twigs, threw discredit on the mummery and the mummers. Still the passion
existed; and in no case was it more observable than in that of the
celebrated witch-finder. An actual presence at the demoniacal rites of the
broom-riding sisterhood would have been attended with much danger and
considerable difficulty; indeed, it has been asserted that the visitors,
like those at Almack's, were expected to be balloted for, ticketed, and
dressed in a manner suiting the occasion. Any infringement of these rules
must have been at the proper peril of the contumacious infringer; and as
it is more than probable some of the brooms carried double, there was a
very decent chance of the intruder's discovering himself across one of the
heavy-tailed and strong-backed breed, taking a trip to some distant
bourne, from whence that compulsory aerial traveller would doubtless never
have returned. Still witches were evils; and proof of evil is what the law
seeks to enable evil's suppression. Now and again one of these short-cut
gentry, by some railroad system of mental calculation, discovered certain
external marks or moles that at a glance betrayed "the secret, dark, and
midnight hags;" and the witch-finding process was instantaneously
established. The outward and visible sign of their misdeeds authorised the
further proceeding necessary for the clear proof of their delinquencies:
thus the pinchings, beatings, starvings, trials, hangings, and burnings
were made the goal of the shortest of all imaginable short cuts; and old
women who had established pin manufactories in the stomachs of thousands,
instead of receiving patents for their inventions, divided the honour of
illuminating the land with the blazing tar-barrels provided for their
peculiar use and benefit. Whether it was that aerial gambols on unsaddled
and rough-backed broomsticks grew tiresome, or the small profit attending
the vocation became smaller, or that all the elderly ladies with moles,
and without anything else, were burnt up, we can't pretend to say; but
certain it is, the art of witchcraft fell into disrepute. Corking,
minikin, and all description of pins, were obliged to be made in the