* See our number for July, 1847.

SOMERSETSHIRE was, all that century, vexed with witchcrafts above other English counties. Or it may be that more of these works of darkness were brought to light there than in any other districts, owing to the good fortune of that shire in numbering a Hunt among its justices, and a Glanvil among its clergy. The former worshipful person, as we learn from his reverend fellow-helper in the good work, kept by him his "Book of Examinations of Witches," fairly written out, which, says our F. R. S., "contains the discovery of such an hellish knot of them, and that discovery so clear and plain, that perhaps there hath not yet any thing appeared to us with stronger evidence to confirm the belief of witches. And had not his discoveries and endeavours met with great opposition and discouragement from some then in authority, the whole clan of those hellish confederates in these parts had been justly exposed and punished." This hint gives us a glimpse of the length to which prejudice was got already in that time. No doubt, the "some then in authority," whom the ex-royal chaplain charitably forbears to hand down, by name, to the reprobation of posterity, looked on Robert Hunt, Esq. as a living proof that it is possible to be an old woman, without being a witch. In spite, however, of these impracticable people, Somersetshire got tolerably well weeded of its grannies. In 1658, a certain Jane Brooks was executed at Charde Assizes, for bewitching Richard Jones, son of Henry Jones, of Shepton Mallet, a boy of about twelve years of age. Brooks had not the grace, like Style, to confess her guilt; however, she made amends for this by not dying in gaol, and thereby "preventing execution," as the latter did. The way in which she wrought her evil will on the boy was by giving him an apple, and stroking him down the right side, after which, with an hypocrisy which crocodiles might envy, she shook hands with him, and bid him good night. The effect was, that he was presently seized with a pain in that side on which she had stroked him; and the next day, having roasted her apple, and eaten about half of it, he became "extreamly ill," and was some time speechless. As soon as he was somewhat come to himself, he told his father of what had happened him with Jane Brooks: the father took an opportunity, as soon as possible, of scratching Brooks, so as to draw some blood from her, upon which the boy immediately got well; but, about a week after, meeting Alice Coward, Brooks's sister, the latter said to him, "How do you do, my honey?" and thereupon he fell ill again.

       After this, the boy had frequent fits, in which he cried out that Jane Brooks and her sister appeared to him; and, as in Style's case, he described their dress, &c., exactly as was verified by the constables who went to the house of these sisters at such times, on purpose to try how far the boy's allegations were worthy of credit. At one time, a certain Gibson, a cousin of Jones's, made a stroke with a knife at the place where the boy said he saw Brooks, whereupon the boy cried out, "Oh, father, Coz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks her hand, and 'tis bloody." The father lost no time in repairing, with Gibson and the constable, to the witch's house, and found her with her hand newly cut and bleeding.

       One of the most unequivocal proofs of the boys having been bewitched by Brooks, was the effect her eye, and still more her touch, had upon him. Even in the justice-room, and in the awful presence of Mr. Hunt, a look from her on more than one occasion rendered him speechless, when beginning to give his testimony against her. But the manner in which he was affected by her touch was so curious, that we must give the account of it in Mr. Glanvil's own words:—

       "On the next appearance at Shepton, which was on the 17th of February (1657), there were present many gentlemen, ministers, and others. The boy fell into his fit upon the sight of Jane Brooks, and lay in a man's arms like a dead person; the woman was then willed to lay her hand on him, which she did, and he thereupon started and sprang out in a very strange and unusual manner. One of the justices, to prevent all possibilities of legerdemain caused Gibson and the rest to stand off from the boy, and then that justice himself held him. The youth being blindfolded, the justice called as if Brooks should touch him, but winked to others to do it, which two or three did, but the boy appeared not concerned. The justice then called on the father to take him, but had privately desired one Mr. Geoffry Strode to bring Jane Brooks to touch him at such time as he should call for his father, which was done, and the boy immediately sprang out after a very odd and violent fashion. He was after touched by several persons, and moved not, but Jane Brooks being again caused to put her hand upon him, he started and sprang out twice or thrice as before. All this while he remained in his fit, and some time after; and being then laid on a bed in the same room, the people present could not for along time bow either of his arms or legs."

       It is unnecessary to point out the completely mesmeric character of this case: the cataleptic state of the patient, and the rapport subsisting between him and his tormentress, are too marked to escape the recognition of any one that has but dipped into Townsend or Colquhoun. His continually seeing the two hags (Brooks and her sister) about him, is another clear indication of a somnambulous state, in which both they and he were involved. When they appeared to him, their hands were cold, their eyes staring, and their lips and cheeks looking pale; in other words, their appearance was that of ghosts, showing that their haunting of the boy, like their resorting to the witch-sabbaths, was without the body. A more enigmatical circumstance is, that at one of their visits they put a twopenny piece into his pocket, which one does not immediately see how, in their disembodied condition, they carried with them. And yet this is not more difficult to conceive than that the devil, being a spirit, should convey material cakes and roast-meat from one place to another; which Mr. Glanvil finds easy to account for, on the supposition (common, as he observes, to the Platonical and Christian antiquity) that spirits are not destitute of a subtile corporeal vehicle, which places them in communication with the world of matter. For the rest, the twopenny piece was no phantom; it was shown to every one that came to the house, and had the remarkable property, that when it was put into the fire and heated, the boy would fall ill, but as soon as it was taken out, and cold, he would be again as well as before.

       Many times a noise was heard in the boy like the croaking of a toad, and some were aware of a voice within him, saying, "Jane Brooks, Alice Coward," twelve times in about a quarter of an hour. On one occasion he was seen to rise up from the ground, and to mount to a good height in the air, till he passed over a garden wall, and was carried a length of more than thirty yards, when he fell, and lay insensible for a time. On coming to himself, he declared that Brooks had caught him up by the arm, and carried him through the air in this fashion. More than once he was found in a room by himself, his hands flat against a beam that traversed the ceiling, and his body suspended in such a manner that his feet were about a yard from the ground. At such a times he was in a profound stupor, and would hang there as if held on by a magnetic force to the beam, a quarter of an hour together. When consciousness returned, he told those who found him, that "Jane Brooks had carried him to that place, and held him there."

       These vexations continued, with little intermission, from the 15th of November, 1657, the day the boy was bewitched, till the 10th of March following, the day Brooks was sent to gaol. From that time he had no more fits. Brooks was executed the 26th of March; Coward had been sent to gaol with her sister, but it does not appear what was done with her afterwards. This story, Mr. Glanvil thinks, is good evidence of the being of witches; and he professes himself curious to know, what kind of proof the Sadducee, if not satisfied with it, would expect. Here are, as he points out, the testimonies of sense, the oaths of several credible attestators (some of them clergymen), the nice and deliberate scrutiny of quick-sighted and judicious examiners (Mr. Hunt among the rest), and the judgment of an assize upon the whole. "And now," concludes Mr. G., unanswerably enough, "the security of all our lives and fortunes depends upon no greater circumstances of evidence than these. If such proof may not be credited, no fact can be proved, no wickedness can be punished, no right can be determined, law is at an end, and blind justice cannot tell how to decide anything."

