ngage with equal pleasure in the overthrow of a
kingdom or a religion, and in inflicting the most ordinary evils
and mischiefs in life. Their mode of bewitching is various: by
fascination or casting an evil eye ('Nescio,' says the Virgilian
shepherd, 'quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos'); by making
representations of the person to be acted upon in wax or clay,
roasting them before a fire; by mixing magical ointments or
other compositions and ingredients revealed to us in the
witch-songs of Shakspeare, Jonson, Middleton, Shadwell, and
others; sometimes merely by muttering an imprecation.

They ride in sieves on the sea, on brooms, spits magically
prepared; and by these modes of conveyance are borne, without
trouble or loss of time, to their destination. By these means
they attend the periodical sabbaths, the great meetings of the
witch-tribe, where they assemble at stated times to do homage, to
recount their services, and to receive the commands of their
lord. They are held on the night between Friday and Saturday; and
every year a grand sabbath is ordered for celebration on the
Blocksberg mountains, for the night before the first day of May.
In those famous mountains the obedient vassals congregate from
all parts of Christendom--from Italy, Spain, Germany, France,
England, and Scotland. A place where four roads meet, a rugged
mountain range, or perhaps the neighbourhood of a secluded lake
or some dark forest, is usually the spot selected for the
meeting.[92]

[92] 'When orders had once been issued for the meeting of
the sabbath, all the wizards and witches who failed to
attend it were lashed by demons with a rod made of serpents
or scorpions. In France and England the witches were
supposed to ride uniformly upon broom-sticks; but in Italy
and Spain, the devil himself, in the shape of a goat, used
to transport them on his back, which lengthened or shortened
according to the number of witches he was desirous of
accommodating. No witch, when proceeding to the sabbath,
could get out by a door or window were she to try ever so
much. Their general mode of ingress was by the key-hole, and
of egress by the chimney, up which they flew, broom and all,
with the greatest ease. To prevent the absence of the
witches being noticed by their neighbours, some inferior
demon was commanded to assume their shapes, and lie in their
beds, feigning illness, until the sabbath was over. When all
the w