484 THE SUFFOLK WITCHES. 



waned, and nothing lightens the shadow of coming old age, 

 brightens the future, fills it with other hopes, or attunes it 

 to other pleasures. 



The beauty of youth who doubts ? There is a beauty in 

 old age too ; but from one stage of beauty to another there is 

 in woman's life a bridge, whereupon standing awhile the 

 passer-on is like to be possessed by evil spirits. Envy, hatred, 

 and malice, and all uncharitableness, there they are. With 

 Bodin, I marvel not at the belief that has made worldly- 

 minded women of a certain age prone to become witches. 



One thing extraordinary in old witch-records is the free- 

 dom, even amounting to recklessness, with which certain 

 women accused of witchcraft, and in imminent peril of their 

 lives, were in the habit of giving countenance to the belief. 

 I put aside judicial confessions, many of these, I fear, having 

 been induced through torture, though in records of English 

 witch-trials I find no reference to torture. Apart from this, 

 it really seems that many of the women implicated encour- 

 aged the belief from a certain sense of pride, that they might 

 seem more potent than their neighbours. English witches 

 were leniently dealt with by comparison with their sisters in 

 puritan Scotland. There witch -torture was reduced to a 

 system, the particulars of which are known. According to 

 Scotch belief, if the witch were obdurate, the first, and it is 

 said the only effectual, mode of obtaining confession was by 

 * waking her.' They bound an iron bridle or hoop across her 

 face with four prongs, which were thrust into her mouth, and 

 the hoop secured behind to the wall by a chain, so that the 

 victim was unable to lie down. In this position she was some- 

 times kept for several days, men being with her constantly 

 to prevent her closing her eyes for a moment in sleep. 



Partly to accomplish this, partly to discover the insensible 

 mark, pins were thrust into her body. Then to her tortures 

 they added excessive thirst, it being a saying in Scotland, that 

 a witch would never confess while she could drink. Worse 



