The superstitions relating to werewolves and the evil eye are particular forms of the belief in witchcraft, or "black magic." The Middle Ages could not escape this delusion, which was firmly held by the Greeks and Romans and other ancient peoples. Witchcraft had, indeed, a prehistoric origin and the belief in it still prevails in savage society.
[Illustration: THE WITCHES' SABBATH.]
FEATURES OF EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT
Witches and wizards were supposed to have sold themselves to the Devil, receiving in return the power to work magic. They could change themselves or others into animals, they had charms against the hurt of weapons, they could raise storms and destroy crops, and they could convey thorns, pins, and other objects into their victims' bodies, thus causing sickness and death. At night they rode on broomsticks through the air and assembled in some lonely place for feasts, dances, and wild revels. At these "Witches' Sabbaths," as they were called, the Devil himself attended and taught his followers their diabolic arts. There were various tests for the discovery of witches and wizards, the most usual being the ordeal by water. [31]
WITCHCRAFT PERSECUTIONS
The numerous trials and executions for witchcraft form a dark page in history. Thousands of harmless old men and women were put to death on the charge of being leagued with the Devil. Even the most intelligent and humane people believed in the reality of witchcraft and found a justification for its punishment in the Scriptural command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." [32] The witch epidemic which broke out in America during the seventeenth century, reaching its height at Salem, Massachusetts, was simply a reflection of the European fear and hatred of witches.
UNLUCKY DAYS
The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the observance of unlucky days. They went under the name of "Egyptian days," so called because it was held that on one of them the plagues had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt and on another Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed up in the Red Sea. At least twenty-four days in the year were regarded as very unlucky. At such times one ought not to buy and sell, to build a house, to plant a field, to travel or, in fact, to undertake anything at all important. After the sixteenth century the belief in unlucky days declined, but there still exists a prejudice against fishermen starting out to fish, or seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to enter a new place, on a Friday.