Page:The history of Witchcraft and demonology.djvu/86

 A contract with Satan was said always to be signed in the blood of the executor. “The signature is almost invariably subscribed with the writer’s own blood. . . . Thus at Augsburg Joseph Egmund Schultz declared that on the 15 May, 1671, towards midnight, when it was betwixt eleven and twelve of the clock, he threw down, where three crossroads met, an illuminated parchment, written throughout in his own blood and wrapped up in a fair kerchief, and thus he sealed the compact. . . Widmann also tells us how that unhappy wretch Faust slightly cut his thumb and with the drops of blood which trickled thence devoted himself in writing body and soul to the Devil, utterly repudiating God’s part in him.” From the earliest times and in many nations we find human blood used inviolably to ratify the pledged word. Rochholz, I, 52, relates that it is a custom of German University freshmen (Burschen) for the parties to write “mutually with their own blood leaves in each other’s albums.” The parchment is still said to be in existence on which with his own blood Maximilian, the great and devout Bavarian elector, religiously dedicated himself to the Most Holy Mother of God. Blood was the most sacred and irrevocable of seals, as may be seen in the custom of blood-brotherhood when friendship was sworn and alliances concluded. Either the blood itself was drunk or wine mixed with blood. Herodotus (IV, 70) tells us that the Scythians were wont to conclude agreements by pouring wine into an earthen vessel, into which the contracting parties having cut their arms with a knife let their blood flow and mingle. Whereupon both they and the most distinguished of their following drank of it. Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, II, 1, records the same custom as still existing among them in his day: “Not even their alliances are made without shedding of blood: the partners in the compact wound themselves, and when the blood gushes out they mingle the stream and taste of it when it is mixed. This they consider to be the most assured pledge of eternal loyalty and trust.” Gyraldus, Topographia Hibernorum, XXII, p. 743, says: “When the Ireni conclude treaties the one drinks the blood of the other, which is shed voluntarily for this purpose.” In July, 1891, a band of brigands which had existed for three years was discovered and broken up in South Italy. It was reported