already suggested that in some cases there was a full a materialization due to ectoplasmic emanations. Now, ectoplasm is described[1] as being to the touch a cold and viscous mass comparable to contact with a reptile, and this certainly seems to throw a flood of light upon these details. It may be that here indeed we have a solution of the whole mystery. In 1645 the widow Bash, a Suffolk witch, of Barton, said that the Devil who appeared to her as a dark swarthy youth “was colder than man.”[2] Isobel Goudie and Janet Breadheid, of the Auldearne coven, 1662, both asserted that the Devil was “a meikle, blak, rock man, werie cold; and I fand his nature als cold, a spring-well-water.”[3] Isabel, who had been rebaptized at a Sabbat held one midnight in Auldearne parish church, and to whom was assigned a familiar named the Red Riever, albeit he was always clad in black, gave further details of the Devil’s person: “He is abler for ws that way than any man can be, onlie he ves heavie lyk a malt-sek; a hudg nature, uerie cold, as yce.”[4]
In many of the cases of debauchery at Sabbats so freely and fully confessed by the witches their partners were undoubtedly the males who were present; the Grand Master, Officer, or President of the Assembly, exercising the right to select first for his own pleasures such women as he chose. This is clear from a passage in De Lancre: “The Devil at the Sabbat performs marriages between the warlocks and witches, and joining their hands, he pronounces aloud
Esta es buena parati
Esta parati lo toma.”[5]
And in many cases it is obvious that use must have been made of an instrument, an artificial phallus employed.[6]
The artificial penis was a commonplace among the erotica of ancient civilizations; there is abundant evidence of its use in Egypt, Assyria, India, Mexico, all over the world. It has been found in tombs; frequently was it to be seen as an ex-voto; in a slightly modified form it is yet the favourite mascot of Southern Italy.[7] Often enough they do not trouble to disguise the form. Aristophanes mentions the object in his Lysistrata (411 b.c.), and one of the most spirited dialogues (VI) of Herodas (circa 300–250 b.c.) is that where Koritto and Metro prattle prettily of their βαύβων, whilst
