Part 6

I SHALL trouble you but with one more, which I thought most remarkable of any that occurred to me. In January 1652, the above mentioned Lieut. Coll. Alex. Monro and I happened to be in the House of one Wm. M‘Cleud of Ferrinlea, in the County of Ross. He, the Landlord, and I were sitting in three Chairs neir the Fire, and in the Corner of the great Chimney there were two Islanders, who were that verie Night come to the Hous, and were related to the Landlord. While the one of them was talking with Monro, I perceaved the other to look oddly toward me. From this Look, and his being ane Islander, I conjectured him a Seer, and asked him, at what he stair’d? He answered, by desiring me to rise from that Chair, for it was ane unluckie one. I asked him why. He answered, because there was a dead Man in the Chair nixt to me. Well, said I, if it be in the nixt Chair, I may keep mine own. But what is the Likness of the Man? He said he was a tall Man, with a long Grey Coat, booted, and one of his Legs hanging over the Arme of the Chair, and his head hanging dead to the other Side, and his Arme backward, as if it were brocken. There were some English Troops then quartered near that Place, and there being at that Time a great Frost after a Thaw, the Country was covered all over with Yce. Four or Fyve of the English ryding by this House some two Hours after the Vision, while we were sitting by the Fire, we heard a great Noise, which prov’d to be those Troopers, with the Help of other Servants, carrying in one of their Number, who had got a very mischeivous Fall, and had his Arme broke; and falling frequently in swooning Fits, they brought him into the Hall, and set him in the verie Chair, and in the verie Posture that the Seer had prophesied. But the Man did not die, though he recovered with great Difficulty.

AMONG the Accounts given me by Sir Normand M‘clud, there was one worth of special Notice, which was thus. There [was] a Gentleman in the Isle of Harris, who was always seen by the Seers with ane Arrow in his Thigh. Such in the Isle who thought those prognostications infalliable, did not doubt but he would be shot in the Thigh before he died. Sir Normand told me that he heard it the Subject of their Discourse for many Years. At last he died without any such Accident. Sir Normand was at his Buriall, at St Clement’s Church in the Harris. At the same Time, the Corps of another Gentleman was brought to be buried in the same verie Church. The Friends on either Side came to debate who should first enter the Church, and in a Trice from Words they came to Blows. One of the Number (who was arm’d with Bow and Arrows) let one fly among them. (Now everie Familie in that Isle have their Buriall-place in the Church in Stone Chests, and the Bodies are carried in open Biers to the Buriall-place.) Sir Normand having appeased the Tumult, one of the Arrows was found shot in the dead Man’s Thigh. To this Sir Normand was a Witness.

IN the Account which Mr Daniel Morison, Parson in the Lewis, gave me, there was one, tho it be hetergeneous from the subject, yet it may [be] worth your Notice. It was of a young Woman in his Parish, who was mightily frightned by seeing her own Image still before her, alwayes when she came to the open Air; the Back of the Image being alwayes to her, so that it was not a reflection as in a Mirrour, but the Species of such a Body as her own, and in a very like Habit, which appeared to herself continually before her. The Parson keept her a long whyle with him, but had no Remedy of her Evill, which troubled her exceidingly. I was told afterwards, that when she was four or fyve Years elder she saw it not.

THESE are Matters of Fact, which I assure yow they are truely related. But these, and all others that occurred to me, by Information or otherwise, could never lead me into a remote Conjecture of the Cause of so extraordinary a Phænomenon. Whither it be a Quality in the Eyes of some People into these Pairts, concurring with a Quality in the Air also; whither such Species be every where, tho not seen by the Want of Eyes so qualified, or from whatever other Cause, I must leave to the Inquiry of clearer Judgements than mine. But a Hint may be taken from this image which appeared still to this Woman abovementioned, and from another mentioned by Aristotle, in the 4th of his Metaphysicks (if I remember right, for it is long since I read it;) as also from the common Opinion that young Infants (unsullied with many Objects) do sie Appearitions, which were not seen by those of elder Years; as like wise from this, that severalls did sie the Second Sight when in the Highlands or Isles, yet when transported to live in other Countreys, especially in America, they quite lose this Qualitie, as was told me by a Gentleman who knew some of them in Barbadoes, who did see no Vision there, altho he knew them to be Seers when they lived in the Isles of Scotland.

