Witchcraft and superstitious record in the south-western district of Scotland

"For she's gathered witch dew in the Kells kirkyard, In the mirk how of the moon, And fed hersel' wi' th' wild witch milk With a red-hot burning spoon." --M'Lehan.

[Illustration]

To Alison Jean Maxwell Wood

A "witch" of my most intimate acquaintance

PREFACE.

Throughout Dumfriesshire and Galloway remnants of old-world customs still linger, suggesting a remoter time, when superstitious practice and belief held all-important sway in the daily round and task of the people.

In gathering together the available material bearing upon such matters, more particularly in the direction of witchcraft, fairy-lore, death warnings, funeral ceremony and ghost story, the author trusts that by recording the results of his gleanings much as they have been received, and without at all attempting to subject them to higher analysis or criticism, a truer aspect and reflection of the influence of superstition upon the social life of those older days, may be all the more adequately presented.

112 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH, August 9th, 1911.

CONTENTS.

Page.

CHAPTER I.

Traditional Witchcraft Described 1

CHAPTER II.

Witch Narrative 21

CHAPTER III.

Witchcraft Trials and Persecution 66

CHAPTER IV.

Fairies and Brownies 142

CHAPTER V.

Wraiths and Warnings 198

CHAPTER VI.

Death Customs and Funeral Ceremony 216

CHAPTER VII.

Ghost Lore and Haunted Houses 244

APPENDIX.

(a) Surprising Story of the Devil of Glenluce 302

(b) A True Relation of an Apparition which Infested the house of Andrew Mackie, Ringcroft of Stocking, Parish of Rerwick, etc. 321

(c) The Laird o' Coul's Ghost 344

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

The Witches' Ride 4

"And Perish'd Mony a Bonny Boat" 12

The Carlin's Cairn 35

A Witch-Brew and Incantation 38

"A Running Stream they dare na cross" 69

A Witch Trial 85

The Burning of the Nine Women on the Sands of Dumfries, April 13th, 1659 114

Penance 125

"In Fairy Glade" 152

"Riddling in the Reek" 167

An Eerie Companion 206

"Deid Lichts" 211

Funeral Hospitality 222

A Galloway Funeral of Other Days 238

The Headless Piper of Patiesthorn 266

The Ghost of Buckland Glen 271

"To Tryst with Lag" 280

Ringcroft of Stocking 324

TAIL-PIECES.

Page.

A Threefold Charm 'gainst Evil 20

Witch Stool and Brooms 65

Witch Cauldron, Ducking Stool, and Stake 141

To Kep Skaith 197

A Midnight Revel 215

Haunted 243

WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITIOUS RECORD IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN DISTRICT OF SCOTLAND.

CHAPTER I.

TRADITIONAL WITCHCRAFT DESCRIBED.

"When out the hellish legion sallied." --Tam o' Shanter.

In the far-off days, when Superstition, in close association with the "evil sister" of Ignorance, walked abroad in the land, the south-western district of Scotland shared very largely in the beliefs and terrors embraced under the general descriptive term of witchcraft. Active interference in the routine of daily life on the part of the Prince of Darkness and his agencies was fully believed in. The midnight ride, the power of conversion into animal semblance and form, mystic rite and incantation, spells and cantrips, as well as the presence on earth of the Devil himself, who generally appeared in some alluring form--all had a firmly-established place in the superstitious and impressionable minds of the people who dwelt in the land of those darker days.