red.[78] But I
would observe, first, that the circumstances told of those
festivals are ridiculous and incredible in themselves; for
they are represented as gloomy and horrible, yet with a
mixture of childish and extravagant fancies, more likely to
disgust and alienate than to conciliate the minds of the
guests. They have every appearance of uneasy dreams;
sometimes the devil and his subjects _say mass_, sometimes
he _preaches_ to them, more commonly he was seen in the form
of a black goat, surrounded by imps in a thousand frightful
shapes; but none of these forms are _new_, they all resemble
known quadrupeds or reptiles. Secondly, I observe, that
there is direct proof furnished even by demonologists, that
all these supposed journies and entertainments are nothing
more than dreams. Persons accused of witchcraft have been
repeatedly watched, about the time which they had fixed for
the meeting; they have been seen to anoint themselves with
soporific compositions, after which they fell into profound
sleep, and on awaking, several hours afterwards, they have
related their journey through the air, their amusement at
the festival, and have named the persons whom they saw
there. In the instance told by Hoffman, the dreamer was
chained to the floor. Common sense would rest satisfied
here, but the enthusiasm of demonology has invented more
than one theory to get rid of these untoward facts. Dr.
Henry More, as was formerly mentioned, believed that the
astral spirit only was carried away: other demonologists
imagined that the witch was really removed to the place of
meeting, but that a cacodemon was left in her room, as an
[Greek: eidolon], to delude the spectators. Thirdly, some
stories of the festivals are evidently tricks. Such is that
related by Bodinus, with much gravity: a man is found in a
gentleman's cellar, and apprehended as a thief; he declares
his wife had brought him thither to a witch-meeting, and on
his pronouncing the name of God, she and all her companions
had vanished, and left him inclosed. His wife is immediately
seized, on this righteous evidence, and hanged, with several
other persons, named as present at the meeting.

[Footnote 78: There is a grave relation, in Delrio, of a witch being
shot flying, by a Spanish centinel, at