276 Witchcraft. [VOL. 4 thanks and recompense. Soe I hum- the witchfinding critics to be teats for bly take my leave and rest the suckling young imps. "Your servant to be commanded, 66 Another method of discovering MATTHEW HOPKINS." Witchcraft was by placing the accused It is reported that he caused sixty persons to be hanged in one year, under the imputation of being Wizards. "And has he not within a year, In the same letter be mentions a cir- person on a stool or table in the centre cumstance, which if it be true, will of a room crosslegged, or in some other shew the influence which the belief had uneasy posture, in which he or she was continued by being bound with cords, then obtained, he says:-"I have and thus watched and kept without knowne a minister in Suffolke preach against their (the Witches) discovery meat and drink for 24 hours, this being the period during which the imp must in a pulpit, and forced to recant it by come and suck. It cannot be wonderthe committee in the same place." ed that weak and ignorant persons, under the infirmities of age, and sufferng such tortures, should be agitated to frensy and indeed to confess any thing however false or ridiculous, for the purpose of putting a period to their misery death itself being preferable to such toents. But the dernier resort, the darling expedient of this Witchfinder, was by tying the toes and thumbs His most usual victims were persons of the persons suspected, a cord being who from their age, poverty, or defor- then fastened about the waist and held mity, were already unjustly the objects on the bank by two men. If upon this of popular prejudice, and whose mis- experiment they swam, it was a satisfortunes, instead of protecting them, factory proof of their guilt. This inprovoked the blood-thirsty spirit of this genious method is said to have been Witchfinder, while the burthen of their invented by James the 1st, who gave misery rendered them unable to con- as a reason for it, that, "as such pertend with his detestable artifices. Hanged three-score of 'em in a shire." Hudibras. 66 And that amongst them was an old minister who had been many years a painful preacher." sons had renounced their baptism by water, so the water refused to receive them." Exclusive of the gift, or natural talent, which this man affected to possess, he pretended to discover Witches by After this detail of the detestable marks or spots on their bodies, which barbarities committed by the miscreant he said were the seals of the diabolical Hopkins, it is with gratification that we compact entered into by them for the learn that his great skill in witchfinding sale of their souls to the powers of dark- led to the belief that it was through ness. The effect of this seal was to diabolical assistance that he was enrender the part insensible, the test there- abled to do so. "That he cast out fore, was by thrusting a needle or some Devils through Beelzebub." In consharp instrument into it; if no blood sequence, his favourite swimming exfollowed, or no pain was felt by the periment was tried upon himself, and unhappy subject of this experiment, it he was upon the event condemned and was decisive evidence of her being a executed for a Wizard! Witch. It frequently happened that The different modes in which this this test was not offered until by pre- subject has been treated by the poets vious torture the poor wretch had been of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and rendered insensible to the slight degree James 1st, will shew the difference of of pain caused by it, and the operators public opinion entertained on it, and were too sanguinary and too much in- how much more force the belief had terested to delay the execution of their gained in Ford's days than it possesshorrid barbarities. Some old persons ed with Middleton and Shakspeare. too were convicted, in consequence of These, although they agree in familiarhaving warts, which sometimes growing ly introducing them, have used them large and pendulous, were detected by for quite different purposes, and the VOL. 4.] Witchcraft-Coincidences. 