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<TEMPHEAD>
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<CHANGE>
<DATE>2009-01-28</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Scott Lepisto</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Checklist:
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<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="B03653">
<STC T="W">H1959A</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">47012475</BIBNO>
<VID>174441</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<P>THE WONDERFULL and TRUE RELATION Of the <HI>Bewitching</HI> a Young <HI>Girle</HI> in IRELAND, What Way She was tormented, and a <HI>Receipt</HI> of the <HI>Ointment</HI> that She was cured with,</P>
<P>Printed in the Year, 1699.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="account">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="3" REF="2">
<HEAD>The true and wonderfull <HI>Relation</HI> of the <HI>Be|witching</HI> of a young <HI>Girle</HI> in <HI>Ireland;</HI> What Way She was tormented, and a re|ceipt of the <HI>Ointment</HI> She was cured with.</HEAD>
<P>IT &s;eemeth hard to unruly Minds, that GOD &s;hould keep intellectual <HI>Souls</HI> &s;o &s;trange to the un&s;een <HI>World</HI> of <HI>Spirits;</HI> that We know &s;o little of them, that our Knowledge of them is no more by the Way of <HI>Sen&s;e;</HI> But there is in it much of GOD's <HI>Arbitrarie Soveraign Power,</HI> and much of His <HI>Wi&s;edom,</HI> and much of His <HI>Ju&s;tice,</HI> and al&s;o of His <HI>Love.</HI></P>
<P>But to &s;ee the <HI>Devils</HI> and other <HI>Spirits</HI> or|dinarly would not be enough to bring our <HI>Athei&s;ts</HI> to the &s;aving knowledge of <HI>GOD,</HI> without which al other knowledge is vain. They that doubt of GOD, the mo&s;t per|fect, eternal, and infinite Beeing, while they &s;ee the <HI>Sun, Moon,</HI> and <HI>Stars,</HI> the <HI>Sea,</HI> and <HI>Land,</HI> would not know Him by &s;eing created <HI>Spirits,</HI> and finding that al|mo&s;t
<PB N="4" REF="3">
all the <HI>Athei&s;ts, Sadducees,</HI> and <HI>In|fidels,</HI> did &s;eem to profe&s;s that were they but &s;ure of the Reality of the Apparitions and Operations of Spirits, it would cure Them; I thought this the mo&s;t &s;uitable Help for them.</P>
<P>I confe&s;s it is very difficult to expound the Cau&s;es of all mentioned in the&s;e Hi|&s;tories of <HI>Witches</HI> and <HI>Spirits:</HI> But proved Maters of Fact mu&s;t not be denied, but improved as well as well as We can, and And I confe&s;s very manie cheats of preten|ded <HI>Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions</HI> have been di&s;covered which have made &s;ome weak injudicious Men think that all are &s;uch. Two &s;orts of per|&s;ons have oft been found Deceavers,</P>
<P N="1">1. Per&s;ons prepared and trained up pur|po&s;ely by <HI>Papi&s;t Priests,</HI> to honour their <HI>Exorci&s;ms,</HI> You may find in Print of the <HI>Boy</HI> of <HI>Bil&s;on, Petrius</HI> who afterwards I heard turned <HI>Quaker</HI> at <HI>Bristol,</HI> many &s;uch like are recorded in Hi&s;tory.</P>
<P N="2">2. Lu&s;tfull, rank <HI>Girls</HI> and young <HI>Wi|dows,</HI> that plot for &s;ome amorous proca|cious De&s;ign, or have Imaginations con|quered by Lu&s;t, tho' I think when they
<PB N="5" REF="3">
come to a <HI>Furor &V;terinus, Sathan</HI> oft &s;etts in.</P>
