Part 17
The 'conjuring of cats' was a distinct feature, and is clearly derived from an early form of sacrifice. The details are recorded only in Scotland, and it is possible that Scotland is the only country in which it occurred, though the sanctity of the cat in other places suggests that the omission in the records is accidental.
In the dittay against John Fian, 1590, he was 'fylit, for the chaissing of ane catt in Tranent; in the quhilk chaise, he was careit heich aboue the ground, with gryt swyftnes, and as lychtlie as the catt hir selff, ower ane heicher dyke, nor he was able to lay his hand to the heid off:--And being inquyrit, to quhat effect he chaissit the samin? Ansuerit, that in ane conversatioune haldin at Brumhoillis, Sathan commandit all that were present, to tak cattis; lyke as he, for obedience to Sathan, chaissit the said catt, purpoiselie to be cassin in the sea, to raise windis for distructioune of schippis and boitis.'[660] Agnes Sampson of the same Coven as Fian confessed 'that at the time when his Majestie was in Denmark, shee being accompanied by the parties before speciallie named, tooke a cat and christened it, and afterwards bounde to each part of that cat, the cheefest parte of a dead man, and severall joyntis of his bodie: And that in the night following, the saide cat was convayed into the middest of the sea by all the witches, sayling in their riddles or cives, as is aforesaid, and so left the said cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This doone, there did arise such a tempest in the sea, as a greater hath not bene seene.'[661] The legal record of this event is more detailed and less dramatic; the sieves are never mentioned, the witches merely walking to the Pier-head in an ordinary and commonplace manner. The Coven at Prestonpans sent a letter to the Leith Coven that--
'they sould mak the storm vniuersall thro the sea. And within aucht dayes eftir the said Bill [letter] wes delyuerit, the said Agnes Sampsoune, Jonett Campbell, Johnne Fean, Gelie Duncan, and Meg Dyn baptesit ane catt in the wobstaris hous, in maner following: Fyrst, twa of thame held ane fingar, in the ane syd of the chimnay cruik, and ane vther held ane vther fingar in the vther syd, the twa nebbis of the fingars meting togidder; than thay patt the catt thryis throw the linkis of the cruik, and passit itt thryis vnder the chimnay. Thaireftir, att Begie Toddis hous, thay knitt to the foure feit of the catt, foure jountis of men; quhilk being done, the sayd Jonet fechit it to Leith; and about mydnycht, sche and the twa Linkhop, and twa wyfeis callit Stobbeis, came to the Pier-heid, and saying thir words, 'See that thair be na desait amangis ws'; and thay caist the catt in the see, sa far as thay mycht, quhilk swam owre and cam agane; and thay that wer in the Panis, caist in ane vthir catt in the see att xj houris. Eftir quhilk, be thair sorcerie and inchantment, the boit perischit betuix Leith and Kinghorne; quhilk thing the Deuill did, and went befoir, with ane stalf in his hand.'[662]
Beigis Todd was concerned in another 'conjuring of cats', this time at Seaton.
'Eftir thay had drukkin togidder a certane space, thay, in thair devillische maner, tuik ane katt, and drew the samyn nyne tymes throw the said Beigis cruik; and thaireftir come with all thair speed to Seaton-thorne, be-north the [3]et.... And thay thaireftir past altogidder, with the Devill, to the irne [3]et [iron gate] of Seatoun, quhair of new thay tuik ane cat, and drew the samyn nyne tymes throw the said Irne-[3]ett: And immediatlie thaireftir, came to the barne, foiranent George Feudaris dur, quhair thai christened the said catt, and callit hir _Margaret_: And thaireftir come all bak agane to the Deane-fute, quhair first thai convenit, and cuist the kat to the Devill.'[663]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 465: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 466: Boguet, pp. 131-9.]
[Footnote 467: _Pleasant Treatise_, pp. 5-7.]
[Footnote 468: Lea, iii, p. 501.]
