into the secrets of futurity on All-Saints' eve, remain lasting and comparatively harmless remains of Celtic or Teutonic Mythology, so all attempts by means of witchcraft,* to recover lost goods, to avert evil from ourselves, or inflict it on our neighbors, are connected with the gloomy rites paid to the representations of evil in the operations of nature or their own passions, by the ancient seekers of infernal aid. Every sincere believer in the inspiration and authenticity of the Scriptures, will acknowledge that before, and at the period of, Our Lord's appearance on the earth, the demons were permitted to sensibly afflict the bodies of men.† Witness Job and the demoniacs relieved by the Saviour. They likewise exerted some influence over irrational animals, the possession of the swine for instance. the possession of occult knowledge; they had | St. John the Baptist, and our efforts to dive their neophytes, and impiously parodied in their profane ceremonies, the primeval modes of offering homage, or invoking the Creator of the world. When spiritual and powerful qualities were imputed to matter, or those influences that produce modifications or changes therein, it was but a natural sequence that the heavenly agents, the angels, should become the genii, or good dæmons, or intelligences, and that the memory of the evil spirits should keep its hold on the popular imagination, and their essences be perpetuated in those malignant beings represented in surviving specimens of Etruscan art, in the Egyptian Typhon, in the Scandinavian Loki, and the Wolf Fenris, and the world-encircling Serpent, and the Giants of Jotunheim. and the Orcus or Pluto of Greece and Rome, and his grisly satellites, and triple-headed dog, and the Incubi and Succubi, and the fearful Larvæ, and the dread Parcæ, and the representatives of war, and of natural scourges and evils, and of man's own baleful passions. The primeval knowledge possessed by man of the subserviency of all the powers of pain or evil to the great and good Creator, became enfeebled and perverted, till they came at last to be looked on as influences whose powers did not depend for their continuance on the pleasure or will of Heaven's Ruler or Rulers. Osiris and Isis could not extinguish Typhon, or even deprive him of his evil privileges; the Giants, and Loki, and the Wolf, bade defiance to the dwellers in Asgard, to whom man was dear; the Titans, the Furies, and the Grisly King of Hell, paid no direct worship to Zeus or Jupiter. So all these sinister and baleful sub-divinities, gradually found incense burning to them, and sacrifices offered in deprecation of their dread offices. These sacrifices were mostly the intestines of black animals, and the hair and nails of human beings; and the institution still survives, wherever Fetish worship is kept up by the ignorant and lazy denizens of tropical countries, or the benighted dwellers within the Arctic circle. The Manichean belief in Arimanes the independent Evil Principle, over Ormuzd, the Good Principle, could not obtain any decided victory, harmonizes well with this portion of mythology. As our lighter and more graceful fairy fictions, and resorting to holy wells, and our bonfires on the eves of May Day and To those who cannot suppose or believe that there is a spiritual essence capable of all evil and incapable of good, and whom we designate by Satan or Devil, and who, if they granted his existence, cannot conceive how he could open a communication with a human being, or how he could, by entering into such human being, set him distracted, or how he could produce madness in an irrational herd of swine, and drive them to their destruction,-to such, part of what is said above will appear void of sense. But if we are to grant nothing but what we can understand, then there are no such things as dreams, -muscular motion is not the result of intellect acting on fine, soft, sensitive threads of nerves, and communicating messages through them from the central seat of consciousness. In fact, no animal functions were ever discharged, for it is beyond human intellect to conceive how the soul, undecaying and always the same, is now ultimately united with the tissues of a certain body, and is found after the lapse of some months, as intimately united with an entirely different set of nerves, muscles, bones, etc. The former frame having been entirely decomposed, and sunk into the earth, or flown into the air in minute particles. *Wissen to know; hence also wit. If any weight were to be given to the interpretation of some who pretend that demoniacs were merely relieved of some ailment incident to humun nature, all certainty as to the meaning of ordinary speech would be at an end. The children of Israel could not have abode so long among the idolatrous Egyptians without having seen magic-rites practiced, and having been more or less influenced for the worse by evil examples. success in individual speculations; witchhazel twigs held upright by two forks would turn down when over concealed treasures; or a candle, made with the fat of a dead man, and held in a dead man's hand, would light the selfish and unscrupulous secker to concealed hoards; and the practitioners would never omit the muttering of charms during the operation. Then, if the life of an undesirable indi So we find Moses forbidding such practices as the following: Divining by the motions of the clouds, or perhaps enchanting by the eye, consulting the flights of birds, or the movements of terrestrial animals, enchanting by drugs or charmed forms of speech, unlaw-vidual was aimed at, there were powerful ful prying into the occult qualities of matter, consulting familiar spirits or the souls of the departed. The