Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands: Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical IntroductionPitts, John Linwood
History
Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands: Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction
_Isabel_, wife of _Jean le Moygne_, having been put to the question,
at once confessed that she was a Witch: and that upon her getting into
a quarrel with the woman _Girarde_, who was her sister-in-law: the
Devil, in the form of a hare, took occasion to tempt her: appearing to
her in broad daylight in a road near her house: and persuading and
inciting her to give herself to him: and that he would help her to
avenge herself on the said _Girarde_, and everybody else: to which
persuasion she would not at the moment condescend to yield: so he at
once disappeared: but very soon he came again to her in the same road,
and pursuing his previous argument: exhorted her in the same terms as
above: that done, he left her and went away, after having previously
put her a sackful of parsnips; she then took a certain black powder
wrapped in a cloth which he placed; which powder she kept by her. He
appeared to her another time under the same form in the town district,
inciting her anew to give herself to him, but she not wishing to
comply, he next made a request to her to give him some living animal:
whereupon she returned to her dwelling and fetched a chicken, which
she carried to him to the same place where she had left him, and he
took it: and after having thanked her he made an appointment for her
to be present the next morning before daylight at the Sabbath,
promising that he would send for her: according to which promise,
during the ensuing night, the old woman _Collette du Mont_, came to
fetch her, and gave her some black ointment, which she had had from
the Devil; with this (after having stripped herself) she anointed her
back and belly, then having dressed herself again she went out of her
house door: when she was instantly caught up: and carried across
hedges and bushes to the bank on the sea shore, in the neighbourhood
of Rocquaine Castle, the usual place where the Devil kept his Sabbath;
no sooner had she arrived there than the Devil came to her in the
form of a dog, with two great horns sticking up: and with one of his
paws (which seemed to her like hands) took her by the hand: and
calling her by her name told her that she was welcome: then
immediately the Devil made her kneel down: while he himself stood up
on his hind legs; he then made her express detestation of the Eternal
in these words: _I renounce God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost_; and then caused her to worship and invoke himself in
these terms: _Our Great Master, help us!_ with a special compact to be
faithful to him; and when this was done he had connection with her in
the aforesaid form of a dog, but a little larger: then she and the
others danced with him back to back: after having danced, the Devil
poured out of a jug some black wine, which he presented to them in a
wooden bowl, from which she drank, but it did not seem to her so good
as the wine which is usually drunk: there was also bread--but she did
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