[Footnote 469: Remigius, pt. i, pp. 89, 91.]
[Footnote 470: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 139, 163, 164.]
[Footnote 471: W. G. Stewart, p. 175.]
[Footnote 472: Danaeus, ch. ii.]
[Footnote 473: Cooper, p. 90.]
[Footnote 474: Rymer, i, p. 956.]
[Footnote 475: Chartier, iii, p. 45.]
[Footnote 476: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]
[Footnote 477: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 123.]
[Footnote 478: Bodin, p. 187.]
[Footnote 479: Melville, p. 396; _see also_ Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 210-12, 239, 246.]
[Footnote 480: F. Hutchinson, p. 43.]
[Footnote 481: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 121, 125.]
[Footnote 482: Boguet, p. 411.]
[Footnote 483: Cannaert, p. 46.]
[Footnote 484: Id., p. 50.]
[Footnote 485: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 131.]
[Footnote 486: Michaelis, _Historie_, pp. 334-5.]
[Footnote 487: Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.]
[Footnote 488: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 68, 126, 128.]
[Footnote 489: Id. ib., p. 148.]
[Footnote 490: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 171.]
[Footnote 491: Boguet, p. 131.]
[Footnote 492: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 72, 131.]
[Footnote 493: Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, i, 89.]
[Footnote 494: Moret, _Mystères Égyptiens_, pp. 247 seq.]
[Footnote 495: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 97-8. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 496: Ib., i, p. 144. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 497: Ib., p. 149.]
[Footnote 498: Ib., p. 153. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 499: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 123.]
[Footnote 500: F. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay_, p. 43.]
[Footnote 501: Compare the account of the Forfar witch-dance. Kinloch, p. 120.]
[Footnote 502: Boguet, pp. 131-2.]
[Footnote 503: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 504: Compare the dittay against Bessie Thom, who danced round the Fish Cross of Aberdeen with other witches 'in the lyknes of kattis and haris'. _Spalding Club Misc._, i, 167.]
[Footnote 505: Boguet, p. 127.]
[Footnote 506: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]
[Footnote 507: More, p. 232.]
[Footnote 508: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 245-6. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 509: Id., iii, p. 606. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 510: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 511: Sinclair, p. 163.]
[Footnote 512: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 513: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 212.]
[Footnote 514: _Surtees Soc._, xl, pp. 195, 197.]
[Footnote 515: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 516: De Lancre, op. cit., p. 211.]
[Footnote 517: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 165, 167. Spelling modernized. The account of the Arab witches should be compared with this. 'In the time of Ibn Munkidh the witches rode about naked on a stick between the graves of the cemetery of Shaizar.' Wellhausen, p. 159.]
[Footnote 518: _Pleasant Treatise of Witches_, p. 6.]
[Footnote 519: Reg. Scot, Bk. iii, p. 42. La volta is said to be the origin of the waltz.]
[Footnote 520: Lea, iii, p. 501.]
[Footnote 521: Remigius, p. 82.]
[Footnote 522: E. Monseur, p. 102.]
[Footnote 523: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 141.]
[Footnote 524: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 239, 246.]
[Footnote 525: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 114-15. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 526: Id., i, p. 149. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 527: _Spottiswoode Miscellany_, ii, p. 68.]
[Footnote 528: Kinloch, p. 129. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 529: Sinclair, p. 163.]
[Footnote 530: Burns Begg, pp. 234, 235.]
[Footnote 531: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 127.]
[Footnote 532: Id. ib., p. 150.]
[Footnote 533: Id. ib., p. 211.]
[Footnote 534: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 535: Sinclair, p. 219.]
[Footnote 536: Kinloch, p. 120.]
[Footnote 537: Sharpe, p. 131.]
[Footnote 538: Boguet, p. 132.]
[Footnote 539: Michaelis, _Hist._, p. 336.]
[Footnote 540: Van Elven, v (1891), p. 215.]