<P>The In&s;tances tell Us, 1. that the &s;tate Conver&s;e, Policy, Laws of the <HI>Aerial World</HI> or <HI>Regions,</HI> are much, tho' not wholly, unknown to Us here. 2. And &s;o is the na|tural State of the departed Souls of wick|ed Men, as to their having Bodies or no Bodies, their Power, their Witts, their Mo|tions, and Pa&s;&s;ions. 3. and al&s;o, whether they be proper <HI>Devils</HI> when joined with, or of another <HI>Species.</HI> 4. And 'tis hard to know by their Words or Signs, when it is a <HI>Devil,</HI> &amp; when is an <HI>Humane Soul</HI> that appeareth. 5. and it is un&s;earchable to us, how far God leaveth invi&s;ible, intellectual Powrs to free will about inferiour things, &s;u&s;pending his predetermining motion tho not his generall motion and concour&s;s &amp; whether tho&s;e called <HI>Fairies</HI> and <HI>Goblins</HI> are not &s;uch.</P>
<P>But as all the&s;e, and more &s;uch, are un|knowen to us, &s;o GOD &s;eeth it meet for us that it &s;hould be &s;o, and we &s;hould not &s;o much as de&s;ire or indeavor that it might be otherwi&s;e.</P>
<P><PB N="6" REF="4">But we may know (which mu&s;t &s;uf|fice us) That no Spirits can doe any thing, but by GOD's will or permi&s;&s;ion</P>
<P>But now to come to this true relation which my eyes did &s;ee all along and many Hundereds did &s;ee which they can ate&s;t to this day &s;ay <HI>Athei&s;ts</HI> what they will I was not blinded in it.</P>
<P>At <HI>Antrim</HI> in <HI>Ireland</HI> a litle girle in the ninth year of hir age, for beauty, edu|cation, or birth inferior to none where &s;he lived, having inocently put into hir mouth a <HI>Sorrel</HI> leaf, which was given her by a Witch that begged at the door, to whom &s;he had fir&s;t given a peice of bread, and then &s;ome Beer, it was &s;carce &s;wallowed by her, when &s;he began to be tortured in her bowels, to tremble all over, and then to be convul&s;t, and in fine, to &s;won away &amp; fall as one dead. Severall Doctors being caled (for at the for&s;aid place wher the&s;e things happned in <HI>May</HI> 1698. it is cu&s;tom|ary for to practi&s;e phy&s;ick) tho' they &s;o&punc; manie Days experimented the Remedie u|&s;ual in this Ca&s;e; The Child found no re|lief, but was &s;till aflicted with very freqent
<PB N="7" REF="4">
and mo&s;t terrible <HI>Paroxi&s;ms;</HI> whereupon, as the cu&s;tom of the Country is, they con|&s;ult the Mini&s;ters of that place, but they had &s;carce laid their Hands on Her when the child was transformed by the <HI>Daemon</HI> in to &s;uch &s;haps as a man that hath not beheld it with his eyes, would hardly be brought to imagine. It began fir&s;t to rowl it &s;elf about, and nixt to Vomit <HI>Hor&s;e Dung, Needles, Pins, Hairs, Feathers,</HI> bottoms of <HI>Threed,</HI> Fieces of <HI>Gla&s;s Window Nails</HI> draven out of a Cart or Coach wheels, an iron <HI>knife</HI> above a &s;pan long, <HI>Egg</HI> and <HI>Fi&s;h &s;hells</HI> in the mean while, hir parents and tho&s;e of the neighbourhood, ob&s;erve that when&s;o|ever the Witch came near the Hou&s;e, or &s;o much as turned her eye towards it, even at the di&s;tance of two hundreth paces, the poor Child was in much greater tor|ment then befor, in&s;omuch that &s;he could by no means be ea&s;ie of her fitt, or &s;hew one &s;ign of life until &s;he was at a very great <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1+ letters">nce from Her. This <HI>Witch</HI> was &s;oon <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 span">pprehended, and confe&s;t both this, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 span">ite other the like Feats, for when <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 span">ngled and burnt, being de&s;ired
<PB N="8" REF="5">
