with the cry, 'Antecessor, come and carry us to Blockula'; this they did at an appointed place, and the Devil then appeared as a man.[1]
The words used before starting to a meeting are rarely recorded; only a few remain. The earliest example is from Guernsey in 1563, when Martin Tulouff heard an old witch cry as she bestrode a broomstick, 'Va au nom du diable et luciffer p dessq roches et espyñes.' He then lost sight of her, with the inference that she flew through the air, though he acknowledged that he himself was not so successful.[2] The witches of the Basses-Pyrénées, 1609, anointed themselves before starting, and repeated the words 'Emen hetan, emen hetan', which de Lancre translates 'Ici et là, ici et là'. 'Quelquefois plus furieuses elles se batent entre elles mesmes, en disant, Ie suis le Diable, ie n'ay rien qui ne soit à toy, en ton nom Seigneur cette tienne seruante s'oingt, & dois estre quelque iour Diable & maling Esprit comme toy.' When crossing water they cried, 'Haut la coude, Quillet,' upon which they could cross without getting wet; and when going a long distance they said, 'Pic suber hoeilhe, en ta la lane de bouc bien m'arrecoueille.'[3] Isobel Gowdie, 1662, gives two variants of the magic words used on these occasions: the first, 'Horse and hattock, in the Divellis name' is not unlike the form given by Martin Tulouff; the second is longer, 'Horse and hattock, horse and goe, Horse and pellattis, ho! ho!'[4] The Somerset witches, 1664, when starting to the meeting, said, 'Thout, tout a tout, tout, throughout and about'; and when returning, 'Rentum tormentum'. At parting they cried, 'A Boy! merry meet, merry part.'[5] They also had a long form of words which were used when applying the flying ointment, but these are not recorded.
Other magical words were used at the religious services of the witches in the Basses-Pyrénées (1609). At the elevation
- ↑ Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.
- ↑ From the record of the trial in the Guernsey Greffe.
- ↑ De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 123, 400.
- ↑ Pitcairn, iii, pp. 604, 608.
- ↑ Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139, 141. I have pointed out that the cry of 'A Boy' is possibly the Christian recorder's method of expressing the Bacchic shout 'Evoe'. See Jour. Man. Or. Soc., 1916-17, p. 65.