       Another of those hardened and impenitent witches, who to the last persisted in denying their guilt, was Julian Cox, who was tried at the Summer Assizes at Taunton, in 1663, before Judge Archer, and, being found guilty, was executed within three or four days, without any confession of the fact.

       The witchcraft of which Julian Cox was accused was, that, having threatened a maid-servant who had denied her an alms, that she should repent it before night, this maid was indeed before night taken with a convulsion fit, and, after the fit was past, she saw Julian Cox following her, and cried out to the people in the house to save her from Julian. A black man also came with Julian, and these two tempted the maid to drink something that they offered her, which she refused, affirming that she defied the devil's drenches. This having continued a whole night, the maid the next night, when she went to bed, took with her a knife, with which, when Julian and the black man again came with their potion, she stabbed Julian, and wounded her in the leg. And one forthwith riding to Julian's house, and forcing the door, found her dressing a fresh wound in her leg, to which the knife the maid had used, on trial, fitted exactly. There was blood also found upon the maid's bed.

       The next morning Julian appeared to the maid in the house-wall, and offered her great pins, which she was forced to swallow. And all the day the maid was observed to convey her hand to the house-wall, and from the wall to her mouth, and she seemed, by the motion of her mouth, as if she ate something. Up to this time, the people of the house (who appear to have been of an unusually sceptical turn of mind), seeing nothing, thought all this might be the maid's "phancy," and did not much mind it. But towards night she began to complain of being intolerably tormented by the pins in all parts of her body; whereupon she was undressed, and these pins, to the number of thirty, came out at different parts of her body, the points foremost. They were great pins, were afterwards produced in court, and Mr. Glanvil himself handled them.

       Here was evidence enough to satisfy any jury of that century and county. Nevertheless, Julian Cox was not moved to confession. Nay, she alleged that she had even refused the offer of being a witch, which had many times been pressed on her by the devil. And she related how that "one evening she walked about a mile from her own house, and there came riding towards her three persons upon three broomstaves, borne up about a yard and a-half from the ground. Two of them she formerly knew, which were a witch and a wizard that were hanged for witchcraft several years before. The third person was a black man, who tempted her to give him her soul, or to that effect, and to express it by pricking her finger, and giving her name in her blood in token of it." On these terms he promised her revenge against all who offended her; but, according to her own account, she did not consent to the proposal.

       But, notwithstanding this plausible account of her resistance to the solicitations of the tempter, evidence was given which placed it beyond all doubt that Julian Cox was a witch. The first witness called to prove this was a huntsman, who swore that he was out with a pack of hounds to hunt a hare, and, not far from Julian Cox's house, he started one. The hare, being hard run by the dogs, and almost spent, made towards a great bush, upon which the huntsman ran to the other side of the bush, to take her up; but as soon as he laid hands on her, it proved to be Julian Cox, who had her head grovelling on the ground, and her globes, as he expressed it, upwards. She was quite out of breath with the run: the dogs came up in full cry to recover the game, but, having smelt at Julian, they left off, and hunted that day no more.

       Another witness swore that, having gone in to smoke a pipe of tobacco with Julian Cox, he saw "a monstrous great toad betwixt his leggs, staring him in the face," upon which he threw down his pipe, and went home. But, being arrived at his own house, and proceeding to smoke a pipe, the same toad appeared betwixt his "leggs." He cut it in several pieces, but, as often as he returned to his pipe, the toad was there again. He tried to burn it, but it was not to be burnt, the fire being, in all probability, its native element. At last he took a switch, and beat it, when, after running several times round the room (he still pursuing it with correction), the toad "cryed and vanisht, and he was never after troubled with it."

       A third witness proved that Julian Cox bewitched his cattle, by writing or scoring upon the ground as she passed by the place where they were a-milking; upon which the beasts went mad, and some ran their heads against the trees, and most of them died speedily. And he being advised to cut off the ears of the bewitched beasts, and burn them, as a sure method of finding out the witch, did so; but while they were burning, Julian came to the house, raging and scolding; and, going to the fire, she plucked out the ears that were burning, and then was quiet.

       A fourth witness saw Julian Cox fly into her own chamber-window in her full proportion; which, in a woman then seventy years old, was, to say the least, nimble.

       It was, at Judge Archer's suggestion, tried in court whether the accused could say the Lord's prayer; and it was found that she could not say, "And lead us not into temptation," though this was repeated to her near half a score of times, she being directed to follow him that repeated it, word for word. But she always said either, "And lead us into temptation," or "And lead us not into no temptation." However, the judge let the jury know that this was not legal evidence against her, and they should not suffer it to influence their verdict, but be guided solely by what had been deposed by witnesses upon oath. Which was quite enough, and, as we said before, the jury found her guilty, and she was hung.

       We must here remark on a point of correspondence between the maid bewitched by Julian Cox and the much talked-of Maria Moerl, the "Estatica of Caldaro." Maria declared that "hideous black men" stood before her, and presented her with pins, needles, pieces of glass, &c., which they compelled her to swallow; and many eye-witnesses testify that these objects came in great quantities, not only out of her mouth, but also out of her head, her breast, and other parts of her body. Here, again, is a remarkable feature of resemblance between a case of "theomania" and one of "demonomania."

       There is also a point of correspondence to be observed between the case of Julian Cox and that of Jane Brooks — namely, that both these witches were wounded in the body by strokes given to their astral spirits — for we assume it was in their astral spirits they appeared to the victims of their sorcery.

       To illustrate this point, Mr. Glanvil relates a story of an old woman in Cambridgeshire, whose astral spirit coming into a man's house (as he was sitting by the fire) in the shape of a huge cat, and setting herself before the fire, not far from him, he stole a stroke at the back of it with a fire-fork, and seemed to break the back of it, but it "scambled" from him, and vanished he knew not how. But such an old woman, a reputed witch, was found dead in her bed that very night, with her back broken, "as I have heard," says our author, "some years ago credibly reported."

       The reader knows, of course, that the astral spirit is that principle, in man and the lower creation, which forms the connecting link between the material and the immaterial — the body and the soul. It is more intimately related, however, to the soul than to the body, and is capable of being separated from the latter, but not from the former: hence it serves the soul as a vehicle, in which she can go about, when stript of her corporeal envelopment, either by death or a state of ecstasy. Thus, in all apparitions, both of ghosts and fetches, it is the astral spirit that is seen. And the form in which it is seen is that in which the soul at the time imagines herself; now human, now bestial; now in this habit, now in that; as the witches Brooks and Cox appeared in their ordinary shape and attire, and that old woman of Cambridgeshire in the likeness of an animal which is a long-recognized minister of the powers of darkness.

