Witch

“ Clear sang the faint far merry peal, then silence on the air,
And icy-still the frozen pool and poplars standing there:
Then lo! as Lucy turned her head and looked along the snow
She sees a witch — a witch she sees, come frisking to and fro. ”

“ A blue-eyed witch sits on the bank
And weaves her net for thee.
"She weaves her golden hair; she sings
Her spell-song low and faint;
The wickedest witch in Salem jail
Is to that girl a saint."
"Nay, mother, hold thy cruel tongue;
God knows," the young man cried,
"He never made a whiter soul
Than hers by Wenham side.
"She tends her mother sick and blind,
And every want supplies;
To her above the blessed Book
She lends her soft blue eyes.
"Her voice is glad with holy songs,
Her lips are sweet with prayer;
Go where you will, in ten miles round
Is none more good and fair." ”

“ Witch-knots, spells, philtres, divination—the witch has been as conservative as she has been enduring. Every other profession changes and has changed its aspects and its methods from century to century. Only the witch has remained faithful to her original ideals, confident in the perfection of her art. And for all reward of such unexampled steadfastness we, creatures of the moment, deny that this one unchanging human type, this Pyramid of human endeavour, has ever existed at all! ”

“ Now the old witch who had worked all these evils lived near the well in a cottage. She had first learned witchcraft from a book called The Black Art, which a gentleman farmer had lent her when a girl. She progressed rapidly with her studies, and being eager to learn more, sold herself to the devil, who made compact with her that she should have full power for seven years, after which she was to become his. He gave her a wand that had the magic power of drawing people to her, and she had a ring on the grass by her house just like the fairy’s ring. ”

“ Much about a pitch, Quoth the devil to the witch.
A hairy man's a geary man, But a hairy wife's a witch.
Woe to the lad Without a rowan-tree god.
A witch-wife and an evil Is three-halfpence worse than the devil. ”

“ When the witch returned home, she said, "I smell royal blood." "No, mother," said the girl, "it is a poor man who asks alms, and who would be glad to have shelter given him, as he has no place to go to." "Well, then, let him remain," replied the witch; "but he must present me to-morrow with a potful of guano of little birds." The prince, distressed to tears, asked the girl to tell him how he could possibly procure the guano. The girl, who knew something of witchcraft, replied, "Do not distress yourself about that, for I will show you how you are to do that." ”

“ For all the centuries the witch has held the silken threads, which bound her millions of subjects, she has been deaf—deaf to the cries of starvation, injustice and cruelty; heedless to devastation of life by her servants; smiling at piles of headless men ”

“ The king and queen saw the old witch who had not been invited to the party.
"I will tell you what shall happen to this little wonder," said the witch. "She will cut her finger with a spindle before she is fifteen years old, and then she will die!"
The old witch shook her black stick at the princess. ”

“ The witch, in fact, like her gossip the Devil, always comes off second best in folk-lore where she is matched against the truly virtuous—a comforting reflection for everybody, however ominous for their friends. ”

“ As any inquisitor could tell you, in a court of justice, once a witch always a witch; in the pages of Grimm a witch is quite as likely to be a fairy godmother or a benevolent old lady, with a magic golden apple, or, for that matter, a benevolent old lady pure and simple. Sometimes, it is true, as with characters in a realistic novel, the witch of fiction may pass for an impressionistic study of the real witch. ”

“ A description of a witch in the first half of the seventeenth century says: "The devil's otter-hound, living both on land and sea, and doing mischief in either; she kills more beasts than a licensed butcher in Lent, yet is ne'er the fatter; she's but a dry nurse in the flesh, yet gives such to the spirit. A witch rides many times post on hellish business, yet if a ladder do but stop her, she will be hanged ere she goes any further." ”

“ The mother at this loses patience, and pushes her way in, the witch trying in vain to keep her out. She, with all her children, then chase the witch until they catch her; when they pretend to bind her hand and foot, put her on a pile, and burn her, the children fanning the imaginary flames with their pinafores. ”

