It must not, however, be forgotten that the island did not stand alone in this belief. No part of Europe seems to have escaped the absurd dread of witchcraft, which, like a pestilence, spread from one nation to another, and from which even the most learned of the age, men of profound thought, did not escape. One curious fact may be noticed; the practices imputed to the accused, who were for the most part of the lowest and most ignorant classes of society, and to which in numberless instances they confessed, appear to have been nearly identical in all countries. The inference is that they must have been handed down from a very remote period, and that they were in use among the pretenders to magical arts and supernatural powers among our pagan ancestors; just as in the present day we find similar ideas and practices existing among savage tribes, and in semi-civilised countries where the light of Christianity has not yet penetrated. It is well known how difficult it is to wean a people from their primitive belief, and how prone they are to cling to it in secret. Is it not possible that some secret society may have existed for ages after the spread of the Gospel in which heathen practices may have been perpetuated?
[146] Ké, Gué or Tié and Hou are epithets applied to the Deity in the Bas Breton. MS. Note by Mr. George Métivier.
“Sabot-Daim—a witch hornpipe.” (Idem.)
[147] Mr. Métivier, in his Dictionnaire Franco-Normand, has a long article on “cahouettes.” He says:—
“They play, in neo-latin mythology, a very interesting part, even to-day some traces of which are to be found. Wizards and witches, according to the councils, disguised themselves formerly as ‘cahouets’ and ‘cahouettes.’ Raphaël, Archbishop of Nicosie, capital of the island of Cyprus, in the year 1251, excommunicated all the ‘cahouets’ and the ‘cahouettes’ as well as those who supported and encouraged games of chance.—(Constitutions, ch. 15). And the Council of Nîmes, thirty years after, treats in the same manner witches and sooth sayers, ‘coavets’ and ‘coavettes.’
“In the hierarchy of Mithras, that type of the rising sun which bewitched the Gauls, the deacon, or minister was entitled ‘corneille’ or rook; and on the first day of the year, according to Porphyry, the initiates disguised themselves severally as beasts and birds.”
Mr. Métivier ends by citing two authorities on ancient traditions concerning these birds.
“Le corbeau est consacré à Apollon, et il est son ministre (famulus), voilà pourquoi il possède la faculté de prédire.” Gérard Jean Voss, liv. 3, sur l’Idolâtrie.
“Je crois que ces cérémonies se célébraient près de Coptos, ville dont le nom était si fameux, et d’où vient l’Egypte. Dans les environs de cette cité, on voyait deux corbeaux, c’étaient les seuls.… Et il y avait là l’image d’Apollon, auquel les corbeaux étaient consacrés.”
“La corneille est le symbole de l’amour conjugal.” Nicolas Caussin, Jésuite, natif de Troyes, Notes sur Horapollo. Paris, 1618, p. 165.