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
In Cambridgeshire in 1647 Dorothy Ellis 'saith that about thirtie yeares
since shee being much troubled in her minde there appeared unto hir the
Devell in the liknes of a great catt and speak unto this ex^t and demanded
of hir hir blood w^ch she gave hime after which the spirit in the liknes of
a catt suck upon the body of this ex^t and the first thing this ex^t
commanded her spirit to doe was to goe and be witch four of the cattell of
Tho. Hitch all which cattell presently died '.[854] John Palmer of St.
Albans in 1649, 'upon his compact with the Divel, received a flesh brand,
or mark, upon his side, which gave suck to two familiars, the one in the
form of a dog, which he called George, and the other in the likeness of a
woman, called Jezebell.'[855] Of the Somerset witches in 1664, Alice Duke
'confesseth that her Familiar doth commonly suck her right Breast about
seven at night, in the shape of a little Cat of a dunnish colour, which is
as smooth as a Want, and when she is suckt, she is in a kind of a
Trance.—Christian Green saith, The Devil doth usually suck her left Brest
about five of the Clock in the Morning in the likeness of an Hedghog,
bending, and did so on Wednesday Morning last. She saith that it is painful
to her, and that she is usually in a trance when she is suckt.'[856] In
1665 Abre Grinset of Dunwich in Suffolk 'did confess that the Devil did
appear in the form of a Pretty handsom Young Man first; and since Appeareth
to her in the form of a blackish Gray Cat or Kitling, that it sucketh of a
Tett and hath drawn blood.'[857]
The only published account of the animal familiar in France shows a
combination of the two classes, for the creature was a toad kept in the
house, fed in a particular way, and used for divination.
Silvain Nevillon and Gentien le Clerc were tried at Orleans in 1614.
Silvain confessed—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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