Narratives Of Sorcery And Magic

Thomas Wright's interest in folklore and legend led to this two-volume 1851 account of sorcery and magic across Europe.

Excerpt from Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, From the Most Authentic Sources Of the first half of the twelfth century, relates from the informa tion of one of hie own acquaintances, who assured him that he was an eye-witness, and whom William would have been ashamed to disbelieve. No sooner had her unearthly master given the miserable woman warning that the hour had approached when he should take final possession, than she called to her death-bed her children and the monks of a neighboring monas MIX, confessed her evil courses and her subjection to the devil, an be that they would at least secure her body from the hands 0 the fiends. F Sew me, she said, in the hide of a stag, then place me in a stone coffin, and fasten in the covering lead and tron. Upon this place another stone, and chain the whole down with three heavy chains of iron. Let fifty psalms be sung each ni ht, and fifty masses be said by day, to break the power of the omens. If you can thus keep my body three nights, on the fourth day you may securely bury it in the ground. These directions were executed to the letter; but psalms and masses were equally unavailable. The first night the priests withstood the efforts of the fiends; the second they became more clamo rous, the gates of the monastery were burst open in s ite of the strength of the bolts, and two of the chains which hol down the coffin were broken, though the middle one held firm. On the third night the clamor of the fiends increased till the monastery trembled from its foundations; and the priests, stiff with terror, were unable to proceed with their service. The doom at length burst open of their own accord, and a demon larger and more terrible than any of the others, stalked into the church. He stopped at the coffin, and with a fearful voice ordered the woman to arise. She answered that she was held down by the chain; the demon ut his foot to the coffin, the last chain broke asunder like a bit ofthread, and the covering of the coffin flew off. The body of the witch then arose, and her persecutor took her by the hand, and led her to the door, where a black horse of gigantic stature, its back covered with iron s ikes, awaited them, and, seating her beside him on its back, he isappearod from the sight of the terrified monks. But the horrible screams of his victttn were heard through the country for miles as they passed along. At this period the witches met together by night, in solitary places, to worship their master, who appeared to them in the shape of a cat, or a goat, or sometimes in that of a man. At these meetings, as we are informed by John of Salisbtltnry, they had feasts and some were appointed to serve at table, w e. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.