prohibition was not unneeded, as the Woman of Endor is found invoking or pretending to invoke a spirit to give an answer to the reckless King of Juda. She evidently was confident of producing in person some familiar spirit or phantasm of her own contrivance, and hence her surprise when the ghost of Samuel, or an angel in his likeness, made his appearance. If evil spirits had prescience of coming events before the reign of Christ was established on earth, then it is scarcely to be doubted that they imparted this gift to the priestesses who ministered at Delphi; or those who served Jupiter at Dodona, or in the Libyan Oasis. No means more effective could the devil have used to confirm the worship of the false deities, who were supposed to communicate this foreknowledge. If this were not in the power of the fiends, and if there be such a faculty incident to persons in a diseased state of nerve as clairvoyance, the priestesses were in this category, and the impostor priests, the hard-headed magnetizers, throwing them into the state of lucid trance, got from them the information they needed. Supposing that these means were not resorted to, they who were the depositaries of the learning of the times would use drugs or fumes to produce a kindred effect. Besides these, the only remaining theory available is, that the agency of many ingenious agents were at work to procure all sorts of informatien; and that juggling replies, answers dictated by extensive knowledge, and deep human penetration were returned. To those whose object was their own aggrandizement, different modes presented themselves according to circumstances; sacrifices were offered to Mercury, or other deities, for charms devoting him to death; and a waxen image, set slowly to melt before the fire would involve his gradual decay; or pierced with knives or bodkins, would inflict sympathetic pangs on his sensitive frame. Horace's Canidia was skilled in such manipulations, and the art was not lost in the days of the wife of good Duke Humphrey (herself a professor), nor for a score of centuries later. However the charms still used by ignorant and superstitious people may savor of Christian faith somewhat abused, there can be no doubt but modern incantations are the mere relics of some that were spoken years before the Christian era. Here is a charm, once popular in parts of Ireland, at all events. There are varieties of it to be found in England : "CHARM FOR THE TOOTH-ACHE. "St. Peter sitting on a marble stone, our Saviour passing by, asked him what was the matter. Oh, Lord, a tooth-ache! 'Stand up, Peter, and follow me; and whoever keeps these words in memory of me, shall never be troubled with a tooth-ache.' Amen.' "CHARM FOR CRAMP. "The devil is tying a knot in my leg, Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg. Crosses three we make to ease us, Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus.” "CHARM FOR EPILEPSY.-No. 1. Balthazar * gold; whoever carries these three "Caspar brings myrrh, Melchior incense, names about with him, will, through Christ, be free from the falling sickness." While using No. 2, the operator takes the patient by the hand, and whispers in his ear, cantation :— thus combining animal magnetism and in *These are the traditional names given to the Magi that came to adore the infant Saviour. Their relics are supposed to rest in Cologne. "I abjure thee by the sun, and the moon, | favorite under the hands of the barber, and and the gospel of this day, that thou arise, his fair locks falling from the scissors. She and no more fall to the ground. In the hurries her maid to the shop of the artist in name," etc., etc., etc. hair, to secure some of the curly locks, and when welcome darkness arrives, she brings out on a balcony open at both ends— Among the peasantry in portions of Ireland some fifty years since, the following prayer, slightly tinged with the character of a charm, would be repeated after lying down to rest : "Here I lay me down to sleep, Amen." However objectionable the form here and there, it was repeated in good faith and with genuine piety. There is scarcely a variety of witchcraft or sorcery witnessed or suspected in modern times, which cannot be traced to anti-Christian times. The following instance is selected from the "Golden Ass" of Lucius Apu leius*: Pamphile, a married woman, is distinguished by her want of fidelity to her husband, Milo. She can control the elements, shake the stars in their sphere, raise the spirits of the dead, and enthrall the divinities themselves. Being anxious for a dark night, that she may execute a love spell, she threatens the sun himself with a misty veil if he does not accelerate his chariot wheels down the western slope. She has seen her new "Divers sorts of aromatics, tablets engraved with unknown characters, nails wrenched from ships wrecked on the ocean, limbs and remnants of buried and unburied corpses, noses and fingers, pieces of flesh of crucified criminals sticking to the iron nails, bloodstained daggers of assassins, and skulls, from which the teeth of wild beasts had ripped the scalp. All these things she arranged in proper order; and then, after performing a sacrifice, and pronouncing an incantation over the palpitating entrails of the victim, she poured over them a libation of cows' milk, mountain honey, and wine diluted with spring water. Finally, she took the hair, mixed with it much perfume, plaited it in several distinct locks, tied all the locks in a knot together, and threw them on the live coals of a chafing dish to be consumed." The next expected result would be the hastening of the young man to her door; but something had gone wrong in the preparation of the unholy rite. Photis, the