by The Folklore Society

“ The alleged business part of the Sabbath rites, the adjudication by the Devil upon reports of wickednesses committed, shows a close affinity with popular ideas. It is the sort of thing that devils do, as the familiar folktale of True and Untrue illustrates. ”

“ The discussion of animal transformations clearly demands a study of a wider range of facts, nor can the familiars of witches be considered apart from the familiars of other practitioners of the Magic Arts both earlier and contemporary. ”

“ Any student of Witchcraft in Aberdeenshire will recollect that the hot-bed of the cult inland was in such places as Blelac, Logie-Coldstone, and Tarland. Blelac lies on the slope of Morven Hill, Coldstone and Tarland lie just to the east of it. ”

“ But the alleged plot upon the king's life employed solely magical means, nor is there any evidence of any secular use of a secret organisation.
the view that a man masquerading as the Devil is equivalent to the Devil in human shape. If Miss Murray were to turn to the practitioners of astrology and white magic belonging to the period, she would find that the occurrence of analogous supernatural encounters are believed and stated in perfect good faith. ”

“ This, the Formicarium of Nider and a number of less famous tracts, are collected in a volume entitled Malleorum quorundam maleficarum tam veterum quam recentiorum authorum published at Frankfort in 1582.
reaction of the events of religious history upon superstition. For obvious reasons popular fear and hatred are easily aroused against the practice of Black Magic, and from the thirteenth century onwards the charge of witchcraft, so prejudicial to the accused and so insusceptible of disproof, was freely used as a political weapon against individuals and by the Church against heretical sects. ”

“ She too often assumes that when a witness was reported to have met the Devil in an animal form, what was really meant was a man dressed up in an animal disguise, which those of us, who visit pantomimes, know to be something quite distinguishable. Similarly, both accusers and accused would be likely to repudiate
↑ I cannot agree with Miss Murray's account of the Bothwell episode. I find no evidence of his having been the Devil except her desire to believe it. That he consulted witches he confessed ”

“ Upon general grounds the supposition that an organised cult of primeval antiquity survived into the seventeenth century a.d. without attracting the notice of any previous historian is one which is not easy to take upon trust. ”

“ S. A. Reynolds Ball 119 ⁠A Children’s Game and the Lyke Wake. Mary A. Berkeley 121 ⁠A Coleshill Ceremony: Folk-Tales from the Panjab. Sir 122 ⁠Human Sacrifice in India 124 ⁠Asinus in Tegulis. H. J. Rose 200 ⁠Folk-Lore of the Isle of Skye. Mary Julia MacCulloch 201 ⁠A Recent Twin-Murder in S. Africa. J. Rendel Harris 214 ⁠Putting out the Broom. Wm. Self. Weeks 294 ⁠The Easter Island Figures. H. D. Skinner 296 ⁠A Children’s Game and the Lyke Wake. ”