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
The method of locomotion which has most impressed the popular imagination
and has become proverbial was riding on a stick, generally said to be a
broomstick. It must, however, be remembered that one of the earliest cases
on record of stick-riding does not definitely state that the witch flew
through the air. This was the case of the Lady Alice Kyteler in 1324, when
'in rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a Pipe of oyntment,
wherewith she greased a staffe, upon the which she ambled and galloped
through thick and thin, when and in what maner she listed'.[358] Though
Holinshed is not always a reliable authority, it is worth while to compare
this account with the stick-riding of the Arab witches and the tree-riding
of the Aberdeen Covens (see pp. 110, 134).
The number of cases vouched for by the persons who actually performed or
saw the feat of riding on a stick through the air are disappointingly few.
Guillaume Edeline, prior of St. Germain-en-Laye (1453), 'se mit en telle
servitude de l'ennemy, qu'il luy convenoit estre en certain lieu toutes
fois qu'il estoit par ledit ennemy évocqué: ouquel lieu ilz avoient
accoustumé faire leur consistoire, et ne luy falloit que monter sur ung
balay, qu'aussi-tost il estoit prestement transporté là où ledit
consistoire se faisoit'.[359] The Guernsey witch, Martin Tulouff (1563),
confessed '[*q] il soy est trouvé avecq la dite viellesse ou elle
chevaucha ung genest et luy ung aultre, et [*q] lad^te viellesse monta a
mont la chemynee et [*q] il en perdyt la veue et [*q] elle disoet devãt
[*q] monter "Va au nom du diable et luciffer dess[~q=] roches et espyñes"
et [*q] po^r luy il ne pouvoet ainsy faire, et d^t [*q] sa mere a
chevauche le genest [*p] IV ou V foys et [*q] il l'a veue monter a mont la
cheminee'.[360] Danaeus (1575) sums up the evidence of the witches
themselves: 'He promiseth that himself will conuay them thither, that are
so weak that they cannot trauaile of themselues: which many tymes he doth
by meanes of a staffe or rod, which he deliuereth vnto thẽ, or promiseth
to doo it by force of a certen oyntment, which he will geue them: and
sometimes he offreth them an horse to ride vpon.'[361] Boguet's experience
(1598) is more dramatic than that of Danaeus: 'Les autres y vont, tantost
sur vn Bouc, tantost sur vn cheual, & tantost sur vn ballet, ou ramasse,
sortans ces derniers de leurs maisons le plus souuent par la cheminee....
Les vns encor se frottent auparauant de certaine graisse, & oignement: les
autres ne se frottent en aucune façon.'[362] He also records the actual
evidence of individual witches: Françoise Secretain said 'qu'elle avoit
esté vne infinité de fois au Sabbat & assemblee des Sorciers ... & qu'elle
y alloit sur vn baston blanc, qu'elle mettoit entre ses
iambes.[363]—Claudine Boban, ieune fille confessa, qu'elle, & sa mere
montoient sur vne ramasse,[364] & que sortans le contremont de la cheminée
elles alloient par l'air en ceste façon au Sabbat.'[365] In Belgium Claire
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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