       That the wounds given to these witches in their astral spirits should take effect upon their material bodies, is not so incomprehensible a thing as it might seem to a hasty observer. For, when Jane Brooks appeared to the boy Jones, she did it by the force of her imagination, being transported, as in a dream, to the place where he was; and so also of Julian Cox and the old woman of Cambridgeshire. The consciousness they had of being in the presence of those to whom they appeared was that of a vivid dream: their return from a visit to the object of their persecution was the awaking out of a state of entrancement, into which they had thrown themselves by means used in their incantations. Now, we have many examples that persons, having in their sleep dreamed of being wounded, found real wounds in their bodies when they awoke. Thus Anna Katharina Emmerich, a Tyrolese nun, had in her youth a vision of one, who offered for her choice a wreath of flowers and a crown of thorns. She chose the latter, and pressed it with enthusiasm on her head, but on coming to herself, found her brows wounded and bleeding, as if this picture of her phantasy had been real. But this is a matter, for the explanation of which we must refer the reader to a former number of this Magazine.*

* January, 1845, p. 32, "Of the Nightmare."

       Come we now to Scotch witches.

       About the 18th of October, 1677, Sir George Maxwell, of Pollock, was taken ill, and had great pain and torment, the seat of which was in his right and left sides. This continued until December, when, suspicion lighting upon one Janet Mathie, reputed a witch, her house was searched, and a waxen image found, in a little hole in the wall at the back of the fire, with pins sticking in its sides, corresponding to the seat of Sir George's pains. Upon this, Janet Mathie was taken into custody, and the pains in a great measure left Sir George; but in January, 1678, they returned upon him in greater force than before; whereupon the house of John Stuart, son to Mathie, was searched, and in his bed straw an image of clay was found, with pins in like manner stuck in it, and immediately Sir George had an alleviation of his sufferings.

       In consequence of this, John Stuart and Annabil Stuart his sister, were arrested; and, these two being induced to make confession of their practices, a mystery of iniquity was unveiled, worse, if possible, than that of which John Knox had purged the "land o' cakes" in the preceding century.

       First, Annibal, or Annabil Stuart confessed that, in the time of harvest, she being then fourteen years of age, "or thereby," a black man came to her mother's house, and announced himself to be the devil, and proposed to her to give herself up to him, and she should not want anything that was good. Which proposal being backed by her mother with the promise of a new coat, and by one Bessie Weir, who enjoyed a place of some trust in the devil's service, she consented to it, and gave herself up to the said devil, "putting one hand to the crown of her head, and the other to the soal of her foot." Hereupon the devil gave her a familiar spirit, whose name was Enippa, and, in token of the bargain, nipped her arm, which was sore for half an hour. After this, she was embraced by the devil, and (contrary to all reasonable expectation) found him cold.

       Some time after, a meeting of witches was held at her mother's house, and at this meeting were present the black man, Annabil Stuart, and Janet Mathie her mother, Bessie Weir, Margaret Craig and Margaret Jackson. And these witches made a waxen effigies for Sir George Maxwell, and turned it on a spit before the fire, repeating the mean while, "Sir George Maxwell! Sir George Maxwell!" This was in October, 1677, just before Sir George was taken with his first illness. In December, as we have seen, Janet Mathie being apprehended and the effigies found, the knight's torment abated; but, in January, another meeting of witches was held, at John Stuart's house, to which Annabil Stuart was summoned by Bessie Weir, and here an effigies of clay was made, and pins stuck in the breast and sides of it, the intention of which was to take away Sir George Maxwell's life, for his apprehending of Janet Mathie. At this meeting the devil was present in black clothes and a blue band; he wore also white handcuffs, with "hogers," and his feet were cloven.

       John Stuart, brother to Annabil, declared in his confession that he "did envy against Sir George Maxwell for apprehending Janet Mathie his mother;" and that on the 3rd January Bessie Weir came to him late at night, and advertised him that there was to be a meeting at his house next day, and that the devil, under the shape of a black man, Margaret Jackson, Margaret Craig, and the said Bessie Weir, were to be present. The next night the devil came accordingly, after Stuart was in bed, and called him quietly by his name; upon which he, Stuart, got up, put on his clothes, and lighted a candle. Then the witches above named came flying in at the gable window. The business of the evening began with John Stuart's initiation into the hellish mysteries, which was effected by his putting one hand on the crown of his head, and the other on the sole of his foot, renouncing his baptism, and giving himself up wholly to the black man. In recompense of this gift, the devil promised that he should not want any pleasure, and that he should get his heart filled on all that did him wrong: a familiar spirit was given to him at the same time, which he was to call on by the name of Jonas. The initiation completed, Sir George Maxwell's affair was brought on the tapis, and the devil demanded the consent of all present to the measures to be taken for afflicting that gentleman. All giving their consent, the clay effigies was made, the women fashioning the trunk, and the devil furnishing the parts in which a more artistic hand was required, as the head and arms: pins were then thrust into the breast and sides of it, as related in Annabil Stuart's confession; and, while all this work was going on, John Stuart held the candle. Annabil came in during the making of the effigies, not at the window, but the door, and having stayed some time, went away again by the same mode of egress: the older witches flew out at the window.

       John Stuart describes the diabolical costume in the same terms as his sister, black clothes, with a bluish band and handcuffs, and "hogers," on the legs, without shoes. He observed one of the black man's feet to be cloven, and says his voice was "hough and gousty," whatever that is.

       Margaret Jackson also confessed her share in these villanies. She had been forty years the devil's, having devoted herself to him by the same form as the others, renouncing her baptism, and putting one hand to the crown of her head, and the other to the "soal" of her foot.

       The name of the spirit placed at her command was Locas. Among other things, she confessed that, about the 3rd or 4th of that same January, awaking in the night, she found a man to be in bed with her, whom she supposed to have been her husband, though her husband had been dead twenty years, "or thereby," and that the man immediately disappeared: and this man, who disappeared, was the devil. Which we think a very pretty Scotch version of the mythos of Cupid and Psyche.

       With respect to the making of the effigies, and how the devil was dressed, this witch gave a similar account to those of the two Stuarts. The three declarants agreed in stating that the name of the devil, who "compeired in the black man's shape," was Ejoall. Bessie Weir was officer to the witch meetings; her familiar spirit was named Sopha; Janet Mathie's was Landlady, and Margaret Craige's, Rigerum.

       In both cases of the finding of the effigies, Sir George had relief of his pains before he was informed of the discovery, a proof that the amendment was no work of imagination. The witches were tried at the assizes in Paisley, February 15th, 1678. Mr. Glanvil is silent as to the result of the trial; but justice, no doubt, was done. A point on which one would have liked information is, whether the Knight of Pollock got well; but here we are left in a painful state of uncertainty. What first brought the ill-will of these witches upon him was an offence he had given to Bessie Weir, by not "entering her husband to his harvest service." Bessie, naturally, could not forgive this, and the rest of the "sodality" were bound to espouse her quarrel.

       Are there no Bessie Weirs in Ireland? We confess, were we a member of a relief committee this summer, we should never feel inconveniently warm of a night, without conceiving a suspicion that some conclave of old women was toasting us in effigy before the slowest of possible fires; especially if we were conscious of ever having been instrumental in spoiling the game of any poor fellow, who had hoped, by the help of "rations," to get over the hard times without breaking in on his little deposit at the savings'-bank. But, happily, Irishmen (at least now-a-days) are too religious to have any dealings with the man in "black clothes and a little band;" and, in the sublime piety which is peculiar to them, would a thousand times rather riddle your body with bullets than your effigies with pins, and roast you in your own skin than in a proxy of wax. However, it was not always so, as we shall show before the end of this paper.

