to make his blood curdle with shame and horror: but the purity of
these pages shall not be soiled by any thing so ineffably humiliating and
disgusting as a complete exposition of them; what is here culled will be a
sufficient sample of the popular belief, and the reader would but lose
time who should seek in the writings of the demonologists for more ample
details. He will gain nothing by lifting the veil which covers their
unutterable obscenities, unless, like Sterne, he wishes to gather fresh
evidence of "what a beast man is." In that case, he will find plenty there
to convince him that the beast would be libelled by the comparison.

It was thought that the earth swarmed with millions of demons of both
sexes, many of whom, like the human race, traced their lineage up to Adam,
who after the fall was led astray by devils, assuming the forms of
beautiful women to deceive him. These demons "increased and multiplied"
among themselves with the most extraordinary rapidity. Their bodies were
of the thin air, and they could pass through the hardest substances with
the greatest ease. They had no fixed residence or abiding place, but were
tossed to and fro in the immensity of space. When thrown together in great
multitudes, they excited whirlwinds in the air and tempests in the waters,
and took delight in destroying the beauty of nature and the monuments of
the industry of man. Although they increased among themselves like
ordinary creatures, their numbers were daily augmented by the souls of
wicked men, of children still-born, of women who died in childbed, and of
persons killed in duels. The whole air was supposed to be full of them,
and many unfortunate men and women drew them by thousands into their
mouths and nostrils at every inspiration; and the demons, lodging in their
bowels or other parts of their bodies, tormented them with pains and
diseases of every kind, and sent them frightful dreams. St. Gregory of
Nice relates a story of a nun who forgot to say her _benedicite_ and make
the sign of the cross before she sat down to supper, and who in
consequence swallowed a demon concealed among the leaves of a lettuce.
Most persons said the number of these demons was so great that they could
not be counted, but Wierus asserted that they amounted to no more than
seven millions four hundred and five thousand nine hundred and twenty-six;
and that they were divided into seventy-two companies or battalions, to
each of which there was a