Bathin carries people suddenly from one country to another and knows the virtues of herbs and precious stones. He appears as a strong, serpent-tailed rider, but the identity of his pale mount varies between the printed text and its notes. [1]
A strong man with a serpent's tail, mounted on a pale-coloured animal; the translator supplies horse in brackets, while Crowley reports ass in the quartos. [1]
The mighty duke Bathin appears as a strong man with a serpent’s tail, seated on a pale-coloured mount. His office brings together knowledge of the virtues of herbs and precious stones with the sudden transport of people from one country to another. Bathin commands thirty legions. [1]
The uncertain pale mount
The translator prints ‘Horse?’ in brackets. His note says some older codices omit the animal and others give an indistinct word that appears to be horse. Crowley adds that the quartos have ass. [1]
Scot’s Bathin, also named Mathim, rides a pale horse. His earlier account therefore gives the mount that the later translator proposes, while retaining the serpent-tailed rider and sudden travel between countries. [1][2]
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile supplied by Keep Silence. Shemhamphorash, entry 18 and mount footnote; printed p. 17, PDF p. 14
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584); Brinsley Nicholson’s reprint of the first edition (1886), Project Gutenberg transcription. Book XV, chapter II, Bathin; 1886 reprint page 315
