shake hands, embrace in arms, dance, feast, and banquet, according as
the devill hath provided in imitation of the supper. Nay, ofttimes he
marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or to their familiar, or
to one another, and that by the Book of Common Prayer, as a pretender to
witch-finding told me, in the presence of many." After this they part,
and a general meeting is held thrice a year, on some holy day; they are
"conveyed to it as swift as the winds from the remotest parts of the
earth, where they that have done the most execrable mischiefe, and can
brag of it, make most merry with the devill;" while the "indiligent" are
jeered and derided by the devil and the others. Non-attendance was
severely punished by the culprits being beaten on the soles of the feet,
whipped with iron rods, "pinched and sucked by their familiars till
their heart's blood come--till they repent them of their sloth, &c."

Many regulations were, however, to be observed after the above
initiatory ceremony, which we have given at length in consequence of its
singularity. There existed a community or commonwealth, of "fallen
angels" or spirits, with the various titles of kings, dukes, &c.,
prelates and knights, of which the head was _Baal_, "who, when he was
conjured up, appeared with three heads, one like a man, one like a toad,
and one like a cat." The title of king conferred no extra power; indeed,
_Agares_, "the first duke, came in the likeness of a faire old man,
riding upon a crocodile, and carrying a hawk on his fist"--_Marbas_, who
appeared in the form of a "mightie lion"--_Amon_, "a great and mightie
marques, who came abroad in the likeness of a wolf, having a serpent's
taile, and breathing out and spitting flames of fire," and was one of
the "best and kindest of devills," with sixty-five more of these
master-spirits, enumerated in _Scot_, "appeared to be entirely and
exclusively appropriated to the service of witches," were alike
possessed of nearly similar power, and had many hundreds of legions of