should draw or prick their names therein, and veneficiously mischief their persons, they broke the shell, as Dalecampius has observed. Delrio, in his "Disquisit. Magicæ," lib. vi. c. 2, sect. 1, quæst. 1, has the following passage on this subject: "Et si ova comederint, eorum testas, non nisi ter cultro perfossas in Catinum projiciunt, timentes neglectum veneficiis nocendi occasionem præbere."

Scot, in his "Discovery," p. 157, says: "Men are preserved from Witchcraft by sprinkling of holy water, receiving consecrated salt, by candles hallowed on Candlemas-day, and by green leaves consecrated on Palm Sunday."

Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," p. 67, tells us that "Matthiolus saith that that herba paris takes away evill done by Witchcraft, and affirms that he knew it to be true by experience."

Heath, in his "History of the Scilly Islands," p. 120, tells us that "Some few of the inhabitants imagine (but mostly old women) that women with child, and the first-born, are exempted from the power of Witchcraft."

The following occurs in Aubrey's "Miscellanies," p. 147:

"Vervain and dill

Hinders Witches from their will."

I find the subsequent in Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," p. 152: "To be delivered from Witches they hang in their entries an herb called pentaphyllon, cinquefoil, also an olive-branch also frankincense, myrrh, valerian, verven, palm, antirchmon, &c.; also hay-thorn, otherwise whitethorn, gathered on May-day."

He tells us, p. 151, "Against Witches, in some countries, they nail a wolf's head on the door. Otherwise they hang scilla (which is either a root, or rather in this place garlick) in the roof of the house, to keep away Witches and spirits; and so they do alicium also. Item. Perfume made of the gall of a black dog, and his blood, besmeared on the posts and walls of the house, driveth out of the doors both devils and Witches. Otherwise the house where herba betonica is sown is free from all mischiefs," &c.

(16) Among the presumptions whereby Witches were condemned, what horror will not be excited at reading even a part of the fol

lowing item in Scot's "Discovery," p. 15: "If she have any privy mark under her armpit, under her hair, under her lip, or ***** it is presumption sufficient for the judge to proceed and give sentence of CEATH upon her !!!"

By the following caution, ibid. p. 16, it is ordered that the Witch "must come to her arreignment backward, to wit, with her tail to the judge's face, who must make many crosses at the time of her approaching to the bar."

King James himself, in his " Dæmonology," speaking of the helps that may be used in the trial of Witches, says, "the one is, the finding of their marke and trying the insensibleness thereof."

(17) Strutt, in his "Description of the Ordeals under the Saxons," tells us that "the second kind of ordeal, by water,(") was, to thrust the accused into a deep water, where, if he struggled in the least to keep himself on the surface, he was accounted guilty; but if he remained on the top of the water without motion he was acquitted with honour. Hence, he observes, without doubt, came the longcontinued custom of swimming people suspected of Witchcraft. There are also, he further observes, the faint traces of these ancient customs in another superstitious method of proving a Witch. It was done by weighing the suspected party against the church bible, which if they outweighed, they were innocent; but, on the contrary, if the bible proved the heaviest, they were instantly condemned."

In the "Gent. Mag." for Feb. 1759, vol. xxix. p. 93, we read, "One Susannah Haynokes, an elderly woman, of Wingrove near Aylesbury, Bucks, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before a magistrate; on which the husband, in order to justify his wife, insisted upon her being tried by the church bible, and that the accuser should be present accordingly she was conducted to the parish church, where she was stripped of all her clothes, to her shift and under-coat, and weighed against the bible; when, to the no small mortification of the accuser, she outweighed it, and was honourably acquitted of the charge."

(g) For an account of the ancient "Ordeal by Cold Water," see Dugd. Orig. Juridiciales, p. 87.

(18) Butler, in his "Hudibras," part I. c. iii. 1. 343, alludes to this trial:

"He that gets her by heart must say her The back way, like a witch's prayer." (19) King James, in the work already quoted, adding his remarks on this mode of trying Witches, says: "They cannot even shed tears, though women in general are like the crocodile, ready to weep upon every light occasion."

In the MS. "Discourse of Witchcraft," communicated by John Pinkerton, Esq., written by Mr. John Bell, minister of the gospel at Gladsmuir, 1705, p. 22, I read: "Symptoms of a Witch; particularly the Witches' marks, mala fama, inability to shed tears, &c., all of them providential discoveries of so dark a crime, and which like avenues lead us to the secret of it."

(20) King James, in his "Dæmonology, speaking of this mode of trying a witch, i. "fleeting on the water," observes that "it appeares that God hath appointed for a supernatural signe of the monstrous impietie of Witches, that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them the sacred water of baptism, and wilfully refused the benefit thereof."

