Part 4

"Robert Stitt, honest man, was the miller at Crawick Mill, and well respected by everybody. One day, however, he refused one of the Crawick witches a peck of meal; she was enraged at the refusal, and told him 'he would rue that ere mony days passed.' About a week afterwards, on a dark night, Crawick was rolling in full flood. The miller went to put down the sluice, missed his footing, fell into the water, and was carried off by the torrent and drowned. A young man going a journey started early in the morning, and, shortly after he set out, met one of the witches, when some words passed between them. She said to him, 'Ye're gaun briskly awa', my lad, but ye'll come ridin' hame the nicht.' The poor fellow got his leg broken that day, and was brought home in a cart as the witch predicted. An old woman named Nannie is said to have been the last of the uncanny crew that dwelt on the banks of the Crawick. She appears to have been a person superior in intelligence and forethought to her neighbours. She knew that she was considered a witch, and she rather encouraged the idea; it kept her neighbours in awe, and also helped her to get a living--many a present she got from the ignorant and superstitious to secure themselves from her spells."(19)

"One of the most famous witches of tradition belonging to Corrie (Dumfriesshire) was the witch-wife of the Wyliehole, whose strange exploits and infernal doings were the subject of many a winter evening's conversation around the farmer's hearth.

"She was represented as having been terribly implacable in her resentments, and those who fell under her displeasure were certain to feel all the severity of her revenge. She pursued them incessantly with strange accidents and misfortunes, sometimes with nocturnal visits in the form of fierce wild cats and weasels, and not only disturbed their repose but kept them in constant terror of their lives. She seems also to have been somewhat peculiar in her movements, as she was seen, on one occasion, on the top of Burnswark crags switching lint by moonlight."(20)

It may now be well to dwell for a little on the popular measures resorted to, to counteract witch influence and render it futile.

Relief and protection were sought in various ways. Charm and popular antidote had an abiding place in the domestic usage of the day, and faith, if wedded to empirical methods, was at all events all-prevailing. The mountain ash or rowan tree was believed to have a strong counter influence against unholy rite, and a very usual custom was to plait a branch and fasten it above the byre door to ensure the protection of their cows. Young women wore strings of rowan berries as beads on a string of the same colour, implicitly believing

"Rowan tree and red threid, Put the witches to their speed"--

and Robert Heron, in his _Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland_ (1792), further illustrates this point of superstitious observance by reference to an acquaintance:--"An anti-burgher clergyman in these parts, who actually procured from a person who pretended to skill in these charms, two small pieces of wood, curiously wrought, to be kept in his father's cow-house as a security for the health of his cows. It is common (he adds) to bend into a cow's tail a small piece of mountain ash-wood as a charm against witchcraft."

Inside the cottage the rowan bunch was suspended from the top of the corner-cupboard or box-bed. Salt was supposed to possess a strong power of evil resistance in various ways, not least in the operation of "churning," a handful being added to the cream before even commencing. To this day old horse-shoes are nailed over stable and byre doors "for luck," a vague application of what in the older days was specific belief in their potency as a charm against witch-mischief.

Stones with holes through them naturally perforated by the action of the water, popularly called "elf-cups," were also considered to possess protective power and were commonly nailed over the stable door.

It was further quite usual, when passing the hut of any old woman whom people eyed askance, to put the thumb upon the palm of the hand and close the fingers over it--a relic of the sign of the cross--to avert the evil eye.

A clear stone, called an "adder-bead" (supposed to be made in some mysterious way by the co-operation of thirteen adders), a robin's breast, and a fox's tongue, were other favoured charms. The witches and warlocks themselves were supposed to wear a protective, jacket-like garment, which had, at a certain mystic time of a March moon, been woven from the skins of water-snakes. These were popularly known as "warlock feckets." Silver alone could pierce such garments and seems to have possessed properties entirely opposed to the invincibility of these disciples of Satan. Nothing could turn or stop a silver bullet which not only destroyed the illusion and restored the guise which had been assumed, to the original witch-form, but even inflicted bodily pain and wound.

