He thinks it highly
probable that some of these deluded women were actually the dupes of
unprincipled and designing men, who arrayed themselves in various
disguises and then met their unfortunate victims by appointment. This
idea is, indeed, borne out to a great extent by some of the
particulars stated in the following confessions. For instance, some of
the women assert that when they met the Devil he was in the form of a
dog, _but rather larger_; he always stood upon his hind legs--probably
the man's feet; and, when he shook hands with them, his paw _felt like
a hand_--doubtless it _was_ a hand. Another suggestion of the
Bailiff's is also worth notice. It is that the black ointment so often
mentioned as being rubbed on the bodies of the so-called witches, had
a real existence, and may have been so compounded as to act as a
narcotic or intoxicant, and produce a kind of extatic condition, just
as the injection of certain drugs beneath the skin is known to do now.
These suggestions are certainly worth consideration as offering
reasonable solutions of at least two difficulties connected with those
strange and lamentable superstitions.
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