Bulwer gives the following _easy
recipe_ for "setting a horse or ass' head" on a man's neck and
shoulders:[3]--"Cut off the head of a horse or an ass _(before they be
dead, otherwise the virtue or strength thereof will be less
effectual,)_ and take an earthen vessel of a fit capacity to contain
the same. Let it be filled with the oyl or fat thereof; cover it
close, and daub it over with loam. Let it boil over a soft fire for
three dayes, that the flesh boiled may run into oyl, so as the bones
may be seen. Beat the hair into powder, and mingle the same with the
oyl, and _anoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seem to
have horses or asses' heads!_ If beasts' heads be anointed with the
like oyl made of a man's head, (we suppose cut off while the said man
was 'alive!') they shall seem to have men's faces, as divers authors
soberly affirm!"
[Footnote 3: Shakspeare must have derived from this hint, the similar
transformation in "The Midsummer Night's Dream."]
After dwelling on the dark and malignant qualities of witches, it is
but justice to give a few of the charms which, for a small
remuneration, they would bestow for the benefit of those who sought
their assistance in the hour of trouble. These charms were possessed of
various degrees of virtue, _ex.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28