       But, before leaving Scotland, let us cast an eye on that famous trial, held in 1590, by which the practices of John Fien, Agnes Sympson, and other warlocks and witches their confederates, against the life of the sagest of British Princes, were happily brought to light. Fien heard the devil preach in a kirk, in the pulpit, by candle-light, the candles burning blue; and it will be satisfactory to our evangelical friends to know that the devil preached in a surplice. Also, in a chapter of witches, he (Fien), as well as the others present, kissed the devil's bottom at parting. After this he heard the devil again preach in a pulpit in a gown — showing an advance of Protestant feeling in a certain place, which our Puseyite friends will know what to think of. At the end of the sermon, the devil pointed his hearers to graves, that they should open them, and dismember the "corps" therein; which done, incontinently they were transported without words.

       Fien related, among other things, that he himself lay dead three or four hours, and was carried to many mountains, and, as he thought, through the world. On which subject, consider what Novalis says:—

       "We dream of journeys through the universe — is not the universe, then, within us? The depth of our own spirit we know not. Inwards goes the mysterious way: within us, or nowhere, is eternity, with its worlds; within us are the past and the future?"

       The great object of Fien and his accomplices, in their sorceries, was to drown the king (James the First), by raising a storm during his voyage to Denmark. The storm was raised by a simple process enough, namely, that of casting a cat into the sea; but it does not seem to have been a common cat, for it was delivered to the witches by the devil himself, who instructed them to cry "Hola!" when they first cast it in. Another thing Fien did was, to raise a mist when the King was on his way back from Denmark, by getting Satan to cast a thing like a foot-ball, or wisp, into the sea; the effect of which was, that a vapour, or reek arose, and his majesty had, in consequence, a narrow escape of being cast upon the coast of England. It would seem that the powers of darkness had a foreboding of the damage this sapient prince would one day do to their empire, by letting in daylight upon the black secrets of "Demonologie."

       Other feats of John Fien's were his opening locks by blowing on them; his "raising four candles on the luggs of an horse, and another on the top of the staff of his rider in the night, that he made it as light as day; and the man fell down dead at the entering within his house at his return home;" and his "embarquing in a boat with other witches, and sailing over sea, and entering within a ship, and drinking good wine and ale there, and sinking the ship when they had done, with the persons in it." We say nothing of his kissing the seat of Satanic honour again, after another conventicle of witches.

       From the confession of Agnes Sympson we give the following extract:—

       "Item, Fyled and convict for sameckle (so much) as she confest before his Majesty, that the devil in man's likeness met her going out in the fields from her own house at Keith between five and six at even, being alone, and commandit her to be at Northbervick-kirk the next night. And she past then on horseback, conveyed by her good son, called John Couper, and lighted at the kirkyard, or a little before she came to it, about eleven hours at even. They danced along the kirkyard, Geilie Duncan plaid to them on a trump, John Fien mussiled led all the rest, the said Agnes and her daughter followed next. Besides, there were Kate Grey, George Moilis's wife, Robert Greirson, Katharine Duncan, Bessie Right, Isabel Gilmore, John Graymaill, Duncan Buchanan, Thomas Barnhil and his wife, Gilbert Macgil, Joh. Macgil, Katharine Macgil, with the rest of their complices, above an hundred persons, whereof there were six men, and all the rest women. The women made first their homage, and then the men. The men were turned nine times widdershins about, and the women six times. John Fien blew up (open) the doors, and blew in the lights, which were like mickle black candles sticking round about the pulpit. The devil startit up himself in the pulpit, like a mickle black man, and every one answered "Here!" Mr. Robert Greirson being named, they all ran hirdie girdie, and were angry; for it was promised he should be called Robert the Comptroller, alias Rob the Rowar, for expriming of his name. The first thing he demandit was, if they keept all promise, and been good servants, and what they had done since the last time they had convened. At his command they opened up three graves, two within and one without the kirk, and took off the joynts of their fingers, toes, and neise, and parted them among them, and the said Agnes Sympson got for her part a winding-sheet and two joynts. The devil commandit them to keep the joynts upon them while (until?) they were dry, and then to make a powder of them to do evil withal. Then he commandit them to keep his commandments, which were to do all the evil they could. Before they departed, they kiss'd his breech. He had on him ane gown and ane hat, which were both black; and they that were assembled, part stood and part sate. John Fien was ever the nearest the devil at his left elbock; Graymaill keeped the door."

       Doctor Thompson, in his notes to Salverte, gives some particulars of this case, not mentioned by Mr. Glanvil, and taken from the confession of a certain Agnes Tompson, whether an alias of Sympson or not we do not know. Tompson stated that she and the other witches

       "Went altogether by sea, each one in her riddle or sieve, with flagons of wine, making merry and drinking, by the way, to the kirk of North Berwick, in Lothian, where, when they had landed, they took hands and danced, singing all with one voice:—

"'Commer goe ye before, Commer goe ye,    Gif ye will not goe before, Commer let me,'

Giles Duncane did go before them, playing said reel on a Jew's trump, and the devil met them at the kirk."

       This appears to have been a different excursion from that to which the confession given by Mr. Glanvil relates, when Agnes Sympson "past (to North Berwick) on horseback, conveyed by her goodson, John Couper;" though on that occasion, too, the witches, on arriving, observed the solemnity of dancing along the kirkyard, while "Geilie Duncan," who seems to have had a permanent engagement in that way, "plaid to them on a trump." We should like to know something about that kirk of North Berwick. What was the particular recommendation that made the devil select its pulpit for his homiletic exercises? What sort of man was the minister? What was the state of religion in the parish? And were the congregation, when they came together in the kirk on "Sabbath," sensible of a prevailing odour of brimstone? — but this they might be from various causes.

       Agnes Sympson's confession is famous, or deserving of fame, for having converted King James from a previous scepticism as to witches and witchcraft to an earnest faith in the same. Some of the particulars confessed appearing to the sagacious prince a little improbable, he questioned Agnes in private, and on points calculated to put her preternatural knowledge to the proof. But when the witch "declared to him the very words which had passed between him and his queen on the first night of their marriage, with their answers to each other," he "wondered greatly," as no wonder he should, "and swore by the living God, that he believed all the devils in hell could not have discovered the same."

