The Book of Cats. 1 73 



the middle of a room, upon a stool or table, cross- 

 legged, or in some other uneasy posture, and if 

 she were refractory, she was tied too by cords, 

 and kept without meat or sleep for a space of four- 

 and-twenty hours ; all this time she was strictly 

 watched, because it was believed that in the course 

 of that time her imp would come to suck her, for 

 whom some hole or ingress was provided. The 

 watchers swept the room frequently, so that nothing 

 might escape them ; and should a fly or spider be 

 found that had the activity to elude them, they 

 were assured these were the imps. In 1645 one 

 was hanged at Cambridge, who kept a tame frog 

 which was sworn to be her imp ; and one at 

 Gloucester, in 1649, who was convicted for having 

 suckled a sow in the form of a little black creature. 

 In " a Tr>^al of Witches, at Bury St. Edmunds, 

 1664," a witness deposed to having caught one of 

 these imps in a blanket, waiting for her child, who 

 slept in it and was bewitched ; that it was in the 

 form of a toad, and was caught and thrown into 

 the fire, where " it made a great and horrible noise, 

 and after a space there was a flashing in the fire 

 like gunpowder, making a noise like the discharge 

 of a pistol, and thereupon the toad was no more 

 seen nor heard." All of which was the simple 