[Footnote 541: _Pleasant Treatise of Witches_, p. 5.]
[Footnote 542: Potts, G 3, I 3, P 3.]
[Footnote 543: _Examination of Joan Williford_, p. 6.]
[Footnote 544: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139-40.]
[Footnote 545: Id., p. 138.]
[Footnote 546: Id., p. 149.]
[Footnote 547: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 163.]
[Footnote 548: _Spottiswoode Misc._, ii, p. 67.]
[Footnote 549: Kinloch, p. 121.]
[Footnote 550: Id., p. 124.]
[Footnote 551: Id., p. 126.]
[Footnote 552: Id., p. 127.]
[Footnote 553: Id., p. 133. Dated = caressed.]
[Footnote 554: Burns Begg, p. 227.]
[Footnote 555: Id., p. 238.]
[Footnote 556: Sharpe, p. 131.]
[Footnote 557: The complete grace is given on p. 167. It will be seen that it is a corrupt version of some ancient form of words.]
[Footnote 558: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 612, 613. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 559: _Scots Magazine_, 1814, p. 200. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 560: Burr, p. 418.]
[Footnote 561: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 197.]
[Footnote 562: Id. ib., p. 148.]
[Footnote 563: Michaelis, _Historie_, pp. 335-6.]
[Footnote 564: Boguet, pp. 135-9.]
[Footnote 565: Cannaert, p. 45.]
[Footnote 566: Horneck, pp. 321-2, 327.]
[Footnote 567: Bodin, _Fléau_, p. 187.]
[Footnote 568: Melville, p. 395.]
[Footnote 569: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246. The ploughman, Gray Meal, who took a large part in the ceremonies, was an old man.]
[Footnote 570: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 210.]
[Footnote 571: F. Hutchinson, _Hist. Essay_, p. 42.]
[Footnote 572: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 172.]
[Footnote 573: Boguet, p. 131.]
[Footnote 574: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 68, 401.]
[Footnote 575: Id., _L'Incredulité_, p. 805.]
[Footnote 576: Davenport, p. 2.]
[Footnote 577: Van Elven, _La Tradition_, v (1891), p. 215.]
[Footnote 578: Sinclair, p. 163. The account given by Barton's wife of the position of the candle on the Devil's person is paralleled by the peculiarly coarse description of the Light-bearers at the witch-sabbaths at Münster. Humborg, p. 120.]
[Footnote 579: Kinloch, p. 120.]
[Footnote 580: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 139.]
[Footnote 581: Chambers, iii, p. 298.]
[Footnote 582: Stewart, p. 175.]
[Footnote 583: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 294.]
[Footnote 584: Holinshed, _Ireland_, p. 58.]
[Footnote 585: Boguet, p. 141.]
[Footnote 586: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 401-2.]
[Footnote 587: Michaelis, _Hist._, p. 337. The use of this phrase suggests that the sprinkling was a fertility rite.]
[Footnote 588: Fountainhall, i, pp. 14, 15.]
[Footnote 589: Law, p. 145.]
[Footnote 590: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 591: Ravaisson, 1679-81, p. 336.]
[Footnote 592: Id., p. 333.]
[Footnote 593: Id., p. 335.]
[Footnote 594: Ravaisson, p. 335.]
[Footnote 595: Cotton Mather, pp. 120, 131, 158.]
[Footnote 596: J. Hutchinson, _Hist. of Massachusetts Bay_, ii, p. 55.]
[Footnote 597: Burr, p. 417.]
[Footnote 598: Increase Mather, p. 210.]
[Footnote 599: Cotton Mather, p. 81.]
[Footnote 600: Cooper, p. 91.]
[Footnote 601: _Chelmsford Witches_, pp. 24, 26, 29, 30. Philobiblon Society, viii.]
[Footnote 602: _Examination of John Walsh._]
[Footnote 603: Cannaert, p. 48.]
