The rise and decline of witchcraft around the world, as seen through the perceptive eyes of an anthropologist and historian well-acquainted with traditional Basque and Spanish folklore--which inspired this fascinating, macabre, and chilling book. Beginning with an analysis of the basic mentality of those who have believed in or practiced the magic arts, and covering witchcraft's startling rise throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, it launches into an absorbing and original study that upsets many of the popular notions about the nature and history of the subject. Includes much enthralling material from art, literature, and ecclesiastical and legal documents, as well as discerning psychological studies of witches and their accusers.

List

1　A PRIMARY CONCEPTION OF THE NATURE OF THE WORLD

PART I THE CLAXXICAL BACKGROUND

2　THE NATURE OF THE WITCH IN GRAECO-ROMAN TIMES

3　CHRISTIANITY. PAGANISM AND WITCHCRAFT

4　THE WITCHES' GODDESS

PART II THE RISE OF WITCHCRAFT

5 THE DEVIL'S PART

6 THE SABBATH

7 THE RENAISSANCE CRISIS

8 THE DEFINITIVE FORM OF THE CRIME OF WITCHCRAFT

9 THE SPIRIT BEHIND THE DECLARATIONS

10 WITCHCRAFT AND POSSESSION BY DEVILS

PART III THE CRISIS OF WITCHCRAFT IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY

11 WITCHCRAFT AMONG THE BASQUES IN THE SIXTEENTH

12 THE GREAT TRIALS OF THE FARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

13 THE WITCHES OF ZUGARRAMURDI

14 PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE

15 WITCHCRAFT IN THE BASQUE PROVINCES AFTER THE MAJOR

PART IV　THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT

16 THE GREAT CRISIS

17 THE ENLIGHTENMENTENT

18 wITCHCRAFT IN ART AND LITERATURE

19 MODERN VIEWB OF WITCHCRAFT

20 SOME MODERN INTIEPRETATIONS OF WITCHCRAFT

NOTIES

INDEX