the Devil, they wrote their names in his book, and
were carried away by him for the revels by night. A new witch was
pricked with a needle to initiate her into his company. At the
party the Devil was adored with worship due to God alone. Dancing,
a device of the pagans, and hence considered wholly wicked, was
indulged in to unseemly lengths. In 1883 in Sweden it was believed
that dances were held about the sanctuaries of the ancient gods,
and that whoever stopped to watch were caught by the dancers and
whirled away. If they profaned holy days by this dancing, they were
doomed to keep it up for a year.

At the witches' Sabbath the Devil himself sometimes appeared as a
goat, and the witches were attended by cats, owls, bats, and
cuckoos, because these creatures had once been sacred to Freya. At
the feast horse-flesh, once the food of the gods at banquets, was
eaten. The broth for the feast was brewed in a kettle held over the
fire by a tripod, like that which supported the seat of Apollo's
priestess at Delphi. The kettle may be a reminder of the one Thor
got, which gave to each guest whatever food he asked of it, or it
may be merely that used in brewing the herb-remedies which women
made before they were thought to practise witchcraft. In the kettle
were cooked mixtures which caused storms and shipwrecks, plagues,
and blights. No salt was eaten, for that was a wholesome substance.

The witches of Germany did not have prophetic power; those of
Scandinavia, like the Norse Fates, did have it. The troll-wives of
Scandinavia were like the witches of Germany--they were cannibals,
especially relishing children, like the witch in _Hansel and
Grethel_.

From the fourteenth to the eighteenth century all through Europe
and the new world people thought to be witches, and hence in the
devil's service, were persecuted. It was believed that they were
able to take the form of beasts. A wolf or other animal is caught
in a trap or shot, and disappears. Later an old woman who lives
alone in the woods is found suffering from a similar wound. She is
then declared to be a witch.

"There was once an old castle in the middle of a vast thick wood;
in it lived an old woman quite alone, and she was a witch. By day
she made herself into a cat or a screech-owl, but regularly at
night she became a human being again."

GRIMM: _Jorinda and Joringel._

"Hares found on May morning are witches and should