# An Examen of Witches/Chapter 22

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Chapter XXII.
Whether Witches can Produce Hail.
Jacques Bocquet, Françoise Secretain, Clauda Jamguillaume, Clauda Jamprost, Thievenne Paget, Antoine Tornier, Pierre Gandillon, George Gandillon, Antoine Gandillon, Christofle of the village of Aranthon, and several others have confessed that they produced hail at the Sabbat for the purpose of ruining the fruits of the earth. To do this they beat water with a wand, as they said, and then threw into the air or into the water a certain powder which Satan had given them, and this caused a cloud to arise which afterwards turned to hail and fell on the land according to the witches’ wish. So we may conclude that such persons do produce hail. This conclusion is substantiated by what we read of a certain Haakon, Prince of Norway, who fought his enemies with hailstones: of the Brachmanes, who could cause the weather to be either fair or rainy: Vair, de Incant. II. 14. Remy, Demonol. III. 12. Bodin, Demonom. II. 8.of one Julian, who caused it to rain and brought relief to Mark Antony’s Roman army suffering from thirst: of certain sorcerers who did the like for the French when they were beseiged by the Spanish in a town in the Kingdom of Naples: of a King Henry of Sweden and Finland who had control of the winds, so that the Finns used to sell them to merchants. Olaus, III. 4.And there was also that pirate of the seas, Oddo, who passed over the water without any ship, and destroyed and sank his enemies’ ​ships beneath the waves by means of the storms which he raised with his charms and witchcraft. I pass by the report that was spread to the effect that the Norse Princes of Denmark, Sweden and NorwayFlorimond de Raemond, Antichrist, c. 26. sent to Queen Elizabeth of England two sorcerers who by their magic arts caused squalls to arise which, in the year 1588, scattered in one moment that great Spanish Armada the like of which had never been seen before.
The Romans also had certain priests who were charged with the raising and allaying of thunder and lightning; and their laws on this matter are to be found among those of the Twelve Tablets. Now I have no doubt that Satan can produce hail; Bodin, Demonom. II. 2. Paracel. de Malefic. c. 4.yet there are those who maintain that, when the Devil foresees the approach of a storm, he deceives witches into the belief that it is they who cause it; while others have written that Satan keeps hail clouds in certain caverns which are, as it were, his magazines, and that he brings them thence when he is invoked by his disciples. But granting that this last be true, as I well believe it may be, it does not therefore follow that all hailstorms are caused by Satan. For hail is caused naturally by a mingling of vapours and exhalations raised into the middle region of the air. But these matters, like all other natural phenomena, are at Satan’s commandment. This we fully learn from the Book of Job, where it is said that when the Devil had received from God power to afflict and injure Job, the lightning fell at once from Heaven and struck his flocks, the winds immediately arose and smote down his houses and overwhelmed his sons; in short, the Heavens so rose against him by Satan’s contrivance that in one moment he lost ​all his wealth, although he was the richest man in the East.
Exod. 8.It will not be inappropriate to quote here in confirmation of our contention the frogs and serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians; for there is no doubt that those animals were created by an apt application of active to passive principles; Vair, de Incant. II. 12.this being the opinion of St. Thomas, which is based on logical argument, since it is a fact that frogs are generated by corruption, and there is no reason why a rotten rod or wand should not be turned into a serpent; for certain naturalists have observed that the same result comes from a woman’s hair hidden in a dung-heap.
There need be no difficulty in the fact that these matters of which we have spoken were done in an instant, for Satan and the demons perform all their actions with such speed that they seem miraculous. And when it is considered that Nature can be assisted and helped forward by Art, it will not seem strange that Satan can accomplish in a moment that which naturally involves the passage of a considerable time; for it must be remembered that the Alchemists also, if we may believe them, can by a turn of the hand create gold, although in the process of Nature this takes a thousand years.
Again, it is easy to understand that the hail falls just where the witches wish; for Satan’s power in the air is so great that he can dispose the cloud just where he wishes. Nevertheless, God does not always permit this to happen, as I know from the testimony of Rollande du Vernois, Françoise Secretain and other witches, who said that they had often wished it to hall upon the fruits of certain villages, but that the hail had fallen upon ​rocks and high mountains without doing any damage.
Some witches also are poor, and have no wish for hail, through fear that it may cause a famine and that they will die; and therefore they contend at the Sabbat with those who are rich. There was one burned in this country who witnessed to the truth of this, saying that when the rich wished to cause hail and the poor opposed them, they had to throw dice to see which party should prevail. Antide Colas of Betoncourt also confessed that the poor are often at difference with the rich at the Sabbat over the question of destroying the crops; and she said that on one occasion the poor had defeated the rich in the Valley of Saint Marie, where the Devil, in the shape of a big black man, made them dance round a sheaf of corn turned upside down with the ears towards the ground.
But I have often marvelled at one thing which Satan does to witches when they assemble to produce hail;—he requires them to give him of their hair. I do not know whether he may be amorous of women’s hair; but I may say that there are Theologians who have maintained that the bad angels are amorous of women’s hair, Paracel. de Malefic. c. 7. Binsfeld, de confess. malef. conclus. 5. I Cor. 11.and the Suffragan of Trèves even says that the Incubus devils attach themselves chiefly to women who have beautiful hair; and it is contended that St. Paul had this in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians that woman should go with her head covered because of the Angels.
Yet I prefer to believe that witches give their hair to Satan as pledges of their contract with him. But the Evil One does not waste this hair; for he cuts it up small and mingles it with the ​exhalations from which he forms hail; and therefore it is that we ordinarily find little hairs in this hail. It may also be that the Devil uses these hairs to weave the spells and charms which we see cast upon those who are possessed.
Furthermore, it appears from what we have said in this chapter that neither the beating of water nor the powder which they throw in is of any avail to witches in producing hail; for it is rather probable that all this is only a symbol of their pact with Satan. Yet it might be possible for this powder to possess some virtue or property by which it could raise up storms. For we know by experiment that saltpetre mixed with alum engenders clouds and causes thunder and lightning in the air; Paracel. de Malefic. c. 5. Mattioli on Dioscor. I. 60.and Democritus said that if you took the head and gullet of the Sancus, a fish that is found in Egypt, and burned them with oak wood, roasted its liver on a red tile, it caused it to thunder and rain.