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
Shee saith, that within
a short time after, going into the field, cursing, and fretting, and
blaspheming, there appeared three Spirits more with the former in the
fashion of Rats, of an iron-grey, and said, you must forsake God and
Christ, and goe with me, and take those Spirits for your Gods, and you
shall have all happinesse, whereunto she consented: And moreover they
said unto her, that when she dyed, they must have her body and soule,
and said they must have blood from her, which she granted, and
thereupon they sucked her upon and about her hippes.—Anne Desborough
confesseth, that about thirty yeares since, the first weeke of Cleane
Lent, there appeared unto her a thing some-what bigger than a Mouse,
of a brown colour, and of the likenesse of a mouse. This was while
shee lived at Tichmarsh in the County of Northampton: she being there
in bed, and in a dreame, the said likenesse then gave her a nip, and
thereby awakened her out of her dreame, and then told her (when she
was awakened) that it must have part of her soule; whereupon she was
in a great feare, and gave him no answer, but prayed to God, and
thereupon it vanished away from her. About five dayes after, the same
Mouse appeared to her againe, bringing with it another Mouse, about
the bignesse of an ordinary Mouse, or very little bigger, browne like
the former, save only that the latter had some white about the belly,
whereas the former was all browne. Then the Mouse that first appeared,
said, we must sucke of your body. She yielded to them, and said, they
should; upon her yielding, they went to her and sucked of her bodie,
where the markes are found. The bigger mouse she called Tib, and the
lesser Jone. Tib told her that she must forsake God and Christ, and
take them for her Gods, telling her that when she dyed, they must have
her soule, to all which she yielded.'[853]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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