"An old woman, still alive, tells how her father was going to Drummore on one occasion by the road past Terally (Kirkmaiden), and saw a man a short distance in front of him carrying a gun. A hare jumped over the dyke on to the road in front of the man with the gun, who at once shot at it, but apparently missed. He fired four more shots at it, but the hare only jumped on the road as if making sport of them. Before he fired the next shot however, he slipped a threepenny piece into the gun, and that had effect. The hare limped into a whin bush near by, and when the two men went to look for it they found a reputed witch lying with a broken leg."

An oft-practised rite in connection with the supposed bewitchment of a cow, and its failure to yield milk, was as follows:--

"A young maiden milked whatever dregs of milk the cow had left, which was of a sanguineous nature and poisonous quality. This was poured warm from the cow into a brass pan, and, every inlet to the house being closed, was placed over a gentle fire until it began to heat. Pins were dropped in and closely stirred with a wand of rowan; when boiling, rusty nails were thrown in and more fuel added."(21)

The witch or warlock who had wrought the mischief were in some subtle way affected, and suffered pain so long as the distillation of the charm was continued; and the further point is brought out that the potency of the charm could even drag the perpetrators of the evil to the scene of their witch-work.

There is a hitherto unrecorded story bearing on this point:--

"Andrew M'Murray, farmer in Mountsallie, in the Rhinns of Galloway at one time, one morning found one of his cows very ill. In the middle of the uneasiness about the condition of the cow a tailor 'whup-the-cat' arrived at the farm-house to do some sewing, and among the others, went out to look at the cow. He at once said the cow was witched, and told them of a way to find out the person who had done so. They got the cow to her feet, and took whatever milk she had from her, and put it in a pot with a number of pins in it, and set it on the fire to boil, with a green turf on the top of the lid. When the pot began to boil dry, a near neighbour, who was a reputed witch, arrived, apparently in a state of great pain, and excitedly asked to see the cow. Immediately the cow saw her it jumped to its feet, broke its binding, ran out of the byre, and did not stop till it was at the top of Tordoo, a round hill in the neighbourhood."(22)

The Dalry district, as already seen, is comparatively rich in uncannie reminiscence, one of which also accentuates this particular point:--

"The cow of a Dalry crofter became nearly yell quite unexpectedly. A neighbour said she would soon find out the reason. She boiled a quantity of needles and pins in some milk drippings from the cow, when an old woman who was reputed to be a witch knocked at the window and begged her to give over boiling as she was pricked all over, and if they did so the cow would soon be all right, which accordingly happened."(23)

Two "cantrip incantations" concerned with love-making, strung together in rhyme, have been handed down:--

"In the pingle or the pan, Or the haurpan o' man, Boil the heart's-bluid o' the tade, Wi' the tallow o' the gled; Hawcket kail an' hen-dirt, Chow'd cheese an chicken-wort, Yallow puddocks champit sma', Spiders ten, and gellocks twa, Sclaters twa, frae foggy dykes, Bumbees twunty, frae their bykes, Asks frae stinking lochens blue, Ay, will make a better stue; Bachelors maun hae a charm, Hearts they hae fu' o' harm."

The second, while of much the same character, has evidently more special reference to the weaker sex:--

"Yirbs for the blinking queen, Seeth now, when it is e'en, Boortree branches, yellow gowans, Berry rasps and berry rowans; Deil's milk frae thrissles saft, Clover blades frae aff the craft; Binwud leaves and blinmen's baws, Heather bells and wither'd haws; Something sweet, something sour, Time about wi' mild and door; Hinnie-suckles, bluidy-fingers, Napple roots and nettle stingers, Bags o' bees and gall in bladders, Gowks' spittles, pizion adders: May dew and fumarts' tears, Nool shearings, nowt's neers, Mix, mix, six and six, And the auld maid's cantrip fix."(24)

In Allan Ramsay's pastoral play of the _Gentle Shepherd_ a vivid word-painting occurs of the popular estimation of the witch methods and witch beliefs of the times.