[Footnote 604: Whitaker, p. 216.]
[Footnote 605: Stearne, p. 29.]
[Footnote 606: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 617.]
[Footnote 607: Cotta, p. 114.]
[Footnote 608: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 609: R. Scot, Bk. III, p. 44.]
[Footnote 610: Holinshed, _Ireland_, p. 58.]
[Footnote 611: Philobiblon Society, viii, _Chelmsford Witches_, pp. 29, 30.]
[Footnote 612: Id. ib., viii, p. 34.]
[Footnote 613: _Examination of John Walsh._]
[Footnote 614: Remigius, pt. i, p. 54.]
[Footnote 615: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 120; Burton, i, p. 252.]
[Footnote 616: Pitcairn, ii, pp. 542-3.]
[Footnote 617: From an unpublished trial in the Justiciary Court at Edinburgh. The meaning of the word _laif_ is not clear. The Oxford dictionary gives _lop-eared_, the Scotch dictionary gives _loaf_. By analogy with the other accounts one would expect here a word meaning a hen.]
[Footnote 618: _Highland Papers_, iii, p. 18.]
[Footnote 619: Lemoine, vi, p. 109.]
[Footnote 620: Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]
[Footnote 621: Id., Bk. II, p. 32.]
[Footnote 622: Boguet, p. 205.]
[Footnote 623: Ravaisson, p. 334, 335.]
[Footnote 624: Sharpe, p. 147.]
[Footnote 625: Chambers, iii, p. 450.]
[Footnote 626: Scot, Bk. III, p. 42.]
[Footnote 627: Sinistrari de Ameno, p. 27.]
[Footnote 628: See, amongst others, the account of Mary Johnson (Essex, 1645), who was accused of poisoning two children; the symptoms suggest belladonna. Howell, iv, 844, 846.]
[Footnote 629: Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]
[Footnote 630: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 128.]
[Footnote 631: Kinloch, p. 121.]
[Footnote 632: Bodin, _Fléau_, pp. 187-8.]
[Footnote 633: Boguet, p. 141.]
[Footnote 634: Cannaert, p. 50.]
[Footnote 635: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 133.]
[Footnote 636: _La Tradition_, 1891, v, p. 215. Neither name nor place are given.]
[Footnote 637: Bourignon, _Parole_, p. 87.]
[Footnote 638: _Scot. Hist. Soc._, xxv, p. 348. _See also_ Ross, _Aberdour and Inchcolme_, p. 339.]
[Footnote 639: _Prod. and Trag. History_, p. 7.]
[Footnote 640: _Tryall of Ann Foster_, p. 8.]
[Footnote 641: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 211, 235, 238.]
[Footnote 642: De Lancre, _L'Incredulité_, p. 772.]
[Footnote 643: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 120, 124.]
[Footnote 644: From the record of the trial in the Justiciary Court of Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 645: Sharpe, p. 132.]
[Footnote 646: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 164.]
[Footnote 647: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]
[Footnote 648: From the record of the trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]
[Footnote 649: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 123, 400.]
[Footnote 650: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 604, 608.]
[Footnote 651: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139, 141. I have pointed out that the cry of 'A Boy' is possibly the Christian recorder's method of expressing the Bacchic shout 'Evoe'. See _Jour. Man. Or. Soc._, 1916-17, p. 65.]
[Footnote 652: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 401, 461, 462, 464.]
[Footnote 653: Bodin, p. 190.]
[Footnote 654: The names of the smaller islands are often compounded with the name of this deity, e.g. Li-hou, Brecq-hou, &c.]
[Footnote 655: Law, p. 27 note.]
[Footnote 656: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]
[Footnote 657: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 607-8, 611.]
[Footnote 658: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 139, 148, 149.]
[Footnote 659: Pitcairn, iii, p. 612. Sych = sighing, lamentation.]
[Footnote 660: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 212.]
[Footnote 661: _Newes from Scotland_, see Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 218.]
