Discover the Truth Behind Witchcraft Stories. William Godwin

(p. 448). Sir Walter Scott gives the following account of this trade:—“One celebrated mode of detecting witches, and torturing them at the same time, to draw forth confession, was, by running pins into their body, on pretence of discovering the devil’s stigma, or mark, which was said to be inflicted by him upon all his vassals, and to be insensible to pain. This species of search, the practice of the infamous Hopkins, was in Scotland reduced to a trade; and the young witch-finder was allowed to torture the accused party, as if in exercise of a lawful calling, although Sir George Mackenzie stigmatizes it as a horrid imposture. I observe in the Collections of Mr. Pitcairn, that, at the trial of Janet Peaston of Dalkeith, the magistrates and ministers of that market-town caused John Kincaid of Tranent, the common pricker, to exercise his craft upon her, ‘who found two marks of what he called the devil’s making, and which appeared indeed to be so, for she could not feel the pin when it was put into either of the said marks, nor did they (the marks) bleed when they were taken out again; and when she was asked where she thought the pins were put in, she pointed to a part of her body distant from the real place. They were pins of three inches in length.’ Besides the fact, that the persons of old people especially sometimes contain spots void of sensibility, there is also room to believe that the professed prickers used a pin, the point or lower part of which was, on being pressed down, sheathed in the upper, which was hollow for the purpose, and that which appeared to enter the body did not pierce it at all.”—Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 297.

31. Peter died in prison just in time to escape the flames. He was burned in effigy however after his death.

32. Lindon, cited by Wyttenbach, ‘Versuch einer Geschichte von Trier,’ vol. iii. p. 110.

33. Beyträge zur Beförderung einer nähern Einsicht in das gesammte Geisterreich, vol. i. p. 284.

34. The Abbé Fiard, one of the latest believers on record, has printed the Requête at full length in his ‘Lettres sur la Magie,’ p. 117 et seq.

35. Even now a complaint of ‘being bewitched’ is occasionally made to Justices of the Peace by the very ignorant or the very malignant.

36. Trials and other Proceedings in Matters Criminal before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, selected from the Records of that Court. By Robert Pitcairn. Edinburgh.

37. Holingshed, vol. i. pp. 50, 317.

38. At the second marriage of Alexander III., Fordun, vol. ii. p. 128. Boece, p. 294, ed. 1574.

39. Boece, p. 149.

40. In the case of Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow, 1466.—Buchanan. Pitscottie.

41. “Quell’ altro, che nei fianchi è così poco, Michele Scotto fu, che veramente Delle magiche frode seppe il giuoco.”—Canto xx.

42. As in the case of the witches at Forres, who attempted to destroy King Duffus by the favourite pagan charm of roasting his image in wax, and those burnt at Edinburgh for a similar attempt against James III., in 1479.

43. Scot of Scotstarvet, Home of Godscroft, passim.

44. Nov. 8, 1576. Pitcairn, vol. i. p. 48.

45. Ibid. p. 51.

46. Rec. of Just. May 27, 1601.

47. News from Scotland, declaring the damnable life of Dr. Fian.—Pitcairn, vol. i. p. 213.

48. We need hardly remind our readers of the torture of Macbriar by the Boots, before the Privy Council, in the ‘Tales of my Landlord.’

49. Old French, Turquois, a smith’s pincers, from torquere.

50. Sir James Melville, p. 294.

51. Pitcairn, vol. i. p. 211.

52. Crook—the hook from which pots are hung over a Scottish kitchen fire.

53. Just. Records, 1590-1610.

54. Most of the cases here cited are found in the Justiciary Records, from about 1605 to 1640.

55. Feb. 4, 1629.

56. Just. Records, Jan. 1630.

57. Just. Rec., Dec. 1643.

58. The paper is marked on the back, “Edinburgh, July 10th, 1662: considered and found relevant by the Justice Depute.” The part of Janet Braidhead’s deposition, which appears to have borne a similar marking by the Justice Depute, is torn off.

59. Her fellow-witch, Braidhead, was baptized by the very inappropriate name of Christian.

60. This seems to have been a common practice in the Infernal ritual. Law gives the nicknames of the Renfrewshire witches, in the Bangarran Case. (Memorials, p. 122.)

61. Taking the form of foul and ominous birds was a favourite practice of witches in all ages. Apuleius, in his character of Lucius, thus describes the metamorphosis of his hostess at Larissa:—

      “Pamphile divested herself of all her garments, and opening a certain cabinet took out of it a number of boxes. From one of these she selected a salve, and anointed herself from head to foot; and after much muttering, she began to rock and wave herself to and fro. Presently a soft down covered her limbs, and a pair of wings sprang from her shoulders: her nose became a beak: her nails talons. Pamphile was now in form a complete owl. Then uttering a low shriek she began to jump from the floor, and after a brief while flew out of the window and vanished. She winged her way, I was assured by Fotis, to some expectant lover. And this was the last I saw of