“ In the radius of its hurtful circumference, the vicious power of the witch, fortune-teller or conjuror, was as much more circumscribed than that of the semi-scientific charlatan of clairvoyance, as the vision of the mole is less than that of the viper, which, at least, looks out into the sunshine though every cloud may impede its malignant gaze. ”

“ Draped in her grey veils, the old witch still wove her spells and called on the powers of light and of darkness to aid her in foretelling the future. The neophytes chanted and twisted their bodies in quaint contortions ”

“ A lovely witch who haunts the dark,
And fills with love my mind.
When ghosts, at midnight, leave their graves,
And rous’d is every phantom thing;
When mermaids rise and sweetly sing
In concert with the waves;
When Palnatoka, [29] on his steed,
Pursues the elves across the mead,
Or gallops, gallops o’er the sea,
The witch within the elder’s bark,
The lovely witch who haunts the dark,
Comes out, comes out to me.
Of leaves the fairies make our bed;
The knight, who moulders ’neath the elm, [30]
Starts up with spear and rusted helm,—
By him the grace is said ”

“ You must have read some of those mediæval legends in which an amorous youth finds the beautiful witch he has embraced all through the night crumble into a mass of calcined bones and ashes in the morning. ”

“ He ascended the platform reserved for the judges, and seated himself. Then he laid the Bible on his knees, and folded his arms across his breast.
A pitiful wailing arose in the back of the house, and the sound of a woman’s voice hushing some one.
A man’s voice in the audience cried out, “Let the witch be hanged. She be tormenting her victim.”
“I be no witch,” cried Deliverance, shrilly. “Dear Lord, give them a sign I be no witch.” ”

“ The witch occupies so large a place in the story of mankind that to include all the detail of her natural history within the limits of one volume would need the powers of a magician no less potent than was he who confined the Eastern Djinn in a bottle. ”

“ So is it, again, with the other universe of half-way worlds, filling the space between the human and the bestial—centaur, satyr, were-wolf, or mermaid, all alike reflect the human imagination that has evolved them—to nondescript bodies they unite the reflected mind of man.
Conforming to the general rule, the witch is but one dweller in a half-way world that is thickly populated and in itself forms one of an intricate star-group. ”

“ For which respect, though I dare not say I can give a perfect definition in this matter, which is hard to do even in known things, because the essential form is hard to be found, yet I do give a definition which may at the least give notice and make known what manner of persons they be of whom I am to speak:—A witch is one that worketh by the the Devil, or by some devilish or curious art, either hurting or healing, revealing things secret, or foretelling things to come, which the Devil hath devised to entangle and snare men’s souls withal unto damnation. ”

“ But the Old Woman was a witch.
It so happened that one day he came to a thick forest, and when he got through it, he saw a fine castle lying in the plain beyond.
He saw an Old Woman standing in one of the windows looking out, with a beautiful Maiden beside her.
But the Old Woman was a witch, and she said to the Maiden: ‘Here comes some one out of the forest. He has a wonderful treasure inside him; we must try to get it from him, my darling, it will suit us better than him. ”

“ The witch takes some portion of his clothing, or a few hairs, or something else of his, and hanging them on a nail she fumigates them with incense, and sprinkling salt in the fire she pronounces the name of the woman, with it coupling the man’s name. ”

“ On a nearer examination of a witch’s character, we will find her face a very correct index to her heart. She is the arch-enemy of whatever is good and amiable. Invested as she is with as ample powers of seduction and mischief as Satan himself, she is equally expert in accomplishing the ruin of the soul and body of the objects of her malignity. ”

“ A witch, on the contrary, was one who sought knowledge of the future, not from the one supreme God, but through all those magical charms, incantations, and ceremonies by which the spirits of the dead were sought for interference in the affairs of men. ”

“ And she cared for them, and with them abode the coming of the old man. Now it came to pass on the sixth day, that the witch saw he was drawing nigh, and she bade the Sun burn him with its rays. And the Sun shone forth, and the old man was burned and thirsty. Then said the witch to the Rain, "Rain upon this man." And the Rain rained until the man was like to be drowned. Then the witch bade that the Sun should scorch him once more, and again the Rain that it should ram upon him, and then once more the Sun, that it should burn the man. ”

