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

Sunday. "The said Mayor, accompanied with some of the Burgesses and other Inhabitants of the said Town and
Borough, have used to walk out into a Place called Enmore-Green, where is a Pool of Water, and divers
Springs and Wells; and in that Place, to walk or dance Hand in Hand round the same Green in a long Dance,
there being a Musician or Tabor and Pipe, and also a Staffe or Besome adorned with Feathers, Pieces of
Gold, Rings and other Jewells, called a Prize Besom" (plate XIII). A description of the long dance mentioned in
this quotation is given on p. 112.
The importance of the broom in India is as great as in Europe, but as the sweepers belong to one of the lowest
castes it is difficult to obtain much information. One "sect" is known as Mehtars; a word which means prince or
leader, a Mehtar is therefore often addressed as Maharaj. The ordinary house-broom is made of date-palm
leaves and is considered sacred, but it has not the magical qualities of the sweeper's broom which is made of
split bamboo. "It is a powerful agent for curing the evil eye, and mothers get the sweeper to come and wave it up
and down in front of a sick child for this purpose".[80] The dead of the sweeper-caste are buried face
downwards to prevent the spirit from escaping, for a sweeper's ghost is regarded as extremely malevolent; this
custom should be compared with the burial of a witch at the cross-roads with a stake through her heart, which
was done to prevent the ghost from walking. In some places the sweepers carry a decorated broom in
procession at the festival of their god, Lal-beg.
CHAPTER IV. THE RITES
"Serve the Lord with gladness and come before His Presence with a song."——Ps. C. 2
THE ceremonies of the cult are fully recorded in the trials of the "witches" in all parts of Europe. These
ceremonies comprise the rites of admission, sacred dances, feasts, and orgiastic rites, besides other
ceremonies which to our minds are more purely religious, such as homage to the god, sacrifices, prayers and
the like.
Admission Ceremonies. In all organised religions there is some form of admission into the cult by which a
candidate can become a member. Often there are two forms, the first when a young infant is received, the other
when at puberty the candidate takes on himself the full membership. For an adult convert the two ceremonies
are combined with the necessary modifications. In these respects the Witch-religion, i.e. the cult of the Horned
God, conforms to the ordinary routine of all religions.
The form for the admission of infants is best recorded in France.[1] The mother took her young child to one of
the great quarterly Sabbaths, and kneeling before the Incarnate God she said, "Great Lord, whom I worship, I
bring thee a new servant who will be thy slave for ever". At a sign from the god she moved forward on her knees
and laid the infant in the divine arms. Such a ceremony, at once simple and touching, must have had a great
effect on the minds of the mothers; they saw with their own eyes that the god himself had received the child. In
some places the infant was also baptised with water, and at Orleans chrism was used.[2]
All the inquisitors and other recorders mention that the "witches" were exceedingly careful to have their children
received by their god, and to bring them up in the tenets and practice of the Pagan religion. Such an attitude of
mind would have brought nothing but praise had the parents been of the same religion as the recorders and
judges, but as the parents belonged to another faith their action in the matter was regarded as essentially
wicked. The French inquisitors were peculiarly horrified at the numbers of children dedicated to the
non-Christian deity, "witches were accustomed to have their children baptised more often at the Sabbath than in
church, and presented more often to the Devil than to God".[3] In 1578 Jeanne Hervillier,[4] who was from
Verberie, near Compiègne, deposed that from her birth she was dedicated to the Devil by her mother.
Boguet[5] in 1598 relates that Pierre Willermoz, being only ten years old, was taken by his father to the Sabbath,
and that three other very young children were taken in the same way by their maternal grandmother. In the Home
for poor girls founded by Madame Bourignon[6] at Lille, one of the girls told Madame Bourignon' in 1661 that
"her mother had taken her with her when she was very young and had even carried her in her arms to the
Witches' Sabbath". Another girl, still younger, had been a constant attendant at the Sabbath since she was a
little child. Madame Bourignon, who was a deeply religious Christian, was shocked at the ignorance of
34