Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands | Page 6

the trouble. Sprinkling a whitish powder over them,
he burnt them in his furnace. A black offensive smoke was produced,
and he announced triumphantly that the evil influence was destroyed,
and that the patient would surely get well. He died not many days later,

believing, in common with his friends and relatives, that the
conjurations of the "trick doctor" had failed to save him only because
resorted to too late.
From the above it is evident that the natural tendency of wool and
feathers to felt and clog together, has been distorted, by widely
different peoples, into an outward and visible sign that occult and
malignant influences were at work.
* * * * *
As to the manner in which wizards and witches were put to the
question in Guernsey--that is tortured until they confessed whatever
was required of them--Mr. Warburton, a herald and celebrated
antiquary who wrote in the reign of Charles II., has given a
circumstancial account, the correctness of which may be relied on. His
_Treatise on the History, Laws and Customs of the Island of Guernsey_,
bears the date of 1682, and at page 126 he says:--
By the law approved (Terrien, Lib. xii. cap. 37), torture is to be used,
though not upon slight presumption, yet where the presumptive proof is
strong, and much more when the proof is positive, and there wants only
the confession of the party accused. Yet this practice of torturing does
not appear to have been used in the island for some ages, except in the
case of witches, when it was too frequently applied, near a century
since. The custom then was, when any person was supposed guilty of
sorcery or witchcraft, they carried them to a place in the town called La
Tour Beauregard, and there, tying their hands behind them by the two
thumbs, drew them to a certain height with an engine made for that
purpose, by which means sometimes their shoulders were turned round;
and sometimes their thumbs torn off; but this fancy of witches has for
some years been laid aside.
It will be noticed in the subsequent Confessions of witches (page 11,
&c.), that a number of colons (:) are inserted in the text where they
would not be required as ordinary marks of punctuation. These
correspond, however, to similar pauses in the original records, and
evidently indicate the successive stages by which the story was wrung

from the wretched victims. They are thus endowed with a sad and
ghastly significance, which must be borne in mind when the
confessions are read. It must also be remembered that these confessions
were not usually made in the connected form in which they stand
recorded, but were rather the result of leading questions put by the
inquisitors, such as: How old were you when the Devil first appeared to
you? What form did he assume? What parish were you in? What were
you doing? &c., &c.
Melancholy and revolting as all this is, yet the tortures made use of in
Guernsey were far from possessing those refinements of cruelty and
that intensity of brutality which characterised the methods practiced in
some other countries. Let us take as a proof of this, the notable case of
Dr. Fian and his associates, who were tried at Edinburgh, in the year
1591. The evidence was of the usual ridiculous kind, and a
confession--afterwards withdrawn--was extorted by the following
blood-curdling barbarities, as is quoted by Mr. C.K. Sharpe, in his
_Historical Account of the Belief in Witchcraft in Scotland_:--
The said Doctor was taken and imprisoned, and used with the
accustomed paine provided for those offences inflicted upon the rest, as
is aforesaid. First, by thrawing of his head with a rope, whereat he
would confesse nothing. Secondly, he was perswaded by faire meanes
to confesse his follies; but that would prevaile as little. Lastly, hee was
put to the most severe and cruell paine in the world, called the bootes,
who, after he had received three strokes, being inquired if he would
confesse his damnable actes and wicked life, his toong would not serve
him to speak; in respect whereof, the rest of the witches willed to
search his toong, under which was founde two pinnes thrust up into the
heade, whereupon the witches did say, now is the charme stinted, and
shewed that these charmed pins were the cause he could not confesse
any thing; then was he immediately released of the bootes, brought
before the King, his confession was taken, and his own hand willingly
set thereunto.... But this Doctor, notwithstanding that his owne
confession appeareth remaining in recorde under his owne
hande-writing, and the same thereunto fixed in the presence of the
King's majestie, and sundrie of his councell, yet did he utterly denie the

same. Whereupon