2. But to come to the signification and acceptation of the words that those Authors, who have magnified and defended the power of Witches, have used to express their notions by, we shall find them to be so far fetcht, so metaphorical, and improperly applied, that no rational or understanding man can tell us what to make of them. And if we take the notion, as they do, of a killing and murthering Witch, with the rest of the adjuncts, which they couple with it, we shall not be able to find a proper and significative word, either in the Hebrew, Greek, Latine, French, Spanish, Italian, or High-Dutch, but a multitude or a _Ferrago_ of words, whereof not one doth properly signifie any such thing, as they would make us believe, by the notion that they maintain of a Witch: of which we shall principally note these. [Sidenote: Lament. 4. 3.] 1. For the Hebrew words used in the Old Testament we shall not mention them here, but afterward, where we speak of the mistranslation of them, and therefore shall pursue them in the Latine, and other Languages. And first they sometimes use the word _Lamia_ in the Latine, Λάμια in Greek, which _Gesner_ and others tell us doth signifie a terrestrial Creature, or a voracious fish, as also a Spectrum or Phantasm. And this was supposed to be a Creature with a face like a Woman, and feet like a Horse or an Ass, such as (indeed) neither is, nor ever was _in rerum natura_, but was only a figment devised to affright children withal. But if we will believe Poetical Fables, the Romances of _Philostratus_ concerning _Apollonius_, or the lying Diary of his Man _Damis_, we must take it to be a Spirit or Apparition, such as the Greeks called _Empusæ_, that went upon one leg, and had eyes that they could take forth, and set in, when they pleased. And such a monstrous Fable and Lye was a sufficient ground for doting Witchmongers to build their incredible stories of the power and actions of Witches upon, having no proper word for such a Witch as they falsely believe and suppose. Though there be a Text in the Lamentations of _Jeremiah_, that hath given occasion or colour to this vain opinion, especially as the vulgar Latine renders it, which is thus: _Sed & Lamiæ nudaverunt mammam, lactaverunt catulos suos. Filia populi mei crudelis, quasi struthio in deserto._ The French render it, _The Dragons have made bare their breasts_: and so have also the Italians in their Translation retained the words Dragon and Ostrich; and also the Septuagint render the words δράχοντες and στρουθίον. And _Luther_ in his Translation hath kept the same words, though the Germans call =Lamia Ein Rachtsgeist=. But our own Translation hath come more near the truth: _Even the Sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the Daughter of my people are become cruel like the Ostriches in the wilderness._ And _Arias Montanus_ gives it thus: _Etiam draco——‏תנין‎ Tannin_ (which signifieth