serve him with soul and body. If we were content to do
so, he set us on a beast which he had there ready, and carried us
over churches and high walls, and after all he came to a green
meadow where Blockula lies [the Brockenberg in the Hartz forest,
as Scott conjectures]. We procured some scrapings of altars and
filings of church clocks, and then he gave us a horn with a salve
in it, wherewith we do anoint ourselves, and a saddle, with a
hammer and a wooden nail thereby to fix the saddle. Whereupon we
call upon the devil, and away we go.'

[154] Accommodating himself to modern refinement, the devil
usually discards the antiquated horns, hoofs, and tail; and
if, as Dr. Mede supposed, 'appearing in human shape, he has
always a deformity of some uncouth member or other,' such
inconvenient appendages are disguised as much as possible.
As Goethe's Mephistopheles explains to his witch:

'Culture, which renders man less like an ape,
Has also licked the devil into shape.'

Many interrogatories were put. Amongst others, how it was
contrived that they could pass up and down chimneys and through
unbroken panes of glass (to which it was replied that the devil
removes all obstacles); how they were enabled to transport so
many children at one time? &c. They acknowledged that 'till of
late they had never power to carry away children; but only this
year and the last: and the devil did at that time force them to
it: that heretofore it was sufficient to carry but one of their
own children or a stranger's child with them, which happened
seldom: but now he did plague them and whip them if they did not
procure him many children, insomuch that they had no peace or
quiet for him. And whereas that formerly one journey a week would
serve their turn from their own town to the place aforesaid, now
they were forced to run to other towns and places for children,
and that they brought with them some fifteen, some sixteen
children every night.' As to their means of conveyance, they were
sometimes men; at other times, beasts, spits, and posts: but a
preferable mode was the riding upon goats, whose backs were made
more commodious by the use of a magical ointment whenever a
larger freight than usual was to be transported. Arrived at
Blockula, their diabolical initiation commenced. First they were
made to deny their baptism and take an oath of fealty to their
new master, to whom they devoted soul and body to serve
faithful