It is probably a specimen of Calabrian art executed about the beginning of the seventeenth century. This has been supposed to represent the Wicked Thief, but it is quite certain that this black figure, with a horrible, distorted face and protruding an enormous red tongue, is an actual demon. He appears at the window fitted into the apparatus, constructed in the manner found in the modern puppet show. An ingenious system of chords, pulleys, springs and counter weights- still working- allow the monstrous figure to appear at will, in order to terrorize any hardened, rebellious sinner who refused to confess his faults. - Emile Grillot de Givry, Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy
