| | | | In the revolution of human fallacies and prejudices, the belief in | witchcraft has disappeared from the minds of the more civilized | part of mankind. The torture, the ordeal of drowning, and the | devil's mark, are forgotten; while profound doctrines on | Lucanthrope and the incubus have disappeared, that those whose | minds are fitted for the profundities of matter so inscrutable may | maintain the propriety of a country paying its landlords to produce | corn for sale, or supporting a shepherd of souls who has nothing to | look after but his own body. | In histories of general fallacies, the poor and illiterate are placed at | disadvantage. The learned and educated have the telling of their | own tale; and it is generally told in their own favour. Popular | superstitions ~~ vulgar errors ~~ plebeian prejudices, are often fine | subjects for turning a sentence, or producing epigrammatic point. | Admitting, however, that the frenzy and panic of excited masses of | men, have done their work in the bloody scenes which darkened | two centuries, we are convinced that a careful study of this | humiliating subject, would be the means of finding the principal | causes of all this misery, in the pride of religious and political | supremacy; the haughty bigotry of conventional learning; and that |

"respect for the wisdom of our ancestors,"

which has always | fortified the barbarous creeds of the great, from the inroad of | improvement. Keeping this opinion in view, we may, from our | desultory reading, be able to trace, perhaps, in some few instances, | the doctrinal origins of the superstitious practices which cross our | observation, in a brief account of some of the most remarkable and | picturesque trials for witchcraft in Scotland. Of these, we derive a | considerable portion from that valuable mine of information on all | subjects connected with the history and manners of Scotland ~~ | "Pitcairn's Criminal Trials" ~~ and, beyond the period to which | that work extends, from the records of the Court of Justiciary. | The earliest trial of much interest, is that of Alesoun Pearson, who, | on the 28th May 1588, was sentenced to be strangled and burned. | This case has in it something of a light and airy nature, very | different from the gloomy horrors so peculiar to most of the cases | of witchcraft in Scotland. The visions depicted in the indictment | are so like the reveries of a fanciful mind thrown off its poise, that | it requires little stretch of credulity to believe that the indictment is | a genuine statement of what the poor woman thought she had seen | and done. Alesoun transacted important business in the court of the | Queen of Faery. She was in the habit of haunting and repairing | with the good neighbours and Queen of Elfane, for divers years. | She had friends in that court, who were of her own blood, who had | good acquaintance with the Queen of Elfane, | she remarks, | but they appear to have treated her a poor relation; | for she was, | Being once in Grange Muir, | she fell sick, and lay | down alone; and a man clad in green came to her, and said that, if | she were faithful, he would do her good: on which she very | prudently charged him, that, if he came in God's name, and for the | good of her soul, he should say so. So exercised, he thought proper | to depart. But he made his appearance before her again ~~ | | and, though, on that occasion, she blessed herself and | prayed, she was compelled | observing, during her journey, | that they had | Finally, she reached Lothian, where she perceived | that they had puncheons of wine and drinking cups. She declared, | that, when she told of these matters, she was | with them; that the first time she | appeared in this strange company, she received a pelt which took | away the power of her left side, leaving a blue | mark. Alesoun was permitted, through the | influence of her friends in fairy land, (among whom, it appears, | was her own cousin, "Mr William Symsoun," Doctor of Medicine, | and ) to see how the | good neighbours made their salves with pans and fires, and how | they gathered their herbs before sunrise. The good neighbours | sometimes came to her in a terrific form, and "fleit" her; and she | cried out when they came. But, in all her perplexities, her | affectionate cousin William Simpson, was a kind monitor. When | the whirlwind blew on the sea, the goblin rout were expected to | pass; and William called on his distressed relation, and | recommended her to keep herself and bless herself, that she might | not be carried off again; | But poor Alesoun carried her | knowledge of elfincraft so far as to use its nostrums for the cure of | earthly diseases. Nor were her powers trusted alone by that class | who are liberally denounced as the votaries of superstition. She | practiced her art on those who, according to all analogy, would | have given her to the stake, had she merely exercised it on some | unfortunate hind struck with a mysterious illness, or on the broken | leg of a farmer's best cow. Archbishop Adamson ~~ a man of | learning, and some genius, and well known in Scottish history as | the tool which James for a long time unavailingly used in his | attempts to re-establish the hierarchy ~~ was subject to fever and | ague, palpitation of the heart, weakness of the back and loins, | etcetera, | for which he received the following comfortable, and not very | unearthly prescription from Alesoune: ~~ A salve, which was to be | rubbed on his neck, breast, stomach, and sides; and a sodden | | capon, which was to be washed down by a concoction of claret, | ewe milk, and certain herbs. These, we are distinctly informed, the | Archbishop bolted in two draughts, at two distinct sittings. Poor | Alesoun's vivid imagination, and her ambition to supply | archbishops with wholesome draughts of claret, brought her to a | fearful end. She was probably a very different person from the | usual British witch, for she | observes, that her learned cousin | and her connexion | with the fairy world appears to have commenced when she was but | twelve years old. | On the 18th of August 1590, Bessie Roy, nurse to the Laird of | Buquhoin, was accused of having, twelve years previously, as she | passed to the field to pluck lint with the other women, described a | circle in the earth, with a hole in the middle; and of having caused | to come out of the hole, by means of her conjurations ~~ first, a | great worm, which crept over the circle; next, a little worm, which | also crept safely over; and, thirdly, another great worm, which | could neither cross the circle, nor even get itself extricated from | the hole, but fell down and died. The full extent of the intervening | twelve years seems to have been necessary to enable his Majesty's | Advocate to comprehend the meaning of this odd procedure; but a | lucky coincidence shewed that it could mean no other than this ~~ | that the first worm was intended to personify the Goodman, | William King, who should live, and who, in coincidence with the | analogy did live accordingly. The little | worm represented his unborn babe, which also lived; and, to | complete the theory, the third worm represented the goodwife, who | should die, and who died accordingly. Bessie was farther accused | of a speculation in milk; in as far as, being herself, by profession, a | "nurice," and so engaged by the goodwife of William King, in | Bairoch, she had supplied herself with the milk of a poor woman | called Bessie Steele, who had called at William King's house with | the expectation of supplanting her in the situation. The woman, it | appears, on discovering what had happened, returned and | threatened to raise the country, if her milk were not restored; and, | accordingly, Bessie said to her ~~ | The woman did so, and it was restored. | The case of Betty Roy is a very peculiar one ~~ for she was | acquitted; the deductions from the facts being rather too refined | even for a Scotch assize of the sixteenth century to swallow, at the | dictation of his Majesty's Advocate. To the story of the worms we | know nothing exactly similar in any of the doctrinal works on | demonology, which we happen to have read; and the incident was | probably an original one, affording a new fact to the | demonological knowledge of the day. It may be mentioned, | however, that the abstraction of milk, both from women and from | cows, was a favourite doctrine, on which many pages of learned | Latin have been expended. | In the former of the two cases just noticed, we find a curious and | not unnatural specimen of the aberrations of a very imaginative | intellect; and the latter was probably found on some petty frauds | and trickeries, exaggerated by misrepresentation: but, in the | well-known case of the witches who were tried for impeding the arrival | of King James with his Danish consort, we find the darkest | passions of the human mind brought into play, and a frightful | picture of the state of putrescence it is capable of reaching. All the | selfish feelings of James were called forth on this occasion ~~ not | only for the protection of his kingly person from the snares which | the powers of darkness were combining to spread for its | destruction ~~ but for the support of his royal logic, which had | probably, at that period, been pondering over the wonderful | contents of the "Demonologie," which he afterwards let loose on | astonished Europe. He made himself the main instrument of the | investigations; saw the torture duly applied; and, by means of | bodily excruciations ~~ through the shedding of blood, and threats | bestowed on the jurymen ~~ he managed, after a long period of | labour, to extract a complicated narrative of | in support of his | theories. The persons connected with this affair were of a rank in | life higher than that of the ordinary witch; and, probably, bore a | proportion to the elevation of the sacred person on whom they | operated; graduated to resemble the distinction betwixt the | hovel-dwelling witch of Spenser, and the neighbouring baron on whom | she might expend her trickery. The principal parties were Agnes | Sampson, who | is said to have been Another was Dame | Euphane Macalyean, daughter and heiress of Lord Cliftonhall, one | of the judges of the Court of Session. The third actor was Dr John | Fian, or Cunningham, a person who shewed very extraordinary | flights of professional imagination when under the united influence | of James' torture and logic. He was apparently of a higher grade | than the ordinary wizard, approaching to the more aristocratic | dignity of the necromancer ~~ a class of persons, however, | towards whom James, who was a sort of Republican in these | matters, maintained no more respect to be due than to the practisers | of vulgar | | witchcraft. The Doctor, it would appear, enjoyed the situation of | "Registrer to the Devil;" and, at | etcetera | An author who professes to clear up | with a number of matters miraculous and | incredible, informs us that the whole of the dark secret was brought | to light, from a servant girl of the name of Geillis Duncan, who | had commenced a very improper and mysterious habit of being | absent from her master's house at night, and had suddenly | assumed a faculty of curing all manner of diseases. | continues the narrative, with much | simplicity, But | her master had not in vain been under the government of a royal | inquisitor, who knew better than Dr Beattie the best method of | arriving at truth. He applied to her the excellent and approved | torture of the "pilliwinkies," an instrument which squeezed the | thumb in the same manner in which the well-known "boot" was | used for squeezing truth out of the leg; and farther, twisted, by | means of lever, a cord round her forehead. All was insufficient to | rouse her imagination, until the devil's mark was discovered on her | throat; when she confessed the whole dark business. Besides the | main articles of accusation, the attempts against the lives of the | King and Queen, there was a crowd of other little acts, performed | by means of cats, toads, and otherwise. Among these, Dr Fian had | to answer for an improper way of lighting himself home after | supper. On occasion of riding home to Tranent at night from | Patrick Hunphry's son's house in the mill, where he had been | entertained, he, by | raised up four candles upon the two ears of the horse, and another | on the top of a stick, carried by a man attending him, which gave | | The candles politely returned with the attendant; but, after having | done their office, and seen him fairly home, they caused him to fall | dead | Most of the incantations practiced by this rare crew have been | described in Sir Walter Scott's "Demonology," and very few of | them need be here narrated. Agnes Sampson was the means of | bringing to maturity a plan betwixt certain friends in Leith and | other in "the Pauns," (Prestonpans,) for interrupting the arrival of | the Queen by means of a