The passage occurs where "Bauldy," love-stricken and despairing, goes to seek the aid of "Mause," an old woman supposed to be a witch:--

"'Tis sair to thole; I'll try some witchcraft art.

* * * * *

Here Mausey lives, a witch that for sma' price Can cast her cantraips, and gie me advice, She can o'ercast the night and cloud the moon, And mak the deils obedient to her crune; At midnight hours, o'er the kirkyard she raves, And howks unchristen'd weans out of their graves; Boils up their livers in a warlock's pow, Rins withershins about the hemlock low; And seven times does her prayers backwards pray, Till Plotcock comes with lumps of Lapland clay, Mixt with the venom of black taids and snakes; Of this unsonsy pictures aft she makes Of ony ane she hates, and gars expire, With slow and racking pains afore a fire, Stuck fu' of pins; the devilish pictures melt; The pain by fowk they represent is felt."

An old form of incantation extracted from a witch confession in 1662[4] refers to the form of witchcraft just alluded to in the _Gentle Shepherd_--the modelling in clay of the object of resentment and the piercing and maiming of such effigies to compass corresponding bodily harm. In this instance, wasting illness was intended to be induced by subjecting the diminutive clay figure to roasting over a fire:--

"In the Divellis nam, we powr in this water amang this mowld (meall) For long duyning[5] and ill heall; We putt it into the fyre, That it may be brunt both stick and stowre, It salbe[6] brunt with owr will As any sticle[7] upon a kill.[8]"

A further forceful illustration of this particular form of spell-casting may be quoted from the confession of a reputed witch, "Janet Breadheid," who was brought before the Sheriff-Principal of Elgin and Forres in 1662.

It is here referred to as the family against whom the evil was directed was that of "Hay of Park," an evident off-shoot of a main stem of the Hays--the Hays of Errol (Perthshire)--a family represented in the south-west of Scotland by the Hays of Park, who inherited part of the lands of the Abbey of Glenluce immediately after the Reformation. The old family seat, now tenanted by farm servants, is generally described as the "Old House of Park."

The following is the quotation:--"My husband brought hom the clay in his plaid (newk). It ves maid in my hows; and the Divell himself with ws. We brak the clay werie small, lyk meil, (and) sifted it with a siew, and powred in vater amongst it, with wordis that the Divell leardned vs (in the Di.) Vellis nam. I brought hom the water, in a pig, out of the Rud-wall. We were all upon owr (kneyes) and our hair about owr eyes, and owr handis liftet up to the Divell, and owr eyes stedfast looking (upon him) praying and saying wordis which he learned ws, thryse ower, for destroyeing of this Lairdis (meall) children, and to mak his hows airles. It was werie sore wrought, lyk rye-bowt. It was about the bignes of a feadge or pow. It was just maid lyk the bairn; it vanted no mark of any maill child, such as heid, face, eyes, nose, mowth lippes, etc., and the handis of it folded downe by its sydis. It ves putt to the fyre, first till it scrunked, and then a cleir fyre about it, till it ves hard. And then we took out of the fyre, in the Divell's nam; and we laid a clowt about it and did lay (it) on a knag, and sometimes under a chist. Each day we would water, and then rost and bek it; and turn it at the fyre, each other day, whill that bairne died; and then layed it up, and steired it not untill the nixt bairne wes borne; And then, within half an year efter that bairne was born, (we) took it out again out of the cradle and clowt, and would dip it now and than among water, and beck (it) and rost it at the fyre, each other day once, as ve did against the other that was dead, untill that bairn (died) also."(25)

The following is an example of a "Devil's Grace":--

"We eat this meat in the Divellis nam, With sorrow, and sych,[9] and meikle shame, We sall destroy hows and hald; Both sheip and noat in till the fald. Little good sall come to the fore Of all the rest of the little store."