Thus far my Lord Tarbett.

* * * * *

MY LORD, after narrow Inquisition, hath delivered many true and remarkable observes on this Subject; yet to encourage a further Scrutiny, I crave leave to say,

THAT 1. But a few Women are endued with this Sight in respect of Men, and their Predictions not so certane.

2. This Sight is not criminal, since a Man can come by it unawares, and without his Consent; but it is certaine he sie more fatall and fearfull Things than he do gladsome.

3. THE Seers avouch, that severalls who go to the _Siths_, (or People at Rest, and, in respect of us, in Peace,) before the natural Period of their Lyfe expyre, do frequently appear to them.

4. A VEHEMENT Desyre to attain this Airt is very helpfull to the Inquyrer; and the Species of ane Absent Friend, which appears to the Seers, as clearly as if he had sent his lively Picture to present it selfe before him, is no phantastick Shaddow of a sick Apprehension, but a reality, and a Messinger, coming for unknown Reasons, not from the originall Similitude of it selfe, but from a more swift and pragmantick People, which recreat them selves in offering secret Intelligence to Men, tho generally they are unacquainted with that Kind of Correspondence, as if they had lived in a different element from them.

5. THO my Collections were written long before I saw My Lord of Tarbett’s, yet I am glad that his descriptions and mine correspond so nearly. The Maid my Lord mentions, who saw her Image still before her, suteth with the CO-WALKER named in my Account; which tho some, at first Thought, might conjecture to be by the Refraction of a Cloud or Mist, as in the Parelij, (the whole Air and every Drop of Water being a Mirrour to returne the Species of Things, were our visive Faculty sharpe enough to apprehend them,) or a naturall Reflexion, from the same Reasons that an Echo can be redoubled by Airt; yet it were more fasable to impute this Second Sight to a Quality infused into the Eye by ane Unction: for Witchies have a sleepie Oyntment, that, when applyed, troubles their Fantasies, advancing it to have unusuall Figures and Shapes represented to it, as if it were a Fit of Fanaticism, Hypocondriack Melancholly, or Possession of some insinuating Spirit, raising the Soul beyond its common Strain, if the palpable Instances and Realities seen, and innocently objected to the Senses did not disprove it, make the Matter a palpable Verity, and no Deception; yet since this Sight can be bestowed without Oyntment, or dangerous Compact, the Qualification is not of so bad an Originall. Therefore,

6. BY my Lord’s good Leave, I presume to say, that this Sight can be no Quality of the Air nor of the Eyes; becaus, 1. such as live in the same Air, and sie all other Things as farr off and as clearly, yet have not the SECOND SIGHT. 2. A SEER can give another Person this Sight transiently, by putting his Hand and Foot in the Posture he requires of him. 3. The unsullied Eyes of Infants can naturally perceave no new unaccustomed Objects, but what appear to other Men, unless exalted and clarified some Way, as Ballaam’s Ass for a Time; tho in a Witches Eye the Beholder cannot sie his own Image reflected, as in the Eyes of other People; so that Defect of Objects, as well as Diversities of the Subject, may appear differently on severall Tempers and Ages. 4. Tho also some are of so venemous a Constitution, by being radicated in Envy and Malice, that they pierce and kill (like a Cockatrice) whatever Creature they first set their Eye on in the Morning; so was it with Walter Grahame, some Time living in the Paroch wherein now I am, who killed his own Cow after commending its Fatness, and shot a Hair with his Eyes, having praised its swiftness, (such was the Infection of ane evill Eye;) albeit this was unusuall, yet he saw no Object but what was obvious to other Men as well as to himselfe. 5. If the being transported to live in another Countrey did obscure the Second Sight, nather the Parson nor the Maid needed be much troubled for her Reflex-selfe; a little Peregrination, and going from her wonted Home, would have salved her Fear. Wherefore,