In "Molinæi Vates," p. 237: "Crasso sane errore putantur Sortilegi et Sagæ esse immersabiles, cum neque sint incombustibiles, nec aqua magis igne sit adversa diabolis. Si Saga navi vehatur, et accidat Naufragium, non minus peribit in nari quam cæteri Vectores. Adde quod ejusmodi purgatione Deus tentatur, et quæruntur experimenta divinæ potentiæ, ubi nulla est necessitas, nec Dei mandatum, nec exauditionis promissio."

Ibid. "Cœperunt in Gallia regionibusque finitimis Sortilegi, Striges, ac Veneficæ Valdenses nuncupari: et in eas translata est cum nomine purgatio seu experimentum per aquam frigidam, quam ipsi vidimus in Arduennate regione. Anni sunt circiter quadraginta ex quo illustrissimi Bataviæ ordines è ditione sua exterminaverunt improbam consuetudinem."

(1) In that most rare play, "The Witch of Edmonton," 4to. Lond. 1658, p. 39, act iv. sc. 1, (Enter Old Banks and two or three Countrymen,) we read:

"O. Banks. My horse this morning runs

most piteously of the glaunders, whose nose yesternight was as clean as any man's here now coming from the barber's; and this, I'll take my death upon't, is long of this jadish Witch, mother Sawyer.

(Enter W. Hamlac, with thatch and a link.) Haml. Burn the Witch, the Witch, the Witch, the Witch.

Omn. What hast got there?

Haml. A handful of thatch pluck'd off a hovel of hers; and they say, when 'tis burning, if she be a Witch, she'll come running in.

O. Banks. Fire it, fire it: I'll stand between thee and home for any danger.

(As that burns, enter the Witch.)

1 Countryman. This thatch is as good as a jury to prove she is a Witch.

O. Banks. To prove her one, we no sooner set fire on the thatch of her house, but in she came, running as if the Divel had sent her in a barrel of gunpowder; which trick as surely proves her a Witch as

Justice. Come, come; firing her thatch? Ridiculous! take heed, sirs, what you do: unless your proofs come better arm'd, instead of turning her into a Witch, you'll prove your

selves starke fools."

Old Banks then relates to the Justice a most ridiculous instance of her power: "Having a dun cow tied up in my back-side, let me go thither, or but cast mine eye at her, and if I should be hanged I cannot chuse, though it be ten times in an hour, but run to the cow, and, taking up her tail, kiss (saving your worship's reverence) my cow behinde; that the whole town of Edmonton has been ready ******* with laughing me to scorn.'

As does a countryman another, p. 58:

"I'll be sworn, Mr. Carter, she bewitched Gammer Washbowl's sow, to cast her pigs a day before she would have farried; yet they were sent up to London, and sold for as good Westminster dog-pigs, at Bartholomew fair, as ever great belly'd ale-wife longed for."

Cotta, in his "Short Discoverie of the unobserved Dangers," &c. 4to. p. 54, tells us: "Neither can I beleeve (I speake it with reverence unto graver judgements) that the forced coming of men or women to the burning of bewitched cattell, or to the burning of the dung or

urine of such as are bewitched, or floating of bodies above the water, or the like, are any trial of a Witch."

Gaule, in his "Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft," also, p. 75, mentions "Some marks or tokens of tryall altogether unwarrantable; as proceeding from ignorance, humour, superstition. Such are, 1. The old paganish sign, the Witches long eyes. 2. The tradition of the Witches not weeping. 3. The Witches making ill-favoured faces and mumbling. 4. To burn the thing bewitched, &c. (I am loth to speak out, lest I might teach these in reproving them). 5. The burning of the thatch of the Witches' house, &c. 6. The heating of the horse-shoe, &c. 7. The scalding water, &c. 8. The sticking of knives acrosse, &c. 9. The putting of such and such things under the threshold, and in the bed-straw, &c. 10. The sieve and the sheares, &c. 11. The casting the Witch into the water with thumbes and toes tied across, &c. 12. The tying of knots, &c."

(2) Shakspeare, in "Troilus and Cressida," act ii. sc. 1, says:

"Thou stool for a Witch."

And Dr. Grey's Notes (vol. ii. p. 236) afford us this comment on the passage: "In one way of trying a Witch, they used to place her upon a chair or a stool, with her legs tied cross, that all the weight of her body might rest upon her seat; and by that means, after some time, the circulation of the blood would be much stopped, and her sitting would be as painful as the wooden horse; and she must continue in this pain twenty-four hours, (b) without either sleep or meat; and it was no wonder that, when they were tired out with such an ungodly trial, they would confess themselves many times guilty to free themselves from such torture." See Dr. Hutchinson's "Historical Essay on Witchcraft," p. 63.

(23) In "A Pleasant Grove of New Fancies," by H. B., 8vo. Lond. 1657, p. 76, we have

"A Charm to bring in the Witch. To house the hag you must do this, Commix with meal a little ****

(h) This was done to get a sight of the imp, who within that space was sure to come and suck her.

