Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions. / A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

by Frank Cowan

And now I burn this bough in Delphid’s name;

As this doth blaze, and break away in fume,

How soon it takes, let Delphid’s flesh consume,

Iynx, restore my false, my perjured swain,

And force him back into my arms again.—

As this devoted wax melts o’er the fire,

Let Mindian Delphy melt in warm desire!

Idylliums, p. 12, 13.

Samoetha burns the bough in the name of her false lover, and terms the wax devoted. With this the more modern ritual of witchcraft corresponded. The name of the person, represented by the image, was invoked. For according to the narrative given concerning the witches of Pollock-shaws, having bound the image on a spit, they “turned it before the fire,—saying, as they turned it, Sir George Maxwell, Sir George Maxwell; and that this was expressed by all of them.” Glanvil’s Sadducismus, p. 391.

According to Grilland, the image was baptized in the name of Beelzebub. Malleus, ut. sup., p. 229.