Europe's inner demons

The persons aforesaid had to their dinners beef, bacon and roasted mutton; which mutton (as this witness’s said brother said) was of a wether of Christopher Swyers of Barley: which wether was brought in the night before into this witness’s mother’s house by the said James Device, this witness’s said brother: and in this witness’s sight killed and eaten. . And before their said parting away, they all appointed to meet at the said Preston’s wife’s house that day twelve-month; at which time the said Preston’s wife promised to make them a great feast.

After which they “went out of the said house in their own shapes and likenesses. And they all, as soon as they were out of doors, got on horseback, like foals, some of one colour, some of another.”⁽¹⁵⁾

The Devil, it will be noted, does not figure at all in this account; and one would never guess how large a part the demonic powers played in the trial as a whole. The key witness was a nine-year-old girl, Jennet Device, who gave evidence against her mother, her grandmother and her brother. Now according to young Jennet a spirit in the form of a brown dog called Ball approached her mother and asked what she wished him to do; and on her instructions killed three men by occult means. She had also listened to a black dog called Dandy having a similar conversation with her brother James; after which Dandy contrived the death of an old woman.⁽¹⁶⁾

The Somerset trials of 1664 are regarded by Murray as particularly illuminating. She quotes from the evidence of Elizabeth Styles:

“At their meeting they have usually wine and good beer, cakes, meat or the like. They eat and drink really when they meet in their bodies, dance also and have music. The man in black sits at the higher end, and Anne Bishop usually next him. He uses some words before meat, and none after, his voice is audible, and very low.”⁽¹⁷⁾

She does not quote the sentence immediately preceding: “At every meeting the Spirit vanishes away, he appoints the next meeting place and time, and at his departure there is a foul smell.” Nor is there any mention of certain other details supplied by the same witness. For Elizabeth Styles said that, while the Devil sometimes appeared to her as a man, he usually did so in the form of a dog, a cat or a fly; as a fly, he was apt to suck at the back of her head. He also provided his followers with oil with which to anoint their foreheads and wrists — which enabled them to be carried in a moment to and from the meetings. On the other hand, Elizabeth added that sometimes the meetings were attended by the witches’ spirits only, their bodies remaining at home.⁽¹⁸⁾

A Scot herself, Murray draws heavily on the records of Scottish trials for her material. A typical source, covering both the feast at the sabbat and the return from it, is the confession of Helen Guthrie, one of the alleged witches tried at Forfar in 1661. The Witch-Cult gives the following excerpts: