According to Isobel Gowdie in 1662, the Devil of Auldearne changed his form, or disguise, continually, 'somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg'.[1] [In the above, I have taken the word 'beast' in its usual meaning as an animal of the cattle tribe, but it is quite possible that the Lille beast, beste in the original, may have been a goat and not a bull. This seems likely from the fact that the sacrifice was by fire as in the other places where the Devil used the goat-disguise.]
2. Cat.—The earliest example of the cat-disguise is in the trial of the Guernsey witches in 1563, when Martin Tulouff confessed:
'q il y a viron ung quartier d'an passez q il soy trouva auvecqs la Vieillesse aultremẽt dit Collenette Gascoing, en la rue de la fosse au Coully, là ou l y avoet chinq ou vi chatz, d'ou il y en avoet ung qui estoet noir, qui menoit la dance, et danssoient et luy dyst ladte Collenette, q il besait ledt Chat et dt q il estoet sur ses pieds plat, et que ladite Collenette le besa p de derriere, et luy p la crysse, et q frãcoize Lenouff sa mère y estoet et Collette Salmon fae de Collas du port, laqlle alloet devãt et s'agenouillerent tos devãt le Chat et l'adorerẽt en luy baillãt ler foy, et luy dist ladite Vieillesse q ledit Chat estoet le diable.'[2]
Françoise Secretain, in 1598, saw the Devil 'tantost en forme de chat'. Rolande de Vernois said, 'Le Diable se presenta pour lors au Sabbat en forme d'vn groz chat noir.'[3] In 1652 another French witch confessed that 'il entra dans sa chambre en forme d'ung chat et se changea en la posture d'un home vestu de rouge', who took her to the Sabbath.[4] Both the Devonshire witches, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards, in 1682, stated that they saw him as a lion, by which they possibly meant a large cat.[5] In this connexion it is worth noting that in Lapland as late as 1767 the devil appeared 'in the likeness of a cat, handling them from their feet to their mouth, and counting their teeth'.[6]
3. Dog.—At Chelmsford in 1556 Joan Waterhouse 'dydde as she had seene her mother doe, callynge Sathan, whiche
