In scene I of act IV the following incantation is spoken by the Third Witch as they throw ingredients into their cauldron.
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Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,.
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf.
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,.
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,.
Liver of blaspheming Jew,.
Gall of goat, and slips of yew.
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,.
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,.
Finger of birth-strangled babe.
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,.
Make the gruel thick and slab:.
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,.
For the ingredients of our cauldron. (Shakespeare).
The very ingredients in this potion again manifest the idea that all witches are evil to the point of using babies for magical purposes. Unfortunately, the list given above is taken literally by the general public. It is not known that some of these are just the common names for naturally grown herbs. .
Witches are not only described as ugly and evil but as companions of Lucifer. This is evident when, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown," the main character, Goodman Brown, meets an old man on a dark path. The old man is described as wearing a cloak and carrying a crooked staff, both of which are meant to be symbols of the devil where in actuality they are items used by wizards and witches alike. In the story the author likens the man's staff to "the serpent's tail" (Hawthorne ln29). In addition Hawthorn also takes an honored tool such as a broomstick and turns it into a demonic devise. Hawthorne implies that these people whom Goodman Brown thought to be good Christian people are actually witches because they know the devil and have partaken in a baptism in his honor. A true witch has no association with a devil.
"The Dark Arts" by Richard Cavendish is an example of how witchcraft and satanism are used synonymously, when in truth they are two very different religious beliefs. Cavendish also states that any form of divination or anything dealing with the occult is satanic.
