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
3. The profession of the witch-religion being hereditary, it is not
uncommon to find that the familiar descended from mother to daughter. This,
like the familiar given by one witch to another, was the domestic familiar.
It was sometimes presented during the mother's lifetime or was left as a
legacy at her death. Elizabeth Francis in 1556 stated that 'she learned
this arte of witchcraft at the age of xii yeres of hyr grandmother whose
nam mother Eue of Hatfyelde Peuerell, disseased. 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.'[871] In 1582 Ales Hunt of St. Osyth
confessed to having two spirits, and 'saith, that her sister (named
Margerie Sammon) hath also two spirites like Toades, the one called Tom,
and the other Robbyn: And saith further, her sayde Syster and shee had the
sayd spyrites of their Mother, Mother Barnes.'[872] In 1597 the Derbyshire
witch, Alse Gooderidge, stated that 'the Diuell appeared to me in lykenesse
of a little partie-colored dog red and white, and I called him Minny. She
saide she had her familiar of her mother.'[873] The Essex witches, tried in
1645, also inherited familiars from their mothers. Anne Cooper confessed
'that she the said Anne offered to give unto her daughter Sarah Cooper an
impe in the likenes of a gray kite (i.e. kit, or cat), to suck on the said
Sarah.—Susan Cock saith, that about three or four yeeres since, one
Margery Stoakes, this examinants mother, lying upon her death-bed, and this
examinant comming to visit her, shee the said Margery desired this
examinant privately to give entertainment to two of her imps, and withall
told this examinant, they would do this examinant good; And this examinant
saith, that the same night her said mother dyed, the said two imps came to
her accordingly, and sucked on her body.—Anne Cate saith, That she hath
four familiars, which shee had from her mother, about two and twenty yeeres
since.'[874] In 1667 at Liverpool, 'Margaret Loy, being arraigned for a
witch, confessed she was one; and when she was asked how long she had so
been, replied, Since the death of her mother, who died thirty years ago;
and at her decease she had nothing to leave her, and this widow Bridge,
that were sisters, but her two spirits; and named them, the eldest spirit
to this widow, and the other spirit to her the said Margaret Loy.'[875]
This inheritance of a familiar may be compared with the Lapp custom: 'The
Laplanders bequeath their Demons as part of their inheritance, which is the
reason that one family excels another in this magical art.'[876]
4. The method of obtaining a familiar by means of magical words or actions
is clearly described in two modern examples:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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