       We were not a little shocked to learn from Mr. Glanvil that Agnes Sympson was in the habit of using "long scriptural prayers (which, it seems, she did not say backwards) and rhymes, containing the main points of Christianity." Just the description, the reader perceives, of what is called, in our own times, a serious person. To find an individual of this stamp sitting under the ministry of the devil is not only unexpected, but alarming, and leaves one doubtful what to think of the religious world. But this, is a subject we had rather not dwell on: we pass, therefore, to some other peculiarities of this witch; such as, her skill in diseases, and power of foretelling the patients whether they should die or recover; her taking sick people's pains and ailments upon herself for a time, and then passing the sickness to a third person (which, as we have heard, was done also by a woman with a familiar spirit at Oxford, in 1834); her manner of invoking her devil, "Elva, come and speak to me," where upon he came in the likeness of a dog; her dismissing him, after business done, by the formula, "I charge thee to depart, on the law thou livest on;" her sailing with others in a boat to a ship, where the devil caused her to drink good wine, she neither seeing the mariners, nor the mariners her, after which the devil raised a wind, whereby the ship perished; her baptizing, and using other ceremonies upon a cat, to hinder the queen's coming into Scotland; and her raising a spirit to conjure a picture of wax, for the destroying of Mr. John Moscrope.

       After citing all which things, Mr. Glanvil very pertinently asks, "But for a perverse caviller, or crazy sceptick, what is it that will satisfie them?"

       We hinted, a couple of pages back, that the Irish conscience was not always so scrupulous as it happily now is, on the point of meddling with an enemy's health otherwise than by natural means. In proof of this, we now adduce the case of Florence Newton, of Youghal, who was tried for witchcraft, at the Cork assizes, in 1661.

       The particular charge against Newton was the bewitching of Mary Longdon, maid-servant to John Pyne, in Youghal. This Mary Longdon had been asked by Newton to give her a piece of beef out of the powdering-tub; to which the maid replied that she could not give away her master's beef. At this the other was very angry, and said, "Thou hadst as good have given it to me;" and so went away grumbling.

       About a week after, the maid, carrying a pail on her head, met Florence Newton, who came up to her, and embracing her in so violently affectionate a manner, that she threw down the pail off her head, kissed her, and said, "Mary, I pray thee, let thee and I be friends, for I bear thee no ill-will, and I pray thee bear me none." A few nights after this, she saw a veiled woman standing at her bedside, and a little old man by her, in silk clothes; and this man took the veil from the woman's face, who then appeared to be Goody Newton. Then the man spoke to Mary Longdon, and would have had her promise to follow his advice, and she should have all things after her own heart; to which she answered that she would have nothing to say to him, for her trust was in the Lord.

       About a month after this, she began to be taken with fits, in which she vomited pins, needles, and other such things. In these fits her muscular power was so prodigious, that three or four men could not hold her. During her paroxysms, she saw Florence Newton, who stuck pins into her arms; and these pins were seen by those about her, as in the case of Elizabeth Hill. She was also carried about in a strange manner, and deposited in the most inaccessible places, upon lofts and in chests, and sometimes among the roof-timbers of the house, where she could not be come at but with a ladder. She was further pelted, as she went up and down, by invisible hands, with small stones, which, after hitting her, would fall to the ground, and vanish away; and, many times, when she was reading in a bible, the bible was struck out of her hands into the middle of the room, and she herself seized with a violent fit. In her fits, they sometimes laid two bibles on her breast, which were immediately flung with violence to the farther part of the room, or thrust between the two beds the maid lay upon.

       It was found that when the witch was put in irons, the bewitched got well. Does this indicate a magnetic rapport, which the iron diverted?

       On the trial, after the maid had given her evidence as above, Florence Newton peeped at her between the heads of the bystanders, and, shaking her manacled hands at her with an angry air, said, "Now she is down;" which words were scarcely spoken when the maiden fell to the ground like a stone, and had a most violent fit, biting her arms, "shreeking" out in a hideous manner, and struggling with such a superhuman force, that it was scarcely possible, in a full court, to get people enough to hold her. And this having lasted about a quarter of an hour, she was taken with a vomiting, and brought up crooked pins, straws, and wool, in great abundance; all which time Florence sat pinching her own hands and arms. At last the court, remembering what the maid had said of her having been quite well so long as Florence was in bolts, demanded of the gaoler if the prisoner was in bolts or no; to which it was answered that she was not, but only manacled. Upon this, order was given to put on her bolts, and no sooner was this done — Florence crying out she was killed, she was undone, she was spoiled — than the maid was well.

       A witness having deposed that the accused could not say the Lord's Prayer, she desired the court to hear her say it. But leave being given her to try, she left out the words, "And forgive us our trespasses;" which having done on four different attempts, the court appointed one near her to teach her those words. But it was in vain, for she either could not or would not say them, pleading in her excuse that she was old, and had a bad memory, and could not help it.

       It was deposed by several witnesses, that Florence herself, being questioned about Mary Longdon, denied having bewitched the girl, but acknowledged that she might have "overlooked" her, and at the same time she fell down upon her knees, and prayed God to forgive her for wronging the poor wench. She added, however, that there were others in Youghal who could do these things as well as she, such as Goody Halfpenny and Goody Dod, and it might be one of them that had hurt the girl. But afterwards a method was used to put her guilt past denial, which was as follows:— A tile was taken off the prison, near the place where the witch lay, and brought to the house in which the maid lived: here it was put into the fire till it was red hot, and then something belonging to the maid was taken and dropped upon it. Hereupon the witch was tormented and vexed in a grievous manner, and had no relief until what had been dropped upon the tile was consumed. The experiment being over, Florence was interrogated again, how she came to hurt the maid? And now she confessed that she did it by kissing her, and forthwith fell upon her knees, and desired God to forgive her. Yet even at this time, being challenged to say the Lord's Prayer, she could not say, "Forgive us our trespasses."

       She confessed while in prison that her familiar came to her in the shape of a greyhound; and some of the watchmen that were in the room with her when he came heard the door shaken, and a noise as if something with a chain were running up and down the room, but saw nothing.

       The mayor of Youghal at that time seems to have been a wise man, for he got a boat to "try the water experiment" upon Goodies Newton, Half-penny, and Dod, but was prevented by Newton's admitting that she had "overlooked" the girl.

       Not content with her villainy towards Mary Longdon, and towards three aldermen's children of Youghal, whom she kissed so that they shortly after died (which was deposed by the mayor on her trial), Florence Newton, while in prison, in the month of April, 1661, bewitched one David Jones to death, by kissing his hand through the grate of the prison, in recompense for his endeavouring to teach her the Lord's Prayer.

       This poor David Jones had conceived a curiosity to see whether any cats or other creatures went in at night to Florence through the grate of her window; and for this purpose he invited a certain Francis Beseley to watch with him a night before the prison. Beseley agreed, and at night went thither. David Jones spoke to the witch through the grate, and asked her how it was she could not say the Lord's Prayer, to which she answered she could. He then desired her to say it, but she excused herself by the delay of memory through old age. Then Jones began to teach her, but his pains were thrown away.

       Upon this, Jones and Beseley being withdrawn a little from her, and discoursing of her not being able to learn this prayer, she called out to Jones, and said "David, David, come hither! I can say it now." Beseley would have dissuaded Jones from going to her; nevertheless he went, and Florence began the prayer, but broke down, as before, at "Forgive us our trespasses." Hereupon David renewed his endeavours to teach her, which she took so thankfully that she told him she had a great mind to have kissed him, did not the grate hinder, but desired she might kiss his hand. The simple man gave her his hand through the grate, and she kissed it, and towards break of day the two men went home.

