This is that sort of bird that _Gesner_ calleth _Caprimulgus_, and the Greeks Ἀιγαθήλας, the Germans =Rachtvogel= or =Rachtraven=, the Hebrews ‏לילית‎ _Lillith_, as is said in _Isaiah: Quin & ibi subitò quievit strix (seu lamia) & invenit sibi requiem._ It is taken to be a kind of Owl, little bigger than an Ousel, and less than a Cuckow, they are blind upon the day, and flye abroad upon the nights, making an horrible noise, and were to be found about _Rome_, _Helvetia_, and _Crete_ or _Candy_, and do certainly suck the dugs of Goats, that thereby they waste away and become blind. And that they are also sometimes found in _Denmark_, that learned Physician and laborious Anatomist _Bartholinus_ doth make manifest, and that they do suck the breasts or navils of young children. Now what affinity hath this to a Witch or Witchcraft? but that Witchmongers would bring in any allusion or Metaphor, though never so impertinent or incongruous? For if it were transferred to the actions of Witches, yet as _Calepine_ tells us: _Ab hujus avis nocumento striges appellamus mulieres puellulos fascinantes suo contactu, & lactis mammarúmq; oblatione_. So that if the assimulation were proper in any proportion or particular, those Women they do account Witches, do but hurt the little children with the virulent steams of their breath, and the effluviums that issue from their filthy and polluted bodies, and so wrought by contact and contrectation, by which the contagious poyson is conveyed, but not by Witchcraft. [Sidenote: Act. 1. 26.] [Sidenote: Prov. 16. 33.] 3. There is another word that they apply to Witches, as insignificant and improper as the other, and that is _Sortilegus_, χρησμολόγος, a Teller of Fortunes by Lots or Cuts: and _Lambertus Danæus_, who in other things was a judicious and learned person, yet doted extremely about this opinion, calling a Witch _Sortiarius_, deriving it from _Sortilegus_, which the French call _Sorcier_. Now what affinity or congruity hath casting or using of Lots with that which these men call _Witchcraft_? surely none at all. For though Lots may, like the best things, be abused and wrested to a vain or evil end, yet are they not altogether evil, but that a civil and lawful use may be made of them, as is manifest this day at the famous City of _Venice_, where their chief Officers are chosen by them. And also there hath been a godly and divine use made of them even by the Apostles themselves, in the deciding of the Election of _Barsabas_ and _Matthias_, upon the latter of which the Lot fell, and so he was numbred with the eleven Apostles. And _Solomon_ tells us, _The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord_. And sure these men were at a loss to find a suitable word to fix upon these Creatures, to whom they ascribe such impossible and incredible actions, when they were fain to bring this appellation of _Sortilegus_, that hath no kinship at all with such Witches, as they mean and intend.