VOICE Of A DEMON
DEMONOLATRY
BOOK I
CHAPTER VIII
That Demons use the Speech of the Women
with whom they Converse; but their Utterance is indistinct, thin, and a hoarse
muffled Murmur.
Although, as we have already
said in the first chapter of this
Book, the Devil works chiefly by subtle
and secret ways to drive men to sin,
yet at times he employs for this purpose the power of speech such as men
use in their intercourse with each
other; especially when he is scheming
to bind men to him by a formal contract in the pact of witchcraft. For
this is no ordinary and momentary
desertion to the Devil, like our lapses
into sin due to human frailty: it is a
documentary making over of ourselves, in the same manner as master
and servant enter into an agreement
legally expressed in set terms and conditions of authority and obedience.
For this reason a personal meeting and
conversation is needed in order that
each party may ratify such a pact.
It has already been shown that the
Devil often manifests himself to man
in human shape. It will be no less easy
to believe that he also holds vocal
intercourse with men. For if he can
form for himself a human shape out of
condensed air, what is to prevent him
from making use of the vibrations of
the same matter to counterfeit the
human voice? For by the reception
and repercussion of such vibrations,
even valleys often repeat and very
articulately imitate the voice. This
fact, indeed, led the ancients in their
ignorance to regard certain statues,
oaks and caverns as their oracles.
Apollonius (according to the Life by
Philostratus, VI, 4) says that they
ascribed the power of speech to the
statue of Memnon at the moment
when the sun touched its lips, as it did
at its rising. Nicephorus Gregoras in his Byzantine History, Bk. V, says:
“There are those who believe that certain Spirits, both good and evil, acquaint mankind with a knowledge of
the future by means of a voice formed
out of the air and sensibly sounding in
the ears of men.” And just as the
sounds of the vocal organs can be reproduced in their various tones and
accents merely by the control of the
vibrations of a comb (as Juvenal says); so also, thanks to their skill in
illusions, do the Demons, without tongue or palate or any functioning
of their throat or sides or lungs, inform
the air with any speech or idiom they please. Those who formerly inhabited Greece (says Psellus in his De Daemonibus) gave their replies in the heroic
manner: those among the Chaldaeans
used the specch of the Chaldaecans: in
Egypt they spoke Egyptian; and when
those who lived in Armenia migrated
to other parts, they used the vernacular tongue of the inhabitants.
And still to this day witches affirm
that their Little Masters speak to them
in their own tongue as naturally and
idiomatically as one who has never
left his native country; and that they
even take upon themselves names in
common use in the vernacular speech.
Margaret Luodman, at Vergaville on
the 2nd January, 1587, said that her
Familiar’s name was Ungliick, that is
Mischance: Sybilla Haar, at the same
place on the 14th November, 1586,
said that hers was named ‘Macheid,
that is Harmful: that of Catharine
Haffner, as she said at the same place
on the 25th September, 1586, was
Tzum Walt Viiegen, that is Flying-to-
the-Woods; and Alexia Bernhard, at
Guermingen on the 5th January,
1590, gave the name Feder Wiisch, that is Feather-wiper. Those who use the Romance tongue (for the inhabitants of Lorraine are divided between the two languages) mention such names as Maisire Persil, Joly-bois, Verdelet, Sautebuisson, and many other such which it would be idle to repeat.
But just as they can never so completely adopt a human appearance but
that there remains something to expose the fraud and deception, as was
shown in Chapter VII; so they cannot
so perfectly imitate the human voice
that the falsity and pretense of it is not
easily perceived by their hearers.
Nicole Ganater at Meinfeld on the 9th
July, 1585, Eva Hesolette who lived in
the vicinity of the Abbey of St. Epvre,
Jana Schwartz, a native of Armcourt,
at Laach on the 28th March, 1588,
and many other women said that their
Demons spoke as if their mouths were
in a jar or cracked pitcher. And on
that account it is always their wont
when speaking to hold their heads
down, as do those who speak in shame,
being conscious of guilt. Or else their
voice is feeble and weak. For Hermolaus Berbarus (Petrus Crinitus,t De
honest. disciplina, VII, 2) told that he
heard the voice of a whispering Demon
answering a question which he and
Georgius Placentinus had put to him
concerning the entelechy of Aristotle.
Pliny (RX, 2) writes that the same
sort of curiosity caused Apion the
grammarian, a learned man, whom in
his youth he had himself often seen,
to summon a spirit to recite Homer,
and asked it to tell what was its country and parentage, but did not dare to relate its reply. I take this to mean
that the Demon spoke in a voice so
confused, ambiguous, muffled and
feeble that he could understand no
clear and certain meaning to report
afterwards. For Psellus (De Daemonibus) says that Demons, for all their
effort, give utterance to a thin, weak
voice, so that by reason of the indistinct obscurity of it their lies may be
the harder to detect. Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, heard the
confused voice of a specter standing by
night before the altar, when he
solemnly cursed it, as is testified in
their historical writings by Cedrenus,
Callistust and Theodorus Lcctor.
The Demon Ulmus|| (Uita Apollonit by
Philostratus, VI, 10), which I conjecture to be a word formed from Ulmus,
an elm, was summoned by Thespesion,
the eldest of the Gymnosophists, and
greeted the sage Apel onus as he approached them. The lecanomancy of
the Assyrians and Chaldeans used to evoke Demons which gave utterance
through the pelvis in a harsh, thin
hissing. All these instances go to prove
that imitation, which (as Fabius says,
Inst. orat. III, 5) is proper to art, can
never so completely ape nature that
there is not always some difference,
and that the very truth far out stri
the simulation which would follow in
its tracks.
..............
DEMONOLATRY
BK I
CHAPTER XXVIII
The author of the Life of St, Antony, Abbot of Alexandria, says: ‘When he
was dwelling in the desert some
abominable spirits tried to strike terror
into him by monstrously appearing in
various shapes: roaring and howling
at him like wild beasts; as serpents
harshly hissing at him; snarling and
gnashing their teeth; glaring with terrible blazing eyes; breathing out
flames from their mouths and nostrils
and ears; in short, neglecting no possible form or shape which might appall
him.” St. Jerome in his Life of Abbot
Hilarion gives a similar instance of
their imitation and variation of voices,
if not of shapes: “Often at dead of
night he heard the wailing of infants,
the bleating of sheep, the lowing of
oxen, the weeping as it were of women,
the roaring of Lions! the uproar of
armies, and many other different sounds; so that he was stricken prostrate with terror at the mere sound
before ever he saw anything.”
For the Devil takes an incredible
pleasure in using every conceivable
means to torment mankind, and is on
that account always seeking for occasions by which he may excite terror.
“Ate,” says Homer, “comes first,
doing mischief to men throughout the
world.” And Suidas interprets Ate as
meaning the Devil, the Adversary.