       Poor David, on coming into his house, told his wife he was sure Florence Newton had bewitched him, "for she hath kist my hand," said he, "through the grate, and, ever since she kist my hand, I have a great pain in that arm, and I firmly believe she hath bewitched me, if ever she bewitched any man." To which his wife answered, "the Lord forbid." But it turned out to be as David had said; for from that time he continued restless and ill, complaining exceedingly of a great pain in his arm for several days together; and at the end of the seven days, he said that the pain was come from his arm to his heart; and thereupon he took to his bed, and in about fourteen days he died, having all the time cried out against Florence Newton, and said she had him by the hand, and was pulling off his arm, and that he laid his death on her.

       We do not learn whether Florence Newton suffered the condign penalty of her crimes, but we must say it was anything but justice to Ireland if she did not.

       But, of all the cases of witchcraft related in Mr. Glanvil's book, beyond all question that which happened at Mora, in Sweden, in the year 1669, is the most notable. The sorceries practised in this place became so notorious, and spread such a general terror throughout Sweden, that the king found it necessary to appoint a commission, consisting partly of laymen, partly of ecclesiastics, to institute an exact inquiry into the whole matter. We subjoin some extracts from the confession of the witches; and first, concerning their journey to Blockula, where their "sabbath" was held.

       "We of the province of Elfdale do confess, that we used to go to a gravel-pit which lay hard-by a cross-way, and there we put on a vest over our heads, and then danced round, and after this ran to the cross-way, and called the devil thrice, first with a still voice, the second time somewhat louder, and the third time very loud, with these words:— 'Antecessour! come, and carry us to Blockula!' Whereupon, immediately he used to appear, but in different habits; but for the most part we saw him in a grey coat, and red and blue stockings. He had a red beard, a high-crown'd hat, with linnen of divers colours wrapt about it, and long garters upon his stockings.

       "Then he asked us, whether we would serve him with soul and body. If we were content to do so, he set us on a beast which he had there ready, and carried us over churches and high walls, and after all we came to a green meadow, where Blockula lies. We must procure some scrapings of altars, and filings of church clocks, and then he gives us a horn with a salve in it, wherewith we do anoint ourselves, and a saddle with a hammer and a wooden nail, thereby to fix the saddle; whereupon we call upon the devil and away we go.

       "For their journey, they said they made use of all sorts of instruments, of beasts, of men, of spits and posts, according as they had opportunity: if they do ride upon goats, and have many children, that all may have room, they stick a spit into the backside of the goat, and then are anointed with the aforesaid ointment. If the children did at any time name the names of those that had carried them away, they were again carried by force either to Blockula, or to the cross-way, and there miserably beaten, insomuch that some of them died of it.

       "After this usage the children are exceedingly weak; and if any be carried over-night, they cannot recover themselves the next day, and they often fall into fits, the coming of which they know by an extraordinary paleness that seizes on the children, and if a fit comes upon them, they lean on their mothers' arms, who sit up with them sometimes all night, and, when they observe the paleness coming, shake the children, but to no purpose. They observe, further, that their children's breasts grow cold at such times; and they sometimes take a burning candle, and stick it in their hair, which yet is not burnt by it. They swoon upon this paleness, which swoon lasteth sometimes half an hour, sometimes an hour, sometimes two hours; and when the children come to themselves again, they murmur and lament, and groan most miserably, and beg exceedingly to be eased.

       "Touching Blockula, the witches unanimously confessed that 'tis situated in a delicate large meadow, whereof you can see no end. The place or house they went to had before it a gate painted with divers colours: through this gate they went into a little meadow distinct from the other, where the beasts went that they used to ride on. But the men whom they made use of in their journey stood in the house by the gate in a slumbering posture, sleeping against the wall.

       "In a huge large room of this house, they said, there stood a very long table, at which the witches did sit down: and that hard by this room was another chamber, where there were very lovely and delicate beds.

       "The first thing they said they must do at Blockula was, that they must deny all, and devote themselves body and soul to the devil, and promise to serve him faithfully, and confirm all this with an oath. Hereupon they cut their fingers, and with their blood writ their name in his book. They added, that he caused them to be baptized, too, by such priests as he had there, and made them confirm their baptism with dreadful oaths and imprecations. Hereupon the devil gave them a purse, wherein there were filings of clocks, with a stone tied to it; which they threw into the water, and then were forced to speak these words — 'As these filings of the clock do now return to the clock from which they are taken, so may my soul never return to heaven.' To which they add blasphemy, and other oaths and curses.

       "After this they sate down to table, and those the devil esteemed most were placed nearest to him; but the children must stand at the door, where he himself gives them meat and drink. The diet they did use to have there was, they said, broth with colworts and bacon in it, oatmeal-bread spread with butter, milk, and cheese. And they added, that sometimes it tasted very well, and sometimes very ill. After meals they went to dancing, and in the meanwhile cursed and swore most dreadfully, and afterward went to fighting one with another.

       "One day the devil seemed to be dead, whereupon there were great lamentations at Blockula; but he soon awaked again. If he hath a mind to be merry with them, he lets them all ride upon spits before him, takes afterwards the spits and beats them black and blue, and then laughs at them. And he bids them believe the day of judgment will come speedily, and therefore sets them to work to build a great house of stone, promising that in that house he will preserve them from God's fury, and cause them to enjoy the greatest delights and pleasures: but while they work exceeding hard at it, there fails a great part of the wall down again, whereby some of the witches are commonly hurt; which makes him laugh, but presently he cures them again.

       "They said they had seen sometimes a very great devil like a dragon, with fire round about him, and bound with an iron chain; and the devil that converses with them tells them, if they confess anything, he will let that, great devil loose upon them, whereby, all Sweedland shall come into great danger.

       They added that the devil had a church there, such another as in the town of Mora.

       "Touching the mischief or evil which the witches promised to do to men and beasts, they confessed that they must promise to the devil that they would do all that's ill; and that the devil taught them to milk, which was in this wise:— They used to stick a knife in the wall, and hang a kind of label on it, which they drew and stroaked; and as long as this lasted, the persons they had power over were miserably plagued, and the beasts were milked that way, till sometimes they died of it.

       "The minister of Elfdale declared that one night these witches were, to his thinking, upon the crown of his head, and that from thence he had had a long-continued pain of the head. One of the witches confessed that the devil had sent her to torment that minister; and that she was ordered to use a nail and strike it into his head, but it would not enter very deep; and hence came that headache.

       "The aforesaid minister said also that one night he felt a pain, as if he were torn with an instrument that they cleanse flax with, or a flax-comb; and when he waked, he heard somebody scratching and scraping at the window, but could see nobody. And one of the witches confessed that she was the person that did it, being sent by the devil."

       "The minister of Mora declared also that one night one of these witches came into his house, and did so violently take him by the throat, that he thought he should have been choked; and, waking, he saw the person that did it, but could not know her; and that for some weeks he was not able to speak, or perform divine service.

