Isobel
Gowdie, aka the Witch of Auldearn, was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft during the Great
Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661- 1662. The confessions include details of charms
and rhymes, claims she was a member of a coven in the service of the Devil, and
that she met with the fairy queen and king. Apart from her confessions it is
unknown why she was arrested or came forward, though it has been suggested that
she suffered from ergotism, a dementia from long term poisoning by bad wheat.
Her
ultimate fate is unknown, but she was most likely ultimately put to death. Her
confessions are quite fanciful and an interesting read (if you can wade through
all the old-time spelling and syntax- most of which I have cleaned up for this
entry), but I will be content in presenting to you one of the most choice bits.
Sex with the Infernal.
“First
as I was going between the towns of Druwdewin and The Headis, the Devil met
with me and there I covenanted with him and promised to meet him in the night
time, in the Kirk of Aulderne, which I did. He stood at the reader’s desk, and
a black book in his hand, where I came before him and renounced Jesus Christ
and my baptism; and all between the sole of my foot and the crown of my head. I got up freely and went over to the Devil.
Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne, held me up to the Devil, until he re-baptized me,
and marked me in the shoulder, and with his mouth sucked out my blood at that
place, and sprouted it in his hand, and sprinkling it upon my head and face, he
said, ‘I baptize ye, Janet, to myself, in my own name!’ Within a while we all
left.
“And
within a few days, he came to me, in the New Ward’s of Inshoch and there had
carnal copulation with me. He was a very huge, black, rough man; and I found
his nature [semen] within me all cold as spring well water. He will lie all
heavy upon us, when he had carnal dealing with us, like a sack of barley malt. His
member is exceedingly great and long; no man’s member is as long and big as
his. He would be among us like a stud horse among mares. He would lie with us
in the presence of the multitude; neither of us had any kind of shame; but especially
he has no shame at all. He would lie and have carnal dealing with us in the
shape of a deer or any other shape that he would be in. We would never refuse
him. He would come to my house-top in the shape of a crow, or like a deer, or
in any other shape now and then.
“I
would recognize his voice, at the first hearing of it, and would go forth and
have carnal copulation with him. The youngest and lustiest women will have very
great pleasure in their carnal copulation with him, yea much more than their
own husbands; and they will have an exceedingly great desire for it with him,
as much as he can give them and more, and never think shame of it. He is abler
for us that way any man can be (Alas! That I should compare him to any man!)
only he is heavy like a barely malt; a huge nature, very cold as ice.”
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