maid, prowling about the barber's chair, had conveyed some of the Theban's flowing ringlets into her bosom, but the worthy barber was on the watch. He seized and searched her, recovered the stolen honors, and gave the roguish maid the key of the street. She coming home in great fear of a beating, saw three goat-skin bags of wine resting on a wall; some tufts of hair resembling the desired ones in color, were soon detached from these skins and burned unsuspectingly by Pamphile. Now comes the bizarre result of the sorcery. No sooner had the hair begun to crackle than the wine-bags, with their contents, roused to a factitious state of exist*This writer was born at Madaura, S.W. of Car-ence, and obeying the potent spell, rushed thage, in the second century. While travelling to Alexandria, for the purpose of study, he stayed at furiously towards Milo's house. Occa (now Tripoli), at the house of a young friend; and the mother of this youth, a rich widow, thought fit to endow him with her hand and her treasures. Arrived there, they thundered at the door, and the hero of the tale, a temporary visitor returning belated, saw what he supposed were three bluff robbers striving to effect an entrance. He rushed on them, and his sword He was brought to trial by her family for the alleged crime of having bewitched her, but was honorably acquitted. His apology on this occasion was a favorite with succeeding scholars. His "Golden Ass" is a curious specimen of early romance. In was in their vitals before they could devise the translation of it into English by Sir George any effective plan of defence. He was taken Head, Longman and Co., 1851, the indelicate pas-up by the patrol, tried for the murder of the sages and expressions are omitted. In a story of Heathen Society, written by a Heathen, such blem- three citizens, and exposed to public derision and laughter, as all but himself knew ishes were certain to abound. on by banditti, and begun to be hurried through all the strange adventures in the work, including the original of the bandit and cavern-scene of Gil Blas. what and who the sufferers were. Apuleius he had been kicked by his own beasts, seized is supposed to have introduced this passage into his philosophic tale for the purpose of throwing ridicule on his own prosecutors for their treatment of himself, on the score of his magic. Pamphile, wondering at the ill-success of her charm, took an opportunity next night to change herself into an owl, to fly away to her love, as he would not, or perhaps could not, come to her. The higher and nobler portion of the science having been transmitted to the professors of the Cabbala, resulted, to the great surprise of the sage experimenters themselves, in valuable chemical discoveries, and a great advance in our knowledge of astronomy. Canidia and Pamphile, and their sisters, left to modern wizards and witches, nothing better than skill in the concocting of poisons and love philters, and charms to withdraw the produce of cultivated fields, and of cattle, from their rightful owners, and spells producing lingering sickness and death, by melting wax effigies of the victims, and other dia bolical means. There have been but few varieties in the "She first divested herself of all her garments, and then having unlocked a chest, took from it several little boxes, and opened one which contained a certain ointment. Rubbing this ointment a good while between the palms of her hands, she anointed her whole body, and then whispered many magic words to a lamp, as if she was talking to it; then she began to move her arms, first with tremulous jerks, and afterwards by a gentle undulating motion, till a glittering downy surface overspread her body; feathers and rites of sorcery during three thousand years, strong quills burst forth presently, her nose the change of faith from Paganism to Chrisbecame a hard, crooked beak, her toes tianity having effected little worth notice. changed to curved talons, and Pamphile was no longer Pamphile, but it was an owl I saw before me. And now, uttering a harsh, querulous scream, leaping from the ground by little and little, in order to try her powers; and presently, poising herself aloft on her pinions, she stretched forth her wings on either side to their full extent, and flew away." Lucius, envying the witch her power, begs of Photis to furnish him with a box of the ointment. She is at first unwilling, but finally complying, she unfortunately hands him a wrong one; and when he is swinging his arms in triumph, expecting to be on the wing in a moment, he finds his tender skin hardening, his soles degenerating into horny hoofs, his palms the same, his mouth becoming a muzzle, his ears lengthening, and his entire structure and nature metamorphosed into those of an ass. Photis is in despair for a moment, but recollecting herself, she bids him be of courage. He has nothing to do but to masticate the first rose he meets in the morning, and he will be as good a man as ever. Had he changed to a bird, a drink of water, in which a little anniseed and a few laurel leaves had been steeped, would have restored him.