The subject of witchcraft greatly interested Hawthorne, for he introduces it in a number of instances. _Young Goodman Brown_ shows the aspects of the diabolic union between the devil and his earthly companions, their unholy congregations in the forest, reports their sardonic conversations and suggestions of evil in others, and pictures the witches riding on broomsticks high in the heavens and working their magic spells. The young husband sees in that convocation all the persons whom he has most revered--his minister, his Sabbath-school teacher, and even his young wife, so that all his after-life is saddened by the thought of it. Witchcraft enters into _The Scarlet Letter_, _Main Street_, and _Feathertop_, and is mentioned in other stories. Old Mother Sheehy in Kipling's _The Courting of Dinah Shadd_ pronounces a malediction against Private Mulvany and the girl he loves, prophesying that he will be reduced in rank instead of being promoted, will be a slave to drink so that his young wife will take in washing for officers' wives instead of herself being the wife of an officer, and that their only child will die,--every bitter word of which comes true in after years. The old witch mother in Howard Pyle's _The Evil Eye_ inspires her daughter to cast a spell over the man she loves but who does not think of her, causing him to leave his betrothed and wed the witch daughter. When understanding comes to him, and with it loathing, the girl seeks to regain his love by following the counsel of an old magician, who gives her an image to be burnt. But that burning of the image kills her and looses the man from her spell. That incident is similar to that in D'Annunzio's _Sogno d'un Tramonto d'Autunno_ where the Dogaressa seeks to slay her rival, both probably being based on the unforgettable employment of the theme in Rossetti's _Sister Helen_, where the young girl causes the death of her betrayer by melting the image. In Gordon Bottomley's play, _Riding to Lithend_, three old women enter, who seem to partake of the nature of the Parcæ as well as of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters. They have bat-webbed fingers, the hound bays uncannily at their approach, they show supernatural knowledge of events, and they chant a wild prophecy of doom, then mysteriously disappear. Fate marches swiftly on as they foretell.