"general storm."

For this purpose, they | baptized a cat, by passing it thrice through the link of a "crook" or | chimney chain, and passing it thrice under the chimney. The cat, so | altered in its moral status, was taken into Begie Todd's house, | where four "joints" of dead bodies were knit to the four feet of the | cat; which being brought to Leith, was thrown from the pier-head | as far as could be managed, into the sea, at the dead hour of the | night; a corresponding ceremony being performed by a portion of | the body at the Pauns, exactly at the same moment. The | consequence of this process was, that the boat, betwixt Leith and | Kinghorn, foundered; | But the most gallant | exhibition was made at the convention in the Kirk of North-Berwick, | where the devil presided in his royal person, making the | whole affair one of the most brilliant soirees in the annals of | witchcraft. There is a discrepancy in the accounts of this fete: one | stating, that Agnes Sampson went respectably to the kirk on | horseback; another, that the whole crew went across the waves, | | We choose to believe in the | latter authority, as in every respect the more picturesque and | consonant to doctrine. It would appear that there were not above | half-a-dozen males in the assembly, and these not of the most | efficient order, if we may take one as a sample, who had the folly | or insolence to say, | and was punished for the unpolite exclamation. But | we must except Dr Fian, the clerk registrer, who was an important | official. and he | administered and recorded the oaths of allegiance. After landing at | North-Berwick, they took each other's hands, and joined in a reel; | Geiles Duncan going before and playing on a trump or Jew's harp; | which makes Sir Walter Scott remark, that | But the performance proved a source of | great honour to Geiles. Before parting, | they took up dead bodies from the graves around the buildings, and | divided the joints of the fingers and toes, and the noses, among | themselves. Agnes Sampson received as her share, a windingsheet | and two joints, | The devil told them to keep the joints till they were | dry, and then to make a powder with them, | The torturing of a wax image, a well-known | charm, was among the articles of accusation. On breaking up, they | had a peculiar manner of saluting their royal master, which James, | in his "Demonologie," has founded on high authority. | Now, the confessions of Agnes Sampson, | from the northern county of Banff, | and that of Doctor | | Fian, the East Lothian sorcerer, correspond so closely, | that were they narratives of some historical event previously | doubtful, they would be considered as sufficient to set the matter at | rest. It comes to be a question of interest, how has this happened? | That the imagination of two persons so distinct from each other in | description and habit, should, from the petty nucleus of some true | event ~~ from some attempts at incantation or imposture ~~ have | coursed over a minute narrative of events, varied in form and | effect, with such parallel precision, is not to be believed. The | person who says it is the offspring of imagination had better have | recourse to the far simpler doctrine of real diabolical influence. But | one explanation, then, remains. A dark conspiracy was suspected; a | peculiar form in which it existed was duly presumed to have been | traced; the inquisitors concocted the tale according to the doctrines | of the best authorities on witchcraft; and the wretches, suffering | under excruciating torture, acceded to whatever was dictated to | them; probably affording hints to their enemies, by their incoherent | remarks and assertions, under their agony. It is well known that | almost every witch confession was the produce of torture; and that, | on a momentary renewal of the torture, confession was scarcely | ever unrevoked. The tortures inflicted on Agnes Sampson are | similar to those inflicted on the girl, as mentioned above. Fian had | his forehead bound with a twisted rope; but this did not produce | confession. Secondly, He was persuaded, by fair means, to confess | his follies; but that would prevail as little. | it is said that his tongue | a circumstance attributed to two | charmed pins which were beneath it. Being removed from the | boots, and brought before the King, he made a confession, and | signed it. The Doctor contrived to escape; but, | being retaken, and again questioned concerning these marvelous | matters, for the King's gratification, he