THE GEOGRAPHY OF WITCHCRAFT

corpse of the murderer after execution, unwept, unburied, the prey of hawks and crows. Her rites were monstrous, but to be respected and revered; her worshippers were accursed, but to be dreaded and placated; her prayers were blasphemy; her sacrifices were impious and terrible. It was in truth the very cult of hell.

Hecate in vengeance sent spectres and ghostly phantoms which filled men’s hearts with hideous fear and drove them to madness and despair. These were the epopides, the silent watchers of the night. Other members of her train were the Empusae, monstrous hobgoblins with the feet of donkeys, who might, on a sudden, take a thousand forms to scare belated travellers; the Cercopis, a poltergeist who haunted crossroads; and, most dreaded of all, Mormo, a foul and loathly ghoul.

Eusebius has preserved an answer which, according to Porphyry, was given by Hecate to one of her votaries. The worshipper is bidden to carve a statue of well-planed wood according to certain mystic formulas. The figure is to be smeared with rue, and then with a paste compounded of lizards, myrrh, storax, and incense grains, which must be prepared when the new moon hangs like a sickle in the sky. When the moon is full, "vow your solemn vows in these words." This phrase unfortunately has not been preserved for us. "Build a shrine and deck it with wild laurel boughs, set therein my image which you shall adore with fervent prayer, and in your sleep I will stand before you." Probably the invocation which Eusebius omitted is that which we find in the Philosophumena of St. Hippolytus: "Come, infernal, terrestrial, and heavenly Bombo, goddess of the broad roadways, of the crossroads, you who go to and fro at night, torch in hand, enemy of the day, friend and lover of darkness, you who rejoice when the bitches are howling and warm blood is spilled, you who walk amid the phantom and in the place of tombs, you whose thirst is blood, you who strike chill fear into the mortal heart, Gorgo, Mormo, Moon of a thousand forms, cast a propitious eye upon our sacrifice."

As in medieval times it was often believed that supernatural powers were the heritage of certain families, descending from one generation to another, and that all Lappish womenThe Lapps were historically regarded by Northern Europeans as masters of wind-magic and sorcery. in particular were born witches, so the Greeks considered