Aerial live,
for the most part, in the air, cause many tempests, thunder and
lightning, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses; strike men and
beasts; make it rain stones, as in Livy's time, wool, frogs, &c.;
counterfeit armies in the air, strange noises ... all which Guil.
Postellus useth as an argument (as, indeed, it is) to persuade
them that will not believe there be spirits or devils. They
cause whirlwinds on a sudden and tempestuous storms, which,
though our meteorologists generally refer to natural causes, yet
I am of Bodine's mind, they are more often caused by those aerial
devils in their several quarters; for they ride on the storms as
when a desperate man makes away with himself, which, by hanging
or drowning, they frequently do, as Kormannus observes,
_tripudium agentes_, dancing and rejoicing at the death of a
sinner. These can corrupt the air, and cause sickness, plagues,
storms, shipwrecks, fires, inundations.... Nothing so familiar
(if we may believe those relations of Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus
Magnus, &c.) as for witches and sorcerers in Lapland, Lithuania,
and all over Scandia to sell winds to mariners and cause
tempests, which Marcus Paulus, the Venetian, relates likewise of
the Tartars.[78]

[78] It is still the custom of the Tartar or Thibetian
Lamas, or at least of some of them, to scatter charms to the
winds for the benefit of travellers. M. Huc's _Travels in
Tartary, Thibet, &c._

'These are they which Cardan thinks desire so much carnal
copulation with witches (Incubi and Succubi), transform bodies,
and are so very cold if they be touched, and that serve
magicians.... Water devils are those naiads or water nymphs which
have been heretofore conversant about waters and rivers. The
water (as Paracelsus thinks) is their chaos, wherein they live
... appearing most part (saith Trithemius) in women's shapes.
Paracelsus hath several stories of them that have lived and been
married to mortal men, and so continued for certain years with
them, and after, upon some dislike, have forsaken them. Such an
one was Egeria, with whom Numa was so familiar, Diana, Ceres,
&c.... Terrestrial devils are Lares, Genii, Fauns, Satyrs,
Wood-nymphs, Foliots, Fairies, Robin Goodfellows, Trulli; which,
as they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm.
Some think it was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe
of old.... Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do
as much harm. Olaus Magnu