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4. The Music 135 5. The Feast 138 6. Candles 144 7. The Sacrament 148 8. Sacrifices: Of animals. Of children. Of the God 152 9. Magic Words 162 VI. THE RITES, continued 169 1. General 169 2. Rain-making 172 3. Fertility 173 VII. THE ORGANIZATION 186 1. The Officer 186 2. The Covens 190 3. Duties 194 4. Discipline 197 VIII. THE FAMILIARS AND TRANSFORMATIONS 205 1. The Divining Familiar 205 2. The Domestic Familiar 208 3. Methods of obtaining Familiars 222 4. Transformations into Animals 230 APPENDIX I. Fairies and Witches 238 APPENDIX II. Trial of Silvain Nevillon. Taken from De Lancre's L'Incredulité et Méscréance 246 APPENDIX III. A. Covens and Names of Members 249 B. Index of Witches' Names, with Notes 255 APPENDIX IV. Notes on the Trials of Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais 270 APPENDIX V. Some Notes on 'Flying' Ointments. By Prof. A. J. Clark 279 BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 GENERAL INDEX 286

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INTRODUCTION

The subject of Witches and Witchcraft has always suffered from the biassed opinions of the commentators, both contemporary and of later date. On the one hand are the writers who, having heard the evidence at first hand, believe implicitly in the facts and place upon them the unwarranted construction that those facts were due to supernatural power; on the other hand are the writers who, taking the evidence on hearsay and disbelieving the conclusions drawn by their opponents, deny the