The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology — Inside the Classic

Magic Words as Ritual Evidence

Murray devotes considerable space to cataloguing the verbal formulas used by accused witches, treating them as fragments of a lost liturgy. The excerpts include a Basque spell invoking 'Janicot,' a Guernsey chant calling on 'Hou,' and the Somerset witches' parting cry 'Rentum tormentum.' She notes that these words often accompanied specific actions—applying flying ointment, crossing water, or transforming into animals. The rhyme for becoming a hare, 'I sall goe intill ane haire, / With sorrow, and sych, and meikle caire,' is given in full, showing a consistent metrical structure. Murray does not speculate on the origins of these phrases beyond noting their connection to named deities, but her method implies that the survival of such formulas across trials indicates a shared cultic vocabulary.

The God as Human and Animal

The chapter on 'The God' (Chapter II) is organized into four subsections: 'As God,' 'As a Human Being,' 'Identification,' and 'As an Animal.' From the table of contents alone, it is clear that Murray treats the deity not as a single figure but as a role that could be embodied by a human leader or represented by an animal. The excerpts do not include the full argument, but the structure suggests a comparative approach: the god appears in multiple forms, and the cult's rituals—such as the 'kiss of shame' or the 'Devil's mark'—serve to bind the worshipper to this entity. Murray's reliance on trial testimony means that the god's nature is inferred from what witnesses claimed to have seen or done, rather than from theological texts.

Pace and the Accumulation of Detail

The excerpts reveal a work that moves slowly, building its case through the accumulation of specific instances. A single paragraph may cite multiple trials: Isobel Gowdie (1662), Martin Tulouff (1563), and the Somerset witches (1664) are all brought together to illustrate magic words. This method creates a dense, repetitive texture that can feel exhaustive but also risks monotony. Murray's prose is plain and declarative, rarely pausing for reflection. The effect is that of a legal brief: each fact is a piece of evidence, and the reader must follow the chain of citations. The pace is deliberate, suited to a reader willing to trace the connections between Scottish, French, and English sources.

Readers should approach Murray's text as a work of historical reconstruction rather than a narrative. The trial records are quoted at length, and the author's interpretations are often embedded in the arrangement of evidence. Pay attention to the footnotes and the way she groups testimonies by theme—this is where her argument takes shape. The book rewards those who read slowly, following the threads of language and ritual across different regions and decades.

Reading Murray’s accounts of trial records, I kept thinking how little we hear the accused speak. It’s the same quiet ache I felt with The Pagan Tribes of Borneo A Description of Their Physical Moral and Intellectual Condition, with Some Discussion of Their Ethnic Relations — Reading Notes—both books, in their dated earnestness, are doors left slightly ajar. We peer in, but the ceremony, the true belief, stays just beyond the legal parchment and measured prose.