National Geographic History - 09.10 201

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 85

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The effect of such panics would have been felt

at the most local level: In western Scotland, in

the parish church of Dundonald, for example, on

November 8, 1629, “the minister publicly out of

the pulpit... did inhibit and discharge all sorts

of charming, and resorting to charmers, con-

sulting with wizards, sorcerers, and others of

that sort, certifying all and sundry who did so in

time coming, they should be... prosecuted with

death, as for the crimes of witchcraft.”

The Accused

The main stereotype of an accused witch was

an elderly, quarrelsome female. Often the initial

suspects in a panic would be individuals whose

neighbors complained of their harmful magic.

Once the initial suspects were pressed to name

accomplices, however, the latter were accused

less of harmful magic and more of having made

a pact with the devil. For women, this usually

included a sexual relationship with the male

devil. The few accusations against men omitted

the sexual element. A man had to do something

quite specific and rare in order to be charged

with witchcraft. As a result, 85 percent of the

convicted witches were women.

Quarrels were often a source of accusations.

Sometimes, villagers did indeed curse their

neighbors during a feud, but usually people

sought reconciliations. Confessions and neigh-

bors’ testimonies reveal much about quarrels

and curses. Katherine Craigie, tried in Orkney in

1640, told her neighbor, who was unwell, “that I

prayed ill for you, and now I see that prayer hath

taken effect.” Peasants usually did not want their

local witches executed. Even so, they didn’t ob-

ject when the authorities executed them.

Scottish witch-hunting was partly about local

quarrels and partly about the elite’s fear of the

devil, but some of it was also about magical fan-

tasy. Some people really believed that they could

cast spells. However, these spells were generally

benevolent. Marion Grant, in Aberdeenshire in

1597, cured sick cattle by casting south-running

water on them in the name of the Father, the

Son, and Holy Ghost, and “Christsonday,” the

name of an angel in folk belief. The interrogators

thought that Christsonday was really the devil,

PHYSICAL

EVIDENCE

S

USPECTED WITCHES were tried

by local courts, but some were sent

to Edinburgh for trial. Before trial,

evidence was gathered in the local-

ity. Some suspects were pricked to find the

“devil’s mark”—a lesion supposedly made

by contact with the devil when sealing his

pact with a witch. These spots could be

mere scars, moles, cysts, or skin tags.

Witch-hunters believed pricking them

would inflict no pain on the accused, but

in practice it was coercive and humiliat-

ing, and sometimes induced suspects to

confess. Panics could escalate when one

suspect was asked about other witches;

they could then be hauled in and interro-

gated in their turn. Across many European

cultures, searching for a devil’s mark was

a common practice. It was even used by

Salem witch-hunters in 1692 in the Mas-

sachusetts Bay Colony.

“EXAMINATION OF A

WITCH,” 1853 PAINTING BY

T.H. MATTESON. PEABODY

ESSEX MUSEUM, SALEM,

MASSACHUSETTS

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 85

BRIDGEMAN/ACI