Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/272

240 greater number of the members. Among the members of the covine, and usually the youngest, was the Maiden; she was an important personage and had the place of honour beside the Devil at the local meetings and at the feasts, At the performance of any ceremonial at a local meeting, a certain number of witches—originally probably the whole covine—had to be present, and on these occasions the presence of the Maiden was imperative.

The decadence of the cult is shown by the position of this woman. In the French and early Scotch trials there is always a Reine du Sabbat or a Queen of Elfin, who occupies a prominent position. There is reason to believe, as Prof. Karl Pearson has suggested, that the woman was originally the principal personage in the ceremonial, and was a form of the mother-goddess (the vulgar expression of "the Devil's Dam" comes perhaps from this). In Scotland the Queen of Elfin becomes rarer, and the Maiden of the Covine appears to take her place, while in some localities she is merely the Officer. In England, where the whole religion with all its customs was in a decadent condition by the time the records were made, the woman is never anything but the Officer. In America, however, the chief witch had the promise to be "Queen of Hell," presumably Queen of the Assembly.

Though the discipline of each community must have varied according to the individual temperament of its successive chiefs, it seems clear that obedience could be