Wichita eagle., 1888-12-27
WITCHES SABBATH.
A IUDlCROUS SUPERSTITION OF THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Witchcraft and Its Punishments-Even
Transplanted to the New World-Uses
Made of the Folly by Famous Poets--A
Madman's Vision.

iaue OF tne ROXY py FAMOUS foets--A
NIadman's Vision.
There were superstitious beliefs concerning
magic and witchcraft which had existed
| from the earliest times, but which ragged with
! extraordinary fury throughout the Fifteenth
century, drawing upon its neophytes and
/ practicers the vengeance of the law and the
curses of the spiritual authorities. Thou
sands of people in every country OF Europe
were tried, convicted and executed for the
crimes of witchcraft, and the fatal fires-for
the witches were usually burned at the stake
were even kindled on the shores Of the new
world Belief in these crimes was universal,
and the most astonishing stories of the mon
strous and abominable acts of the witches
were made the subject of serious exanina-
| tion by the tribunals of justice and were es-
tablished by witnesses of apparently the
highest credibility.
! 1t Is difficult in this age of free and enight-
ened thought to believe those terrible annals,
and we find it impossible to realize the con-
ditions which made such a state of things
possihla
ten, urererore, reuu VI 1-,s-.----- -
costed at night on the blasted heath by three
hays whose prophecies flied his ambitious
soul with projects of murder we credit the
great master with having evoked from his
wonderful imagination scene which in
Shakespeare's time could easily have been
drawn from the records Of the courts. We
are equally unable to realize the possibility
of the orgy witnessed by stout hearted Tam
o Shanter, when the witches danced at mid
night In the old and ruined Kirk Alloway,
and yet it was nothing more than picture OF
the obscene celebration of the Witches Sab
BATH universally believed In even as late as
800 years ago.
And now music is heard, harsh and broken
like the growing Of distant thunder or the
tumult of an approaching storm. Some
times il startles and shocks the sensibilities
like mocking laugh in chamber where
the dead are laid out for burial The sky is
dark with the gloom Of night when the
moon is buried in clouds, but nevertheless
affords light enough to show that the land
scape is wild and desolate Among the rocks
where four roads meet stands family out
lined against the sky a gibbet whose creaking
irons announce an invisible corpse slowly
swinging in the fitful breeze. There is over
head in the air beating Of the wings Of
monstrous birds and a murIuur Of inuumer-
able voices whispering as they pass In their
tumultuous flight These are the witches,
anointed on the shoulders and on the soles Of
the feet with the fat of murdered and IN
baptized children TO enable them 10 hy
and mounted on brooDsticszs, they assemble
from every quarter 70 join their demon
lovers in perpetratiug the most hideous sae-
rileges and blssphemous rites. The air n
filled with the rumor and hum Of a great
multitude. There ara the hoarss voices If
nen and the shriD tones OF women, but sup
pressed and murrnurouz
Il HIDEoCs NIGHTMARE.
Suddenly there Is a Wild ard startling 1
blast OF trumpets and a burst OF light reveal I
ing vast and Astonishing azsenblaSo q 4
strange beings ado-ning by the most shocking /
and obscene rites their Internal prince and 4
diabolic patron, who wears he form q a 4
huge be goat The wo-shipsTs appearing az 4
a distance as hideous monsters. The phautoras 4
ot q nightmare, ers seen on near approach 70 [
be men and women, the latter 10 rich ard i
CANDY gaxbs or clad only In tbs ooStans c: 4
the paradise from which they had been Is
serTedIy driven The blaEphenous rites Con
cluded. an orgy, erTavagan. IL its shame
isszRess, monstro1s ia ia depraTi;v, accoa7-
panied by internal nnnSic, then fellows and
proclain1 iris TIE WalYurgis night q
Goethe
This shouId be the Tisloa q mailman, ;hs
creation o. tas Imagination % demon. boz
il WIS Eoog cuTre1s matter Of b1Lsf. j.
was q Vast fabric % Egperseitssz TIA. had
gTo~n up cut q tie igoorzoee azd d2rkrsss
which bad elErg 20 mankind froza ;ae day
that ths reoels against tie xos, Esgh had
bnildsd On the plains Of SElnSs tozsT
whose tap was 70 reach in.o re hs&Ts1s AID
force for than a paEssgs % that bis which
tEs4r crimes TAD so-fefssd X Ezs Tia cure
which tes Istana, Tno valnly pllsd -, fzsfsz-s-
tairzs ts1s they might scale Oiyrupszs had e1l-
t21ied upGn our race aid lad dYsvsn tAsl 70
ss<k from deTIs IA. spsr1tzzl k3oz;ecgs
which Il RESERVED oaly fe- ths GSgs-a AID
thoss -ho zork right~0EE7eSz- Sgea 3 ia
Eisctesi sabbath, a. Inversion All p-lz-is-z-
ten 20 -Ae basese evil .. a. LAT IA IoTeiy.
ho1o-zoie, true, god AID % be DIR - Ne