A Sarah Griffith was long expected to be a bad woman, but the town became especially suspicious when the children started vomiting pins, experiencing fits, and seeing apparitions of cats, Mother Griffith went to buy something when the man accused her of bewitching his scales, she said she would get revenge, after his shop was in disorder and he had a strange disease, later a group of young men spotted Sarah and threw her in the water to find that she floats, she cursed on of the man’s arms and his fingers went black, and died of pain, Mother Griffith was apprehended, she pleaded innocent but was committed to Bridewel.
Tag: Vomit
Brief summary:
A young girl answer the door to begging witch, gave her food, and ate a leaf she was given then becoming extremely sick, she was transformed by a demon into ghastly shapes, vomited several unpleasant items, the witch was apprehended but said it was useless to kill her because she was under the control of two other witches, the author made a medicine which cured her and included the recipe.
Fuller summary:
It is said that God keeps us from knowing about the unseen world of spirits. However, those who don’t know God would be cured by seeing these spirits and apparitions. In this text written by Daniel Higgs, spirits and devilish forces cannot do anything to us without the power of God, yet a witness presents a case of these satanic forces influencing the power of a bewitchment of a young Irish girl.
As a key character in this detailed account, the little nine year girl goes through a series of torment and unrelenting afflictions at the hands of an evil witch. With no concrete evidence as to why the witch desired to torture her in the first place (the begging hag was presented bread and beer from the girl-was this not good enough?), the innocent child placed the witch’s “gift” of a sorrel leaf in her mouth and from there her horrific battle with countless diseases began. With no relief and for weeks, the girl battled with vomiting horse dung, needles, pins, hairs, feathers, and the occasional shape shifting into demonic animals. To make matters worse, the so-called witch would show up cleverly distanced from her house, yet still placed near enough as to torment the girl even more with her bewitching eye rolls and scorns.
Strangled, burned, and at the verge of being hanged, the accused witch would not free the child from her horrors. Noting that too many weeks had passed, and the bewitching from two other witches onto the girl, there seemed to be no hope. The parents decided it was time to call for a witch physician, and even he couldn’t do much for the girl. After countless sessions with ministers and their exorcisms on the child, her troubles just seemed to proliferate. There was even one point when the minister stopped reading his Bible and the girl became quiet and seemed cured, however, not for long. Her condition shifted from bad to worse and she started throwing up pins and needles from inside her body. These series of unrelenting spectacles inflicted upon the girl were clearly defined as the act of a witch, for it was not even a question that some crafty demonic being was involved. In no way could it ever be normal for these strange, abnormal events to occur without a logical, rational explanation.
The end of this pamphlet describes a final attempt to cure the girl from her wretched dilemma. By carrying her daughter to a special witch doctor in Dublin, the mother was able to get comfort and peace at last. A special ointment made from a mixture of dog grease, bear grease, leaves, and berries all exposed under the sun for nine weeks, cured the girl, leaving her in a transient state of melancholy. These simple human made/available ingredients show that we do have some kind of attack/barrier against the cursing of these witches. From this testimonial we can see the malicious nature of witches and their unrational inflictions which cannot be explained by any reason other than witchcraft. I don’t believe any form of science or morality can explain why a young girl would bloodlessly vomit up needles, knifes and shape shift into strange animals. The forces of a witch and her demonic counterpart are out of the nature of God’s divine power, and this pamphlet shows the degree of how powerful the force of this satanic entity actually is. Also, this account helps to establish the notion that although there is no absolute link for witchcraft, there are common activities involved with their nature, one of which is this narrative of the beggar. This eyewitness account is important because although there were fraud possessions and testimonials against witches, the doctor’s narrative shows a true bewitching of a little girl and her cure.
A young girl named Christian Shaw saw her mother’s maid Campbel stealing from the house and told her mom, the maid cursed her, a few days later in her sleep she broke into fits and was flung over the top of a bed in front of her family, she cried that Campbel and an Agnes Nafmith were cutting her side, random things such as hay and dung fell out of her mouth, she saw animals in her bed, Campbel and Nafmith, along with several other men and women, were apprehended for bewitching Christian, when they touched her she broke into fits, they were condemned and executed
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Great news from the west of England
William Spicer went to the house of an old woman and accused her of being a witch, infuriated she called a Justice of the Peace and he felt bad, later that night he went into mad fits, he often saw the woman in the night and would vomit up pins, a Mary Hill asking for her ring back from the woman later went into fits and similarly threw up pins, upon bringing Mary in spasms to the woman’s house they found that she floated into the air, but was pulled down by men who grabbed her feet, a Jury of Women searched her body finding teats and pricking her with a needle without eliciting any pain, she was apprehended until the next Assizes, she also floated in water.
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A tryal of witches at the assizes
Rose and Amy were arranged for bewitching several men and women, to which they pled not guilty, several witnesses were unable to testify after going into fits, Amy suckled her mistress’s baby against demands, he later broke out in fits and was taken to a doctor, a toad appeared in their house which they threw in the fire, they found Amy to be scorched the next day, Amy was found guilty, and Elizabeth Pacy, giving her testimony, was mute until she was put near Amy when she scratched her face, the daughter of Elizabeth also fell into fits, they would cry out the names of Rose and Amy, they were sent to their Aunts where the accused also arrived, throwing up pins, they sent several imps to torment them, they were found guilty, they were hanged but did not confess.
A short letter addressed to someone anonymous, a daughter has been afflicted by her father’s servant, she was apprehended but upon confessing about other witches tormenting her tongue would be drawn out of her mouth, she vomited hay and coal and hair, but was finally able to report other witches who were apprehended and confessed.
Some elderly women were being arranged for witchcraft, two of the chief witness fell into fits in front of the Judges, they then vomited knives, wool, pins, and marble on the floor, the Judges were satisfied with the evidence against the witches but decided to give more time before deciding if the vomit was from the devil or something artificial produced by the women, and then contains a translation from Latin of physician’s notes about the disease.
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The boy of Bilson
a young boy was thought to be possessed, could identify his supposed bewitcher when she was in the room but could not hear verse, he was found to be mixing ink with urine to feign bewitchment, he confessed to have meet a Thomas a priest, who taught him how to pretend in order to skip school, they tried to convert him, he begged for pardon after confessing
written by the minister himself but apparently published without his knowledge, descriptions of his fits and a black dog that appeared, argues that the swellings seen across his body could not be counterfeited, criticizes Sommers for being a liar, claims that the confession of Alice Goodridge also confirms that the Thomas Darling was not lying either, contains a list of evidence supporting his case
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The most wonderfull and true storie
boy gets sick in front of uncle and sees green Angels and a green cat, broke out in warts and fits, Alice Gooderige and others were brought to help, they found a gaping hole a wart on her, attempted to exorcize him but he continues to see dragons and Satan while reacting negatively to the Bible, they try to get her to confess, he is cured and she dies, but was not executed