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Page 30
_R_. She did that out of kind-heartedness. (And hereupon she began to weep
bitterly, and said she plainly saw that she had to thank old Lizzie Kolken
for all this, inasmuch as she had often threatened her when she would not
fulfil all her greedy desires, for she wanted everything that came in her
way; moreover, that Lizzie had gone all about the village when the cattle
were bewitched, persuading the people that if only a pure maid pulled a
few hairs out of the beasts' tails they would get better. That she pitied
them, and knowing herself to be a maid, went to help them; and indeed, at
first it cured them, but latterly not.)
_Q_. What cattle had she cured?
_R_. Zabel his red cow; _item_, Witthan her pig, and old Lizzie's own cow.
_Q_. Why could she afterwards cure them no more?
_R_. She did not know, but thought--albeit she had no wish to fyle any
one--that old Lizzie Kolken, who for many a long year had been in common
repute as a witch, had done it all, and bewitched the cows in her name and
then charmed them back again, as she pleased, only to bring her to
misfortune.
_Q_. Why, then, had old Lizzie bewitched her own cow, _item_, suffered her
own pig to die, if it was she that had made all the disturbance in the
village, and could really charm?
_R_. She did not know; but belike there was some one (and here she looked
at the Sheriff) who paid her double for it all.
_Q_. It was in vain that she sought to shift the guilt from off herself;
had she not bewitched old Paasch his crop, nay, even her own father's, and
caused it to be trodden down by the devil, _item_, conjured all the
caterpillars into her father's orchard?
_R_. The question was almost as monstrous as the deed would have been.
There sat her father, and his worship might ask him whether she ever had
shown herself an undutiful child to him. (Hereupon I would have risen to
speak, but _Dom. Consul_ suffered me not to open my mouth, but went on
with his examination; whereupon I remained silent and downcast.)
_Q_. Whether she did likewise deny that it was through her malice that the
woman Witthan had given birth to a devil's imp, which straight-way started
up and flew out at the window, so that when the midwife sought for it it
had disappeared?
_R_. Truly she did; and indeed she had all the days of her life done good
to the people instead of harm, for during the terrible famine she had
often taken the bread out of her own mouth to share it among the others,
especially the little children. To this the whole parish must needs bear
witness, if they were asked; whereas witches and warlocks always did evil
and no good to men, as our Lord Jesus taught (Matt. xii.), when the
Pharisees blasphemed him, saying that he cast out devils by Beelzebub the
prince of the devils; hence his worship might see whether she could in
truth be a witch.
_Q_. He would soon teach her to talk of blasphemies; he saw that her
tongue was well hung; but she must answer the questions he asked her, and
say nothing more. The question was not _what_ good she had done to the
poor, but _wherewithal_ she had done it; she must now show how she and her
father had of a sudden grown so rich that she could go pranking about in
silken raiment, whereas she used to be so very poor?
Hereupon she looked towards me, and said, "Father, shall I tell?"
Whereupon I answered, "Yes, my child, now thou must openly tell all, even
though we thereby become beggars." She accordingly told how, when our need
was sorest, she had found the amber, and how much we had gotten for it
from the Dutch merchants.
_Q_. What were the names of these merchants?
_R_. Dieterich von Pehnen and Jakob Kiekebusch; but, as we have heard from
a schipper, they since died of the plague at Stettin.
_Q_. Why had we said nothing of such a godsend?
_R_. Out of fear of our enemy the Sheriff, who, as it seemed, had
condemned us to die of hunger, inasmuch as he forbade the parishioners,
under pain of heavy displeasure, to supply us with anything, saying, that
he would send them a better parson.
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