urations,
obtained from the evil spirits the information concerning Macbeth's
career that they desired to obtain, and perhaps have been commanded by
the fiends to perform the mission they subsequently carry through."
Brand[58] describes this "Sabbath of the witches as a meeting to which
the sisterhood, after having been anointed with certain magical
ointments, provided by their infernal leader, are supposed to be carried
through the air on brooms," etc. It was supposed to be held on a
Saturday, and in past centuries this piece of superstition was most
extensively credited, and was one of the leading doctrines associated
with the system of witchcraft.

[55] "Notes to Macbeth" (Clark and Wright), 1877, p. 137.

[56] Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," 1584, book iii. chap.
16. See Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 235.

[57] "Elizabethan Demonology," pp. 102, 103. See Conway's
"Demonology and Devil-lore," vol. ii. p. 253.

[58] "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, vol. iii. p. 8.

Referring, in the next place, to the numerous scattered notices of
witches given by Shakespeare throughout his plays, it is evident that he
had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the superstitions connected
with the subject, many of which he has described with the most minute
accuracy. It appears, then, that although they were supposed to possess
extraordinary powers, which they exerted in various ways, yet these were
limited, as in the case of Christmas night, when, we are told in
"Hamlet" (i. 1), "they have no power to charm." In spite, too, of their
being able to assume the form of any animal at pleasure, the tail was
always wanting. In "Macbeth" (i. 3), the first witch says:

"And, like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do."

One distinctive mark, also, of a were-wolf, or human being changed into
a wolf, was the absence of a tail. The cat was said to be the form most
commonly assumed by the familiar spirits of witches; as, for instance,
where the first witch says, "I come, Graymalkin!"[59] (i. 1), and
further on (iv. 1), "Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd." In German
legends and traditions we find frequent notice of witches assuming the
form of a cat, and displaying their fiendish character in certain
diabolical acts. It was, however, the absence of the tail that only too
often was the cause of the witch being detected in her disguised form.
There were various other modes of detecting witche