The following articles have already appeared in various journals, to whose editors I am indebted for kind permission to republish: 'Organization of Witch Societies' and 'Witches and the number Thirteen' in Folk Lore; 'The God of the Witches' in the Journal of the Manchester Oriental Society; 'Child Sacrifice', 'Witches' Familiars', 'The Devil's Mark', 'The Devil's Officers', 'Witches' Fertility Rites', 'Witches Transformations', in Man; and 'The Devil of North Berwick' in the Scottish Historical Review.

My thanks are due to Georgiana Aitken, W. Bonser, and Mary Slater for much kind help, also to Prof. C. G. Seligman for valuable suggestions and advice as to lines of research.

M. A. MURRAY.

University College,
London.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE[5]
INTRODUCTION[9]
I. CONTINUITY OF THE RELIGION[19]
II. THE GOD[28]
1. As God[28]
2. As a Human Being[31]
3. Identification[47]
4. As an Animal[60]
III. ADMISSION CEREMONIES[71]
1. General[71]
2. The Introduction[76]
3. The Renunciation and Vows[77]
4. The Covenant[79]
5. The Baptism[82]
6. The Mark[86]
IV. THE ASSEMBLIES[97]
1. The Sabbath. Method of going. The site. The date. The hour[97]
2. The Esbat. Business. The site. The time[112]
V. THE RITES[124]
1. General[124]
2. Homage[126]
3. The Dances[130]
4. The Music[135]
5. The Feast[138]
6. Candles[144]
7. The Sacrament[148]
8. Sacrifices: Of animals. Of children. Of the God[152]
9. Magic Words[162]
VI. THE RITES, continued[169]
1. General[169]
2. Rain-making[172]
3. Fertility[173]
VII. THE ORGANIZATION[186]
1. The Officer[186]
2. The Covens[190]
3. Duties[194]
4. Discipline[197]
VIII. THE FAMILIARS AND TRANSFORMATIONS[205]
1. The Divining Familiar[205]
2. The Domestic Familiar[208]
3. Methods of obtaining Familiars[222]
4. Transformations into Animals[230]
APPENDIX I.
Fairies and Witches[238]
APPENDIX II.
Trial of Silvain Nevillon. Taken from De Lancre's L'Incredulité et Méscréance[246]
APPENDIX III.
A. Covens and Names of Members[249]
B. Index of Witches' Names, with Notes[255]
APPENDIX IV.
Notes on the Trials of Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais[270]
APPENDIX V.
Some Notes on 'Flying' Ointments. By Prof. A. J. Clark[279]
BIBLIOGRAPHY[281]
GENERAL INDEX[286]

INTRODUCTION

The subject of Witches and Witchcraft has always suffered from the biassed opinions of the commentators, both contemporary and of later date. On the one hand are the writers who, having heard the evidence at first hand, believe implicitly in the facts and place upon them the unwarranted construction that those facts were due to supernatural power; on the other hand are the writers who, taking the evidence on hearsay and disbelieving the conclusions drawn by their opponents, deny the facts in toto. Both parties believed with equal firmness in a personal Devil, and both supported their arguments with quotations from the Bible. But as the believers were able to bring forward more texts than the unbelievers and had in their hands an unanswerable argument in the Witch of Endor, the unbelievers, who dared not contradict the Word of God, were forced to fall back on the theory that the witches suffered from hallucination, hysteria, and, to use the modern word, 'auto-suggestion'. These two classes still persist, the sceptic predominating. Between the believer who believed everything and the unbeliever who disbelieved everything there has been no critical examination of the evidence, which presents a new and untouched field of research to the student of comparative religion.