Of him bewitch'd'; then forthwith make
A little wafer, or a cake;

And this rarely bak'd will bring
The old hag in: no surer thing."

It occurs also among the following experimental rules whereby to afflict Witches, causing the evil to return back upon them, given by Blagrave in his "Astrological Practice of Physic," 8vo. Lond. 1689: "1. One way is by watching the suspected party when they into their house; and then presently to take go some of her thatch from over the door, or a tile, if the house be tyled: if it be thatch, you must wet and sprinkle it over with the patient's water, and likewise with white salt; then let it burn or smoke through a trivet or the frame of a skillet: you must bury the ashes that way which the suspected Witch liveth. "Tis best done either at the change, full, or quarters of the moon; or otherwise, when the Witches significator is in square or opposition to the moon. But if the Witches house be tiled, then take a tile from over the door, heat him red hot, put salt into the patient's water, and dash it upon the red-hot tile, until it be consumed, and let it smoak through a trivet or frame of a skillet as aforesaid. 2. Another way is to get two new horse-shoes, heat one of them red-hot, and quench him in the patient's urine; then immediately nail him on the inside of the threshold of the door with three nails, the heel being upwards; then, having the patient's urine, set it over the fire, and set a trivet over it; put into it three horsenails and a little white salt. Then heat the other horse-shoe red hot, and quench him several times in the urine, and so let it boil and waste until all be consumed: do this three times, and let it be near the change, full, or quarters of the moon; or let the moon be in square or opposition unto the Witches significator. 3. Another way is to stop the urine of the patient close up in a bottle, and put into it three nails, pins, or needles, with a little white salt, keeping the urine always warm. If you let it remain long in the bottle, it will endanger the Witches life; for I have found by experience that they will be grievously tormented, making their water with great difficulty, if any at all, and the more if the moon be in Scorpio, in square or opposition to his

significator, when its done. 4. Another way is either at the new, full, or quarters of the moon, but more especially when the moon is in square or opposition to the planet, which doth personate the Witch, to let the patient blood, and while the blood is warm put a little white salt into it, then let it burn and smoak through a trivet. I conceive this way doth more afflict the Witch than any of the other three before mentioned."

He adds, that sometimes the Witches will rather endure the misery of the above torments than appear, "by reason country people ofttimes will fall upon them, and scratch and abuse them shrewdly."

I find the following in "Articles to be enquired of within the Archdeaconry of Yorke, by the Church Wardens and Sworne Men, A.D. 163-" (any year till 1640), 4to. Lond. b. l. "Whether there be any man or woman in your parish that useth Witchcraft, Sorcery, churmes, or unlawfull prayer, or invocations in Latine or English, or otherwise, upon any Christian body or beast, or any that resorteth to the same for counsell or helpe."

(24) Matthew Hopkins, one of the most celebrated Witch-finders of his day, is supposed to have been alluded to by Butler, in the following lines of Hudibras, part II. canto iii. 1. 139:

"Has not this present parliament
A leger to the Devil sent,
Fully empower'd to treat about
Finding revolted Witches out;
And has not he, within a year,
Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire?
Some only for not being drown'd,
And some for sitting above ground
Whole days and nights upon their breeches,
And feeling pain, were hang'd for Witches;

quently grow large and pendulous in old age, but were absurdly supposed to be teats to suckle imps. His ultimate method of proof was by tying together the thumbs and toes of the suspected person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the ends of which were held on the banks of a river, by two men, in whose power it was to strain or slacken it.

The experiment of swimming was at length tried upon Hopkins himself, in his own way, and he was, upon the event, condemned, and, as it seems, executed, as a Wizard. Hopkins had hanged, in one year, no less than sixty reputed Witches in his own county of Essex. See Granger's "Biographical History," Svo. Lond. 1775, vol. ii. p. 409. Compare also Dr. Grey's Notes on "Hudibras," vol. ii. pp. 11, 12, 13.

On

In Gardiner's " England's Grievance in Relation to the Coal Trade," p. 107, we have an account that in 1649 and 1650 the magistrates of Newcastle-upon-Tyne sent into Scotland to agree with a Scotchman, who pretended knowledge to find out Witches by pricking them with pins. They agreed to give him twenty shillings a-piece for all he could condemn, and bear his travelling expenses. his arrival the bellman was sent through the town to invite all persons that would bring in any complaint against any woman for a Witch, that she might be sent for and tried by the persons appointed. Thirty women were, on this, brought into the town-hall and stripped, and then openly had pins thrust into their bodies, about twenty-seven of whom he found guilty. His mode was, in the sight of all the people to lay the body of the person suspected naked to the waist, and then he ran a pin into her thigh, and then suddenly let her coats fall, demanding whether she had nothing of his in her body but did not bleed: the woman, through fright and shame, being amazed, replied little; then he put his hand up her coats and pulled out the pin, setting her aside as a guilty person and child of the Devil. By this sort of evidence, one Wizard and fourteen Witches were tried and convicted at the assizes, and afterwards executed. Their names are recorded in the parish register of St. Andrew's. See my "History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne." Nash, in his "History of Worcestershire," vol. ii. p. 38, tells us that, 14 May, 1660,

