was to be faithfull in his service, and then ye other six hee would serve her, and make her a witch'.[1] At Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1673 Ann Armstrong 'deposeth that Ann Drydon had a lease for fifty yeares of the divill, whereof ten ar expired. Ann Forster had a lease of her life for 47 yeares, whereof seaven are yet to come. Lucy Thompson had a lease of two and forty, whereof two are yet to come, and, her lease being near out, they would have perswaded this informer to have taken a lease of three score yeares or upwards.[2] In New England some of the 'afflicted' said of Goodwife C. that 'she had Covenanted with the Devil for ten Years, six of them were gone, and four more to come'.[3] In modern France the belief in the contract for a term of years is recorded, but nothing is said of the renewal of the contract or of the fate of the witch who refuses such a contract. In the department of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse the full method of entering on such a contract is known: 'Si vous voulez venir au bois avec moi, vous verrez un homme venir à vous. C'est le chef. Il vous demandera si vous voulez vous engager dans la société. Si vous acceptez, le terme d'engagement est de sept ans et vous gagnerez une plaquette par jour.'[4] Among the Walloons the neophyte takes with him a black hen, which the Devil buys, and then ratifies the contract, 'le pacte est fait pour une durée de sept ans.'[5]
5. The Baptism
Records of the baptism of candidates are rare, the rite being possibly copied from the Christian ceremony and therefore of later date. It does not seem to occur in England and hardly at all in Scotland. The earliest mention is in the Basses-Pyrénées (1609), where Jeannette d'Abadie stated 'qu'elle a veu souuent baptiser des enfans au sabbat, qu'elle nous expliqua estre des enfans des sorcieres & non autres, lesquelles ont accoutumé faire plustost baptiser leurs enfans au sabbat qu'en l'Eglise'.[6] The rite, however, was practised in Bute in 1662: Margret NcLevine confessed—