*. Alas! before morning came, *We give with some reluctance, formulas of sorcery, but have no hesitation in quoting this one at length, for who that can honestly quote Terence's It will be sufficient to quote the ceremonies of which the Lady Alice Kyteler, of Kilkenny, her son, William Outlawe, and their accomplices, were accused about the year 1300. Ireland has had in her time a liberal quota of troubles, but certainly very few of them proceeded from witch-finding and witch-burning on a large scale for this let us be duly thankful! The Kilkenny cause célèbre was a very remarkable one, but we have no space to enter into its details, with the exception of some of the alleged magic rites. Lady Alice was accused of having been seen sweeping the dust of the street to the threshold of her son, William, mumbling this charm the while, "To the house of William, my son, Hie all the wealth of Kilkenny town." Herself and her friends were accused of remanhood a poor brother, who by any means, magic Homo Sum would not take pleasure in restoring to or what you will, had got himself converted into owl or ass. doings. A witch, desirous to transfer the produce *There was much symbolism in all these devil's of a farmer's lands to herself or another, would be found on May morning skimming the dew off the grass of one of his meadows into a bowl. She would draw the spancel of one of his cows, to take the milk from his flock; she would draw the pot-rack, and after awhile, removing the pot-lid, she would find the pot filled with curds and whey, if the spell was lucky; all the operations being accompanied by charmed rhymes, chanted in a low, mysterious tone. the amount of mischief each had done since last reunion, and how he distributed rewards or stripes, according to the greater or less amount of evil wrought. nouncing their faith in the Saviour for cer-ness of goat, or dog, or the old god Pan, retain periods, during which time they would ceived them; how he made inquiries as to not attend at Mass, say a prayer, nor discharge any religious function whatever. They killed certain animals, and flung the torn portions about at cross-roads, thus offering them as a sacrifice to Robin, Son of Artis, a devil of low degree. They mimicked the ceremony of excommunication against sundry parties to whom they bore ill will. They sacrificed to the demons the intestines of cocks, mingled with horrible worms, baleful herbs, nails and hair of dead men, the clothes and portions of the bodies of unchristened children. They boiled these and other such ingredients in the skull of an executed criminai, over a fire of oak sticks. They made magic powders and magic candles from the hellish mixture, to excite love in some, and procure lingering deaths for others. Lady Alice had held conferences with the said Robin Artisson in the shapes of a black cat, a black dog, and a black man. She was known to have sacrificed to him nine red cocks, and nine peacocks' eyes, at a stone bridge; and on more than one occasion to have anointed a coulter, and performed long, airy journeys on it. So far her accusers. Lady Alice, however, got in safety to England. William Outlawe, a man of influence, submitted to imprisonment for a season; and poor Petronilla de Meath was burnt. She had been flogged six times; and it is probable that she confessed to being present at the horrible rites above named, in company with Lady Alice, to escape a repetition of the degrading torture. She was the first real or suspected witch burned in Ireland. We do not at this moment recollect another. After these reports were handed in, and the needful labor finished, the amusement grew fast and furious. When dancing was the order of the night, the fiend made music on a peculiar flageolet, sometimes using his nose as a substitute; and when the orgies, altogether unfit for description, came to an end, each jaded old girl and boy (for men were also of the horrible society) were conveyed by the same steeds to the place from whence they came, and were scarcely able to leave their beds for a week. Early in the sixteenth century, trials for witchcraft began in Scotland. The celebrated case connected with the Munroes of Fowlis, occupied public attention from about 1577 to the end of the century. It is well known that when the Scottish Solomon was not hunting, cased in his padded suit, or writing Latin polemics, or indecent songs, or unbending with his favorites, he was gloating over the revelations made by the miserable, distracted creatures—in great part the result of insidious questions put to them by their torturers, or of the workings of their own crazed intellects on the subjects of past trials, and fireside conversations in city and country. One trial for sorcery came too near to himself to be pleasant. Lady Essex married very young, cared little for her lord, but much for young Carr, James's minion. Doctor Forman and Mrs. Turner were employed by her to use their In the reign of Philip Augustus, the Tem-knowledge of sorcery to put the Earl of Esplars were put on their defence in more than sex out of the way, and secure for herself the one kingdom, and accused of crimes too hor-affections of the Earl of Somerset-Carr. The rible even to be mentioned in this place, and the suppression of the Order was the result. From the middle of the fifteenth century, with little interruptions, there were in Germany and Belgium and France, a series of searches for, and findings of, witches. husband obstinately continued to live; so a divorce was got on plausible grounds, and the guilty pair were wedded. Sir Thomas Overbury, who had been the most useful agent in the commencement of the intrigue, some how displeased the earl and countess, and was Sabat meetings were the subjects into which committed to the Tower. He is supposed to the judges entered with the greatest zest. have been there poisoned, and Carr and his They were never weary of hearing how the lady were brought to trial. James, for very poor, old, demented creatures anointed twig, urgent reasons, exerted himself to get an acor broom, or tongs, and how they flew through quittal. Mrs. Turner was executed in her the air to the brocken, or any other conven-yellow ruff. Dr. Forman would also have ient dance-floor; how Old William, in like- | suffered only for having met with a sudden |