue sycke twoo whole yeares ere the wax will be consumed.
And, as for the Pictures of Claye, their confection is after this maner.
They use to take the earth of a new made graue, the rib bone of a man or
woman burned to ashes: if it be for a woman, they take the bone of a
woman, if for a man, the bone of a man, and a blacke Spider, with an inner
pith of an elder, tempered all in water, in which water the sayd Todes (?
Images) must fyrst be washed. And after all ceremonies ended, they put a
pricke, that is a pyn or a thorne in any member wher they wold haue the
party greued. And if the sayde prycke be put to the harte, the party dieth
within nine daies. Which Image they burne in the moste moystest place they
can finde. And, as touching the using of the Todes, the which he sayth
haue seueral names; soon they cal great Brownyng, or little Brownyng, or
Boune, great Tom Twite, or litle Tom Twite, with other like names; Which
Todes being called, the Witches strike with II withie sperres on both
sydes of y{e} head, and saieth to the Spirit, their Pater noster backward,
beginning at the ende of the Pater noster, but they wyll neuer say their
Creede. And when he is stricken, they commaunde the Tode, to hurt such a
man or woman as he would haue hurted. Whereto, if he swell, he will goo
wher he is apointed, either to the deiry, brewhouse, or to the dry kill of
malt, or to the Cattell in the field, to the stable, to the shepefold, or
to any other like places, and so returne agayne to his place.
‘The bodies of men or women bee hurt by the Images before named, and mens
goods and cattels be hurt by the Todes, in commaunding and using them, as
aforesaid as he sayth. And if the Tode Called forth, as afore said, do not
swell, then will the Witch that useth them call forth an other to do the
act, which, if he do not, then will they spy another tyme when they may
cause the partye to be found lacking fayth, or els to bee more voide of
grace, whereby he or they may be hurt. Furthermore he saith, that whoso
doth, once a day saye the Lorde’s prayer and his Creede in perfite
charitie, the Witch shall haue no power on his body or goodes for that
day.’
The witchcrafts of Elizabeth Stile[42] and her four companions were
decidedly malicious according to her printed confession, but according to
her own account they did not prosper, and her state before their trial and
execution seems to have been most pitiable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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