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great bignesse. Elizabeth Dale informeth upon oath, that she did, together with Margery Ffish, searche Ann
Hunnam, otherwise Marchant, her bodye and saith that their was found on her left buttock a blue spott
growing out of her fleshe or skin like a greate warte.'[1]
The Kentish witch, Mary Read of Lenham, in 1652, I had a visible Teat, under her tongue, and did show it to
many, and it was likewise seen by this Observator.'[2] In the case of the Salisbury witch, Anne Bodenham, in
1652, 'Women searched the Witch in the Gaol, and they delivered on their oaths at the Assises, that they
found on her shoulder a certain mark or Teat, about the length and bignesse of the Niple of a Womans breast,
and hollow and soft as a Niple, with a hole on the top of it: And searching further, they likewise found in her
secret place another Teat, soft, and like the former on her shoulder.'[3] In Yorkshire again, in 1654, Katherine
Earle was accused, 'and the said Katherine hathe beene searched, and a marke founde upon her in the
likenesse of a papp'.[4] At St. Albans, about 1660, there was a man-witch, who 'had like a Breast on his
side'.[5] In the same year at Kidderminster a widow, her two daughters, and a man were brought to trial; 'the
man had five teats, the mother three, and the eldest daughter one. When they went to search the woman, none
were visible; one advised to lay them on their backs, and keep open their mouths, and they would appear; and
so they presently appeared in sight.'[6] Alice Huson, of Burton Agnes, Yorks, in 1664, stated that 'I have, I
confess, a Witch-pap, which is sucked by the Unclean Spirit'.[7] Abre Grinset, of Dunwich, Suffolk, in 1665,
said, 'The Devil did appear in the form of a Pretty handsom Young Man first, and since Appeareth to her in
the form of a blackish Gray Cat or Kitling, that it sucketh of a Tett (which Searchers
[1. Country Folklore, ii, p. 139.
2. Prod. and Trag. Hist., p. 6.
3. Bower, p. 28.
4. Surtees Soc., xl, p. 69.
5. Gerish, Relation of Mary Hall, p. 24.
6. Howell, iv, 827 note.
7. Hale, p. 58.]
6. The Mark 56
The Witch Cult in Western Europe
since saw in the place She mentioned).'[1] In the same year, also in Suffolk, Rose Cullender was tried for
witchcraft:
'The searchers [six women] began at her head, and so stript her naked, and in the lower part of her belly they
found a thing like a teat of an inch long, they questioned her about it, and she said, that she had got a strain by
carrying of water which caused that excrescence. But upon narrower search, they found in her privy parts
three more excrescencies or teats, but smaller than the former: this deponent farther saith, that in the long teat
at the end thereof there was a little hole, and it appeared unto them as if it had been lately sucked, and upon
the straining of it there issued out white milky matter.'[2]
Temperance Lloyd, a Devon witch, was tried in 1682: 'Upon search of her body this informant did find in her,
secret parts, two teats hanging nigh together like unto a piece of flesh that a child had suckt. And each of the
said teats was about an inch in length." Bridget Bishop, one of the New England witches, was tried in 1692:
'A jury of Women found a preternatural Teat upon her Body: But upon a second search, within 3 or 4 hours,
there was no such thing to be seen.'[4] Elizabeth Horner, another Devon witch, tried in 1696, I had something
like a Nipple on her Shoulder, which the Children [who gave evidence] said was sucked by a Toad'.[5]
Widow Coman, an Essex witch, died a natural death in 1699: 'Upon her death I requested Becke the midwife
to search her body in the presence of some sober women, which she did and assured me she never saw the
like in her life that her fundament was open like a mouse-hole and that in it were two long bigges out of
which being pressed issued blood that they were neither piles nor emrods for she knew both but excrescencies
like to biggs with nipples which seemed as if they had been frequently sucked.'[6], Elinor Shaw and Mary
Phillips were executed in Northampton in 1704 for witchcraft: 'The Infernal Imps did Nightly Suck each of
them a large Teat, or pieces of red Flesh in their Privy Parts.'[7]
The positions of the marks are worth noting. Of the
[1. Petto, p. 18.
2. Howell, vi, 696.
3. Id., viii, 1022.
4. Mather, p. 137.
5. F. Hutchinson, Historical Essay, p. 62.
6. Gilbert, p. 6.
7 Witches of Northamptonshire, p. 6.]
coloured mark it will be seen from the evidence given above that there were certain well-defined positions,
which is in itself a strong suggestion of the artificial character of this mark. In France the usual position was
the left shoulder; in the Basses-Pyrnes the left eye, the left side, and the thigh were also commonly
marked; the variations given by Boguet are the abdomen, the back, and the right side of the neck. In England
it seems that only the hand and wrist were marked; in Somerset the exact position was between the upper and
middle joints of the fourth finger of the right hand, probably the 'ring-finger', but whether on the outer or
inner surface is not recorded. In Scotland the position is very varied, the right hand, the right side, the
shoulder, the back, the neck, and the loin; at Aberdeen the position on the right hand is still further defined as
being on the back and on the third finger, i.e. the 'ring-finger'.
6. The Mark 57
The Witch Cult in Western Europe
Reginald Scot does not distinguish between the two kinds of marks, when he says that if the witch 'have anie
privie marke under hir arme pokes, under hir haire, under hir lip, or in her buttocke, or in her privities; it is a
presumption sufficient for the judge to proceed to give sentence of death upon her'.[1] But from the positions
in which supernumerary nipples are known to occur, it would seem that he is speaking of the 'little Teat' and
not of the coloured mark. In six out of the thirty-two cases of supernumerary nipple cited above, the number
of nipples is not given; though from the context it would appear that more than one was often found on each
of the accused. If, therefore, we allow two apiece for those cases not definitely specified, there were
sixty-three such nipples, an average roughly of two to each person; the number varying, however, from one
to five (this last being a man). The position of the nipple on the body is given in forty-five out of the
sixty-three cases: abdomen 2, axilla 1, buttock 1, fundament 3, groin 2, pudenda 30, shoulder 3, side 3, under
tongue 1. In writing of supernumerary nipples and mammae erraticae Williams quotes cases recorded by
modern observers, in which the accessory organ occurred on the abdomen, axilla, inguinal region, outer side
of thigh, shoulder, and face.'
[1. R. Scot, Bk. II, ch. 5.
2. Journal of Anatomy, xxv, 225 seq.]
IV. THE ASSEMBLIES
THERE were two kinds of assemblies; the one, known as the Sabbath, was the General Meeting of all the
members of the religion; the other, to which I give-on the authority of Estebne de Cambrue the name of
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