er a
woman's hand (so it was produced from the hunter's pocket)
upon which was a wedding ring. His wife's ring was at once
recognised by the other. His suspicions aroused, he
immediately went in search of his wife, who was found
sitting by the fire in the kitchen, her arm hidden beneath
her apron: when the husband seizing her by the arm found his
terrible suspicions verified. The bleeding stump was there,
evidently just fresh from the wound. She was given into
custody, and in the event was burned at Riom in presence of
thousands of spectators. Among some of the races of India,
among the Khonds of the mountains of Orissa, a superstition
obtains like that of the _loup-garou_ of France. In India
the tiger takes the place of the wolf, and the metamorphosed
witch is there known as the _Pulta-bag_.

A kindred prejudice, Vampirism, has still many adherents in
Eastern Europe. The vampire is a human being who in his tomb
maintains a posthumous existence by ascending in the night
and sucking the bodies of the living. His punishment was
necessarily less tremendous than that of the witch: the
_dead_ body only being burned to ashes. An official document,
quoted by Horst, narrates the particulars of the examination
and burning of a disinterred vampire.

Several witches were burned in successive years throughout the
kingdom. In 1564, three witches and a wizard were executed at
Poictiers: on the rack they declared that they had destroyed
numbers of sheep by magical preparations, attended the Sabbaths,
&c. Trois Echelles, a celebrated sorcerer, examined in the
presence of Charles IX. and his court, acknowledged his
obligation to the devil, to whom he had sold himself, recounting
the debaucheries of the Sabbath, the methods of bewitching, and
the compositions of the unguents for blighting cattle. The
astounding fact was also revealed that some twelve hundred
accomplices were at large in different parts of the land. The
provincial parliaments in the end of this and the greater part of
the next century are unremittingly engaged in passing decrees and
making provisions against the increasing offences.[120] 'The
Parliament of Rouen decreed that the possession of a _grimoire_
or book of spells was sufficient evidence of witchcraft; and that
all persons on whom such books were found should be _burned
alive_. Three councils were held in different parts of France in
1583, all in relation to the s