the whilk directioun and be streking of the said battone thryse upone the ground the devill was in use sumtymes to appeir to the said Alexr in the liknes of ane corbie at uther tymes in the schape of ane katt and at uther tymes in the schape of ane dog and thereby the said Alexr did ressave reponsis frome him.—The said Alexr Hamiltoun coming to the said Thomas Homes house and seing him visseit with the said seiknes declairit to him that he was bewitchet and promeist to cure him thereof Lykas for this effect the said Alexr schortlie thereftir past to clarkingtoun burne besyde the rottoneraw haifing ane katt under his okister and thair wt his said battoun raisit Sathan his maister quha than appeirit to him in the liknes of ane corbie and thair instructit him be quhat meanis he sould cure the said Thomas of his said seiknes and he haifing ressauit that respons fra the devill the said Alexr thereftir cuist to him the kat quha therewt vanischet away.'[1]
Two of the Somerset witches in 1664 had familiars; to Elizabeth Style the familiar came as a black dog, 'and when she hath a desire to do harm, she calls the Spirit by the name of Robin, to whom when he appeareth, she useth these words, O Sathan give me my purpose. She then tells him what she would have done. And that he should so appear to her was part of her Contract with him.-Alice Duke saith, that when the Devil doth any thing for her, she calls for him by the name of Robin, upon which he appears, and when in the shape of a Man, she can hear him speak.'[2] This shows that the familiar, or Devil as she called him, was not always in the form of a man. The trial of Margaret Nin-Gilbert at Thurso was as late as 1719: 'Being interrogat, If ever the devil appeared afterwards to her? Confessed, That sometimes he appeared in the likeness of a great black horse, and other times riding on a black horse, and that he appeared sometimes in the likeness of a black cloud, and sometimes like a black henn.'[3]
2. The Domestic Familiar
Forbes, the great Scotch lawyer, says that 'to some he [the Devil] gives certain Spirits or Imps to correspond with, and serve them as their Familiars, known to them by some odd
