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Witches'' Brooms. 



was said, being the work of God himself, must naturally outweigh 

 the operations and vassals of the Devil. As the parish bible weighed 

 about 121t)s the woman easily won by this trial. Another horrible 

 method of conviction was to watch for the return of her imns to be 

 suckled, which it was supposed they did at least once in twenty- 

 four hours. During all these hours the poor wretch was kept 

 naked, perched on a stool in the middle of a room, without food or 

 drink, while pins were run into her flesh to keep her awake ; a 

 little hole was made in the door of the room to admit the imp ; if 

 a fly or a spider were seen it was killed at once, but if it could not 

 be killed it was satisfactory evidence that her imp had returned as 

 a fly or a spider, and she was burnt. At the same time the witch 

 was carefully examined for her Devil's mark, and if at any part 

 the Sin. pins used caused no pain, or did not draw blood, it was at 

 that spot that the Devil had sealed her. Sometimes the proof was 

 of an unexpected kind. In 1752 Captain Douglas awoke in the 

 night and saw a black cat jumping out of the window, he fired his 

 pistol but she flew over the Church steeple. Next morning he 

 found his landlady had swooned and was lying in a pool of blood, 

 with one of her ears shot off. It was clear that he had shot her 

 under the form of a cat. A cruel husband was persuaded by 

 Margaret Clarke to leave off beating his wife, and actually did so. 

 Such a result, it was said by those who knew him, could only be 

 attributed to witchcraft. In a similar way a dentist who extracted 

 a tooth without pain, and a woman whose skirts were not draggled 

 on a wet day, both fell under suspicion. At her trial it was always 

 observed that a witch could only shed three tears, and these from 

 the left eye ; and she could never say the Lord's Prayer without 

 pausing at the words " Forgive us our trespasses " and " Lead us 

 not into temptation," but she could say it backwards without a hitch. 

 When witches did not readily confess pilniwinks were screwed on 

 their fingers until the blood gushed out ; boots with wedges were 

 tightened on their feet ; their flesh was torn with red-hot pincers ; 

 and their limbs were stretched on the rack. Even King James 

 himself was present at these tortures, and when a false confession 

 was wrung out of the victim he felt that once more the Devil had 



