4 o THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



levolence when the ever famous witch-finder, Mat- 

 thew Hopkins, admitted that he himself had beheld 

 at dusk an evil spirit in the shape of a " white 

 kitlyn." This innocent looking object speedily- 

 proved its diabolic nature by routing the pious 

 man's greyhound, which turned tail and fled before 

 the tiny creature ; while Hopkins, unmindful for 

 once of his serious duties, lost no time in following 

 his dog. It was certainly a " kitlyn " of pluck and 

 spirit that roamed the English lanes that pleasant 

 summer eve. 



Continental cats were as deeply incriminated as 

 were those of Great Britain. A witch of Grand- 

 cour, named Elizabeth Blanche, confessed at her 

 trial that she was in the habit of rubbing her body 

 with a black ointment which transformed her into a 

 cat, and enabled her to steal unnoticed through the 

 darkness, when summoned to devilish rites. Ger- 

 man witches trooped to the Brocken on Walpurgis 

 night under the semblance of cats ; and many were 

 the witnesses who swore that they had tracked the 

 little footmarks for miles to the place of meeting. 

 El Gato Moro — the Moor-Cat — prowled in the 

 moonlight about the citadel of Toledo, and pious 

 Christians who beheld it prayed with exceeding fer- 

 vour to be delivered from its spell. Jean Bodin, 

 author of Demonomanie des Sorciers, tells us with 

 sympathetic gravity a number of stories so curious 



