Familiars

 According to English witchcraft handbooks of the early seventeenth century (familiars do not appear in Continental witchcraft trials and literature), the name given to spirits attendant upon witches or magicians. Usually familiars are visible to ordinary sight, as, for example, in the form of dogs or cats, but in some cases it was claimed that witches were followed by a swarm of invisible familiars. The word is from the Latin familiares, but alternative Roman names were magistelli and martinelli, while the Greeks called them paredrii. It was held that the familiar, usually in the form of a small domestic animal, was given to the witch by the Devil as companion, helper and adviser, which could be used to perform malicious errands, including murder, and other feats of black magic. Further info: Confronting Familiar Spirits. <http://www.texasonline.net/setfree/fmlr-spir.htm>
 

Morgaine le Fey" Witchcraft ; Witch ; Magician ; Devil ; Black Magic