Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/274

242 betray the secrets entrusted to her. The Scotch witch Alesoun Peirsoun was threatened by the people she calls the "good neighbours," that "if she would speak and tell of them and their doings, they would martyr her."' Elizabeth Anderson in Renfrewshire was warned by the witches that if she should confess they would "tear her all in pieces." These were not empty threats, for there are two cases in Scotland where the evidence points to the execution of possible traitors by emissaries of the witch society. In the case of John Reid the executioners secretly entered from the outside and hanged the traitor in his cell. The belief that he was made away with by the Devil was thus actually true.

The ritual of admission was a recognised, and in its early stages an elaborate, ceremony; it varied according to the age of the candidate. The children were brought as soon as they could speak, and were presented by the witch kneeling; she said, "Great Lord, whom I adore, I bring you a new servant, who wishes to be your slave for ever." The Devil answered, "Approach," which the witch did on her knees. He received the child in his arms, then returned it to the witch thanking her and directing that the child should be cared for. Children who had reached an age to become active members of the society, or adult converts from Christianity, were admitted by the same ceremony, with the exception that the converts first renounced their baptism and their previous belief. "I first renounce God, then Jesus Christ his Son, the Holy Ghost, the Virgin, the saints, the holy cross, chrism, baptism, and the Faith which I hold, my godfather and