The following extract from a rare and fascinating work, _The Book of Galloway_ (1745), possesses two points of much interest. It includes the prophetic utterings of a witch called Meg Macmuldroch at the "cannie moment" when Sir William Douglas of Gelston, whose name is so intimately associated with the creation and development of the town of Castle-Douglas, was born:--

"And anon as she came to the burden of her prophecy, pointing her quivering fingers to the sky, and repeating the following words with much emphasis:--'I looked at the starnies and they were in the right airt. It was full tide, and bein' lown and in the deid howe o' nicht, in Sandy Black's fey, I heard the sough o' the sea and the o'erswak o' the waves as they broke their bellies on the sawns o' Wigtown. There was a scaum i' the lift; the young mune was in the auld mune's arms, that was bad and guid--bad for the father, guid for the son; and as sure as the de'ils in the King's croft o' Stocking,[10] here's my benison and malison, mak' o't what ye wull.

'Grief and scaith, the faither to his death; Thrift and thrive to the bairn alive.'"

The second point contained is the practical application and mention of several witchcraft and old-world expressions, some of which have just been referred to in dealing with the counteraction of witch-force:--

"'Greater pity,' said the minister abruptly, 'that the penalties against witchcraft are now done away with' ... She has already cast her glamour of the evil eye on this man. His very horse has been hag-ridden overnight, and in the mornin', sair forfochten wi' nocturnal sweats, and the "adder-stane" winna bring remeid. His cow was weel fed, for ye ken 'the cow gives her milk by the mou', but the crone has milked the tether,' and his twa stirks are stannin' slaverin' at baith mouth and een, and its neither side-ill, quarter-ill, tail-ill, muir-ill, or water-ill, and its no the rinnin' doun, the black spauld, or the warbles, but a clear case of elf-shot, though a piece of rowan has been tied to their tails.... John went first to Shennaton on the water o' Bladnoch, bad land at the best, for it girns a' summer and greets a' winter. There he couldna leeve, so his 'fire was slockened,' and here he's half deid, an' a' through the witches."(26)

In concluding this chapter further notice may be taken of the quite common practice in those days, of the fears of the country-side being traded upon by cunning old women supposed to possess, or pretending to possess, witch-power. In wholesome dread of the malign influence of the "uncannie e'en" these old women were propitiated by lavish presents of produce and provender, and so skillfully did many of them play their parts that they lived comfortably and bien at the expense of their neighbours, who were only too glad to send new milk, cheese, meal, and even to cast their peats and help with the rents to make "the e'en look kindly" and avert possible disaster, all of which is graphically alluded to and set forth in Allan Cunningham's "Pawky Auld Kimmer":--

"There's a pawky auld Kimmer wons low i' the glen; Nane kens how auld Kimmer maun fecht and maun fen; Kimmer gets maut, and Kimmer gets meal, And cantie lives Kimmer, richt couthie an' hale; Kimmer gets bread, and Kimmer gets cheese, An' Kimmer's uncannie e'en keep her at ease. 'I rede ye speak lowne, lest Kimmer should hear ye; Come sain ye, come cross ye, an' Gude be near ye!'"

[Illustration]

_CHAPTER III._

WITCHCRAFT TRIALS AND PERSECUTION.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." --_Exodus xxii., 18._

Little is heard of witchcraft in Scotland before the latter half of the 16th century, but in the year 1563, in the reign of Mary, Queen of Scotland, a strenuous Act directed against the practice of witchcraft became law, and was most rigorously enforced. As this has been described as the law under which all the subsequent witch trials took place its significant phraseology may in part be quoted:--

"The Estates enact that nae person take upon hand to use ony matter of witchcrafts, sorcery or necromancy, nor give themselves furth to have ony sic craft or knowledge thereof; also that nae person seek ony help, response, or consultation at ony sic users or abusers of witchcraft under the pain of death."

