'ane gray stane' at the foot of the hill at Craigleauch.[1] Margaret Johnson (1633) said 'shee was not at the greate meetinge at Hoarestones at the Forest of Pendle upon All Saints day'.[2] Though no stone is actually mentioned the name suggests that there had been, or still were, one or more stones standing in that place. The Swedish witches (1669) seem to have used the same site for both kinds of meetings; Blockula seems to have been a building of some kind, set in a meadow which was entered by a painted gate; within the building were rooms and some kind of chapel for the religious service.[3] The New England recorders (1692) did not enter into much detail, but even among them the fact is mentioned that there was 'a General Meeting of the Witches, in a Field at Salem-Village'.[4]
In modern times the identification of stones or of certain places with the Devil or with witch meetings is very noticeable. Out of innumerable instances I will mention only a few. In Guernsey the Catioroc is always identified as the site of the Sabbath. In Belgium 'à Godarville (Hainaut) se trouve un tunnel hanté par les sorcières; elles y tiennent leur sabbat'.[5]
'Un bloc de pierre isolé et d'aspect extraordinaire est généralement appelé pierre du diable. Exemples: a) le dolmen détruit près de Namur; b) la grande pierre en forme de table à demi encastrée dans la route qui conduit du village de Sény à celui d'Ellemelle (Candroz); c) le fais du diable, bloc de grès d'environ 800 mètres cubes, isolé dans la bruyère entre Wanne et Grand-Halleux près de Stavelot; d) les murs du diable à Pepinster, &c.—Dans plusieurs cantons, il y a un terrain que l'on appèle tchan dè makral, "champ des sorciers". C'est le cas près de Remouchamps, près de Tongres, près de la Gileppe et près de Grand-Halleux.'[6]
- ↑ Spalding Club Misc., i, pp. 97-8, 114, 149, 153, 165, 167.
- ↑ Whitaker, p. 216; Baines, i, p. 607 note, where the name is given as Hartford. The importance of the stone in the Sabbath ceremonies is very marked in the account of a meeting in Northumberland (1673). Ann Armstrong declared that 'she and the rest had drawne their compasse nigh to a bridg end, and the devil placed a stone in the middle of the compasse, they sett themselves downe, and bending towards the stone, repeated the Lord's prayer backwards'. Denham Tracts, ii, p. 307; Surtees Soc., xl, p. 197.
- ↑ Horneck, pt. ii, pp. 321, 324.
- ↑ Mather, p. 131.
- ↑ Harou, La Tradition, vi (1892), p. 367.
- ↑ Monseur, pp. 2, 88.