7. SINCE the Things seen by the Seers are real Entities, the Presages and Predictions found true, but a few endued with this Sight, and those not of bad Lyves, or addicted to Malifices, the true Solution of the Phænomenon seems rather to be, the courteous Endeavours of our fellow Creatures in the Invisible World to convince us, (in Opposition to Sadduce’s, Socinians, and Atheists,) of a Deity; of Spirits; of a possible and harmless Method of Correspondence betwixt Men and them, even in this Lyfe; of their Operation for our Caution and Warning; of the Orders and Degrees of Angells, whereof one Order, with Bodies of Air condensed and curiously shap’t, may be nixt to Man, superior to him in Understanding, yet unconfirmed; and of their Region, Habitation, and Influences on Man, greater than that of Starrs on inanimat Bodies; a Knowledge (be-like) reserved for these last atheistick Ages, wherein the Profanity of Mens Lives hath debauched and blinded their Understanding, as to MOSES, JESUS, and the Prophets, (unless they get Convictions from Things formerly known,) as from the Regions of the Dead: nor doth the ceasing of the Visions, upon the Seers Transmigration into forrein Kingdoms, make his Lordship’s Conjecture of the Quality of the Air and Eye a white the more probable; but, on the Contrary, it confirms greatly my Account of ane Invisible People, guardian over and care-full of Men, who have their different Offices and Abilities in distinct Counterey’s, as appears in Dan. 10. 13. viz. about Israels, Grecia’s, and Persia’s assistant Princes, whereof who so prevaileth giveth Dominion and Ascendant to his Pupills and Vassalls over the opposite Armies and Countreys; so that every Countrey and Kingdom having their topical Spirits, or Powers assisting and governing them, the SCOTTISH SEER banished to America, being a Stranger there, as well to the invisible as to the visible Inhabitants, and wanting a Fimiliarity of his former Correspondents, he could not have the Favour and Warnings, by the severall Visions and Predictions which were wont to be granted him by these Acquantances and Fayourites in his own Countrey. For if what he wont to sie were Realities, (as I have made appear,) ’twere too great ane Honour for Scotland to have such seldom-seen Watchers and predominant Powers over it alone, acting in it so expressly, and all other Nations wholly destitute of the lyke; tho, without all peradventure, all other People wanted the right Key of their Cabinet, and the exact Method of Correspondence with them, except the sagacious active Scots, as many of them have retained it of a long Time, and by Surpryses and Raptures do often foirtell what in Kyndness is really represented to them at severall Occasions. To which Purpose the learned lynx-ey’d Mr. Baxter, on Rev. 12. 7. writting of the Fight betwixt Michaell and the Dragon, gives a verie pertinent Note, viz. That he knows not but ere any great Action (especiall tragicall) is don on Earth, that first the Battell and Victory is acted and atchieved in the Air betwixt the good and evill Spirits: Thus he. It seems these were the mens Guardians; and the lyke Battells are oft tymes perceav’d in a Loaft in the Nycht-time; the Event of which myght easily be represented by some one of the Number to a Correspondent on Earth, as frequently the Report of great Actions have been more swiftly caried to other Countreys than all the Airt of us Mortals could possibly dispatch it. St. Austine, on Mark, 9. 4. giveth no small Intimation of this Truth, averring that Elias appeared with Jesus on the Mount in his proper Bodie, but Moses in ane aereall Bodie, assumed like the Angels who appeared, and had Ability to eat with Abraham, tho no Necessity on the Account of their Bodies. As lyke wise the late Doctrine of the Pre-existence of Souls, living into aereall Vehicles, gives a singular Hint of the Possibility of the Thing, if not a direct Prooff of the whole Assertion; which yet moreover may be illuminated by diverse other Instances of the lyke Nature, and as wonderfull, besides what is above said. As,