“ This story especially belongs to the class in which an ancient ground-work seems to survive. The witch is a giant woman who has captured a couple of the children of the gods and wants to destroy them. When, according to one saga, the maiden spits and the spittle answers, we must, perforce, remember that saga in which earthly shapes are created from the spittle of the gods. ”

“ Just at midnight the queen came out. We followed her to the graveyard. "That is enough," said his Majesty, "she is a witch and must die."
[The CITIZENS rush to the gates.]
CITIZENS (calling) . See the witch!
GOODY. Is she coming?
WICKED UNCLE (looking) . Yes, she is just within the gate. She rides in an old cart drawn by an old horse—quite good enough for a witch.
[Enter the KING with servants and GUARDS. Behind them is the cart. In the cart sits ELIZA. She is spinning and weaving, never once looking up.]
GOODY. How pale she is! Bless me! She is spinning and weaving. ”

“ At another time they are elevated far above their natural pitch, full of raptures, and high conceits, and think themselves kings and queens; now if witch stories are in their heads, or witchcraft in their imaginations, why may they not think themselves bewitched, or fancy themselves witches or wizards, as well as kings and queens?’
A witch, in her personal character, was commonly an uncouth old woman, or hag. ”

“ “I know what you want,” said the sea witch; “it is very stupid of you, but you shall have your way, and it will bring you to sorrow, my pretty princess. ”

“ At these words the bird flew away, proving it beyond doubt to be possessed by an evil spirit, for it is known that a witch cannot bear to hear the name of the Lord. The goodwife was yet more affrighted to see the bird fly in the woods in the direction in which the strawberry patch lay. There Deliverance probably was. What power could avail against the witch casting a malignant spell upon her? She leaned out of the window, calling,—
“Deliverance, Deliverance, come into the house! There be a witch abroad. Deliverance, oh, Deliverance!” ”

“ Thou, with the devil, hand and glove, [25]
And yet wilt be afraid of fire?
[The WITCH breaks the circle; FAUST steps out.]
Mephistopheles. Now briskly forth! No rest for thee!
The witch. Much comfort may the drink afford you!
Mephistopheles [to the witch] . And any favor you may ask of me, I'll gladly on Walpurgis' night accord you.
The witch. Here is a song, which if you sometimes sing, 'Twill stir up in your heart a special fire.
Mephistopheles [to Faust] . Only make haste; and even shouldst thou tire,
Still follow me; one must perspire,
That it may set his nerves all quivering. ”

“ Then the girl hastened home, and when her father came home from the feast with the witch, she was in her usual place behind the stove. Then the witch said to her:
'You poor thing! what is there to see here compared with what we have seen at the palace? The King's son carried my daughter from one room to another; he let her fall, 'tis true, and my child's foot was broken.'
The man's daughter held her peace all the time, and busied herself about the hearth.
The night passed, and when the day began to dawn, the witch awakened her husband, crying:
'Hi! get up, old man! ”

“ Many modern writers, more sceptical still, frankly relegate the witch to the land of nursery tales and Christmas pantomime; she never had any real existence other than as Cinderella’s fairy godmother or the Countess D’Aulnoy’s Madame Merluche. ”

“ Of course, one woman had suspected another to be a witch. She prevailed upon a gentleman to send for the suspected person, and having accused her in his presence, left him to admonish her with due severity, and to persuade her to renounce the devil and all his works. While he was thus engaged, and she was stoutly denying the accusation brought against her, a weasel or lobster suddenly made its appearance. ”

“ On the same principle we are solemnly assured that three scruples of the ashes of a witch, after she has been well and carefully burnt at the stake, is a sure protection against the evil effects of witchcraft. ”

“ The unquestioned witch, possessing indubitable powers of enchantment, occurs frequently and conveys a genuine thrill. Her attributes have been less conventionalized than those of her youthful companions who are merely under the imputation of black art, and she possesses a diabolic individuality. ”