I attached a Number of Vials to myself, full of Dew.

This whimsy, which might seem a raging fever, gave way to the conviction that yes, I might actually make this trip. So, I shut myself away in a reasonably remote country house, and indulged my imagination.

This, then, is how I would travel through the heavens.

I attached a number of vials to myself, full of dew; these reacted to the Sun's rays, so violently that that heat drew them like a laden cloud high into the air. I found myself beyond our atmosphere, the middle region of the air. The power of this attraction made me rise rapidly, however, the higher I rose the further the Moon appeared, further even than it had appeared from my rooms; I broke some of my vials of dew, and floated back down to earth.

My inference was not mistaken, and I fell gently through the air and must make land, I reckoned, around midnight; however, when I touched the ground, the Sun was far above the horizon, and it must have been midday. You can imagine my shock; I knew not what to attribute this miracle to, and had the temerity to think the Good Lord himself had arrested the Sun in its course in honour of my courage, to lend its light to my gallant enterprise.

But what really surprised me was how, despite my rising straight up into the air, I had not returned whence I'd departed. I didn't recognise where I was.

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She called the Devil by the Name of Bunne: The Faversham Witches (1645).

The Examination, Confession, Trial and Execution of Joan Williford, Joan Cariden and Jane Holt. Who were executed at Faversham in Kent for being Witches, on Monday the 29. of September, 1645. Being a true copy of their evil lives and wicked deeds, taken by the Mayor of Faversham and jurors for the said inquest. With the examination and confession of Elizabeth Harris, not yet executed. All attested under the hand of Robert Greenstreet, Mayor of Faversham. London, Printed for J.G. October 2. 1645. The Confession of Joan Williford, Septemb. 24. 1656, made before the Mayor, and other jurates. She confessed that the Devil about seven years ago did appear to her in the shape of a little dog, and bid her to forsake God and lean to him. Who replied, that she was loath to forsake him. She confessed also that she had a desire to be revenged upon Thomas Letherland and Mary Woodrofe, now his wife. She further said that the Devil promised her that she shoul...

Robert Plot, first Keeper of the Ashmolean, on mysterious circles, from 'The Natural History of Staffordshire' (Oxford, 1686).

And here perchance, by the way, it may be no great digression to enquire into the nature and efficient cause of those rings we find in the grass, which they commonly call fairy circles, whether they are caused by lighning, or are indeed the rendezvouzes of witches , or the dancing places of those little pygmy spirits they call elves or fairies . And the rather because, 1 - a question - perhaps by reason of the difficulty - scarce yet attempted, and 2 - because I met with the largest of their kind - that perchance were ever heard of - in this county; one of them showed me in the grounds between Handsworth Church and the heath being near forty yards diameter, and I was told of another by that ingenious gent. - one of the most cordial encouragers of this work - the Worshipful Sir Henry Gough, Knight, that there was one in his grounds near Pury-Hall but few years since - now indeed plowed up - of a much larger size, he believed near fifty. Whereas,...

Se riza el aire gris.

The field of olives opens and closes like a fan. Above the grove the sky is sunk the rain is dark the stars are cold. A trembling in the rushes and darkness falls on the riverbank. A ripple through the grey air. Olive trees laden with screams. A flock of captive birds move their long, long tails in the shadows. FGL (1931) PSY (Feb. 2025)

Paul Summers Young

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