8. THE invisible Wights which haunt Houses seem rather to be some of our subterranean Inhabitants, (which appear often to Men of the Second Sight,) than evill Spirits or Devills; because, tho they throw great Stones, Pieces of Earth and Wood, at the Inhabitants, they hurt them not at all, as if they acted not malitiously, like Devills at all, but in Sport, lyke Buffoons and Drolls. All Ages have affoorded some obscure Testimonies of it, as Pythagoras his Doctrine of Transmigration; Socrates’s Dæmon that gave him [Warning] of future Dangers; Platoe’s classing them into various vehiculated Specieses of Spirits; Dionisius Areopagita’s marshalling nyne Orders of Spirits, superiour and subordinate; the Poets their borrowing of the Philosophers, and adding their own Fancies of Fountain, River, and Sea Nymphs, Wood, Hill, and Montain Inhabitants, and that every Place and Thing, in Cities and Countreys, had speciall invisible regular Gods and Governours. Cardan speaks of his Father his seeing the Species of his Friend, in a moon-shyn Night, riding fiercely by his Window on a white Horse, the verie Night his Friend dy’d at a Vast Distance from him; by which he understood that some Alteration would suddenly ensue. Cornelius Aggrippa, and the learned Dr. Mor, have severall Passages tending that Way. The Noctambulo’s themselves would appear to have some forrein joquing Spirit possessing and supporting them, when they walk on deep Waters and Topes of Houses without Danger, when asleep and in the dark; for it was no way probable that their Apprehension, and strong Imagination setting the Animal Spirits a work to move the Body, could preserve it from sinking in the Deepth, or falling down head-long, when asleep, any more than when awake, the Body being then as ponderous as before; and it is hard to attribute it to a Spirit flatelie evill and Enemy to Man, because the Noctambulo returns to his own Place safe. And the most furious Tribe of the Dæmons are not permitted by Providence to attacke Men so frequently either by Night or by Day: For in our Highlands, as there may be many fair Ladies of this aereal Order, which do often tryst with lascivious young Men, in the quality of Succubi, or lightsome Paramours and Strumpets, called _Leannain Sith_, or familiar Spirits (in Dewter. 18. 11.); so do many of our Hyghlanders, as if a strangling by the Night MARE, pressed with a fearfull Dream, or rather possessed by one of our aereall Neighbours, rise up fierce in the Night, and apprehending the neerest Weapons, do push and thrust at all Persons in the same Room with them, sometymes wounding their own Comerades to dead. The lyke whereof fell sadly out within a few Miles of me at the writting hereof. I add but one Instance more, of a very young Maid, who lived neir to my last Residence, that in one Night learned a large Peice of Poesy, by the frequent Repetition of it, from one of our nimble and courteous Spirits, whereof a Part was pious, the rest superstitious, (for I have a Copy of it,) and no other Person was ever heard to repeat it before, nor was the Maid capable to compose it of herself.

9. He demonstrated and made evident to Sense this extraordinary Vision of our Tramontain Seers, and what is seen by them, by what is said above, many haveing seen this same Spectres and Apparitions at once, haveing their visive Faculties entire; for _non est disputandum de gustu_. Itt now remaines to shew that it is not unsutable to Reason nor the Holy Scriptures.

FIRST, That it is not repugnant to Reason, doeth appear from this, that it is no less strange for Immortal Sparks and Souls to come and be immersed into gross terrestrial elementary Bodies, and be so propagated, so nourished, so fed, soe cloathed as they are, and breathe in such ane Air and World prepared for them, then for Hollanders or Hollow-cavern Inhabitants to live and traffick among us, in another State of Being, without our Knowledge. For Raymond de Subinde, in his 3d Booke, Chap. 12. argues quaintly, that all Sorts of Living Creatures have a happie rational Politie of there own, with great Contentment; which Government and mutual Converse of theirs they all pride and pluim themselves, because it is as unknown to Man, as Man is to them. Much more, that the Sone of the HIGHEST SPIRIT should assume a Bodie like ours, convinces all the World that no other Thing that is possible needs be much wondered at.