by the <HI>Minister</HI> who a&s;&s;i&s;ted Her in Her la&s;t <HI>Agony,</HI> and at that Moment on which depends Eternity; when the Executioner had now fitted the Rope to her Neck, that &s;he would di&s;&s;olve the <HI>Spell,</HI> and ea&s;e the Child, &s;he &s;aid it was not in her Power be|cau&s;e the <HI>Ember-Weeks</HI> were pa&s;t &s;ince &s;he had bewitched Her; adding, that &s;hould &s;he undo the Villanies &s;he had perpetarted, the child would not &s;o quickly recover, for the two other <HI>Witches,</HI> whom &s;he named, had al&s;o given her mortal <HI>Infections,</HI> from the Effects whereof &s;he could not without Difficulty, and much time, be delivered, the Mother as in a de&s;picable ca&s;e, brought her Daughter to me about the middle of <HI>Sep|tember,</HI> and I had her with Me &s;ome weeks What I then &s;aw, heard, and handled, be|cau&s;e I know many <HI>Phy&s;icians,</HI> tho&s;e e&s;pe|cially that are aver&s;e that there can be <HI>Wit|chas,</HI> will hardly believe it upon my Nar|rative; So may GOD help Me, as I &s;hall mo&s;t truly relate what I &s;aw. The Day af|ter this unfortunat child came to my hou&s;e I took care to &s;end for a <HI>Mini&s;ter</HI> who &s;till lives here, while he was yet 50 paces from
<PB N="9" REF="5">
my Chamber, the <HI>Girle</HI> fell down as one deprived of Life; I took her for dead, For &s;he had not &s;o much as the lea&s;t <HI>breath:</HI> her Fingers and Toes, (which if I had not &s;een it my &s;elf, I could not have believed it,) were &s;o writhen and convul&s;t, that the exterior or third Joint, &s;ttuck &s;o hard un|to the &s;econd, a thing which is &s;carce po&s;|&s;ible narurallie, that they might &s;eem to have been fa&s;tned together with the &s;tiffe&s;t <HI>Glue:</HI> I endeavoured to thru&s;t a Golden Bodkin betwixt them, and after an Iron Nail, a Wooden Spindle, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> but all in vain; the <HI>Mother</HI> &s;eing the <HI>Child</HI> fall, For &s;he would never go one &s;tep from her, &s;aid, the <HI>Mini&s;ters</HI> were comeing, &s;he had no &s;ooner &s;aid this, but they knocked at the Door: when they were come in and light|ed a <HI>Candle,</HI> as &s;oon as ever they had read the fir&s;t Words of a Chapter of the <HI>Go&s;pel</HI> of S. <HI>Matthew,</HI> the Girle which hitherto had lain more immovable than any dead <HI>Corps,</HI> fell a &s;haking all over, Her Fingers and Toes continuing as they were, with that Vio|lence that &s;he could not be held &s;till by &s;ix of us, by no means We could u&s;e; my &s;elf
<PB N="10" REF="6">
who with all my &s;trength e&s;&s;ayed to hold her Head, ob&s;erved it both by my &s;ight and feeling, to be writhen as by an <HI>Ophistho|nick Convul&s;ion,</HI> together with Her Neck towards her &s;houlders; in the mean time, her belly was ra<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">ed up to a prodigious big|ne&s;s and was nearer her Throat, than Her Thighs: and that with &s;o great a Noi&s;e &amp; Grumbling of Her Bowels, that all pre&s;ent could hear it at above ten Paces di&s;tance. The Sound was the neare&s;t to that which is cau&s;ed by tempe&s;tuous Waves under the Prow of a &s;hip; all this while the child vo|mited &s;evral of the abovementioned things I begg'd the <HI>Mini&s;ter,</HI> out of Compa&s;&s;ion to Her, to forbear his reading, he had &s;carce pronounced the la&s;t &s;illable, when in an in|&s;tant &s;he lay as quiet as po&s;&s;ible, and after He had quited the Hou&s;e, and was at a con|&s;iderable di&s;tance off, &s;he undid her fin|gers and Toes, and open her Eyes, &amp; &s;traight way &s;tood up, and when &s;he had weept a little, and chid her mother for &s;ending for the <HI>Minister,</HI> tho' &s;he never &s;aw them, nor as &s;he &s;aid, heard them, &s;he pre&s;ently began to eat, drink, and play with her equals
