s that, while the last witch was burning, they saw a swarm of
toads come out of her head. The people fell on them with stones, so
that she was rather stoned than burnt. But for all their attacks, they
could not put an end to one black toad which escaped from flames,
sticks, and stones, to hide, like the Devil's imp it was, in some spot
where it could never be found.[85]

[85] For a more detailed account of these Basque Witches, the
English reader may turn to Wright's _Narratives of Sorcery
and Magic_. Bentley, 1851.--TRANS.

CHAPTER V.

SATAN TURNS PRIEST.

Whatever semblance of Satanic fanaticism was still preserved by the
witches, it transpires from the narratives of Lancre and other writers
of the seventeenth century, that the Sabbath then was mainly an affair
of money. They raised contributions almost by force, charged something
for right of entrance, and extracted fines from those who stayed away.
At Brussels and in Picardy, they had a fixed scale of payment for
rewarding those who brought new members into the brotherhood.

In the Basque country no mystery was kept up. The gatherings there
would amount to twelve thousand persons, of all classes, rich or poor,
priests and gentlemen. Satan, himself a gentleman, wore a hat upon his
three horns, like a man of quality. Finding his old seat, the druidic
stone, too hard for him, he treats himself to an easy well-gilt
arm-chair. Shall we say he is growing old? More nimble now than when
he was young, he frolics about, cuts capers, and leaps from the bottom
of a large pitcher. He goes through the service head downwards, his
feet in the air.

He likes everything to go off quite respectably, and spares no cost
in his scenic arrangements. Besides the customary flames, red, yellow,
and blue, which entertain the eye, as they show forth or hide the
flickering shadows, he charms the ear with strange music, mainly of
little bells that tickle the nerves with something like the searching
vibrations of musical-glasses. To crown this splendour Satan bids them
bring out his silver plate. Even his toads give themselves airs,
become fashionable, and, like so many lordlings, go about in green
velvet.

The general effect is that of a large fair, of a great masked ball
with very transparent disguises. Satan, who understands his epoch,
opens the ball with the Bishop of the Sabbath; or the King and Queen:
offices devised in compliment to the great personages, wealth