denied all that he had | formerly admitted. But it was too late. The monarch had a judicial | document, according to the proper forms of the law of Scotland, in | which he had called himself guilty. | and James would have his | just rights as well as Shylock. The confession was | Then so he was subjected | to a more ingenious system of torture. The nails were torn from his | fingers by pincers, and pins were driven into the wounded flesh; | than he was, But he would not repeat his | confession, | so, to put a final end to his obstinacy, he was | strangled and burnt. | Few of the wild incantations connected with these grotesque events | were without learned authority. The power over the elements ~~ a | very natural subject for the application of super-human agency ~~ | is alluded to by Tibullus; and the great prince of bards | has commemorated the creed applicably to the present instance: ~~ | | In the witches' caldron will be recognized some of the materials | used at North-Berwick churchyard. Among these, it may be | mentioned that a toad would have been found very efficacious | against James, had he not been under the special charge of the | Deity. An opinion that the ashes of the dead were | useful in necromantic rites, is as old as the days of Apuleius. | The notion of destroying by means of a waxen image, | may be traced to Ovid. It is connected with a legend of | Scotland of the ninth century, when it was said to have been | practiced against King Duffus. At what time this legend may have | been invented, it is impossible to determine; but it must have | existed during the fourteenth century, when Wyntoun wrote his | Chronicle, in which it is recorded. Some readers will perhaps | recollect the case of Bolingbroke and the witch of Eye, in Fabyan's | Chronicle. Indeed, James himself is very learned on the subject, in | his "Demonologie;" and we are sorry we cannot find room for a | slice of his profound metaphysics. Cats have, since the earliest | period, received great honours in the annals of mystery. They sleep | side by side with the | | aristocracy of Egypt, in their upper house of the dead. The Knights | Templars were accused of having been particularly attentive to | them; and a sect of the Waldensian Christians, termed Cathari, | were asserted to have derived their denomination, (in the elegant | Latinity of the friars,) | The next trial which attracts our attention does additional honour to | the interesting animals just named. Isobel Grierson, spouse to John | Bull, workman in the Pauns, had conceived and retained, for a year | and a half, deadly malice against her neighbour, Adam Clark. She | took the following original method of wreaking her vengeance. | Betwixt the hours of eleven and twelve at night, when poor Adam | was lying comfortably in his bed, | Such was the first successful effort of Mrs Bull's art. | Having conceived a mortal hatred against another neighbour, | William Burnett, she punished him | The natural | consequence of this was, that the Devil appeared in the likeness of | a naked infant bairn, (after the manner of what appeared to | Macbeth,) and tormented him nightly, for a year and a half, by | sitting quietly at the fire with | in his hand. The Devil next assumed the likeness of | the witch herself; but how the victim was saluted by this visiter, | Fielding alone could describe, or Hogarth paint. Poor William | Burnett in consequence of such insulting conduct, continually | for the space | of three years, after which he departed this life. Mr Robert Peddan, | in the Pauns, was another victim to the genius of this active | woman; but it appears to have been his own fault, for he owed her | a debt of 9s. 4d. (Scots;) after duly discharging which, he was | relieved from his sickness. But Mrs Bull's most outrageous act, in | the eyes of good fellowship at least, was the destruction of a | She was in search of | her cat, which had been amissing for half a year, when she alighted | by chance on the jolly crew. Whether she was refused a share, or | was urged simply by a wish to mar a merry evening, the record | saith not; but, certainly, After being so | busy in her vocation, it was not to be expected that Mrs Bull could | escape being strangled and burnt. | The Lothians seem to have been a place peculiarly cursed by | manifestations of the Evil One. The next case is that of Bortie | Paterson, tasker in Newbattle. His chief crimes were the | committing of cures. His nostrum to James Brown, in Turney-Dykes, | was certainly not a bad one. He had an

