Introduction
Read the confessions, the priest said abruptly, the confessions extracted from witches. The data we have is enormous, overwhelming: peasants cavorting in the woods with their breeches down, mocking the village priest; cynics using the apparatus of witchcraft to indulge their own depravity. Torture, too, you have to make allowances for that when you study the confessions. You will find terrifying consistency, a hard nugget of truth beneath it all. Sometimes these creatures are entirely human in appearance. Sometimes they are without physical form at all, but are able to take over the bodies of lower animals. Under certain conditions, these creatures can have sexual intercourse with human beings. Offspring can be produced-and have been produced ...