<PB N="11" REF="6">
ju&s;t as if nothing had ailed her, but upon the <HI>Mini&s;ter</HI>'s returning to do his office, &s;he was as formerly, I &s;aw her this while ca&s;t up Feathers, Bundles of Straw, above the bigne&s;s of my thumb, with pins &s;tuck acro&s;s the &s;traws, Points woven of Threed of &s;e|veral Colours, and a row of Pins &s;tuck in a blue paper, as fre&s;h and new as any &s;old in the <HI>Pedlar</HI>'s &s;tall: In fine, every thing as the innocent child affirmed, which &s;he had &s;een in the <HI>Witches</HI> basket when &s;he begg'd, which favours plainly of <HI>Devil&s;m,</HI> &amp; which all the <HI>Philo&s;ophers</HI> in the World, are not able to &s;olve; for by what Operation could every thing &s;he had &s;een in the basket, be conveyed in the &s;ame kind and tale into the Bowels of the child, except the <HI>Devil</HI> him&s;elf was not a&s;&s;i&s;ting? But when I &s;aw all &s;he had ca&s;t up, was perfectly dry, and without the lea&s;t wet, I told the Mini&s;ters and &s;everal learned men pre&s;ent (for I cal'd many out of de&s;ire of being the better in|formed) that &s;urely our Eyes were inchan|ted; for that the&s;e things could not po&s;&s;i|bly come out of her Body, For how could it be that the pricking of &s;o many Pins,
<PB N="12" REF="7">
&s;hould bring up no Blood? How could a &s;harp knife come up the narrow throat of a young child without cutting the pa&s;&s;age I added that it was my Opinion that the&s;e things mu&s;t be convyed privatly &s;ome way from &s;ome other Place, and then by the malicious Demon that took plea&s;ure to de|ceave us, drop from the Childs Lips into our hands and that I was brought to mind of a Ver&s;e in <HI>Ovid,</HI> which I never under|&s;tood, but now le&s;s than ever, it is this,</P>
<Q><LG>
<L>Devovet ab&s;entes &s;imulacraque cerea &s;ingit,</L>
<L>Et mi&s;erum tenues in jecur urget Acus.</L>
<L>Cur&s;es the ab&s;ent, then forms waxen &s;hapes</L>
<L>Runs into th' Liver Needles&mdash;</L>
</LG></Q>
<P>The words are &s;poken of <HI>Maedea</HI> a <HI>Witch,</HI> but the child her&s;elf being immixt with us in our debates and of a capacity above her years, &s;oon re&s;olved this difficulty, for we doubt not &s;aid &s;he, but that thes things com out of me, and with that &s;he caught my Hand, and put it to her Throat; feel, &s;aid &s;he, a Pin without an head comeing up, and which will come up pre&s;ently, I felt and immediatly when I thought verily I
<PB N="13" REF="7">
held it fa&s;t betwixt the fingers of my left Hand within her Throat, I perceaved it to be forced violently from me, and pre&s;ent|ly &s;eeing the child about to &s;pit, I recea|ved in my right Hand, and I have &s;hewed &s;ince to &s;everal incredulous per&s;ons, and &s;till keep it by me to &s;hew to the Curious, with Parots Feathers, Threed, Straw and other like Materials. In like maner I have frequently at other times felt the ends of Points, while they were yet in the very o|rifice of her &s;tomach, and while they were comeing up, and ready to come out of her Mouth, all who were curious to make ex|periments imagined they could hold the end of the Point in the middle of her Throat, but the crafty Demon defeated all their Attempts.</P>
<P>After &s;he had exorted for &s;ome weeks to no Purpo&s;e, her mother had great de&s;ire to carry her to a Doctor near to <HI>Dublin</HI> who was belived by the vulgar, to be verie fam|ous in the curing of the&s;e but &s;taying &s;e|verall dayes without any effect they bring the child back to my hou&s;e, not on Jot the better but the wor&s;e by a Hydrophobia or as I would rather call it a Stygrophobia