"unknown disease,"

| which was cured | when he was directed to pass home to his own house, (probably he | might have been one of the honest neighbours over the ale,) and | recommended to fall on his knees three several nights, and every | night thrice nine times, | It is difficult to see the harm of this. The next article | is still more unreasonable: it is, for curing his own child by means | of the water of the Dow loch; and must have been founded on | some medico-legal principle, which, if the wisdom of our ancestors | were minutely followed, would make sad havoc with some of the | modern summer resorts of aristocracy. He was further accused of | having circulated the water of the said loch through the country; | (probably as Pitcaithly and Dollar water are at this day transmitted | from place to place, in the manner of more generous liquors;) | He was also accused of giving the | following spell for the charming of cattle: ~~ | We are not disposed to stretch to this instance, the | theory attached to the story of the North-Berwick witches; but | believe that Mr Paterson was guilty of all that was charged against | him, and must, consequently, accede to the justness of the | sentence, which was, as usual, strangulation and burning. | Sprenger, in his "Malleus Malefficarum," maintains | | stoutly, that, from their general inferiority and the natural | wickedness of their hearts, females are much more liable to the | temptations of the Evil One than men; and the greater depravity | they exhibit, in the Scottish cases, would appear to support the | position. The next male person who is tried for witchcraft ~~ | Thomas Greave ~~ appears to have occupied his whole life in | performing cures, | He was probably a physician of extensive practice; | but his prescriptions were certainly rather eccentric. Thus, he cured | | Alexander Lawson's bairn he cured by simply | William Kirk's bairn, who was ill of the | | or epilepsy, was used in a different | manner ~~ and so the child being thus | nefariously put to sleep, recovered, the whole being done by | He preferred | curing by | which, like the swine of old, | and died. There were about | sixteen acts of curing charged against Greave; and so notorious an | offender did not escape the usual doom. | James Reid, another curer of diseases, was tried on the 21st July | 1603. He had learned his craft from the devil, thirteen years | previously, who had given him, at one time, the sum of threepence, | and at another time, a piece of grease out of his wallet. Thus | provided, he committed divers cures; but he was also accused of | the equally serious crime of destroying the corn and goods of | William Libberton, baker in Edinburgh, which he accomplished by | making nine notches on a piece of flesh, one part of which was put | under the mill-door, and the other under the stable-door, for the | destruction of the baker's cattle. The baker's corn was effectually | destroyed by nine enchanted stone thrown upon his lands. | Margaret Wallace, a burgess' wife in Glasgow, was tried, on the | 20th March 1622. Her crimes consisted, in general, of curing; with | this considerable aggravation, that she found business for herself, | and caused the diseases which she removed. This case is | remarkable, from a member of the Bar having undertaken the | defence of the accused; arguing (unsuccessfully) that the libel | ought not to be found relevant on vague statements of crimes, | without a specification of the method by which they were | committed. | Such were the brilliant deeds of the modern Solomon ~~ the good | King Jamie; such the experiments with which he Baconiously | proved the truth of his philosophy. Perhaps the kind of scenes | which his most gracious Majesty's ethical studies produced, cannot | receive a better general description than in the words of a | memorandum by his great agent, the Earl of Hadinton: ~~ | | The creed so well established was too green and flourishing to fall | with the death of its great author ~~ it flourished for nearly a | century after. The first remarkable trial in the reign of Charles is | that of a poor woman bearing the unostentatious name of Mrs | Smith, in Eastbarns, on the 5th February 1629. Most of her crimes | were committed twenty-nine years previous to the trial. She had | then bewitched George Sandys' mill, so that