the devil.

If this precious wretch had not been stopped he would have declared
half the women in the north country to be witches. But the magistrates
and the people got tired of him at last, and his imposture being
discovered, he was hanged in Scotland. At the gallows he confessed
that he had been the death of 220 men and women in England and
Scotland, simply for the sake of the twenty shillings which he
generally received as blood-money.

* * * * *

The belief in _Sorcerots_, or witches' spells of a peculiar kind,
mentioned in the _Depositions_ (pages 22, 23, &c.) receives curious
modern confirmation by a kindred superstition still current among the
emancipated negroes of the United States. It was described in a letter
on "Voudouism in Virginia" which appeared in the _New York Tribune_,
dated Richmond, September 17, 1875. Mr. Moncure D. Conway, in quoting
this and commenting on it in his _Demonology and Devil-Lore_ (Vol. I.
pages 68-69), says that it belongs to a class of superstitions
generally kept close from the whites, as he believes, because of their
purely African origin. Mr. Conway is, however, probably mistaken about
the origin, seeing that the same belief prevailed in Guernsey three
centuries ago. The extract from the letter is as follows:--

If an ignorant negro is smitten with a disease which he
cannot comprehend, he often imagines himself the victim of
witchcraft, and having no faith in "white folks' physic" for
such ailments, must apply to one of these quacks. A
physician residing near the city [Richmond] was invited by