han the other'. The nature of Fey's
case, physically, is clear. He was a convulsionary, and his head
would be found wedged into tight places whence it could hardly be
extracted. From such a person the long and highly laughable tale of
ghosts (a male ghost and a jealous female ghost) which he told does
not much win our acceptance. True, Mrs. Thomasin Gidley, Anne
Langdon, and a little child also saw the ghost in various forms.
But this was probably mere fancy, or the hallucinations of Fey were
infectious. But objects flew about in the young man's presence.
'One of his shoe-strings was observed (without the assistance of any
hand) to come of its own accord out of his shoe and fling itself to
the other side of the room; the other was crawling after it (!) but
a maid espying that, with her hand drew it out, and it clasp'd and
curl'd about her hand like a living eel or serpent. A barrel of
salt of considerable quantity hath been observed to march from room
to room without any human assistance,' and so forth. {122}

It is hardly necessary to add more modern instances. The 'electric
girl' Angelique Cottin, who was a rival of Ann Robinson, had her
powers well enough attested to arouse the curiosity of Arago. But,
when brought from the country to Paris, her power, or her artifice,
failed.

It is rather curious that tales of volatile furniture are by no
means very common in trials for witchcraft. The popular belief was,
and probably still is, that a witch or warlock could throw a spell
over an enemy so that his pots, and pans, tables and chairs, would
skip around. The disturbances of this variety, in the presbytery at
Cideville, in Seine Inferieure (1850), came under the eye of the
law, because a certain shepherd injudiciously boasted that he had
caused them by his magic art. {123a} The cure, who was the victim,
took him at his word, and the shepherd swain lost his situation. He
then brought an action for defamation of character, but was non-
suited, as it was proved that he had been the fanfaron of his own
vices. In Froissart's amusing story of Orthon, that noisy sprite
was hounded on by a priest. At Tedworth, the owner of the drum was
'wanted' on a charge of sorcery as the cause of the phenomena. The
Wesleys suspected that their house was bewitched. But examples in
witch trials are not usual. Mr. Graham Dalyell, however, gives one
case, 'the firlote rynning about with the stuff popling,' on the
floor of a ba