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Witches 9 Brooms. 



should not be allowed to live, and "prophets, sorcerers, witches, 

 feeders of evil spirits, charmers, and provokers of unlawful love," 

 were punished ; " indeed," says Coke, " it would have been a great 

 defect in government, to have suffered such devilish abominations 

 to pass unpunished." The crime of witchcraft was described by a 

 legal writer as witches entering into a covenant with the devil to do 

 all the mischief possible, he on his part promising certain things. 

 He gave them an imp, which served them as their familiar and was 

 kept in a pot that had a very evil smell. If a witch could write 

 she signed this covenant with her blood, if she could not write the 

 devil put his mark on her ; this was like a flea-bite or a blue spot, 

 and it was quite insensible to pain and did not bleed if pricked. 

 When witches entered as novices they were received at great 

 gatherings called witches' sabbaths, held once a year at midnight. 

 The usual day in Scotland was All Hallowe'en ; and in Grermany 

 it was Walpurgis Nicht, the 1st of May, when enormous witch 

 gatherings took place on the Brocken. According to the confession 

 of Elizabeth Style, a Somersetshire witch, in 1664, the Devil 

 appeared to her and promised her money and all the pleasures of 

 the world for twelve years if she sold herself to him. He pricked 

 her fourth finger of the right hand, and she signed the parchment 

 with her blood, giving her soul over to him and covenanting to 

 obey his laws. The sabbath was held on the Common at Stoke 

 Trister, and wound up with dancing and feasting, the Devil 

 vanishing in flames and the witches singing at the close : — 



" Merry we meet, merry we meet, and merry we part." 



Witches had often to go great distances to keej) their appointments 

 at these meetings, and if they were not punctual the Devil used to 

 give them a severe drubbing. For the purposes of flight they had 

 to render their bodies very light by anointing themselves with a 

 composition resembling the Hell-broth described in Macbeth. 

 Scrapings of altars, filings of Church clocks, and the " finger of 

 birth-strangled babe," were among the ingredients of this ointment. 

 To get fingers witches often violated unburied bodies, and lights 

 and bells were used to keep them off. When a witch had anointed 