[Footnote 662: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 237.]
[Footnote 663: Id., ii, p. 542.]
VI. THE RITES (_continued_)
WITCHES' RAIN-MAKING AND FERTILITY RITES
1. _General_
In common with many other religions of the Lower Culture, the witch-cult of Western Europe observed certain rites for rain-making and for causing or blasting fertility. This fact was recognized in the papal Bulls formulated against the witches who were denounced, not for moral offences, but for the destruction of fertility. The celebrated Decree of Innocent VIII, which in 1488 let loose the full force of the Church against the witches, says that 'they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, the grass and herbs of the field'. Adrian VI followed this up in 1521 with a Decretal Epistle, denouncing the witches 'as a Sect deviating from the Catholic Faith, denying their Baptism, and showing Contempt of the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, treading Crosses under their Feet, and, taking the Devil for their Lord, destroyed the Fruits of the Earth by their Enchantments, Sorceries, and Superstitions'.
The charms used by the witches, the dances, the burning of the god and the broadcast scattering of his ashes, all point to the fact that this was a fertility cult; and this is the view taken also by those contemporary writers who give a more or less comprehensive account of the religion and ritual. Though most of the fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to us were used by the witches either for their own benefit or to injure their enemies, enough remains to show that originally all these charms were to promote fertility in general and in particular. When the charm was for fertility in general, it was performed by the whole congregation together; but for the fertility of any particular woman, animal, or field, the ceremony was performed by one witch alone or by two at most.
The power which the witches claimed to possess over human fertility is shown in many of the trials. Jonet Clark was tried in Edinburgh in 1590 'for giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members';[664] and in the same year and place Bessie Roy was accused of causing women's milk to dry up.[665] The number of midwives who practised witchcraft points also to this fact; they claimed to be able to cause and to prevent pregnancy, to cause and to prevent an easy delivery, to cast the labour-pains, on an animal or a human being (husbands who were the victims are peculiarly incensed against these witches), and in every way to have power over the generative organs of both sexes. In short, it is possible to say that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the better the midwife the better the witch.
The Red Book of Appin,[666] which was obtained from the Devil by a trick, is of great interest in this connexion. It was said to contain charms for the curing of diseases of cattle; among them must certainly have been some for promoting the fertility of the herds in general, and individual animals in particular. It is not unlikely that the charms as noted in the book were the result of many experiments, for we know that the witches were bound to give account to the Devil of all the magic they performed in the intervals between the Sabbaths, and he or his clerk recorded their doings. From this record the Devil instructed the witches. It is evident from the confessions and the evidence at the trials that the help of the witches was often required to promote fertility among human beings as well as among animals. The number of midwives who were also witches was very great, and the fact can hardly be accidental.
Witches were called in to perform incantations during the various events of a farm-yard. Margrat Og of Aberdeen, 1597, was 'indyttit as a manifest witche, in that, be the space of a yeirsyn or theirby, thy kow being in bulling, and James Farquhar, thy awin gude son haulding the kow, thow stuid on the ane syd of the kow, and thy dochter, Batrix Robbie, on the vther syd, and quhen the bull was lowping the kow, thow tuik a knyff and keist ower the kow, and thy dochter keapit the sam, and keist it over to the agane, and this ye did thryiss, quhilk thou can nocht deny.'[667] At Auldearne the Coven, to which Isobel Gowdie belonged, performed a ceremony to obtain for themselves the benefit of a neighbour's crop. 'Befor Candlemas, we went be-east Kinlosse, and ther we yoaked an plewghe of paddokis. The Divell held the plewgh, and Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, our Officer, did drywe the plewghe. Paddokis did draw the plewgh as oxen; quickens wer sowmes, a riglen's horne was a cowter, and an piece of an riglen's horne was an sok. We went two seueral tymes abowt; and all we of the Coeven went still wp and downe with the plewghe, prayeing to the Divell for the fruit of that land, and that thistles and brieris might grow ther'.[668] Here the ploughing-ceremony was to induce fertility for the benefit of the witches, while the draught animals and all the parts of the plough connoted barrenness for the owner of the soil.