Curiously enough the passing of this and similar Acts was attended by results as unexpected as they were unforeseen. Belief in witchcraft became the passion of public credulity. Accusations, generally false and often even ludicrous in their solemn foolishness, were trumped up, and action followed, that hurried countless helpless human beings to the stake to die a cruel and shameful death. It was a time of terror, an epoch of superstitious sacrifice, extending and gathering force as the reign of Mary merged into the Regency, only finding pause at the removal of James VI. of Scotland to London, there to preside over the united destinies of these islands. As is well known, this monarch evinced a more than personal interest in matters pertaining to the "unseen world," and that, gathering up his ideas and conclusions, he embodied them in a singular treatise entitled _Daemonologie_.[11] Less creditable to his memory it is told that not only did he favour executions for this alleged crime, but actually took pleasure in witnessing the sacrifice of the condemned.

With the death of James a phase of quiescence in witch quest and sacrifice is entered upon, a lull which lasted for some fifteen years. It was again, however, to be broken, this time by the unfortunate intervention and misdirected zeal of the Church itself. The General Assembly, stimulated by a desire for Puritanical perfection, awakened the slumbering crudity of belief, that direct Satanic Power stalked abroad in the land in the form of witchcraft. Condemnatory Acts were passed in the years 1640-43-44-45 and 49. Again the stake and tar faggot blazed. The Levitical law was accepted as a too literal injunction, and from this time forward it is the clergy who particularly figure as the pursuers of witches, keen and relentless to a degree; and yet with it all, however misguided the efforts of these Churchmen, however cruel their methods, it is only just to their memories to believe in their purity of motive, and to give them all credit for pious and earnest desire to combat and stamp out what to them was in very truth a great evil.

Different methods were adopted to establish proof and justify the cases for the accusers, but the one test specially relied upon was to find the actual presence of what has already been described as the "witch mark"[12] upon the person of the suspected. When this was found, or supposed to be found, it was the deliberate practice to pass through it a sharp needle-like instrument, and if no pain was felt or blood drawn, then guilt was held to be firmly established.

[Illustration: "A RUNNING STREAM THEY DARE NA CROSS!" J. Copland.]

So frequent were the accusations that the "pricking of witches" became a recognised calling: one individual, John Kincaid by name, having such a reputation for skill in this unhallowed work that he seems to have been employed in the principal witch trials of this period, such an entry as--

"Item, mair to Jon Kinked for brodding of her VI. lib. Scotts"

being of quite common occurrence in the notes of expenses still on record.

It is to this second or later period of persecution that the record of witch charge and punishment in the south-west of Scotland really belongs, and from 1656 the records of the civil and ecclesiastical courts teem with accounts of searching enquiry and trial. It must further be remembered that over and above the regularly constituted enquiries of State and Church a great number of Commissions were granted by the Privy Council to gentlemen in every county, and almost in every parish, to try persons accused of witchcraft, many of whom suffered the extreme penalty,[13] and of which no particulars can now be gleaned.

It is now our purpose to set forth as completely as possible such relative matter and extracts from existing documents as will describe the proceedings as they actually took place in the distinctive localities of the Dumfries and Galloway district, but it may perhaps be here fittingly noted, not without a certain sense of gratification, that this south-western district, though far from blameless, compares more than favourably with other districts in Scotland, both in fairness of judgment and rigour of punishment.

PROCEEDINGS IN GALLOWAY.

_Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, April, 1662._--A person, named James Welsh, confessed himself guilty of the crime of witchcraft before the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright; but the justices refused to put him upon his trial, because he was a minor when he acknowledged his guilt, and had retracted his extra-judicial confession; but on the 17th of April, 1662, they ordered him to be scourged and put in the correction house, having so grossly "prevaricated and delated so many honest persons."

_Kirkcudbright, 1671._--At an Assize held in the burgh of Dumfries in 1671 eight or more females were charged with witchcraft; five of them were eventually sent for trial to Kirkcudbright.