les arbres en
compagnie de votre Belzebuth et d'un autre demon, tous deux en pourpoint
blanc a la mode francaise'. Josine Labyns in 1664, aged about forty: 'passe
dix-neuf ans le diable s'est offert a vos yeux, derriere votre habitation,
sous la figure d'un grand seigneur, vetu en noir et portant des plumes sur
son chapeau.'[99]

In the copper mines of Sweden, 1670, the Devil appeared as a minister.[100]
In the province of Elfdale in the same year his dress was not the usual
black of that period: 'He used to appear, but in different Habits; but for
the most part we saw him in a gray Coat, and red and blue Stockings; he had
a red Beard, a high-crown'd Hat, with Linnen of divers colours wrapt about
it, and long Garters upon his Stockings.'[101] This is not unlike the
costume of Thom Reid as described, more than a century before, by Bessie
Dunlop.

In America the same evidence is found. At Hartford, 1662, 'Robert Sterne
testifieth as followeth: I saw this woman goodwife Seager in ye woods with
three more women and with them I saw two black creatures like two Indians
but taller'; and Hugh Crosia 'sayd ye deuell opned ye dore of eben booths
hous made it fly open and ye gate fly open being asked how he could tell he
sayd ye deuell apeered to him like a boye and told him hee ded make them
fly open and then ye boye went out of his sight.'[102] Elizabeth Knap at
Groton, 1671, 'was with another maid yt boarded in ye house, where both of
them saw ye appearance of a mans head and shoulders, w^th a great white
neckcloath, looking in at ye window, which shee hath since confessed, was
ye Devill coming to her.--One day as shee was alone in a lower roome she
looked out of ye window, and saw ye devill in ye habit of an old man,
coming over a great meadow.'[103] At Salem, 1692, Mary Osgood saw him as a
black man who presented a book; and Mary Lacey described him as a black man
in a high-crowned hat.[104]

The evidence suggests that an important part of the Devil's costume was the
head-covering, which he appears to have worn both in and out of doors.
Though the fact is not of special interest in itself, it may throw light on
one of the possible origins of the cult.

In 1576 Bessie Dunlop met Thom Reid, who was clearly the Devil; he was 'ane
honest wele elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had ane gray coitt with Lumbart
slevis of the auld fassoun; ane pair of gray brekis and quhyte schankis,
gartanit aboue the kne; ane blak bonet on his hei