Page:An Examen of Witches.pdf/80

the form of a man; and I suppose that he does this so that he may not frighten him whom he approaches, or cause him to be amazed, as he would if he were to speak to him in the shape of a ram or a goat or any other beast. And in this we may see how very busy is this mortal enemy of the human race. But whenever he assumes the form of a man, he is, however, always black, as all witches bear witness. And for my part I hold that there are two principal reasons for this; Ephes. 6.
Matth. 8.first, that he who is the Father and Ruler of darkness may not be able to disguise himself so well that he may not always be known for what he is; secondly, as a proof that his study is only to do evil; for evil, as Pythagoras said, is symbolised by black. This is what Tamburlaine the Great had in mind when, while he was besieging a town, he set up black tents on the third day as a sign that he would put all the inhabitants to fire and the sword if they did not surrender. Ovid, Fast. 5.And long before him, the Greeks regarded it as a bad omen if, in drawing lots, one of the lots were black.

Alexander ab Alexandro, Genial. III. 12.Furthermore, Satan does not always create for himself a body out of air, water or earth, but very often enters into a beast. Mark 5.We see this in St. Mark, where the Devil whose name was Legion prayed Jesus Christ to send him and his companions into the bodies of certain swine, and obtained his request. Lib. de Dæmonibus.And, if we may believe Psellus, there are even demons which live under the earth, and sometimes enter into the body of a swine or other beast, not in order to harm it, but because the cold underneath the earth is so extreme that they cannot endure it, and, being equally unable to endure the rays of the sun, they