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
not eat any: confessed that she gave herself to him for a month: they
returned from the Sabbath in the same manner that they went there.
The second time she was at the Sabbath was after the old woman
_Collette_ had been to fetch her, and she anointed herself with the
ointment as above stated;--declared, that on entering the Sabbath, she
again had connection with the Devil and danced with him; after having
danced, and upon his solicitation to prolong the time, she gave
herself to him for three years; at the Sabbath the Devil used to
summon the Wizards and Witches in regular order (she remembered very
well having heard him call the old woman _Collette_ the first, in
these terms: _Madame the Old Woman Becquette_): then the woman
_Fallaise_; and afterwards the woman _Hardie_. Item, he also called
_Marie_, wife of _Massy_, and daughter of the said _Collette_. Said
that after them, she herself was called by the Devil: in these terms:
_The Little Becquette_: she also heard him call there _Collas
Becquet_, son of the said old woman (who [_Collas_] held her by the
hand in dancing, and someone [a woman] whom she did not know, held her
by the other hand): there were about six others there she did not
know: the said old woman was always the nearest to the Devil:
occasionally while some were dancing, others were having connection
with the Devils in the form of dogs; they remained at the Sabbath
about three or four hours, not more.
While at the Sabbath the Devil marked her at the upper part of the
thigh: which mark having been examined by the midwives, they reported
that they had stuck a small pin deeply into it, and that she had not
felt it, and that no blood had issued: she did not know in what part
the Devil had marked the others: those who came first to the place of
the Sabbath, waited for the others; and all the Wizards and Witches
appeared in their proper forms: but blackened and disfigured so that
they could not be recognised.
The Devil appeared sometimes in the form of a goat at the Sabbath;
never saw him in other forms: on their departure he made them kiss him
behind, and asked them when they would come again: he exhorted them
always to be true to him: and to do evil deeds, and to this end he
gave them certain black powders, wrapped in a cloth, for them to throw
upon those whom they wished to bewitch: on leaving the Sabbath, the
Devil went away in one direction and they in the other: after he had
taken them all by the hand: At the instigation of the Devil she threw
some of the powder over several persons and cattle: notably over
_Jean Jehan_, when he came to her house to look for a pig. Item, over
the child of _James Gallienne_, and over others. Item, over the cattle
of _Brouart_, and of others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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