572 



NA TURE 



[May 6, 1922 



mercial outlook of the station. Later on the notion 

 of the diversity-factor is introduced, defined as the 

 ratio of the sum of the maximum loads on the separate 

 substations to the maximum load at the power-house. 

 It is generally assumed that the higher the diversity- 

 factor, the load-factor remaining the same, the better 

 it is from the commercial point of view. It seems to 

 the writer that these definitions should be examined 

 from a rigorous mathematical point of view to find 

 how far their numerical values can be considered as 

 trustworthy guides of the commercial practicability 

 of a projected scheme. 



A " silo " is generally considered to be a pit or 

 cave for storing fodder in the green state. Engineers 

 apparently call a coal-store a " silo," and that at the 

 Greenwich power-house has a capacity of 2000 tons. 

 The coal is fed from the bunkers, into which the silo 

 is divided, into gravity bucket conveyors, which carry 

 it to the overhead bunkers feeding the furnaces. The 

 weight of the coal is checked on weigh-bridges with 

 five-foot dials. It is stated that with a load of 5 tons 

 the maximum inaccuracy is only about 3 lb. ! 



A. Russell. 



Witch-Craft in Western Europe. 



The Witch-Cult in Western Europe : A Study in Anthro- 

 pology. By M. A. Murray. Pp. 303. (Oxford : 

 At the Clarendon Pi ess, 1921.) 165. net. 



IN her study of witchcraft in Western Europe Miss 

 Murray has endeavoured to show, first, that 

 the witch-cult was a definite organised religion, and 

 secondly, that it is possible to deduce from the records 

 the character of its ritual. The problem which Miss 

 Murray has set herself is entirely new and has not 

 hitherto been considered, much less attacked. 



As regards the evidence upon which Miss Murray's 

 investigations are based, her aim has been to arrive at 

 an impartial statement by quoting the ipsissima verba 

 of the witches in their confessions and at their trials as 

 recorded by contemporary chroniclers, all comments of 

 those who compiled the records being omitted. Early 

 accounts of witchcraft, as she points out, are apt to 

 be vitiated by too great credulity or an excess of 

 scepticism. 



Exception is not infrequently taken to the evidence 

 of the witches themselves on the ground that it was 

 elicited under toiture, but Miss Murray meets this 

 objection by pointing out that in the English trials and 

 in many of the Scottish trials legal torture was not 

 employed. It is true that she is concerned principally 

 with witchcraft in this country and deals with the 

 NO. 2740. VOL. 109] 



French evidence only for purposes of elucidation and 

 amplification; much of the French evidence was the 

 result of torture, and even in this country in some of 

 the most important cases torture was employed. In 

 the case of the North Berwick witches, who were 

 accused of a conspiracy against James VI. in which 

 Bothwell was implicated, two were subjected to the 

 ordeal of having their nails pulled out with pincers, 

 pins were stuck into the quick, and they were tortured 

 with the boot. It is to be noted, however, that the 

 confessions, whether elicited under torture or without 

 it, display a remarkable uniformity in detail, although 

 drawn from a wide area and spread over a considerable 

 period of time. This lends strong support to the view 

 that the evidence may be accepted as it stands. 



Taking the evidence at its face value. Miss Murray 

 has arrived at the conclusion that the witch-cult was a 

 definite organised religion and, as such, was a survival 

 of the primitive religion of Western Europe. It repre- 

 sents, she holds, the religion of a pre-agricultural people 

 who celebrated their religious festivals in accordance 

 with a pre-solstitial calendar. She argues, reasonably 

 enough, that the wholesale conversions to Christianity 

 in the early days of tribes and peoples were merely 

 superficial and that the bulk of the people continued to 

 follow their old beliefs and to practise their traditional 

 ritual, more or less in secret. If it be conceded that 

 the witches in their accounts of what took place at the 

 Sabbaths were describing, not furtive assemblies for 

 malicious evil practices and unlimited debauchery, but 

 gatheiings for performing the rites of an organised 

 religion, their evidence takes on an entirely new signifi- 

 cance. Taking this point of view Miss Murray is able 

 to deduce from it the character of the god they wor- 

 shipped, the nature of the rites, and the organisation by 

 which the religion was carried on. 



The god, who was confused with the devil by Chris- 

 tians, was regarded by his worshippers as incarnate 

 in man, woman, or animal. The animal form varied, 

 being sometimes a bull, sometimes a dog, a cat, a horse, 

 or a sheep. The goat, common in France, does not 

 occur in this country. Further investigation of this 

 point might throw light on the early history and dis- 

 tribution of the cult. The god incarnate acted as the 

 leader of the association in which there was an inner 

 circle or council, the " coven," consisting apparently of 

 thirteen individuals. Miss Murray is of the opinion 

 that in certain instances it is possible to identify these 

 leaders, and cites, among others, Bothwell, Joan of Arc, 

 and her companion in arms, Gilles de Rais, the French 

 " Bluebeard." Her suggestion that the god was sacri- 

 ficed at stated intervals would account for certain 

 peculiar features in the tiials, such as, possibly, the 

 line taken by Joan of Arc under examination, and the 



