4747. [4756] Such things, also, are signified, in the internal sense, by Samson, when he was kept asleep by his harlot and she stimulated his lust; whereby such things are signified. She, perhaps, had been such a sorceress as was skilled in that art. The hairs, there, signify ideas of the natural. [4757] They also assailed me by a like art, but were punished long and severely. The punishing lasted continuously for many hours. [4758] Those sorceresses were also with me, and attempted many things; but in vain: still, however, I was able to note their effect and how they act. [4759] Such ones, because they are the most stubborn of all, and, [because] when they break out of hell, as sometimes happens, or are called forth by others, they assail as many as they come across with their enchantments, and threaten to bring mischief upon them, and easily effect it - therefore, many of them are cast among the Antediluvians, who are of such a character, that, by means of deadly persuasions, they are able to take away from such spirits all capability of thinking and willing, so that they appear to themselves as half-dead: thus are they deprived of such power. The life which afterwards remains is so trifling, that they are incapable of serving in any but the lowest offices of all, in which very little of life is requisite.