277 "In moonlight nights, o'er steeple tops, Mountains and pine trees,that like pricks or stops similarity thought to subsist between will not cast the imputation of plagia- Seem to our height: high towers and roofs of princes, rism on either when it is recollected, Like wrinkles in the earth; whole provinces Appear to our sight, then even like A russet mole upon some lady's cheek, When hundred leagues in air we feast and sing, Dance, kiss, and coll, use every thing.” that the mere general feature (in which alone the resemblance can be traced) were drawn by both from the same sources. The Witches of Shakspeare seem to Ford's Mother Sawyer is the mere be perfectly poetical beings above hu- common Witch of a country town, manity, and having no affections in beaten and despised for her age and incommon with created beings. They firmities; the revilings and scorn of her seem to be lesser agents of evil; they oppressors drive her to Sorcery: she is appear, unsought for, to generate im- in short the very Witch of James 1st. pure thoughts in the breast of Macbeth, and do not actually interfere to assist his designs, but by tempting his ambition-they "raise such artificial sprights, As by the strength of their illusion, Shall draw him on to his confusion." "And why on me, should the envious world Middleton's Witches are many de- About to teach me how to be one, urging That my bad tongue, by their bad usage made so, grees beneath Shakspeare's in point of Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn, sublimity; they are agents of wicked- Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse ness, delighting in the misery they inflict This they enforce upon me, and in part on mankind, and lending their assis- Make me to credit it." tance to any one who seekз them for this purpose. "Tis for the love of mischief they do this, And that they're sworn to the first oath they take." It is, however, happy for us that whether the fact be that such practices have or have not existed, it is of no consequence either to our faith as Christians, or to our happiness as men ; Again: they are more in common and as we look back into the prejudilife than the Weird Sisters, their feel- ces of our ancestors, and tracing their ings seem more of earth. Hecaté has superstitions, blush for, while we cona son, and the other Witches have demn them, we may congratulate ourselves that we live in times when such naues they delight to soar things are neither practised nor credited. Mr. Urban, IT SUPERSTITIOUS COINCIDENCES. From the Gentleman's Magazine. T is well known to every classical I have now to add, that, at the scholar, that the ancient Greeks present day, and under similar impresgave to the Furies the name of Eu- sions, the lower class of the Irish peamenides (the "good-natured, mild, or santry observe the same respectful friendly Goddesses") from a supersti- caution in speaking of the Fairies, tions dread of their malignity, and a whom they generally consider as mawish to soothe and conciliate them by lignant, mischievous beings, very differthat flattering title :-and it is equally ent from those frolicksome good-natured well known, that the ancient Romans, elves, that perform so many kind for the same reason, thought it expedi- offices for rustic maids who happen to ent to flatter the inhabitants of the other world, by giving to the Spirits of the dead the appellation of Manesi. e. "The Good People"-from the antique word, Manis, good*. * Whence Immanis, the reverse of good. be in favour with them. Such, then, being the disposition of the Irish Fairies, it is thought prudent to keep on good terms with them; and, with a view to this, they are usually designated by the flattering title of "The 278 Origin of the words Almanack-Calendar-Ephemeris. [VOL. 4. Good People," a title, deemed so quickly and anxiously reprimanded, as indispensable, that if a child should in- if speaking treason in the hearing of a advertently mention them by the simple magistrate. JOHN CAREY. name of "Fairies," he would be as From the London Time's Telescope. TIME'S TELESCOPE, FOR JANUARY 1819. Moments make minutes, minutes form the hour, In lengthened slumbers waste returning night : Grow with our years more diligently wise: With days, weeks, months, and years, all spent in vain. T. Redd. YEARS-MONTHS-WEEKS-DAYS, ALMANACK-CALENDAR-EPHEMERIS. ALL these words describe date-books Among different nations, the begin for the current year. According ning of the year varied as well as the to Golius, al manach signifies the reck- length. The Jews began their ecclesioning,' and is the Arabic designation astical year with the new moon of that given to a table of time, which the as- month, whose full moon happened next trologers of the east present to their after the vernal equinox. The church princes on New year's day. Calendar of Rome begin their year on the Sunas so called from the Latin calende, a day which falls on the said full moon, Roman name for the first day of the or that happens next after it; or on month. Ephemeris is a Greek word, Easter Sunday. The Jews began their signifying for the day. Almanack, civil year with the new moon which has therefore, is a divider of time by the its full moon happening next after the year; calendar, by the month; and autumnal equinox. The Grecians beephemeris, by the day. Nature's al- gan their year with the new moon manack is the orbit of the earth; her which happened next after the summer calendar, the circuit of the moon; her solstice. The