       "They confessed, also, that the devil gives them a beast about the bigness and shape of a young cat, which they call a carrier; and that he gives them a bird, too, as big as a raven, but white. And these two creatures they can send anywhere; and wherever they come, they take away all sorts of victuals they can get, butter, cheese, milk, bacon, and all sorts of seeds whatever they find, and carry it to the witch. What the bird brings they may keep for themselves; but what the carrier brings, they must reserve for the devil; and that's brought to Blockula, where he doth give them of it so much as he thinks fit. They added, likewise, that these carriers fill themselves so full sometimes, that they are forced to spue by the way, which spueing is found in several gardens where colworts grow, and not far from the houses of those witches. It is of a yellow colour, like gold, and is called butter of witches.

       "The Lords Commissioners took great pains to persuade them to show some of their tricks, but to no purpose; for they did all unanimously confess that since they had confessed all, they found that all their witchcraft was gone, and that the devil, at this time, appeared to them very terrible, with claws on his hands and feet, and with horns on his head, and a long tail behind, and showed to them a pit burning, with a hand put out; but the devil did thrust the person down again with an iron fork, and suggested to the witches that, if they continued in their confession, he would deal with them in the same manner."

       The end of all this was, that seventy witches were discovered in Mora, whom "several people of fashion" did, with tears in their eyes, entreat the Lords Commissioners to burn; — the rather because, since some witches had been burnt in Elfdale, that place had had peace and quietness. Three and twenty of the witches confessed their guilt, and were burnt on the 25th of August, the day being bright and glorious, the sun shining, and some thousands of people being present at the spectacle. The remaining seven and forty denied their guilt, all but one, who pleaded her being with child. All these were sent to Fahlun, where most of them were afterwards executed.

       Fifteen children, who likewise confessed that they were engaged in this witchery, died as the rest; six and thirty more, between nine and sixteen years of age, who had been less guilty, were forced to run the gauntlet, and were afterwards whipt with rods, on the hands, at the church-doors, every Sunday, for a year; twenty, who were very young, and who had been seduced into these hellish intrigues, without any great inclination of their own thereto, were whipped in the same manner three Sundays. The number of the seduced children was about three hundred. These, as well as the children of the village generally, could read, most of them, and sing psalms, and so could the women, though "not with any great zeal or fervour."

       It is a remarkable instance of the perverseness of human judgments, that that very seventeenth century, in which the devil was so busy in England and other parts of the world, witnessed the rise of a school of would-be-enlightened thinkers, who denied the existence of witches. Of these, Reginald Scot was the father, whose "Discoverie of Witchcraft" was published in 1601. Mr. Glanvil speaks of this work with great contempt, professing that he "met not with the least suggestion in all that farrago, but what it had been ridiculous for him to have gone about to answer;" and that, "'t will be a wonder to him if any but boyes and buffoons imbibe any prejudices against a belief so infinitely confirmed, from the loose and impotent suggestions of such a discourse."

       To prove that, in this censure, he does no injustice to his opponent, our author presents his readers with a specimen of the style of reasoning adopted in the "Discoverie." Speaking of the witch of Endor, and her evocation of the shade of Samuel, he says:—

       "Mr. Reginald Scot, the father of the modern witch-advocates, orders the matter thus. When Saul, said he, had told her that he would have Samuel brought up to him, she departed from his presence into her closet, where, doubtless, she had her familiars, to wit, some lewd crafty priest, and made Saul stand at the door like a fool (as it were with his finger in a hole) to hear the couzening answers, but not to see the couzening handling thereof, and the counterfeiting of the matter. And so goeth she to work, using ordinary words of conjuration, &c. So, belike, after many such words spoken, she saith to herself — 'Lo! now the matter is brought to pass — I see wonderful things.' So, as Saul, hearing these words, longed to know all, and askt her what she saw — whereby you know that Saul saw nothing, but stood without like a mome, whilst she plaid her part in her closet."

       Mr. Glanvil, or anybody else, might well be excused for declining to reply to drivelling like this; and we quite agree with our author in the opinion, "that there is nothing more needful to be said, to discover the Discoverer."

       Scot was not the only adversary that Mr. Glanvil had to cope withal. Even while Mr. Hunt was burning witches in Somersetshire, Mr. Webster and Mr. Wagstaffe were putting forth books against their existence in London; and this story of the witch of Endor being the great stumbling block of that Sadducean school, it was taken in hand by them all in turn, with little better success than had attended the endeavours of their leader. Webster says of the witch:—

       "That what she did, or pretended to do, was only by ventriloquy, or casting herself into a feigned trance, by grovelling on the earth with her face downwards; and, so changing her voice, did mutter, and murmur, and peep, and chirp like a bird coming forth of the shell, or that she spake in some hollow cave or vault through some pipe, or in a bottle, and so amused and deceived poor timorous and despairing Saul."

       "What stuff is this!" exclaims our author; and we think the reader will not find the exclamation more uncivil than just. Certes, if the belief in witchcraft had never been assailed but with such weapons as Mr. Webster's, we should not now be living in the millennium of old women; and if this writer, as Mr. Glanvil more than insinuated, was really fee'd by the grandmothers of England to prove them no witches, we must say that their choice of an advocate went farther to establish their innocence of the charge than anything the advocate they chose was able to urge in their favour.

       Doctor Henry More, who wrote a preface to Mr. Glanvil's book, is rougher than the latter in his handling of Mr. Webster. For, W. having affirmed that Saul saw not Samuel himself, but stood waiting like a drowned puppet (puppy?) in another room, to hear what would be the issue, the doctor cries with a lively indignation:—

       "See of what a base, rude spirit this squire of hags is, to use such language of a prince in his distress!"

       And then he goes on:—

       "That this gallant of witches should dare to abuse a prince thus, and feign him as much foolisher and sottisher in his intellectuals, as he was taller in stature than the rest of the people, even by head and shoulders, and meerly, forsooth, to secure his old wives from being so much as in a capacity of being ever suspected for witches, is a thing extreamly coarse, and intolerably sordid. And, indeed, upon the consideration of Saul's being said to bow himself to Samuel (which plainly implies that there was a Samuel that was the object of his sight and of the reverence he made), his own heart misgives him in this mad adventure; and he shifts off from thence to a conceit that it was a confederate knave that the woman of Endor turned out into the room where Saul was, to act the part of Samuel, having first put on him her own short cloak, which she used with her maund under her arm to ride to fairs or markets in. To this countrey-slouch, in the woman's mantle, must King Saul, stooping with his face to the very ground, make his profound obeysance. What? was a market-woman's cloak and Samuel's mantle, which Josephus calls διπλοίδα ἱεϱατιϰὴν, a sacerdotal habit, so like one another? Or, if not, how came this woman, being so surprized of a sudden, to provide herself of such a sacerdotal habit to cloak her confederate knave in? Was Saul as well a blind as a drowned puppet, that he could not discover so gross and bold an imposture as this? Was it possible that he should not perceive that it was not Samuel when they came to confer together, as they did? How could that confederate knave change his own face into the same figure, look, and mien that Samuel had, which was exactly known to Saul? How could he imitate his voice thus of a suddain, and they discoursed a very considerable time together?"

