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CHAP. III.
How Witches are summoned to appear before the Devil, of their riding in the air, of their accompts, of their conference with the Devil, of his supplies, and their conference; of their farewel and sacrifices, according to Danaeus, Psel∣las, &c.
HItherto for the most part, are the very words contained in M. Mal. or Bodin, or rather in both; or else in the new M. Mal. or at the leastwise of some writer or other, that maintaineth the almighty power of Witches.* 1.1 But Danaeus saith, the Devil oftentimes in the likeness of a summoner, meeteth them at Markets and Fairs, and warneth them to appear in their assem∣blies, at a certain hour in the night, that he may understand whom they have slain, and how they have profited. If they be lame, he saith the Devil delivereth them a staff, to convey them thither invisibly through the air; and that then they fall a dancing and singing of bawdy-songs, wherein he leadeth the dance himself: Which dance, and other conferences being ended, he supplieth their wants of powders and roots to intoxicate withal; and giveth to every novice a mark, either with his teeth, or with his claws, and so they kiss the Devils bare but∣tocks, and depart: not forgetting every day afterwards to offer to him, Dogs, Cats, Hens, or bloud of their own. And all this doth Danaeus report as a truth,* 1.2 and as it were upon his own knowledge. And yet elsewhere he saith, In these matters they do but dream, and do not those things indeed, which they confess through their distemperature, growing of their melancholick humor: and therefore (saith he) these things, which they report of themselves, are but meer illusions.
Psellus addeth hereunto, that certain magical hereticks, to wit; the Euty∣chyans, assemble themselves every Good-friday at night; and putting out the candles, do commit incestuous adultery, the father with the daughter, the sister with the brother, and the son with the mother; and the ninth moneth they re∣turn and are delivered; and cutting their children in pieces, fill their pots with their bloud; then burn they the carkasses, and mingle the ashes therewith, and so preserve the same for Magical purposes. Cardanus writeth (though in mine opinion not very probably) that these excourses,* 1.3 dancings, &c. had their beginning from certain Hereticks called Dulcini, who devised those feasts of Bacchus which are named Orgia, whereunto these kind of people openly assem∣bled; and beginning with riot, ended with this folly: Which feasts being pro∣hibited, they nevertheless haunted them secretly; and when they could not do so, then did they it in cogitation only; and even to this day (saith he) there remaineth a certain image or resemblance thereof among our melancholick women.