[87] A sufficiently large collection from ancient and modern writers of the facts of _inhuman_ connections may be seen in the _Anatomy of Melancholy_, part iii. sect. 2. Having repeated the assertions of previous authors proving the fact of intercourses of human with inferior species of animals, Burton fortifies his own opinion of their reality by numerous authorities. If those stories be true, he reasons, that are written of Incubus and Succubus, of nymphs, lascivious fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those lascivious Telchines of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those familiar meetings in our day [1624] and company of witches and devils, there is some probability for it. I know that Biarmannus, Wierus, and some others stoutly deny it ... but Austin (lib. xv. _de Civit. Dei_) doth acknowledge it. And he refers to Plutarch, _Vita Numae; Wierus, de Praestigiis Daemon., Giraldus Cambrensis, Malleus Malef., Jacobus Reussus, Godelman, Erastus, John Nider, Delrio, Lipsius, Bodin, Pererius, King James, &c_. The learned and curious work of the melancholy Student of Christ Church and Oxford Rector has been deservedly commended by many eminent critics. That 'exact mathematician and curious calculator of nativities' calculated exactly, according to Anthony Wood (_Athenae Oxon._), the period of his own death--1639. The acts of Incubus assume an important part in witch-trials and confessions. Incubus is the visitor of females, Succubus of males. Chaucer satirises the gallantries of the vicarious Incubus by the mouth of the wife of Bath (that practical admirer of Solomon and the Samaritan woman),[88] who prefaces her tale with the assurance:-- That maketh that ther ben no fayeries, For ther as wont was to walken an elf Ther walketh noon but the _Lymitour_ himself. * * * * * Women may now go safely up and downe; In every busch and under every tre Ther is noon other _Incubus_ but he. [88] The wife of Bath, who had buried only her fifth husband, must appear modest by comparison. Not to mention Seneca's or Martial's assertions or insinuations, St. Jerome was acquainted with the case of a woman who had buried her _twenty-second_ husband, whose conjugal capacity, however, was exceeded by the Dutch wife who, on the testimony of honest John Evelyn, had buried her _twenty-fifth_ husband!