The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 5.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

‘There be women in the cold regions about Norway,’ said Caleb Powell, ‘as I have heard the sailors relate, who do raise storms and sink boats at their will.’

‘It may well be,’ quoth Mr. Hull, ‘since Satan is spoken of as the prince and power of the air.’

‘The profane writers of old time do make mention of such sorceries,’ said Uncle Rawson. ‘It is long since I have read any of them; but Virgil and Apulius do, if I mistake not, speak of this power over the elements.’

‘Do you not remember, father,’ said Rebecca,

some verses of Tibullus, in which he speaketh of a certain enchantress? Some one hath rendered them thus:

Her with charms drawing stars from heaven, I,
And turning the course of rivers, did espy.
She parts the earth, and ghosts from sepulchres
Draws up, and fetcheth bones away from fires,
And at her pleasure scatters clouds in the air,
And makes it snow in summer hot and fair.

Here Sir Thomas laughingly told Rebecca, that he did put more faith in what these old writers did tell of the magic arts of the sweet-singing sirens, and of Circe and her enchantments, and of the Illyrian maidens, so wonderful in their beauty, who did kill with their looks such as they were angry with.

‘It was, perhaps, for some such reason,’ said Rebecca, ‘that, as Mr. Abbott tells me, the General Court many years ago did forbid women to live on these islands.’

‘Pray, how was that?’ asked Sir Thomas.