These various metamorphoses would imply that transmigration was believed in by our forefathers.
Ghost Raising.
If the possibility of Ghost Laying was believed in, so also was the possibility of raising Evil Spirits. This faith dates from olden times. Shakespeare, to this, as to most other popular notions, has given a place in his immortal plays. Speaking rightly in the name of “Glendower,” a Welshman, conversant with Ghosts and Goblins, the poet makes him say:—
“I can call Spirits from the vasty deep.”
Henry the Fourth, Act III., S. 1.
And again in the same person’s mouth are placed these words:—
“Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.”
The witches in Macbeth have this power ascribed to them:
I’ll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, distilled by magic sleights,
Shall raise such artificial Sprites,
As by the strength of their illusion
Shall draw him on to his confusion.Macbeth, Act III., S. 5.
This idea has continued right to our own days, and adepts in the black art have affirmed that they possess this power.
Doctor Bennion, a gentleman well known in his lifetime in and about Oswestry, was thought to be able to raise Devils. I find in the history of Ffynnon Elian, p. 12, that the doctor visited John Evans, the last custodian of the well, and taught him how to accomplish this feat. For the benefit of those anxious to obtain this power, I will give the doctor’s recipe:—“Publish it abroad that you can raise the Devil, and the country will believe you, and will credit you with many miracles. All that you have to do afterwards is to be silent, and you will then be as good a raiser of Devils as I am, and I as good as you.”