Scot, on the authority of John Bapt. Neap, gives the following recipes for ointments, which are singularly like those in ‘The Witch’:
‘℞. The fat of yoong children, and seeth it with water in a brasen vessell, reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the bottome, which they laie up and keepe, untill occasion serueth to use it. They put hereunto Eleoselinum, Aconitum, Frondes populeas, and Soote.’
Another receipt to the same purpose.
‘℞. Sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the blood of a flitter mouse, solanum somniferum and oleum. They stampe all these togither, and then they rubbe all parts of their bodies exceedinglie, till they looke red, and be verie hot, so as the pores may be opened, and their flesh soluble and loose. They ioine herewithall either fat, or oil in steed thereof, that the force of the ointment maie the rather pearse inwardly, and so be more effectuall. By this means (saith he) in a moonlight night they seeme to be carried in the aire.’
Thus, then, their means of conveyance being assured, they all meet together, at some appointed place, it may be hundreds of miles away—in a social congress of a very mixed character, Continental writers giving a fuller and more detailed report of their transactions than do the English. One Henri Boguet, a French Grand Juge, in his ‘Discours des Sorciers,’ Lyons, 1608, is particularly lucid on this subject.
He says that at this assembly the first thing the witches do is to adore Satan, who appears in the form, either of a huge black man or as a he-goat, and by way of doing homage to him they offer him candles which burn with a blue flame, and kiss his back, some kissing his shoulders. Sometimes he holds a black image which the witches kiss, at the same time offering a candle or burning brand which they light at a candle, which the Devil carries between his horns. They next proceed to dance a curious circular dance, in which they are placed back to back, whilst the lame witches incite them to leap and dance. The music of the hautboy is not wanting, someone always being found who will thus oblige the company, besides which Satan himself sometimes plays the flute; but if no orchestra is forthcoming, the witches and devils sing each their own song, making a sort of ‘Dutch medley.’ Sometimes they dance two and two, at other times they perform pas seuls, but always in confusion, and they dance back to back, so that they may not be recognised; indeed, it is for that reason that they hold their assemblies at night.
