I am able to give an illustration of one of the figures made by a witch of these parts for causing some bodily injury to happen to her client’s enemy.  The custom was a common one in the circles of witchcraft.  A youth having a rival for the hand of some attractive maiden and wishing him every imaginary evil he would apply to “Aud Mother Migg” or one of the other hags of the neighbourhood and explaining his position the witch would prepare a small figure of the rival.  The ingredients would be of the same class as the magic cube already fully described (generally pitch, beeswax, hog’s lard, bullock’s blood, and fat from a bullock’s heart), and in order to cause his rival to lose an eye, or to go lame, or deaf, or to have any particular complaint in any particular part of his body the jealous lover had merely to stick a pin in that portion of the little brown figure.  The ceremony was elaborate, especially in regard to the disposal of that part of the mixture not used to make the figure, for in every case the cunning old women worked on the imaginations of their dupes.  There can be no doubt that the morals of the country folk during the eighteenth century were at an exceedingly low ebb.  The practice of compelling girls who had misconducted themselves to stand in church for three Sundays was only given up at Pickering in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.  Calvert describes how the miserable girl was first required to go before the parson or the squire or anyone of the “quality” to name the child’s father, and “be otherwise questioned, and if it so happened that the squire was one of the hard-drinking class it was more than likely that he came well on in his cups.  If so it would be more like than otherwise that he would put the lass and all present to shame by the coarse ... questions he would ask the poor wench.  I have heard shame cried aloud myself by those who then came together.

“On the Sunday when the poor lass had to do her first penance it was in this wise—­She had to walk from her home to the church porch with a soiled white sheet cast over her head to her feet, and there stand from the ringing of the first bell calling to morning prayer, and as the good folk did so pass her to ask of them for to pray for her soul and forgiveness of her great sin and frailty; and thither did she have to stand until the parson, after the reading of the morning prayer, did go to her and bring her into the church with the psalm of miserere mei which he shall sing or say in English.  Then shall he put her before all those present, but apart from them, when he shall publicly call upon her to confess her fault which, be she a single wench she did say aloud, ’wherefore I ... putting aside my maiden duty to Almighty God have yielded unto the vile sin of fornication with ... who is the true father of my child, may Almighty God forgive me my sin.’  But be it a wedded woman then she shall stand bareheaded and barelegged, and instead