the same became | unprofitable, and unable to grind any stuff for the space of eleven | days; and she had made all his worldly means go back, merely | because he charged his usual duties for some corn she brought to | be ground. But she had done a more gallant act than this. In a very | tempestuous night, What Mr George | Sandys had to do with remembering this feat against her for | twenty-nine years, it were hard to discover; especially as it appears | she had the loan of his own horse for the operation; a circumstance | which her counsel ineffectually argued was the reason why she | passed over dry. It was further charged, that Mr Sandys procured a | fishing-boat, during the time of the herring drove; but that, through | the incantations of Mrs Smith, he caught nothing; and it was | ineffectually maintained on the other side, | | that, as his proper trade was that of a miller, this might have | happened from his own unskilfulness. A king's messenger had | come to summon Mrs Smith at her house; to him she gave some | abuse ~~ as the counsel for the prisoner | observed; but the consequence was that an arm and leg of the | messenger's clerk shriveled up, and he became a cripple. She had, | out of malice, slain cattle and horses, | The counsel, with some ingenuity, answered ~~ | Farther, she was charged with the circumstance of | another witch having passed through the roof of her house, in the | form of a cat. She took a sickness from her husband, hid it under | the barn door, and, after it had remained inactive for two years, | laid it on her nephew, who died. says the | much puzzled author of a MS. account of these proceedings, | She was accused of having caused the | face of Isabel Frude to break forth in blotches; but she said she | could prove by Thomas Ross, The | physical reasons, indeed, which Mrs smith alleged as the real | causes of the disasters, were generally of a class not creditable to | the sobriety of the parties. Thus, John Purves, instead of meeting | his end by her | died from William Kellie, having fallen | off his horse and injured his face, because he called her a witch ~~ | An apparition of the prisoner, in George | Bryson's stable, riding on a man, was seen by David Nisbet, the | groom: to which it was answered, that | Add to these, the burying of enchanted cats, enchanted cows, | etcetera, | and we have the substance of twenty-four articles of indictment | against poor Mrs Smith. She was found guilty, and the usual | sentence was passed. This trial ~~ in which the crown seems to | have been opposed by a clear-headed and pretty powerful reasoner | ~~ was brought to a successful termination, through the skill of Sir | Thomas Hope, the King's Advocate, a lawyer of well-known | abilities, to whose ingenuity we owe the best method of clenching | the restrictions of entails. This produce of | his wisdom still remains. | In 1643, occurred a regular instance, in accordance with the old | doctrinal forms. John Brugh was charged with having been thirty-six | years in the Devil's service, holding meetings with others | similarly situated, alternately throwing diseases on, and curing, | both human beings and cattle; which latter he accomplished by | putting enchanted stones in water, and sprinkling the cattle with it, | or by repeating thrice, | and giving each a chopin of new wort. He | held meetings to raise dead bodies, and make use of the flesh. But | suich particulars begin to disgust from their very sameness. Two | women were tried at the same time, Janet Barker, and Margaret | Lauder, persons of more pleasant imagination. The devil appeared | to them, first, | and afterwards, One | of them got a white "plaidine" waistcoat from him, when he hired | her as his servant. He used to drink beer with them, and sometimes | grew inexpressibly gallant. All these were condemned. Agnes | Finnie, living in the Potterrow of Edinburgh, is charged on twenty | different counts, on each of which there is a long dull debate. The | charges all consist of threats, followed by evils so chained by cause | and effect as the following: ~~ She was | found guilty and condemned. | In 1649, Marie Haliburton confessed that, having in vain requested | a physician to cure her daughter, the Devil called on her, in the | fashion of a traveling apothecary, and having sold to her to the | extent of

