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
'learned this arte of witchcraft of hyr grandmother whose nam mother
Eue. Item when shee taughte it her, she counseiled her to renounce God
and his worde and to geue of her bloudde to Sathan (as she termed it)
whyche she delyuered her in the lykenesse of a whyte spotted Catte,
and taughte her to feede the sayde Catte with breade and mylke, and
she dyd so, also she taughte her to cal it by the name of Sathan and
to kepe it in a basket. Item that euery tyme that he did any thynge
for her, she sayde that he required a drop of bloude, which she gaue
him by prycking herselfe, sometime in one place and then in an other.
When shee had kept this Cat by the space of XV or XVI yeare, and as
some saye (though vntruly) beinge wery of it, she came to one mother
Waterhouse her neyghbour, she brought her this cat in her apron and
taught her as she was instructed by her grandmother Eue, telling her
that she must cal him Sathan and geue him of her bloude and breade and
milke as before.—Mother Waterhouse receyued this cat of this Frances
wife in the order as is before sayde. She (to trye him what he coulde
do) wyld him to kyll a hog of her owne, which he dyd, and she gaue him
for his labour a chicken, which he fyrste required of her and a drop
of her blod. And thys she gaue him at all times when he dyd anythynge
for her, by pricking her hand or face and puttinge the bloud to hys
mouth whyche he sucked, and forthwith wold lye downe in hys pot
againe, wherein she kepte him. Another tym she rewarded hym as before,
wyth a chicken and a droppe of her bloud, which chicken he eate vp
cleane as he didde al the rest, and she cold fynde remaining neyther
bones nor fethers. Also she said that when she wolde wyl him to do any
thinge for her, she wolde say her Pater noster in laten. Item, this
mother Waterhouse confessed that shee fyrst turned this Cat into a
tode by this meanes, she kept the cat a great while in woll in a pot,
and at length being moued by pouertie to occupie the woll, she praied
in the name of the father and of the sonne, and of the holy ghost that
it wold turne into a tode, and forthwith it was turned into a tode,
and so kept it in the pot without woll.'[842]
In 1579 at Windsor—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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