on the undoubted authority of Dr. Bräuner, of the various means of conveyance, animate and inanimate, pressed into the service of the witches, but that which stands at the head of this chapter has long been the favorite one par excellence. Broomsticks, et hoc genus omne, have long been discarded, the witches finding that they were fully as uncomfortable as the delinquent soldier used to feel the riding the wooden horse of yore-were wolves are getting scarce-cats are used now-a-days only as familiars, and not as steeds, calves have been struck out of the category, since the magnates of the land have patronized veal; the politeness of his majesty of darkness having in consequence exempted them from conscription-sheep are rarely used, and the fact of their being so occa- sionally is only obscurely made known by some such occurence as that of the Sessions Justices of Madras, making a road as crooked as a ram's horn, as a thoroughfare for the sea-air, thereby shadowing forth that they had previously dined on bewitched ram mutton; but the goat-the shaggy, the hirsute goat, still holds his own.

Therefore, reader, we beseech you to pause the next time you order kid for your dinner. Doubtless, a hind quarter of kid, delicately browned, and swimming in its own gravy, is

provokingly toothsome; but remember how many paw-paw men and fie fie misses have been carried away, post haste, on the loins of a wicked old goat-kid's head curry, we grant, is not to be despised; but are you prepared to lay hold of the Devil's palfrey by the horns? Remember, we entreat you, that with every morsel of kid that goes down your gullet, there goes down at the same time, [as we whilom heard the present bishop of Calcutta declare from the pulpit touching a glass of arrack] a bit of the Devil.

And our author gives us good reasons why the goat should be the special favorite of the Devil and his subjects. Chastity is a virtue that the Devil dearly loves; chastity is the predominant virtue of monasteries and nunneries; chastity is the quality which pre-eminently distinguishes the goat-therefore the goat is properly selected as the witches' palfrey. And, now, let us see what the worthy Dr. Bräuner gives us in the shape of anecdote confirmatory hereof :

"I will here," he says gravely, "relate a circumstance which is quite fresh in my memory:— When I was studying at Erfurt, in the year 1672, it came to pass that a maid, who was in the service of a joiner there, indulged in improper

;

familiarities with a dyer lad, her fellow servant and as they lived under the same roof, opportunities were not wanting. However the young man grew tired of her, and went off to Langensalze, where he entered the service of another master. The young woman, disappointed of her lover, made use of the following means, through a covenant with Satan, on Holy Whit-Sunday, when all the family, with the exception of the apprentice, had gone to church, to recall her faithless lover. She put near the fire certain herbs, and, as soon as these should begin to boil her lover would be compelled to make his appearance. Now, it so happened that the apprentice, coming in during her absence, and not knowing what the pot contained, put it closer to the fire, whilst it was only gently boiling and bubbling, and put his own glue-pot in its place. However, as soon as this pot of herbs felt the increased heat of the fire, the apprentice heard a voice inside of it call out 'Come, come, Hansel; come, come, come, Hansel, come!' The apprentice, being in the act of stirring his glue, heard something like a heavy sack fall behind him, and on looking round, observed a man lying on the floor in his shirt; on which he raised a fearful cry, which brought in the maid and some others, who happened to be in the house,

to see what was the matter, and found Hansel, the former fellow-servant of the maid, lying on the floor in his shirt, like a man who had just been awakened out of his sleep. When he had somewhat recovered his senses, they enquired of him how he had come thither, to which he replied that a great black goat, exceedingly hairy to look upon, had come to his bedside, and had compelled him to lay hold of his horns, when he bolted out of the window with him, and he knew nothing further what had happened to him until he found what a great way he had been transported; so that, though he had been lying on his bed at Langensalz, at eight o'clock, he had arrived at Erfurt before half-past nine, and he could only conclude that he had been indebted for his ride to his former fellow-servant, Catherine; because, when he was on the point of quitting their master's service, she had threatened him that she would give him a ride upon a goat. The people very kindly accommodated him with a pair of breeches and a coat, and kept the maid in strict custody until her master and mistress came home; who strictly questioned the maid, and threatened her that if she did not speak the whole truth, they would hand her over to the authorities; whereon she began to weep bitterly, and confessed that,

although she had not thoroughly learned the black art, nor entered into covenant with the Devil, yet an old woman, whom she named, had persuaded and taught her that, if she gently boiled certain herbs which she gave her, her lover would presently appear, though he were at the other end of the world. Now as her master and mistress both knew the old woman, as they had repeatedly seen her passing in and out of their house, they determined to make a great fuss about it, and discharged the maid-servant, allowing the unfortunate dyer to go his way after a sharp rebuke upon his loose manner of life." The worthy author does not tell us what became of the old woman; but, if she escaped being burned as a witch upon such conclusive evidence, she must have been indebted to witchcraft for her escape.

We find the following story in the Hellish Proteus of Erasmus Franciscus. A colonel of considerable renown, who had served under several princes, was, whilst he was yet a young bachelor, fallen in love with by a young widow of another colonel, under whom he had at one time served, the lady earnestly desiring to have him for her second husband. The young colonel, however, having still his fortune to make, was by no means in such a hurry to fall in love,