"two English shillings,"

sat down, and regaled himself | with some friends, who accidentally dropped in; at first | temperately, on bread and milk, but, as the spirit of good | fellowship increased he joined her and her friends in discussing a | pint of ale. At her second meeting with him, there were darker | doings. She was prevailed on to relinquish her baptism, and | become his servant. During the same year, | was | accused of various malifices; of which the most remarkable is, that, | meeting a servant of James Smith, early in the morning, leading | out six of his horses, she said to him, | whereupon, immediately | the horses fell down dead, and the man who had them in charge did | not long survive them. | During the Protectorate, there were some trials for witchcraft, of | which the notices preserved are rather scanty. It is a peculiar | feature | | of these, that the charge of witchcraft is generally associated with | some more tangible crime, and that several are acquitted. In the | case of John Douglas and three women, tried in 1639, among other | incidents which are mere matters of course in demonological | biography, we have a specimen of the Devil's taste in music. At a | great assembly where he presided, John Douglas, being chosen | piper, was requested to strike up "Lilt thy coat, Maggy," "Come | this way wi' me," and "Hooly, the" ~~ etcetera. | The confession of Janet Watson, tried in 1661, might serve for the | scene of temptation in any given Monk Lewis' romance. At the | funeral of the Lady Dalhousie, a dole, to the amount of a rixdollar, | was given to Jean Buchan, to be divided among some poor people, | of whom Janet was one; but | Returning to her own house, muttering vows of vengeance, the | Devil met her in the likeness of He | ~~ a circumstance which might, | perhaps, be physically accounted for, without any stretch of | imagination. | But, perhaps, few records in any country give us a more interesting | and minute account of the domestic arrangements of Satan and his | conclave of lost mortals, than the confessions of the witches of | Auldearne, a peaceful village in the shire of Nairn. Their "covies" | or squads, into which they were divided, the form of their federal | government as presided over by the Evil One, and the ministry of | their familiars, will be found sketched forth by Sir Walter Scott. | Isobel Gaudie, one of the most illustrious of these, confessed that | she met the Devil at the Kirk of Auldearne, when, suiting the place | to the deed she was to do, she denied her baptism, in manner and | form following: ~~ They were | altogether a merry and a restless crew. The last time that Isobel's | coven had met, they danced with another coven on the Hill of | Earlseat. They were in the habit of entering houses in the night | time, and making free with the ale, and had a way of their own of | making it appear as if no ale had been drained from the vessel. In | "Candlemas last," they were in Craighall, | There was a poor spoonish fellow, of the name of | Alexander Elder, of Earlseat, who seems to have been a sort of an | attendant upon the coven, and to have been a man of exemplary | patience and resignation. When the Devil, on hearing | himself mentioned by the familiar term, Black John, castigated the | witches, they sometimes resisted fiercely: but Alexander Elder | bore the stripes of his spiritual lord with submission. He appears to | have been a

"sticket minister;"

and, on occasion of this feast, his | master politely asked him to say grace. He did so, in these terms: | ~~ | reflections not altogether respectful to the company. When they | were done, they turned to their president, and, bowing to him, said, | | But, although occasionally indulging in such relaxations, their | master was a strict and proper disciplinarian. He scourged them, | until they cried, | and, when much enraged, he would "girn" at them | like a dog, and look as if he would | He sometimes was liberal, and gave them | | but within twenty-four hours it turned to "muck." | Their way of destroying corn was original. They yoked a plough of | "paddoks," or frogs, which acted the part of oxen. The Devil held | the plough, and John Young, in Webstoun,

"their officer,"

drove it. | The doggrass served as soams or chain-traces. The coulter was | formed of a ram's horn. As they ploughed away with this neat | contrivance, they | They had similar modes of transmogrifying ale, and of | possessing themselves of the fruit of the labours of the fishers. | They sometimes assumed the shape of hares and of cats. When | under such disguise, they were, of course, liable to the usual | hazards of their assumed profession. They were sometimes hunted; | and, if bitten by dogs, or if, when in the form of cats, they fought | with each other, they would find their wounds to continue, when | restored to their usual form. When they | | wished any unfortunate person to attend them in their assumed | form, they only required to say ~~ | They were in the habit of riding on | horseback, and rushing through the air like straws driven by the | blast. To accomplish this, they only required to exclaim ~~ | | Such were the rites with which these servants of the Devil horrified | a commission of examinators, consisting of his reverence the | minister of Auldearne, the sheriff of the county, and a bevy of | landed proprietors, | It will be observed that, in our | cursory manner, most of the characteristics of these, as well as of | the other performances in the Black Art in Scotland, have been | traced to authoritative doctrines on the point; and, indeed, some | research (were the matter worth while) might deduce the pettiest | witch delinquency recorded in Mr Pitcairn's pages, from doctrinal | sources ~~ to sources open only to the learned and wise, and sealed | to the unfortunates who were strangled and burned. The subject of | transformation into beasts, is infinitely varied in the annals of | sorcery, and none can be ignorant of its early classical history. | With the Greek physicians, it was probably looked on as a disease, | and that of the mind; but, in after periods, a confusion crept in, and | the hypochondriac feeling of being metamorphosed, was arranged | under a science, along with the power of metamorphosing others. | The science was fruitful in philosophical matter. There is now a | volume before us, treating of the particular branch called | "Lucanthropy," or the transformation of men into wolves. | There is a striking analogy, too, in the whole | proceedings of this crew, and the German and other "Sabaths" of | Satan; and, if it is admitted that there is such analogy, it must be | from the spread of doctrine, not of superstition; for the whole | belief of witchcraft was of late invention ~~ of the sixteenth | century, a period long after the separation of the nations from each | other; so that it cannot be said they derived the "superstition" from | a common source. Nor is it likely that the "superstition" could | burst out almost instantaneously, in all parts of Europe ~~ for these | are things of slow growth; ~~ but the doctrines | might have done so. The case of the Mohra witches in | Sweden, with their journeys to Blocula, and their entertainment | and usage by the Devil there, as translated by Glanvil, bears a | resemblance to the scenes just mentioned, in all its bearings, and, | in some, is analogous. In the "Hisotire de Trois Filles Possedes," | (Paris 1623) there are analogous circumstances, in the chapters, | "De la Police du Sabbat," "secrets de la synagogue des magicians | and magiciennes;" but the whole is so tinged with priestcraft, that | the excellent purpose of the narrative is very clear. The confessions | of Elizabeth Style, in Glanvil, (279.) shew similar incidents, | certainly characterized by more vulgarity and less boldness than | those told by Isabel Gowdie, certainly | not quite so "eldritch" as | In the lengthy narratives of "Gaul's | Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft," will | be found descriptions of conventions bearing an exceedingly | strong resemblance to those of Auldearne. But the | documents containing these confessions, bear that they were made | voluntarily. This we venture to discredit. What is meant by a | voluntary confession was probably such as was got from Fian, who |