four persons accused of Witchcraft were brought from Kidderminster to Worcester Gaol, one Widow Robinson, and her two daughters, and a man. The eldest daughter was accused of saying that, if they had not been taken, the king should never have come to England; and, though he now doth come, yet he shall not live long, but shall die as ill a death as they; and that they would have made corn like pepper. Many great charges against them, and little proved, they were put to the ducking in the river: they would not sink, but swam aloft. The man had five teats, the woman three, and the eldest daughter one. When they went to search the women none were visible; one advised to lay them on their backs and keep open their mouths, and then they would appear; and so they presently appeared in sight."

The Doctor adds that "it is not many years since a poor woman, who happened to be very ugly, was almost drowned in the neighbourhood of Worcester, upon a supposition of Witchcraft; and had not Mr. Lygon, a gentleman of singular humanity and in fluence, interfered in her behalf, she would certainly have been drowned, upon a presumption that a Witch could not sink."

It appears from a "Relation" printed by Matthews, in Long Acre, London, that in the year 1716 Mrs. Hicks, and her daughter aged nine years, were hanged in Huntingdon for Witchcraft, for selling their souls to the Devil, tormenting and destroying their neighbours, by making them vomit pins, raising a storm, so that a ship was almost lost, by pulling off her stockings, and making a lather of soap.

(25) By the 33 Hen. VIII. c. viii. the law adjudged all Witchcraft and Sorcery to be felony without benefit of clergy.

(26) By statute 1 Jac. I. c. xii. it was ordered that all persons invoking any evil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit; or taking up dead bodies from their graves to be used in any Witchcraft, Sorcery, charm, or enchantment, or killing or otherwise hurting any person by such infernal arts, should be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and suffer death. (1) And if any

(i) March 11th, 1618. Margaret and Philip

VOL. III.

person should attempt by Sorcery to discover hidden treasure, or to restore stolen goods, or to provoke unlawful love, or to hurt any man or beast, though the same were not effected, he or she should suffer imprisonment and pillory for the first offence, and death for the second.

Flower, daughters of Joane Flower, were executed at Lincoln for the supposed crime of bewitching Henry Lord Rosse, eldest son of Francis Manners Earl of Rutland, and causing his death; also, for most barbarously torturing by a strange sickness Francis, second son of the said Earl, and Lady Katherine, his daughter; and also, for preventing, by their diabolical arts, the said Earl and his Countess from having any more children. They were tried at the Lent Assizes before Sir Henry Hobart, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Sir Edward Bromley, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, and cast by the evidence of their own confessions. To effect the death of Lord Henry "there was a glove of the said Lord Henry buried in the ground, and, as that glove did rot and waste, so did the liver of the said Lord rot and waste." The spirit employed on the occasion, called Rutterkin, appears not to have had the same power over the lives of Lord Francis and Lady Katherine. Margaret Flower confessed that she had "two familiar spirits sucking on her, the one white, the other black-spotted. The white sucked under her left breast, the black-spotted" &c. When she first entertained them, she promised them her soul, and they covenanted to do all things which she commanded them.

From a very curious printed tract of that time, entitled "A wonderful Discovery of Witchcraft," 23 pages, 8vo., in the library of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., P.R.S.

In "The Diary of Robert Birrel," preserved in "Fragments of Scottish History," 4to. Edinb. 1708, are inserted some curious memorials of persons suffering death for Witchcraft in Scotland.

"1591, 25 of Junii, Euphane M'Kalzen ves brunt for Vitchcrafte."

"1529. The last of Februarii, Richard Grahame wes brunt at ye Crosse of Edinburghe, for Vitchcrafte and Sorcery."

·

"1593. The 19 of May, Katherine Muirhead brunt for Vitchcrafte, quha confest sundrie poynts yr. of."

"1603. The 21 of Julii, James Reid brunt for consulting and useing with Sathan and Witches, and quha wes notably knawin to be ane counsellor with Witches."

"1605. July 24th day, Henrie Lowrie brunt on the Castell Hill, for Witchcrafte done and committed be him in Kyle, in the parochin."

The following is from the "Gent. Mag." for 1775, vol. xlv. p. 601: "Nov. 15. Nine old women were burnt at Kalisk in Poland, charged with having bewitched and rendered unfruitful the lands be longing to a gentleman in that palatinate."

C