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magical means of going to the Sabbath, says, 'les Sorciers nea{n}tmoins vont
quelquefois de pied au Sabbat, ce qui leur aduient principalement, lors que
le lieu, o ils font leur assemble, n'est pas guieres eslongn de leur
habitation', and rites in confirmation the evidence of George and Antoinette
Gandillon and their father Pierre, Clauda Ianprost, Clauda Ian-guillaume,
Iaquema Paget, Gros Iaques, the two brothers Claude and Claude Charloz,
Pierre Willermoz, l'Aranthon, Pernette Molard, Ianne Platet, and Clauda
Paget.[1] Iaquema Paget's account of how she and Antoine Tornier went to a
.
[1. Boguet, pp. 106-7.]
meeting on their way home. from the harvest field (see p. 121), proves that
they were on foot. The Lang-Niddry witches (1608) clearly walked, they
'convenit thame selffis at Deanefute of Lang-Niddry . . . thaireffir thay
past altogidder to the said Beigis hous in Lang-Nydry [where they drank];
and thaireftir come with all thair speid to Seaton-thorne be-north the zet;
quhair the Devill. callit for the said Christiane Tod, and past to Robert
Smartis house, and brocht hir out.... And thay thaireftir past altogidder,
with the Devill, to the irne zet of Seatoun . . . And thaireftir come all
bak agane to the Deane-fute, quhair first thai convenit.'[1] The distance
from Lang Niddry to Seaton Castle is under a mile. 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.[2]
Berthlemy Minguet of Brcy was tried in 1616: 'Enquis, de quelle faon sa
femme fut au Sabbat la premiere fois. Respond, qu'elle y fut transporte par
le Diable, lequel la rapporta apres le Sabbat, & que la seconde fois qu'elle
y a est, elle y fut de son pied avec luy, & s'en retourna de son pied, &
qu'elle n'y a iamais est que ces deux fois.'[3] 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
bade 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'.[4] Christian Grieve, of Crook of
Devon (1662), acknowledged I 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
[1. Pitcairn, ii, pp. 542-3.
2. De Lancre, Tableau, p. 148.
3. Id., L'Incredulit. P. 808.
4. Kinloch, pp. 122-3.]
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'.[1] 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'.[2] At Strathdown (eighteenth century) the witches went along
the side of the river Avon to Craic-pol-nain, fording the river on foot.[3]
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
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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.
The following instances are of those who rode to or from the meetings on
horseback. Agnes Sampson of North Berwick (1590) said that the Devil in mans
likeness met her going out in the fields from her own house at Keith,
betwixt five and six at even, being her alone and commanded her to be at
North-berwick Kirk the next night: And she passed there on horse-back,
conveyed by her Good-son, called Iohn Couper'.[4] Boguet (1608) mentions, in
passing, the fact that the witches sometimes rode on horses.[5] The
Lancashire witches (1613), after the meeting at Malking Tower, 'went out of
the said House in their owne shapes and likenesses. And they all, by that
they were forth of the dores, gotten on Horseback, like vnto foals, some of
one colour, some of another.[6] This was the usual mode of locomotion among
the Lancashire witches, for Margaret Johnson (1633) said that at the meeting
at Hoarstones 'there was, at yt tyme, between 30 and 40 witches, who did all
ride to the said meetinge'.[7] Isobell Gowdie (1662) said, 'I haid a little
horse, and wold say, " Horse
[1. Burns Begg, p. 239.
2. Bourignon, Vie, p. 211; Hale, p. 29.
3. Stewart, p. 174.
4. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 239. Spelling modernized.
5. Boguet, p. 104.
6. Potts, G4.
7. Whitaker, p. 216.]
and Hattock, in the Divellis name!"[1] The most detailed account is from
Sweden (1669):
'Another Boy confessed too, that one day he was carried away by his
Mistriss, and to perform the journey he took his own Father's Horse out of
the Meadow where it was, and upon his return she let the Horse go in her own
ground. The next morning the Boys Father sought for his Horse, and not
finding it, gave it over for lost; but the Boy told him the whole story, and
so his Father fetcht the Horse back again.'[2]
We now come to the marvellous and magical means of locomotion. The belief in
the power of witches to ride in the air is very ancient and universal in
Europe. They flew either unsupported, being carried by the Devil, or were
supported on a stick; sometimes, however, an animal which they rode passed
through the air. The flying was usually preceded by an anointing of the
whole or part of the body with a magical ointment.
The earliest example of unsupported flying is from Paul Grilland (1537), who
gives an account of an Italian witch in 1526, who flew in the air with the
help of a magic ointment.[2]
Reginald Scot (1584) says that the ointment 'whereby they ride in the aire'
was made of the flesh of unbaptized children, and gives two recipes:
[1] 'The fat of yoong children, and seeth it with water in a brasen vessell,
reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the bottome, which
they laie up and keepe, untill occasion serueth to use it. They put hereunto
Eleoselinum, Aconitum, Frondes populeas, and Soote.' [2] 'Sium, acarum
vulgare, pentaphyllon, the blood of a flitter mouse, solanum somniferum, and
oleum. They stampe all these togither, and then they rubbe all parts of
their bodys exceedinglie, till they looke red, and be verie hot, so as the
pores may be opened, and their flesh soluble and loose. They ioine
herewithall either fat, or oil in steed thereof, that the force of the
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