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
killed the said Dog and Cat about a yeare since.—Joan Wallis of
Keiston said [that the Devil came to her] and shee asked what his name
was, and he said his name was Blackeman, and asked her if she were
poore, and she said I; then he told her he would send one Grissell and
Greedigut to her, that shall do any thing for her. And after Blackman
was departed from her, within three or four dayes, Grissell and
Greedigut came to her, in the shapes of dogges with great brisles of
hogges haire upon their backs.' The accounts given by John Winnick,
Ellen Shepheard, and Anne Desborough suggest that they are confused
amplifications of the ritual to be observed in taking a familiar, the
ritual being clearly given in the confession of Francis Moore when she
was presented with the cat Tissy. John Winnick said, 'On a Friday
being in the barne [where he lost his purse] there appeared unto him a
Spirit, blacke and shaggy, and having pawes like a Beare, but in bulk
not fully so big as a Coney. The Spirit asked him what he ailed to be
so sorrowfull, this Examinate answered that he had lost a purse and
money, and knew not how to come by it againe. The Spirit replied, if
you will forsake God and Christ, and fall down and worship me for your
God, I will help you to your purse and mony againe: This Examinate
said he would, and thereupon fell down upon his knees and held up his
hands. Then the Spirit said, tomorrow about this time of the day, you
shall find your purse. Whereupon at the time prefixed, this Examinate
went unto the place, and found his purse upon the floore and tooke it
up, and looking afterwards into it, he found there all the money that
was formerly lost: but before he had looked into it, the same Spirit
appears unto him, and said, there is your purse and your money in it:
and then this Examinate fell downe upon his knees and said, my Lord
and God I thanke you. The said Spirit at that time brought with him
two other Spirits, for shape, bignesse, and colour, the one like a
white Cat, the other like a grey Coney: and while this Examinate was
upon his knees, the Beare Spirit spake to him, saying, you must
worship these two Spirits as you worship me, and take them for your
Gods also: then this Examinate directed his bodie towards them, and
call'd them his Lords and Gods. Then the Beare Spirit told him that
when he dyed he must have his soule, whereunto this Examinate yielded.
Hee told him then also that they must suck of his body, to which this
Examinate also yielded.—Ellen Shepheard saith that about five years
since, when she was in her homsted at Molesworth, there appeared unto
her a Spirit, somewhat like a Rat, but not fully so big, of an
iron-grey colour, and said you must goe with me, and she said, I will
not, avoid Satan, and thereupon he went away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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