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
Isaac de Queyran (1609), a young fellow of twenty-five,
told de Lancre that those living at a distance flew home through the air,
the near ones returned on foot.[330] Barthélemy Minguet of Brécy was tried
in 1616: 'Enquis, de quelle façon sa femme fut au Sabbat la premiere fois.
Respond, qu'elle y fut transportée par le Diable, lequel la rapporta apres
le Sabbat, & que la seconde fois qu'elle y a esté, elle y fut de son pied
avec luy, & s'en retourna de son pied, & qu'elle n'y a iamais esté que ces
deux fois.'[331] Helen Guthrie of Forfar (1661) said that 'herselfe,
Isobell Shyrie, and Elspet Alexander, did meit togither at ane aile house
near to Barrie, a litle befor sunsett, efter they hade stayed in the said
house about the spaice of ane houre drinking of thrie pintis of ale
togidder, they went foorth to the sandis, and ther thrie other women met
them, and the divell wes there present with them all ... and they parted so
late that night that she could get no lodging, but wes forced to lye at ane
dyk syde all night.'[332] Christian Grieve, of Crook of Devon (1662),
acknowledged 'that ye came to the foresaid meeting immediately after your
goodman and the rest went to bed, and that ye locked the door and put the
key under the same, and that ye and the said Margaret Young your neighbor
came foot for foot to the foresaid meeting and that ye stayed at the
foresaid meeting about the space of two hours and came back again on your
foot, and the foresaid Margaret Young with you, and found the key of the
door in that same place where you left it, and declared that neither your
husband nor any other in the house was waking at your return'.[333] At
Lille (1661) the girl Bellot, then aged fifteen, said that 'her Mother had
taken her with her when she was very Young, and had even carried her in her
Arms to the Witches Sabbaths or Assemblies'.[334] At Strathdown (eighteenth
century) the witches went along the side of the river Avon to
Craic-pol-nain, fording the river on foot.[335]
In the cases cited above there is nothing in the least bizarre or
extraordinary, but there are other methods recorded of reaching the distant
meetings. Sometimes the obvious means was by riding on a horse; sometimes
the witches were accused, or claimed the power, of flying through the air,
of riding in the air on a stick, of riding on animals or human beings,
which latter were sometimes in their own natural form and sometimes
enchanted into the form of animals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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