The Amber Witch

The Amber Witch (ed William
Meinhold, tr Lady Duff Gordon)
[with accents]

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Title: The Amber Witch
Author: Mary Schweidler
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THE AMBER WITCH
by
Mary Schweidler
The most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known. Printed from an
imperfect manuscript by her father Abraham Schweidler, the pastor of
Coserow, in the Island of Usedom.
Edited by W. Meinhold Doctor of Theology, and Pastor, etc.
Translated from the German by Lady Duff Gordon.
Original publication date: 1846.

PREFACE
In laying before the public this deeply affecting and romantic trial,
which I have not without reason called on the title-page the most
interesting of all trials for witchcraft ever known, I will first give some
account of the history of the manuscript.
At Coserow, in the Island of Usedom, my former cure, the same which
was held by our worthy author some two hundred years ago, there
existed under a seat in the choir of the church a sort of niche, nearly on
a level with the floor. I had, indeed, often seen a heap of various
writings in this recess; but owing to my short sight, and the darkness of
the place, I had taken them for antiquated hymn-books, which were
lying about in great numbers. But one day, while I was teaching in the

church, I looked for a paper mark in the Catechism of one of the boys,
which I could not immediately find; and my old sexton, who was past
eighty (and who, although called Appelmann, was thoroughly unlike
his namesake in our story, being a very worthy, although a most
ignorant man), stooped down to the said niche, and took from it a folio
volume which I had never before observed, out of which he, without
the slightest hesitation, tore a strip of paper suited to my purpose, and
reached it to me. I immediately seized upon the book, and, after a few
minutes' perusal, I know not which was greater, my astonishment or my
vexation at this costly prize. The manuscript, which was bound in
vellum, was not only defective both at the beginning and at the end, but
several leaves had even been torn out here and there in the middle. I
scolded the old man as I had never done during the whole course of my
life; but he excused himself, saying that one of my predecessors had
given him the manuscript for waste paper, as it had lain about there
ever since the memory of man, and he had often been in want of paper
to twist round the altar candles, etc. The aged and half-blind pastor had
mistaken the folio for old parochial accounts which could be of no
more use to any one.[1]
No sooner had I reached home than I fell to work upon my new
acquisition, and after reading a bit here and there with considerable
trouble, my interest was powerfully excited by the contents.
I soon felt the necessity of making myself better acquainted with the
nature and conduct of these witch trials, with the proceedings, nay,
even with the history of the whole period in which these events occur.
But the more I read of these extraordinary stories, the more was I
confounded; and neither the trivial Beeker (_die bezauberte Welt_, the
enchanted world), nor the more careful Horst (_Zauberbibliothek_, the
library of magic), to which, as well as to several other works on the
same subject, I had flown for information, could resolve my doubts, but
rather served to increase them.
Not alone is the demoniacal character, which pervades nearly all these
fearful stories,