The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in AnthropologyMurray, Margaret Alice
Religion
The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology
Murray, Margaret Alice
Ethnology; Witchcraft -- Great Britain
Margaret Johnson (1633) deposed that she was not at the great witch-meeting
on All Saints' Day, but was at a smaller meeting the Sunday after, 'where
there was, at yt tyme, between 30 and 40 witches, who did all ride to the
said meetinge, and the end of theire said meeting was to consult for the
killinge and hurtinge of men and beasts.'[423] The Forfar witches (1661)
claimed to have wrecked a ship.[424] Isobel Gowdie (1662) is as usual very
dramatic in her account; on one occasion the witches met to make a charm
against the minister of Auldearne, Mr. Harie Forbes: 'Satan wes with ws and
learned ws the wordis to say thryse ower. Quhan we haid learned all thes
wordis from the Divell, we fell all down wpon owr kneis, with owr hear down
ower owr showlderis and eyes, and owr handis lifted wp, and owr eyes
stedfastlie fixed wpon the Divell; and said the forsaidis wordis thryse
ower to the Divell, striktlie, against Maister Harie Forbes his recowering
from the said seiknes.' When making an image only a few of the witches were
present with the Devil.[425] Marie Lamont (1662) claimed that her Coven
raised storms on two occasions; and on a third, they in the likeness of
'kats', and the Devil as a man with cloven feet, made a charm with 'wyt
sand' against Blackhall younger and Mr. John Hamilton.[426] Amongst the
most detailed accounts of the wax or clay images, and of the ritual for
killing the person whom the image represented, are those of the Somerset
witches[427] (1664). The baptism of the figure is an interesting point. The
Paisley witches (1678) had a meeting to make a clay figure in order to kill
an enemy of the witch in whose house the meeting was held.[428] At
Borrowstowness part of the accusation was that 'ye and ilk ane of yow was
at ane metting with the devill and other witches at the croce of Murestane,
upon the threttein of October last, where you all danced and the devill
acted the pyiper, and where yow indewored to have destroyed Andrew
Mitchell.'[429] In New England the witches accused George Burroughs 'that
he brought Poppets to them, and Thorns to stick into those Poppets'.[430]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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