THE GOD OF THE WITCHES - World eBook Library - World Public ...

The importance of the lace or string among the witches was very great as it was the insignia of rank. The usual
place to carry it on the person was round the leg where it served as a garter. The beliefs of modern France give
the clue as to its importance.[25] According to traditions still current, there is a fixed number of witches in each
canton, of whom the chief wears the garter in token of his (or her) high position; the right of becoming chief is
said to go by seniority. In Haute Bretagne[26] a man who makes a pact with the Devil has a red garter. The red
garter figures also in one of Croker's stories of Irish fairies,[21] "The Cluricane showed Tom where the crock of
gold was buried under a big boliaun (ragwort). Tom tied his red garter round it to recognise it again, while he
went to fetch his spade. On his return he found every boliaun in the field had a red garter tied to it". Here the
garter had obviously been used as a means of magic by a man who had no right to do so and it was therefore
entirely ineffectual.
These are the modern examples, but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the garter played a more
sinister part. I have already quoted the account of the death of the man Playfair, where cause and effect are
clearly indicated, the punishment for treachery following hard on the betrayal. As it was a man of high rank who
had instigated the murder "never more enquiry was made who had done the deed". At the same time it is
possible that the Earl of Lothian may have been the chief of a coven and have been feared accordingly. Fear
certainly prevented further enquiry in the case of the man-witch John Stewart in 1618.[28] He was in prison on
the charge of being a witch, and was so fettered that in his own words he could not raise his hand "to take off my
bonnet nor to get bread to my mouth". Half an hour before the trial began he was visited by two ministers of
religion. They had hardly left when the officers of the court were sent to bring him before the justices, they found
him already dead, strangled "with a tait of hemp (or string made of hemp, supposed to have been his garter or
string of his bonnet)." He was carried out into the air and all means were used to bring him round," but he
revived not, but so ended his life miserable by the help of the devil his master." In 1696 John Reid in
Renfrewshire[29] was in prison awaiting his trial for witchcraft, he was asked one night "whether he desired
company or would be afraid alone, he said he had no fear of anything". The next morning he was found
strangled, with his own neckcloth tied loosely round his neck and fastened to a small stick stuck into a hole
above the chimney-piece. "It was concluded that some extraordinary Agent had done it, especially considering
that the Door of the Room was secured, and that there was a board set over the Window which was not there
the night before when they left him". These executions give a special meaning to Gilles de Rais' outburst of
contempt against the ecclesiastical court assembled to try him on a charge of witchcraft, that he "would rather
be hanged in a lace than submit to their jurisdiction".[30]
A string-as a garter, a "point," or in the cap was an ordinary part of the dress, and it is very remarkable how
often it is mentioned in the descriptions of the Devil's costume. The Scotch Thom Reid[31] wore a cap "close
behind and plain before, with silken laces through the lips thereof"; the Lancashire Mamilion[32] was in a suit of
black tied about with silk points; the Swedish Antecessor[33] had red and blue stockings with long garters. The
importance of the garter is shown in the witch dance of the Palaeolithic painting (plate IX), where the male
figure, who stands in the centre wears a garter on each leg standing out on either side of the knees. It seems
therefore not unlikely that the string was a symbol of authority worn on a part of the person where it would be
visible to all and yet would not impede in any way the movements of the wearer.
The garter has long been credited with magical Properties, especially when belonging to a woman. The bride's
garters were fought for at a wedding, and the Mettye Belt was always a man-witch's belt or a woman-witch's
garter. The Mettye Belt was the recognised magical means of ascertaining whether a sick person would recover
or not; it was put round the patient's body and the augury obtained from it. It was of this magical practice that the
unfortunate Janet Pereson[34] was accused in Durham in 1570 the charge against her stated that "she uses
witchcraft in measuring of belts to preserve folks from the fairy". As late as the eighteenth century the magical
power of the garter is well illustrated in a story from the Orkneys,[35] "There was an eagle flew up with a cock at
Scalloway, which one of these enchanters seeing, presently took a string (his garter as was supposed), and
casting some knots thereupon with the using the ordinary words, the eagle did let fall the cock into the sea".
The garter in legend can be of great importance. The story attached to the castle of Sewingshields, in
Northumberland,[36] states that in a cave under the castle sleep King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, their courtiers,
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