Nunc etiam adulescentem quendam Boeotium summe decorum efflictim deperit totasque artis manus machinas omnes ardenter exercet . Audivi vesperi , meis his , inquam , auribus audivi , quod non celerius sol caelo ruisset noctique ad exercendas inlecebras magiae maturius cessisset , ipsi soli nubilam caliginem et perpetuas tenebras comminantem . Hunc iuvenem , cum e balneis rediret ipsa , tonstrinae residentem hesterna die forte conspexit ac me capillos eius , qui iam caede cultorum desecti humi iacebant , clanculo praecipit auferre . Quos me sedulo furtimque colligentem tonsor invenit , et quod alioquin publicitus maleficae disciplinae perinfames sumus , adreptam inclementer increpat : " Tune , ultima , non cessas subinde lectorum iuvenum capillamenta surripere ? Quod scelus nisi tandem desines , magistratibus te constanter obiciam . " Et verbum facto secutus immissa manu scrutatus e mediis papillis meis iam capillos absconditos iratus abripit . Quo gesto graviter adfecta mecumque reputans dominae meae mores , quod huius modi repulsa satis acriter commoveri meque verberare saevissime consuevit , iam de fuga consilium tenebam , sed istud quidem tui contemplatione abieci statim .
Verum cum tristis inde discederem ne prorsus vacuis manibus redirem , conspicor quendam forficulis attondentem caprinos utres ; quos cum probe constrictos inflatosque et iam pendentis cernerem , capillos eorum humi iacentes flavos ac per hoc illi Boeotio iuveni consimiles plusculos aufero eosque dominae meae dissimulata veritate trado . Sic noctis initio , priusquam cena te reciperes , Pamphile mea iam vecors animi tectum scandulare conscendit , quod altrinsecus aedium patore perflabili nudatum , ad omnes orientales ceterosque plerosque aspectus pervium , maxime his artibus suis commodatum secreto colit . Priusque apparatu solito instruit feralem officinam , omne genus aromatis et ignorabiliter lamminis litteratis et infelicium navium durantibus damnis repletam , defletorum , sepultorum etiam , cadaverum expositis multis admodum membris ; hic nares et digiti , illic carnosi clavi pendentium , alibi trucidatorum servatus cruor et extorta dentibus ferarum trunca calvaria .
Tunc decantatis spirantibus fibris libat vario latice , nunc rore fontano , nunc lacte vaccino , nunc melle montano , libat et mulsa . Sic illos capillos in mutuos nexus obditos atque nodatos cum multis odoribus dat vivis carbonibus adolendos . Tunc protinus inexpugnabili magicae disciplinae potestate et caeca numinum coactorum violentia illa corpora , quorum fumabant stridentes capilli , spiritum mutuantur humanum et sentiunt et audiunt et ambulant et , qua nidor suarum ducebat exuviarum , veniunt et pro illo iuvene Boeotio aditum gestientes fores insiliunt : cum ecce crapula madens et improvidae noctis deceptus caligine audacter mucrone destricto in insani modum Aiacis armatus , non ut ille vivis pecoribus infestus tota laniavit armenta , sed longe tu fortius qui tres inflatos caprinos utres exanimasti , ut ego te prostratis hostibus sine macula sanguinis non homicidam nunc sed utricidam amplecterer . "

‘Just now she is dying for love of a very good-looking young
Boeotian , and she is furiously bringing all the tricks and devices of
her art to bear on him . Only last night I heard her with my own two
ears threatening the Sun himself with foggy gloom and everlasting
darkness because he had been too slow in setting and giving way to
night for her to be able to practise her enchantments . She had
happened to catch sight of this young man yesterday at the barber’s ,
while she was on her way back from the baths , and she told me to
glean some of his hair surreptitiously from where it had fallen on the
floor from the scissors . I was collecting it as ordered when the barber
caught me in the act . We are already notorious all over the city as
witches , so he at once pounced on me , shouting and threatening :
" You scum , will you stop stealing the young gentlemen’s hair ? You
know it’s a crime , and if you don’t lay off , I’ll have you up before the
magistrates - I mean it . " And adding action to words , he reached
right into my bosom to search me and angrily pulled out the hair I’d
hidden there . This upset me terribly ; knowing what my mistress is
like and how when she hasn’t got her way in something like this
she’s lost her temper and beaten me black and blue , I was thinking of
running away ; then I remembered you and gave that idea up . ‘I was coming away disconsolate at having to go home empty
handed , when I noticed a man shearing three goatskin bags . They
were hanging up , tightly tied and inflated , and the hair was lying on
the ground . It was fair , just like that of the young Boeotian ; so I
carried some of it off and gave it to my mistress without telling her
where it really came from . Then , at nightfall , before you came back
from dinner , Pamphile , who was now quite beside herself , climbed
up to her eyrie . This is on a wooden roof at the back of the house ,
open to the winds and having views in every direction , particularly
towards the east . This is her secret hide-out , admirably suited to her
magical practices . First she set out all the usual apparatus of her
infernal laboratory : every kind of strong-smelling drug , metal plaques
inscribed with mysterious characters , the remains of birds of ill
omen , and a whole array of different parts of dead and buried bodies
- here noses and fingers , there nails from gibbets with flesh sticking
to them , elsewhere a store of blood from men who have died a