The most detailed account of a charm for human fertility is given in the confession of the Abbé Guibourg, who appears to have been the Devil of the Paris witches. The ceremony took place at the house of a witch-midwife named Voisin or Montvoisin, and according to the editor was for the benefit of Louis XIV or Charles II, two of the most notorious libertines of their age.
'Il a fait chez la Voisin, revêtu d'aube, d'étole et de manipule, une conjuration en présence de la Des Oeillets [attendant of Madame de Montespan], qui prétendait faire un charme pour le (Roi) et qui était accompagnée d'un homme qui lui donna la conjuration, et comme il était nécessaire d'avoir du sperme des deux sexes, Des Oeillets ayant ses mois n'en put donner mais versa dans le calice de ses menstrues et l'homme qui l'accompagnait, ayant passé dans la ruelle du lit avec lui Guibourg, versa de son sperme dans le calice. Sur le tout, la Des Oeillets et l'homme mirent chacun d'une poudre de sang de chauve-souris et de la farine pour donner un corps plus ferme à toute la composition et après qu'il eut récité la conjuration il tira le tout du calice qui fut mis dans un petit vaisseau que la Des Oeillets ou l'homme emporta.'[669]
The ecclesiastical robes and the use of the chalice point to this being a ceremony of a religious character, and should be compared with the child-sacrifices performed by the same priest or Devil (see pp. 150, 157).
An anti-fertility rite, which in its simplicity hardly deserves the name of a ceremony, took place at Crook of Devon in Kinross-shire. Bessie Henderson 'lykeways confessed and declared that Janet Paton was with you at ane meeting when they trampit down Thos. White's rie in the beginning of harvest, 1661, and that she had broad soals and trampit down more nor any of the rest'.[670]
2. _Rain-making_
The rain-making powers of the witches have hardly been noted by writers on the subject, for by the time the records were made the witches were credited with the blasting of fertility rather than its increase. Yet from what remains it is evident that the original meaning of much of the ritual was for the production of fertilizing rain, though both judges and witnesses believed that it was for storms and hail.
One of the earliest accounts of such powers is given in the story quoted by Reginald Scot from the _Malleus Maleficarum_, written in 1487, a century before Scot's own book:
'A little girle walking abroad with hir father in his land, heard him complaine of drought, wishing for raine, etc. Whie father (quoth the child) I can make it raine or haile, when and where I list: He asked where she learned it. She said, of hir mother, who forbad hir to tell anie bodie thereof. He asked hir how hir mother taught hir? She answered, that hir mother committed hir to a maister, who would at anie time doo anie thing for hir. Whie then (said he) make it raine but onlie in my field. And so she went to the streame, and threw vp water in hir maisters name, and made it raine presentlie. And proceeding further with hir father, she made it haile in another field, at hir father's request. Herevpon he accused his wife, and caused hir to be burned; and then he new christened his child againe.'[671]
Scot also gives 'certaine impossible actions' of witches when he ridicules the belief
'that the elements are obedient to witches, and at their commandement; or that they may at their pleasure send raine, haile, tempests, thunder, lightening; when she being but an old doting woman, casteth a flint stone ouer hir left shoulder, towards the west, or hurleth a little sea sand vp into the element, or wetteth a broome sprig in water, and sprinkleth the same in the aire; or diggeth a pit in the earth, and putting water therein, stirreth it about with hir finger; or boileth hogs bristles; or laieth sticks acrosse vpon a banke, where neuer a drop of water is; or burieth sage till it be rotten; all which things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the meanes that witches vse to mooue extraordinarie tempests and raine'.[672]
More quotes Wierus to the same effect: 'Casting of Flint-Stones behind their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Air, or striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot.'[673]