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ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS. 473
having gone to this degree of folly, they have feigned that the evil genius has one time
played upon a lute; another time on an inftrument called in Norway, Langfpil; then
on the flute ; then on a tabor; and on an in{ftrument commionly called Luur, which is
an inftrument of nine inches in length, covered with the thin bark of the linden-tree,
which the peafants, on feeding their flocks in fummer, are accultomed to play on, as
well for their own recreation, as to keep away from their herds the bears and other
wild bea{fts. Nor indeed have they fcrupled to aflert that Satan himfelf had danced
with them, and played fometimes at cards.
A certain one told that when fhe and other witches were affembled on the eve of the
feftival of Chrift, the evil fpirit had danced with them (what the dance was, Polith
or Englifh, I know not), when one of the witches loft her fhoe, and the matter of the
ceremonies, by good fortune, put another in its place. Another faid that fhe, together
with other witches, was in hell (a thing horrid and ridiculous); in order to render
the fcene familiar to them, where an immenfe boiling lake was to be feen, in
which were many men; fhe added befides, that the devil had an iron pipe, from which
he breathed out fire, and that he had drawn out a piece of bacon, put into the fame
lake, which was dreffed in an inftant ; fhe infinuated that the faid lake was in a valley.
Of her accompanying friends fhe related, that one put on the likeneis of a cormo-
rant (commonly called Krykke) ; another of a marine bird, called Havelde ; another of
a dove; another of a dark bird, called Skarv ; others of jackdaws; and that the herfelf
put on the form of a crow. Another faid, that being at a certain place with another
witch, called Hildere, they drank from two garters, from the one of water and
honey, from the other {trong beer.
As thofe witches related, it feems they could be in an inftant of time, from their in-
timate commerce with the devil, day or night one hundred miles diftant from the place
they were in by his guidance. As a certain one faid, that a certain perfon, living at
Bergen, came to her in the fhape of a dog, and that fhe took him to the Bald-Vold,
which is in Vardoe, in the eaftern Finmark, in an inftant of time.
As they related, Satan appeared to them under a variety of unufual and moft horrible
appearances: one time like a black man, without a head; at another like a tall man,
clothed in black, and a horned forehead ; now asa rough and horned man, and after-
terwards as a black man, whofe knees were horned, his hands and feet defended with
nails, and his hair and beard black : another time he took the fhape of a man with large
and burning eyes, his hands black and covered with hair, and with a flame of fire com-
ing from his mouth ; then in the likenefs of a cat, handling them from their feet to their
mouth, and counting their teeth ; and laftly, in the fhape of a dog, a little bird, and a
crow.
On their relation, the devil, when they are dedicating themfelves to his fervice, im-
prefles on.them a certain fign, as on his flaves: he is faid to have laid hold of the arm
of one in fuch a manner that blood would flow from it; to have bitten the left arm of
another; to have marked the left thigh with his nails to a third, and to have torn
the left knee of a fourth with his talons.
_That they fhould be more ready and eafy to enter into league and amity with him,
he afligns various innocent and agreeable names, as they fay; fuch as Chriftian, Chrif-
topher, Jacob, Zacharias, Peter, Samuel, Mark, Angel of Light, Dominic, Abraham,
Hfaac, John, Martin, Olaus, Giermund, Afmodus, Frufius, Peace, and Saclumbus.
It is true that all thefe and more the witches had confefled on trial, and to this con-
feflion they were properly brought at the ftake; but their witchcraft for the greateft
part confifted, in my opinion, in fancy, in imaginings, and in dreams. It is even pro-
VOL. 1. 3P bable
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