Page:The history of Witchcraft and demonology.djvu/158

 festivals are held during the year, and at these it is interesting to note that the members wear hideous black masks with huge horns which it is death for the uninitiated to see.

The first ceremony of the Sabbat was the worship of, and the paying homage to the Devil. It would seem that sometimes this was preceded by a roll-call of the evil devotees. Agnes Sampson confessed that at the meeting in North Berwick, when the whole assembly had entered the church, “The Devil started up himself in the Pulpit like a mickle black man, and calling the Row, every one answered Here. Mr. Robert Grierson being named, they all ran hirdie girdie, and were angry: for it was promised he should be called Robert the Comptroller, alias Rob the Rower, for expriming of his name. The first thing he demanded was whether they had been good servants, and what they had done since the last time they had convened.”

The witches adored Satan, or the Master of the Sabbat who presided in place of Satan, by prostrations, genuflections, gestures, and obeisances. In mockery of solemn bows and seemly courtesies the worshippers of the Demon approach him awkwardly, with grotesque and obscene mops and mows, sometimes straddling sideways, sometimes walking backwards, as Guazzo says: Cum accedunt ad dæmones eos ueneraturi terga obuertunt & cessim eum cancrorum more supplicaturi manus inuersas retro applicant. But their chief act of homage was the reverential kiss, osculum infame. This impious and lewd ritual is mentioned in detail by most authorities and is to be found in all lands and centuries. So Delrio writes: “The Sabbat is presided over by a Demon, the Lord of the Sabbat, who appears in some monstrous form, most generally as a goat or some hound of hell, seated upon a haughty throne. The witches who resort to the Sabbat approach the throne with their backs turned, and worship him … and then, as a sign of their homage, they kiss his fundament.” Guazzo notes: “As a sign of homage witches kiss the Devil’s fundament.” And Ludwig Elich says: “Then as a token of their, homage—with reverence be it spoken—they kiss the fundament of the Devil.” “Y al tiempo que le besan debajo de la cola, da una ventosidad de muy horrible olor,” adds the Spanish Relacion, “fetid, foul, and filthy.”