P. Rup. Dog. No, Sirrah, I am of high Germain breed.
Tob. Dog. Thou art a Reprobate and a lying Curre; you were either whelpt in Lapland, or in Finland; where there is none but divells and Sorcerers live.’
Poor Boy met his fate at Marston Moor, by a silver bullet fired ‘by a valliant Souldier, who had skill in Necromancy.’ Judging by the hail of bullets by which he is surrounded, he must indeed have borne a charmed life, the loss of which an old witch deplores.
One of the duties of the familiar was to acquaint the witch with the next meeting between the witches and the Devil. This always (although authorities differ) took place on Fridays, after midnight, and was called the Sabbath or Sabbat. But Scot, quoting Danæus, says: ‘The Divell oftentimes, in the likenes of a sumner, meeteth them at markets and Faires, and warneth them to appeare in their assemblies, at a certaine houre in the night, that he may understand whom they have slaine, and how they have profited.’
But these meetings might be many miles distant, and, consequently, the witches had to be provided with means of conveyance; which was effected with the aid of an unguent, as to the composition of which authorities vary. This was rubbed over the body, or upon a broomstick or dungfork, and hey, presto! they were in mid-air. But they must not make their exit by the door, only by such illegitimate ways as the chimney or the keyhole. Or, as we see, a wizard might mount his cat, or a witch a sheep; or, if a great favourite, the Devil himself would carry her, taking the form of a he-goat, in which shape he frequently presided at the Sabbat.
The broomstick was the orthodox old English style of aërial courses; but, as I have before said, an unguent was necessary. In ‘The Witch,’ before quoted, Heccat says:
‘Here take this unbaptized brat:
Boile it well; preserve the fat;
You know ’tis pretious to transfer
Our ’noynted flesh into the ayre,
In moonelyght nights, on steeple topps,
Mountains, and pine trees, that like pricks or stopps,
Seeme to our height, high towres, and roofes of princes
Like wrinckles in the earth.’
