WOMAN AS WITCH 21 



deities associated with witchcraft. We must turn now 

 to the bearing of all these instances on witchcraft. 

 What I think they have clearly brought out is the fact 

 that the characteristic features of witch-gatherings, the 

 common feast, the choral dance, the sacrifice under the 

 sacred tree, the presiding spirit of woman, are all features 

 of the old heathenism, as marked by cases in which that 

 heathenism has not been repressed, but associated itself 

 with Christian buildings or Christian ceremonies. 

 Before we note the relation of the Walpurgisnacht 

 orgies to May Day celebrations, it may be well to meet 

 two objections which may be rising in the minds of 

 some of my hearers. How, they may be questioning, 

 can the choral dances of flower - decked maidens in 

 honour of some mother-goddess be associated with the 

 revels of hags and hideous old witches centring round 

 the devil? How, they may further question, can the 

 nightmare fantasies of the Middle Ages have any relation 

 to facts having a real historical basis like the old heathen 

 customs ? I will reply to the second of these questions 

 first, by showing that the midnight gatherings were real 

 even in the sixteenth century and not fantasy at all ; 

 that they insensibly shaded off into the ordinary folk- 

 assemblies such as those on the eve of May Day. Then 

 I will endeavour to prove that the witches were in 

 early times rather young and beautiful than old and 

 haggard ; and lastly, that the witch ceremonials appear 

 to have centred round a female deity, who may have 

 been accompanied in some cases by her son, and that 

 it was due to the influeDce of Christian demonology that 

 this goddess was first converted into the devil's grand- 



