n, he could not help it, for that all his generation was naught;
and so told me _his mother and aunt were hanged, his grandmother burnt
for witchcraft, and ten others of them questioned and hanged_. This
man is yet living, notwithstanding he confessed the sucking of such
things above sixteen years together."--_Confirmation_, p. 36.

G 3 _a_. "_Anne Crouckshey._"] Anne Cronkshaw.

G 3 _b_ 1. "_Vpon Good Friday last there was about twentie persons._"]
This meeting, if not a witches' Sabbath, was a close approximation to
one. On the subject of the Sabbath, or periodical meeting of witches,
De Lancre is the leading authority. He who is curious cannot do better
than consult this great hierophant, (his work is entitled Tableau de
l'Inconstance des mauvais Anges et Demons. Paris, 1613, 4to.) whose
knowledge and experience well qualified him to have been constituted
the Itinerant Master of Ceremonies, an officer who, he assures us,
was never wanting on such occasions. In that singular book, _The
History of Monsieur Oufle_, p. 288, (English Translation, 1711, 8vo.)
are collected from various sources all the ceremonies and
circumstances attending the holding the Sabbath. It appears that
non-attendance invariably incurred a penalty, which is computed upon
the average at the eighth part of a crown, or in French currency at
ten sous--that, though the contrary has been maintained by many grave
authors, egress and ingress by the chimney (De Lancre had depositions
without number, he tells us, _vide_ p. 114, on this important head,)
was not a matter of solemn obligation, but was an open question--that
no grass ever grows upon the place where the Sabbath is kept; which is
accounted for by the circumstance of its being trodden by so many of
those whose feet are constitutionally hot, and therefore being burnt
up and consequently very barren--that two devils of note preside on
the occasion, the great negro, who is called Master Leonard, and a
little devil, whom Master Leonard sometimes substitutes in his place
as temporary vice-president; his name is Master John Mullin. (De
Lancre, p. 126.) With regard to a very important point, the bill of
fare, great difference of opinion exists: some maintaining that every
delicacy of the season, to use the newspaper phrase, is provided;
others stoutly asserting that nothing is served up but toads, the
flesh of hanged criminals, dead carcases fresh buried taken out of
Churchyards, flesh of unbaptized in