"voluntarily confessed"

to the King, after the boots were | unscrewed. It appears to have been a law of nature, that witchcraft | was a crime which could not be discovered without torture. The | period of these confessions, moreover, was the golden age of the | profession of torture. The trade paid itself. A torturer, or "pricker," | was kept in almost every village. In November 1661, just after

"the | happy Restoration,"

fourteen commissioners to examine witches, | through various parts of the country, were appointed at one | meeting of the Privy Council. The minister of the parish, with the | sheriff, and a set of landed proprietors, formed the very conclave | best fitted to execute the commission, according to the most | fashionable doctrines on witchcraft, and there can be little doubt | that the singular uniformity in the facts stated in these confessions, | is the work, not of the criminals, but of the judges. At this period, | indeed, the record of the High Court of Justiciary is thick with | cases of witchcraft; and a simple list of these would occupy some | space. Torture is generally spoken of, much as a matter of course. | It is gratifying to find that, in several cases, notwithstanding the | enlightened vigilance of the prosecutor and court, the jury | acquitted. The charges appear to become more ludicrous as we | advance. It was charged against Agnes Williamson, that her voice | was heard near a neighbour's house during the night crying

"Aha, | aha!"

and that the neighbour's horse was found, next morning, with | a in consequence of | which it died in a few days. She raised a whirlwind, which was | | the means of blowing one of her neighbours into the water, who, in | that situation, heard her voice repeating, | In | 1678, there was another case of confession; recorded by | Fountainhall, in his decisions. observes | he, They were minutely in accordance | with those of the Auldearne witches eighteen years before. | by the process already recorded. | Witchcraft had now become a crime | which it was worth while doubting, when it was attempted to be | brought home to any but the vulgar. These poor women, eight or | ten in number, wished, probably with the view of shielding | themselves, to accuse some women of rank as their associates. | From this period, the horrors of belief in | witchcraft began to subside. says Sir | Walter Scott, It cannot well be said that | the shadow passed from the eyes of the noble and the learned much | more speedily than from those of the poor and ignorant. If a poor | woman was stoned and hunted in a retired village, a Professor | Natural Philosophy could write to his brother savans about some | new wonder in necromancy. In 1704, occurred the last | tragic act of popular outrage against a witch: and, in 1722, | occurred the last judicial murder. In Professor Forbes' "Institute of | the Law of Scotland," published in 1730, the subject is laid down | as a branch of the law, and most succinctly and logically treated. | says the author, | Having, in such wise, stated his definitions, he | proceeds to subsume. The time had | come, when a lawyer who bestowed so much attention on this | subject, required to give some reason for his doing so. | Accordingly, bestowing a passing sneer on those | he continues ~~ ~~ which | fortunately never made its appearance. He then, in compliment to | the too nice sifters of the wisdom of our ancestors, pleads, the law | says there is witchcraft, and all he has to do, is to teach the law.