<PB N="14" REF="8">
or fearfullne&s;s of moi&s;t things, &s;o called; very &s;ad and di&s;con&s;olat, and di&s;paring of her life, Yea, praying for her death &s;he came back to me, about the mid&s;t of <HI>Autum</HI> refu&s;ing not only wine, beer, meed, and all water; but al&s;o boiled meat, and bread &s;teept in broath or wine, and att la&s;t wheat &amp; wheaten bread I belive becau&s;e the one was made with milk, and the other with water, as is u&s;uall with us, for which rea&s;on for forty dayes time, &s;he lived on nothing but Apples, Rai&s;ins, Nuts, Almonds &amp; other fruits proper to the &s;ea&s;on yet for all this-the ro&s;ie blu&s;h in her cheeks was not di|mini&s;hed, nor the milky &s;now of her fore+head, at la&s;t for fifteen dayes and nights together, &s;he took neither meat nor drink how &s;he could Pa&s;s &s;o many dayes with|out eaither meat or drink: I confe&s;s my &s;elfe ignorant; but that &s;o it was, I doe avow, and all my family are ready mo&s;t &s;olemnly to depo&s;e upon Oath; on the &s;ex|teenth day when &s;he had of her own ac|cord, asked for &s;ome drink, and taken it &s;he no longer refu&s;ed food. I thought then &s;ea&s;on to have recour&s;e to naturall means,
<PB N="15" REF="8">
not omitting divne exerci&s;e and I prepared the decoction <HI>ex fuga Daemonum</HI> of &s;outh|eren wood, Mugwort, Vervene <HI>&amp;c.</HI> and after I had u&s;ed her a while to that drink, I &s;ent her home: in the Intrim tumbling over all the books, I could find, at la&s;t I light on <HI>Bartholemew Carrichters,</HI> &s;ecret<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"> who in XII. Chap. of his 2 book de&s;cribs a certain medicine proper to this malady finding this mightly recomended in <HI>Hor&s;ti|us</HI> his medicinall epi&s;tles, <HI>Epist.</HI> I. <HI>Sect.</HI> VII. in <HI>Hector Schlands</HI> letter to <HI>Grigory Ho&s;t|rus</HI> dated in the year 1612. I write to the Apothecary in <HI>Dublin</HI> in who&s;e &s;hops I thought it was &s;old promi&s;ing any rate for the unguent and pre&s;cription but receving no advice from them, and being day and night &s;olicitus for the Childs recoverie I took <HI>Carrichter</HI> again into my hands, and having much adoe to under&s;tand him by rea&s;on of a mi&s;tack of the printers who had printed in one word <HI>Hoter bletter beer</HI> which &s;hould have been in three, I at la&s;t a long time after for want of nece&s;&s;arie ma|terials, cau&s;ed the folowing unguent to be made. Take of Dogs Grea&s;e well di&s;&s;olved
<PB N="16" REF="9">
and clean&s;ed, four <HI>Ounces;</HI> Of Bears Grea&s;e eight Ounce; Of Capons Grea&s;e, four and twenty Ounces; three trunks of the <HI>Mi&s;le|toe</HI> of the <HI>Hazle</HI> while green, cut in pieces &amp; pound it &s;mal, till it become moi&s;t; brui&s;e together the wood, leaves and Berries, mix all in a Vial, after You have expo&s;ed it to the Sun for nine weeks; You &s;hall extract a green Bal&s;om, wherewith if you anoint the Bodies of the Bewitched, e&s;pecially the parts mo&s;t effected and the joynts, they will certainly be cured, as hath been pro|ved by the child, who hath been now perfectly well &s;ince only an the dayes of the Ember-weeks do what &s;he can &s;he is &s;eized with a certain tran&s;ient melancholy.</P>
<P>And this is the rea&s;on why I have in|genou&s;ly communicated to the world, the above-mentioned Pre&s;cription, concealed by others, and ordered it to be printed for the Good of others that may have the like; So <HI>Farewell.</HI></P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Daniel Higgs.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