violent death , and skulls snatched half eaten from the jaws of wild beasts . Next she intoned a spell over some still quivering entrails
and made offerings of various fluids : spring water , cow’s milk ,
mountain honey , and finally honey and wine mixed . Then she knotted
and plaited the goat-hair together and threw it with many different
perfumes on to the live coals to burn . Immediately , through the
irresistible force of her magic art and the hidden power of the deities
that she controls , the bodies whose hairs were crackling in the flame
took on human life : they felt and heard and walked , and came here ,
drawn by the reek of their burning hair . It was they , instead of the
young man from Boeotia , who were attacking the door in their
eagerness to get in . And it was at that moment that you came on the
scene drunk , and deceived by the blind darkness of night drew your
sword and sprang to arms like another Ajax ; but he only attacked and
massacred a flock of sheep - you were much braver and slew three
blown-up goatskins . You laid low your enemies without shedding a
drop of blood , so I now embrace not a homicide but an utricide . ’

" Now , also , she vehemently loves a certain Boeotian youth ,
who is beautiful in the extreme , and [ in order to allure him ]
ardently employs all the power and machinations of her art . I
heard her yesterday , in the evening , I heard her , I say , with
these my own ears , threaten the sun with nebulous obscurity ,
and perpetual darkness , if he did not more rapidly set , and
sooner give place to the night , so as to afford her an opportunity
of exercising the enchantments of magic . Yesterday she
accidentally beheld this youth , sitting in a barber ' s shop , as she
was returning from the bath , and ordered me secretly to take
away his hairs , which then lay on the ground , and had been cut
off by the scissors . These the barber found me diligently and
furtively collecting ; and because we were in other respects
publicly infamous , through exercising the malefic discipline , he
took hold of , and severely reproved me . Will you not cease , o
most infamous woman ! [ he said ] to steal the hairs of beautiful
young men ? Unless , however , you desist from this wickedness ,
I will take you , without delay , before the magistrates . And ,
following his words by deeds , he explored with his hands , and
drew out , enraged , from between my breasts , the hair which was
there concealed . Being grievously affected by this deed , and
considering with myself the manners of my mistress , who is
accustomed to he excessively enraged , and to beat me most
cruelly , when she is disappointed in a thing of this kind ,
I deliberated about making my escape , but on your account I
immediately rejected that design . When , therefore , I departed
from thence , sorrowful lest I should return with hands perfectly
empty , I beheld a certain person shearing , with a pair of
scissors , the skins of goats . And when I saw that these were
properly bound together , were inflated , and stood of their own
accord , I took a sufficient quantity of the hairs of them which
were scattered on the ground , and were yellow , and therefore
similar to those of the Boeotian youth : and these I delivered to
my mistress , dissembling the truth . So , at the beginning of
the night , before you departed from supper , Pamphile , my
mistress , being now beside herself , ascended into a gallery which
was covered with narrow pieces of wood instead of tiles . This
gallery , which she privately frequents , is situated in the higher
part of the house , has an aperture exposed to the winds , and a
prospect of the eastern and all the other climates of the world ,
especiaily adapted to these arts . And in the first place she
adorned her deadly workshop with its usual apparatus ,
viz . : with every kind of aromatics , with plates of metal
engraved with unknown characters , with nails taken from
shipwrecked vessels , and with the members of many lamented
bodies exposed to the open air , and also of those that had been
buried . Here were noses and fingers , there the nails by which
culprits had been fixed to the cross , and to which portions of
flesh adhered ; and in another place the blood of those was
preserved that had been slain , and mangled skulls snatched
from the teeth of wild beasts .
" Then , having charmed the yet breathing fibres , she made
a libation with different liquors , at one time with fontal water , at
another with the milk of cows , and at another with mountain
honey . She likewise made a libation with mead . After this
she committed to the live coals to be burnt , with many
aromatics , those platted goat-hairs . And then , with the
unconquerable power of the magic discipline , and the occult
force of the Gods , who were compelled by incantations , those
bodies , the hairs of which smoked with a crashing noise , were
immediately changed into a human form , and became sentient ,
and heard and walked . Where also the scent of their spoils
attracted them , thither they came ; and , desiring to enter the
house in the place of the young Beotian , they knock at the
gate . When , lo ! you , being intoxicated , and deceived by the
darkness of the night , and bravely armed with a drawn sword ,
like insane Ajax , yet not lacerating whole herds as he did , who
was hostile to live cattle ; but far more bold , you deprived of
life three inflated goat-skins , in order that your adversaries ,
being laid prostrate , without any stain of blood , I might now
embrace you , not as a homicide , but as a slayer of bladders . "