Romans, according to ephemeris, the circumference of the Plutarch, began their year at March, globe. The French name their an- from the time of Romulus to Numa, nual anthologies of poetry, Almanacks who changed the beginning to January. of the Muses.' "The gardening book, Romulus made the year consist of only which directs what work is to be done, ten months, as appears from the name of what seeds are to be sown, every the last, December, or the tenth month; month, is fitly called the Gardener's and that March was the first is evident, Calendar,' A daily newspaper might because they called the fifth from it aptly be denominated the Political quintilis, the sixth sextilis, and the rest Ephemeris.' in their order. The first month of the Verstegan fancies that almanack is Egyptian year began ou our August 29, derived from allmonath; but if the et- The Arabic and Turkish year began ou ymon was Anglo-Saxon, the present July 16. The antient Clergy made form of the word would be allmonth.' March 25 the beginning of the year. The first European date-book, which The first division of the civil year is assumed the title of almanack, is the into months, of which there are twelve. almanach royale de France of 1579: it These cannot be of an equal length, beincludes notices of post-days, fairs, and cause the number of days in a year is festivals. not divisible by 12. There are there VOL. 4] Years-Months-Weeks-Days of the Week. 279 fore, in every year, seven months of 31 placed in a temple,and there adored, and days each, four of 30 days each, and in sacrificed unto, for that they beleeved the common years one of 28 days, but that the Sun in the firmament did with which contains 29 in every leap year. or in this idoll correspond, and co-ope These are the months used for civil pur- rate. It was made like halfe a naked poses. But the space of 28 days is al- man, set upon a pillar, his face, as it so called a month, and it is by the di- were, brightened with gleames of fire, vision of this into four equal parts that and holding, with both his armes the year is subdivided into weeks, each stretched out, a burning wheele upon his consisting of seven days. Hence, a breast; the wheele being to signifie the common year consists of 13 of these course which he runneth round about months, or 52 weeks and 1 day; the world; and the fiery gleames, and and a leap year of the same, and 2 days. brightnes, the light and heat whereThe days into which the civil year is with he warmeth and comforteth the divided, are called natural, and contain things that live and grow.' > Monday. 24 hours. But there is a day called artificial, which is the time from sun-rise to sun-set. The natural day is either The next,according to the course of astronomical or civil. The astronomi- the dayes of the week, was the idoll of cal day begins at noon. The British, the Moone, whereof we yet retaine the French, Dutch, Germans, Spaniards, name of Monday, instead of Mooneday. Portuguese, and Egyptians, begin the The forme of this idoll seemeth very civil day at midnight; the antient strange and ridiculous, for being made Greeks, Jews, Bohemians,and Silesians, for a woman,shee hath a short coat like a began it at sun-setting, as do the mod- man: but more strange it is to see her ern Italians and Chinese; and the an- bood with such two long eares. tient Babylonians, Persians, Syrians, holding of a Moone before her breast and modern Greeks, at sun-rising, may seeme to have beene to expresse The Jews, Chaldeans, and Arabians, what she is ; but the reason of her chapdivide the hour into 1080 equal parts, ron with long eares, as also of her short called scruples. coat and pyked shooes, I do not finde.' 8 Tuesday. DAYS OF THE WEEK. The old Latin names for the days of the week are still retained in the journals of parliament and of medical men; they are as follow, beginning with Sunday-dies Solis, dies Luna, dies Martis, dies Mercurii, dies Jovis, dies Veneris, and dies Saturni. The north ern nations substituted, for the Roman divinities, such of their own as most nearly resembled them in their peculiar attributes, and hence the derivation of the names now in use. VERSTEGAN, in his Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 4to. Lond. 1634, thus describes the Saxon deities who presided over each day of the week. The characters sometimes employed to denote each day are prefixed. ℗ Sunday. Unto the day dedicated to the idoll of the Sun, they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say, as the Sunsday, or the day of the Sun. This idoll was The "Tuisco, or Tuiscon, [was] the father and conductor of the Germans, who, after his name, even unto this day, doe in their owne tongue call themselves Tuytsh, and their country of Germany Tuytshland, and the Netherlanders using herein the D for T, doe make it Duytsh and Duytshland, both which appellations of the people and country I doe here write right according as we, in our English orthography, would write them, after their pronunciation.' × Wednesvay. The next was the idol Woden, who was made armed, and, among our Saxon ancestors, esteemed and honoured for their god of battell, according as the Romans reputed and honoured their god Mars.