home vestu de rouge.'[1] At an attempt to wreck a ship in a great storm 'the devil was there present with them all, in the shape of a great horse. … They returned all in the same likeness as of before, except that the devil was in the shape of a man.'[2] 'The Deivill apeired vnto her, in the liknes of ane prettie boy in grein clothes. … And at that tyme the Deivil gaive hir his markis; and went away from her in the liknes of ane blak doug.'[3] 'He wold haw carnall dealling with ws in the shap of a deir, or in any vther shap, now and then. Somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg, etc., and haw dealling with ws.'[4] 'Yow the said Margaret Hamilton, relict of James Pullwart … had carnall cowpulatiown with the devil in the lyknes of ane man, bot he removed from yow in the lyknes of ane black dowg.'[5] The most important instance is in Boguet's description of the religious ceremony at the Sabbath: 'Finalement Satan apres auoir prins la figure d'vn Bouc, se consume en feu, & reduit en cendre.'[6]
The witches' habit of speaking of every person of the other sex with whom they had sexual intercourse at the Sabbath as a 'devil' has led to much confusion in the accounts. The confusion has been accentuated by the fact that both male and female witches often used a disguise, or were at least veiled. 'Et pource que les hommes ne cedent guieres aux femmes en lubricité, c'est pourquoy le Demon se met aussi en femme ou Succube. … Ce qu'il fait principalement au Sabbat, selon que l'ont rapporté Pierre Gandillon, & George Gandillon, pere & fils, & les autres, lesquels disent tout vnanimement, qu'en leurs assemblées il y a plusieurs Demons, & que les vns exercent le mestier de l'homme pour les femmes, & les autres le mestier des femmes pour les hommes.'[7] 'The Incubus's in the shapes of proper men satisfy the desires of the Witches, and the Succubus's serve for Whores to the Wizards.'[8] Margaret
- ↑ H. G. van Elven, La Tradition, 1891, v, p. 215. Place and names not given.
- ↑ Kinloch, pp. 122, 123.
- ↑ Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.
- ↑ Id., iii, pp. 611, 613.
- ↑ Scots Magazine, 1817, p. 201.
- ↑ Boguet, p. 141.
- ↑ Id., p. 65.
- ↑ Pleasant Treatise of Witches, p. 6. The remembrance of the numerous male devils at the Sabbath survives in the Samalsain dance in the