2. The Manucodiata, or Bird of Paradise, living in the highest Region of the Air; common Birds in the second Region; Flies and Insects in the lowest; Men and Beasts on the Earth’s Surface; Worms, Otters, Badgers, in Waters; lyke wise Hell is inhabited at the Centre, and Heaven in the Circumference: can we then think the middle Cavities of the Earth emptie? I have seen in Weems, (a Place in the Countie of Fyfe, in Scotland,) divers Caves cut out as vast Temples under Ground; the lyke is a Countie of England; in Malta is a Cave, wherein Stons of a curious Cut are thrown in great Numbers every Day; so I have had barbed Arrow-heads of yellow Flint, that could not be cut so small and neat, of so brittle a Substance, by all the Airt of Man. It would seem therefoir that these mention’d Works were done by certaine Spirits of pure Organs, and not by Devills, whose continual Torments could not allow them so much Leasure. Besides these, I have found fyve Curiosities in Scotland, not much observ’d to be elsewhere. 1. The Brounies, who in some Families are Drudges, clean the Houses and Dishes after all go to Bed, taking with him his Portion of Food and removing befor Day-break. 2. The Mason Word, which tho some make a Misterie of it, I will not conceal a little of what I know. It is lyke a Rabbinical Tradition, in way of Comment on Jachin and Boaz, the two Pillars erected in Solomon’s Temple, (1 Kings, 7. 21.) with ane Addition of some secret Signe delyvered from Hand to Hand, by which they know and become familiar one with another. 3. This Second Sight, so largely treated of before. 4. Charmes, and curing by them very many Diseases, sometimes by transferring the Sicknes to another. 5. A being Proof of Lead, Iron, and Silver, or a Brieve making Men invulnerable. Divers of our Scottish Commanders and Souldiers have been seen with blue Markes only, after they were shot with leaden Balls; which seems to be an Italian Trick, for they seem to be a People too currious and magically inclyned, Finally Iris-men, our Northern-Scotish, and our Athole Men are so much addicted to and delighted with Harps and Musick, as if, like King Saul, they were possessed with a forrein Spirit, only with this Difference, that Musick did put Saul’s Pley-fellow a sleep, but roused and awaked our Men, vanquishing their own Spirits at Pleasure, as if they were impotent of its Powers, and unable to command it; for wee have seen some poor Beggers of them, chattering their Teeth for Cold, that how soon they saw the Fire, and heard the Harp, leapt thorow the House like Goats and Satyrs. As there paralell Stories in all Countries and Ages reported of these our obscure People, (which are no Dotages,) so is it no more of Necessitie to us fully to know their Beings and Manner of Life, then to understand distinctly the Politie of the nyne Orders of Angels; or with what Oyl the Lamp of the Sun is maintained so long and regularlie; or why the Moon is called a great Luminary in Scripture, while it only appears to be so; or if the Moon be truly inhabited, because Telescopes discover Seas and Mountains in it, as well as flaming Furnishes in the Sun; or why the Discovery of America was look’t on as a Fairie Tale, and the Reporters hooted at as Inventors of ridiculous Utopias, or the first probable Asserters punished as Inventures of new Gods and Worlds; or why in England the King cures the Struma by stroaking, and the Seventh Son in Scotland; whither his temperat Complexion conveys a Balsome, and sucks out the corrupting Principles by a frequent warme sanative Contact, or whither the Parents of the Seventh Child put furth a more eminent Virtue to his Production than to all the Rest, as being the certain Meridian and hight to which their Vigour ascends, and from that furth have a graduall declyning into a feebleness of the Bodie and its Production. And then, 1. Why is not the 7th Son infected himselfe by that Contagion he extracts from another? 2. How can continual stroaking with a cold Hand have foe strong a natural Operation, as to exhale all the Infections warming corroding Vapours. 3. Why may not a 7th Daughter have the same Vertue? So that it appears, albeit, a happie natural Constitution concurre, yet something in it above Nature. Therefore every Age hath left some secret for its Discoverie; who knows but this Entercourse betwixt the two Kinds of rationall Inhabitants of the same Earth may be not only beleived shortly, but as friely entertain’d, and as well known, as now the Airt of Navigation, Printing, Limning, riding on Saddles with Stirrups, and the Discoveries of Microscopes, which were sometimes a great a Wonder, and as hard to be beleived.