       Another conceit of Webster's is, that the witch counterfeited ventriloquism by means of a bottle, translating בץלח אוב, Bagnalath Obh, not "one that hath a familiar spirit," but "the mistress of the bottle." On which Doctor More remarks:—

       "Who but the master of the bottle, or rather of whom the bottle had become master, and, by guzling, had made his wits excessively muddy and frothy, could ever stumble upon such a foolish interpretation? But because Obh in one place of the Scripture signifies a bottle, it must signifie so here; and it must be the instrument, forsooth, out of which this cheating quean of Endor doth whisper, peep, or chirp like a chicken coming out of the shell. And does she not, beseech you, put her neb also into it sometimes, as into a reed, as it is said of that bird, and cry like a butter-bump? Certainly he might as well have interpreted Bagnalath Obh of the great tun of Heydelberg, that Tom. Coriat takes such special notice of, as of the bottle."

       And again:—

       "And Saul said, I pray thee divine unto me באוב, Beobh, by vertue of the familiar spirit, whose assistance, thou hast, not by vertue of the bottle, as Mr. Webster would have it. Does he think that damsel in the Acts, which is said to have had πνεῦμα πύθωνος, a spirit of python, that is, to have had Obh, carried an aquavitæ-bottle about with her, hung at her girdle, whereby she might divine, and mutter, chirp, or peep out of it, as a chicken out of an eggshell, or put her neb into it to cry like a bittern, or take a dram of the bottle to make her wits more quick and divinatory? Who but one that had taken too many drams of the bottle could ever fall into such a fond conceit? Wherefore Obh in this place does not, as indeed no where else, signifie an oracular bottle or μαντεῖον, into which Saul might desire the woman of Endor to retire into, and himself expect answers in the next room; but signifies that familiar spirit by vertue of whose assistance she was conceived to perform all those wondrous offices of a wise-woman."

       However, Doctor Moore does not deny that Obh sometimes signifies a bottle; but thinks this name was applied to a familiar spirit, because such a being, having its seat within the body of the witch, swelled up the same to a protuberancy like the side of a bottle. It would appear that the spirit commonly spoke out of the witch, for the Septuagint translates Shoel Obh Ἐγγαστϱίμυθος. This is not to be confounded with the modern sense of a ventriloquist, but rather seems to imply that the witch fell into a sort of somnambulous or hysterical state, like the prophetesses of the heathen oracles, and of some crazy sects of our own time. The swelling of the belly is also a common symptom of hysteria, and occurs in most of the modern cases of religious ecstasy.

       But there is another way of looking at this bottle-affair, which, perhaps, may be the true one. A bottle or globe of glass, filled with water, was used by the Greeks as a magic mirror, the principle and mode of using it being the same as in the mode of divination described by Lane as being practised by the Egyptians to this day.* Mesmer used a globular mirror for throwing his patients the more speedily into the magnetic crisis; and Mr. Braid's method of "hypnotising" people is founded on a similar principle.

* See DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, for May, 1845, p. 531.

       But that there is such a thing as an Obh, apart from magic mirrors and mesmeric trances, we happen to know from the testimony of a friend of our own, who is a Swiss clergyman, and an excellent Hebraist as well as ghost-seer. Our friend has but too good grounds to know that an Obh is no imaginary being, having himself, from an early period of life, experienced the implacable personal hostility of one, who has followed him from place to place — from Basle to Wirtemberg, from Wirtemberg to Geneva, and from Geneva to Basle again, to cross, vex, and molest him. This Obh, our friend says, is no devil, but the spirit of a departed wicked man; and such he takes those to have been whom the necromancers, or "questioners of the dead" (Doresh Hammethim), in former times dealt with. The Obh in question was, in his lifetime, a Swiss pastor, and exercised his office in the very parish to which our friend, on his ordination, was first appointed. It was from that appointment the enmity dated. Our friend became aware of him the very day he entered upon his charge; and heard him concerting measures with two other pastors of his own standing in Hades, to counteract the operations of the new labourer in the vineyard. Finding that he could not prevail against the husband, this wicked being sought to gain over the wife, to whom he addressed the most insidious flatteries, with plausible representations of the injury her husband would do to the interests of his family by the religious principles he was acting on. For indeed our friend, at that time, was somewhat disposed to run after religious will-o'-the-wisps, and had a great faith in the Irvingite prophets. Well, the Obh endeavoured to stir up, as we said, the wife of our friend to rebel against her husband, bidding her not to regard him as her "head." "But," said the Obh, "observe what I say, do what I tell you, speak the words I shall put into your mouth;" and so on, very much as Florence Newton's Irish devil in silk clothes (who was probably also an Obh) talked to Mary Longdon. All the time he spoke to her, our friend's wife lay in a kind of sleep-waking condition on a sofa, her husband meanwhile standing before her, and endeavouring by the force of his will to bring her out of that state, which he knew to be one that placed her in contact with the powers of the invisible world. However, she gave no place to the suggestions of the Obh, but steadfastly resisted him in her spirit, "abiding in the acknowledgment of her husband's headship;" and, on at length coming to herself, she declared to the latter all that had taken place. The Obh, as she described him, had the appearance of an old-fashioned citizen of Basle, and did not speak pure High Dutch, but the corrupt dialect which the Basle people use.

       What we consider worthy of remark in this story is, that the Obh was seen both by the husband and the wife; not, indeed, by both at the same time, but now by the one, now the other, according as either was in a state to be affected by its presence. This is a proof of what the Germans call the objectivity of the apparition.

       Our friend saw many other spirits beside the above-mentioned; and so did his wife.* It was unpleasant, however, that they were visited by none but people that were gone to the devil. It is just ten years since we heard any thing about them: goodness grant they may not by this time be gone to return the visits!

* On his journey from Geneva to Basle, a road which he then travelled for the first time, stopping one night at the village of Tavanne, he saw in his room at the inn a ghost, which by a gift of spiritual intuition, peculiar to him, he perceived to be that of a former master of the house, who, as he knew by the same inward perception, had committed suicide. On arriving at Basle, he was asked by a friend. among other things, where he had passed the preceding night. "At Tavanne," was the answer. "And at what inn?" "At the Crown." "And did you pass the night well?" "Very well, indeed." "You were not frightened?" "Not at all." "You didn't see a ghost?" "Oh, yes, I saw a ghost." "Ah! I would not pass a night at that inn for the world: the last landlord cut his throat, and they say his ghost haunts the house ever since." "So he does," said our friend; "but what then? Do you suppose there are not ghosts everywhere?"        Another ghost he saw was that of a man who had been what is called a religious professor, but who, some time before his death, had fallen into a profound melancholy, arising from a persuasion that he was predestined to eternal misery. He died in despair, and his religious friends said, "What a happy release!" But his ghost came to our friend, and asked, "Where do my former companions think I am?" "They think you are in heaven," replied our friend. "And what do you think?" "I do not think as they do." "You are right," said the ghost; "I am in hell!"