ed the 'insensibleness thereof' by inserting
needles, pins, awls, or any sharp-pointed instrument; and in an
old and withered crone it might not be difficult to find
somewhere a more insensitive spot.

Such examinations were conducted with disregard equally for
humanity and decency. All the disgusting circumstances must be
sought for in the works of the writers upon the subject. Reginald
Scot has collected many of the commonest. These marks were
considered to be teats at which the demons or imps were used to
be suckled. Many were the judicial and vulgar methods of
detecting the guilty--by repeating the 'Lord's Prayer;' weighing
against the church Bible; making them shed tears--for a witch can
shed tears only with the left eye, and that only with difficulty
and in limited quantity. The counteracting or preventive charms
are as numerous as curious, not a few being in repute in some
parts at this day. 'Drawing blood' was most effective. Nailing up
a horse-shoe is one of the best-known preventives. That
efficacious counter-charm used to be suspended over the
entrance of churches and houses, and no wizard or witch could
brave it.[145] 'Scoring above the breath' is omnipotent in
Scotland, where the witch was cut or 'scotched' on the face and
forehead. Cutting off secretly a lock of the hair of the accused,
burning the thatch of her roof and the thing bewitched; these
are a few of the least offensive or obscene practices in
counter-charming.[146] In what degree or kind the Fetish-charms
of the African savages are more ridiculous or disgusting than
those popular in England 200 years ago, it would not be easy to
determine.

[145] Gay's witch complains:

'Straws, laid across, my pace retard.
The horse-shoe's nailed, each threshold's guard.
The stunted broom the wenches hide
For fear that I should up and ride.
They stick with pins my bleeding seat,
And bid me show my secret teat.'

[146] The various love-charms, amulets, and spells in the
pharmacy of witchcraft are (like the waxen image known, both
to the ancient and modern art) equally monstrous and absurd.
Of a more natural and pleasing sort was the [Greek: himas
poikilos], the irresistible charm of Aphrodite. Here--

[Greek: Thelkteria panta tetykto;
Enth' eni men philotes, en d' himeros, en d' oaristys,
Parphasis, he t' eklepse noon pyka per phroneonton.]

Matthew Hopkins