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53,266 published records with substantive text · Page 978 of 1,110
hen his eyes blaze brighter and his voice grows fierce and menacing, and he leads them to the side of the mountain and shows them, far below, a dreadful chasm with fierce flames leaping about it and grim fire-monsters lifting up their open jaws from its centre
Read record →A few words of greeting and inquiry, and it makes its exit by the road it came, flying off heavily across the fields, regardless of the daylight, for who, seeing a raven fly towards the sea, would think of sorcery or witchcraft?
Read record →The witch, in the broader sense of the word, may be said to have existed ever since mankind first evolved an imagination, and may be expected to expire only with the death of the last woman
Read record →Consider the other woman--the ancestress of the witch, in the opprobrious sense
Read record →Just as the priestess was the mother of the priest, so the wizard is born of the witch
Read record →With the first introduction of civil government the witch and the priestess finally part company, to range themselves henceforward upon opposite sides
Read record →Faced by such forcible arguments for conversion, the Pagan witch was not long in adopting the Christian Devil as a more potent protector than the old, easy-going gods who had formerly peopled the supernatural world
Read record →It was, perhaps, the popular sense of victorious ability against her spells which protected the witch, per se, against over-severe persecution until towards the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
Read record →The increasing tendency towards dabbling in things forbidden brought about greater severity in its repression, but it was not until the days of Innocent VIII., when witchcraft was officially identified with heresy, that the period of cruel persecution may be s
Read record →From the fourteenth century onwards the type of recognised witch varies only in detail
Read record →Having decided, very early in his earthly career, to acknowledge a supernatural world, Man promptly set to work to people it after his own image
Read record →Conforming to the general rule, the witch is but one dweller in a half-way world that is thickly populated and in itself forms one of an intricate star-group
Read record →Even if we agree to confine the witch to the narrowest limits, to regard her, that is to say, as primarily a human being and only incidentally possessed of superhuman powers and attributes, there still remain many difficulties in the way of exact classificatio
Read record →It is true that certain arbitrary lines may be drawn to localise the witch proper, even though the rules be chiefly made up of exceptions
Read record →The Magician, whatsoever his own private failings, has certainly deserved well of posterity
Read record →The witch proper, on the other hand, did not trouble herself with research work
Read record →We thus may briefly state the difference between the witch and the magician as that the one professed powers in which she might herself believe or not believe, inherited or received by her, and by her passed on to her successors without any attempt to augment
Read record →Between the witch and the conjurer a wide gulf is fixed
Read record →Naturally enough, seeing that the desire to influence the future is the obvious corollary to that of knowing it, the part of diviner was more often than not doubled with that of witch or sorcerer
Read record →Alchemy, despite its Moorish name, has a scarcely less extended history
Read record →To attempt any close study of the great alchemists were foreign to my present purpose, and would entail more space than is at my disposal
Read record →A native of Somerset, and born, traditionally, the year before the signing of Magna Charta, he might have ranked among the greatest Englishmen had not his reputation as a magician given him the suggestion of being a myth altogether
Read record →Perhaps no symptom of civilisation is more disquieting than the increasing tendency to compress the half-way worlds--built up by our forefathers with such lavish expenditure of imagination--into the narrow limits of that in which we are doomed to spend our wor
Read record →They showed one at the same booth wherein the degenerate giant was mewed
Read record →Even those who smile at Neptune and his daughters cannot refuse the tribute of a shudder to the Man-Beast
Read record →With the were-wolf we return to closer contact with witchcraft proper
Read record →Doubtless because the wolf was extirpated in this country at a comparatively early date English were-wolf legends are few and far between
Read record →It were, of course, impossible to include within the limits of such a volume as is this--or of a hundred like it--one tithe of the great store of spells, charms, and miscellaneous means towards enchantment gathered together in the long centuries since the birt
Read record →Of her actual appearance, divested of her infernal attributes, no better description could be desired than that given by Reginald Scot in "The Discoverie of Witchcraft":--"Witches be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; poore, su
Read record →Endowed with so unfortunate a personality, it is not surprising that, as Scot goes on to inform us, the witch should have found it difficult to make a living
Read record →Any such disaster is naturally attributed to the old beggar-woman--who is thus at once elevated to the dangerous eminence of witch-hood
Read record →As the King has his orb and sceptre, the astrologer his spheres and quadrant, so the witch has her insignia of office
Read record →A characteristic of the witch, in common with demons and imps in general, is that she does everything contrary to the tastes and customs of good Christians
Read record →Of all these insignia and attributes of her office the most important, as the most characteristic, were her "familiars" or imps
Read record →There is some slight confusion about the provenance of this same witch-mark, unless it varied in individual cases--whether, that is to say, the marks were the result of suckling the imps, or whether, being already imprinted on the witch's body, they were selec
Read record →Although in earlier ages this formality may have been dispensed with, by the sixteenth century the witch invariably signed a definite contract with Satan
Read record →Of the preliminaries leading up to the bargain we are given an illuminating glimpse by Edward Fairfax in his already quoted book
Read record →Her contract once signed, the witch naturally became as soon as possible proficient in the "Devil's rudiments," which James I
Read record →Other accounts follow similar lines or add further indictments; as Jean Bodin, who also details the crimes of eating human flesh and drinking blood, destroying fruit and causing famine and sterility
Read record →Although less generally harmful in its effects, the witch's passion for aviation was as reprehensible as the rest of her proceedings
Read record →The ointment used by witches for such purposes are by many considered to have been but another instance of Satan's cunning and lack of good faith
Read record →In deference to the unceasing demand, the witch has ever been a prominent exponent of prophecy and divination--nor have any of her practices given more offence to Holy Church
Read record →He might also appear in the form of a tree-trunk, without arms or feet, but with the indistinct suggestion of a face, seated on a throne; sometimes like a giant, clad in dark clothes, as he does not wish his disciples to realise that he is himself suffering th
Read record →of the Sabbath varied greatly at different times and places, but having already given a typical example in an earlier chapter, it is unnecessary to dwell further on so unsavoury a subject
Read record →One Jehannes du Hard, in her confession, gives us an account of the method of compounding poisons and witch-ointments at the Sabbaths
Read record →Having seen how the witch in general lived and went about her evil business, it may be well to consider the personality of individual members of the craft
Read record →We may then disregard such historical characters as have other claims to fame, and confine our attention to those whose activities were concentrated upon witchcraft pure and simple
Read record →Passing by Young Nixon, the dwarf, who, although a prophet scarcely less inferior in fame to Mother Shipton, scarcely falls within the limit of this volume--though it may be noted that one of his best-known prophecies, that he would starve to death, did actual
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