What is a witch?

The woman mused
"Well King James has said
in the Second Book of his Daemologie
That a witch is a detestable slave of Devil.
Do you find me detestable, Sirrah?"

The man, King James had sent, looked quite amused
to find this beauteous goodwife was well-read.
He'd looked to find no fine philosophy
Among these uncouth folk that some thought evil,
Upon the lonely windswept Isle of Bharraigh

"Your Piratical MacNeil's must come to court
So Roy the Turbulent can make his peace at last
King James 1st of England has no mind, to wink
At sinking of the English ships, as once he had
When he was James the IVth."

"Am I the wife of Roy MacNeil, that I should bear him your thought
I the wise woman of these isles, these long years past
Here in this grotto on the shore, with but this spring to drink
You'll take a cup I trust, to make an ancient woman glad?
Before you set out once again to travel forth."

Ancient! He thought, sure she made mock in that
Who was so fine of skin, so blue of eye,
Had he been younger, less stiff in his age
He might have set to woo her, at a shot
Forgot the court, and settled there to die.

"The King is wrong to say we are slaves, that
Is but the word men use for women spry
Enough to avoid husbands or the church's rage
To be a witch is to hear spoken, what
No voice of Man nor Woman speaks, and to reply."