-(Verstegan, p. 72.) • Odin [or Wodin] is believed to have been the name of the one true God among the first colonies who came from the east, and peopled Germany 280 Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week. [VOL. 4 set as if he had reposed himselfe upon a covered bed. On his head be wore a crowne of gold, and round in compasse above, and about the same, were set or fixed twelue bright burnished golden and Scandinavia, and among their posterity for several ages. But at length a mighty conqueror, the leader of a new ariny of adventurers from the east, overrun the north of Europe, erected a great empire, assumed the name of starres. And in his right hand he held Odin, and claimed the honours which a kingly scepter. He was of the seduced had been formerly paid to that deity. Pagans beleeved to be of most marvelFrom thenceforward this deified mortal, ous power and might, yea, and that under the name of Odin or Wodin, there were no people through out the became the chief object of the idolatrous whole world that were not subjected worship of the Saxons and Danes in unto him, and did not owe him divine this island, as well as of many other honour and seruice. That there was no nations. Having been a mighty and puissance comparable to his: his dominsuccessful warrior, he was believed to ion of all others most farthest extending be the god of war, who gave victory it selfe, both in heaven and earth. That and revived courage in the conflict, in the aire he governed the winds and Having civilized, in some measure, the the cloudes; and, being displeased, did countries which he conquered, and cause lightning, thunder, and tempests; introduced arts formerly unknown, he with excessiue rain, haile, and all ill was also worshipped as the god of arts weather. But, being well pleased, by and artists. In a word, to this Odin the adoration, sacrifice, and seruice of his deluded worshippers impiously his suppliants, he then bestowed upon ascribed all the attributes which belong them most faire and seasonable weather, only to the true God: to him they and caused corne aboundantly to growe, built magnificent temples, offered many as also all sorts of fruites, &c. and kept sacrifices, and consecrated the fourth away from them the plague and all day of the week, which is still called by other evill and infectious diseases. Of his name in England, and in all the the weekly day which was dedicated other countries where he was formerly unto his peculiar seruice, we yet retaine worshipped. Notwithstanding all this, the name of Thursday, the which the the founders of all the kingdoms of the Danes and Swedians doe yet call Anglo-Saxon heptarchy pretended to Thors-day. In the Netherlands, it is be descended from Wodin, and some of called Dunders-dagh, which, being them at the distance only of a few written according to our English generations.'(Henry's History of orthography, is Thunders-day; whereGreat Britain, vol. iii. pp. 175, 176.) by it may appeare that they antiently 2 Thursday. therein intended the day of the god of Thunder; and, in some of our old Saxon bookes, I find it to have beene written Thunres-deug. So as it seemeth that the name of Thor, or Thur, was abbreviated of Thunre, which we now write Thunder.'-(Verstegan, p. 73.) The next in order was the idoll Thor, who was not only served and sacrificed unto of the antient PaganSaxons, but of all the Teutonicke people of the septentrionall regions, yea, even of the people that dwelt beyond Thor, the eldest and bravest of the Thule or Island, for in Greeneland was sons of Odin and Frea, was, after his be knowne and adored; in memory parents, the greatest god of the Saxous whereof a promontory or high poynt of and Danes while they continued heathland lying out into the sea, as also a ens. They believed that Thor reigned river which faileth into the sea at the over all the aerial regions, which comsaid promontory, doth yet beare his posed his immense palace, consisting name. This great reputed god, being of five hundred and forty hails; that of more estimation than many of the he launched the thunder, pointed the rest of like sort, though of as little lightning, and directed the meteors, worth as any of the meanest of that winds, and storms. To him they rabble, was majestically placed in a addressed their prayers for favourable very large and spacious hall, and there winds, refreshing rains, and fruitful |