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Scotland : (For
early matter see the article Celts.)
Witchcraft.—Witchcraft and sorcery appear to
have been practised in the earliest historical
and traditional times. It is related that during
the reign of Natholocus in the second century
there dwelt in lona a witch of great renown, and
so celebrated for her marvellous power that the
king sent one of his captains to consult her
regarding the issue of a rebellion then
troubling his kingdom. The witch declared that
within a short period the king would be
murdered, not by his open enemies but by one of
his most favoured friends, in whom he had most
especial trust. The messenger enquired the
assassin's name. " Even by thine owti hands as
shall be well-known within these few dayes,"
replied the witch. So troubled was the captain
on hearing these words that he railed bitterly
against her, vowing that he would see her burnt
before he would commit such a villainous crime.
But after reviewing the matter carefully in his
mind, he arrived at the conclusion that if he
informed the king of the witch's prophecy, the
king might for the sake of his personal safety
have him put to death, so thereupon he decoyed
Natholocus into his private chamber and falling
upon him with a dagger slew him outright. About
the year 388 the devil was so enraged at the
piety of St. Patrick that he assailed the saint
by the whole band of witches in Scotland. St.
Patrick fled to the Clyde embarking in a small
boat for Ireland. As witches cannot pursue their
victims over running water, they flung a huge
rock after the escaping saint, which however
fell harmless to the ground, and which tradition
says now forms Dumbarton Rock. The persecution
of witches constitutes one of the blackest
chapters of history. All classes, Catholic and
Protestant alike, pursued the crusade with equal
vigour, undoubtedly inspired by the passage in
Exodus xxii., 18. While it is most probable that
the majority of those who practised witchcraft
and sorcery-were of weak mind and enfeebled
intellect, yet a large number adopted the
supposed art for the purpose of intimidation and
extortion from their neighbours. Witches were
held to have sold themselves body and soul to
the devil. The ceremony is said to consist of
kneeling before the evil one, placing one hand
on her head and the other under her feet, and
dedicating all between to the service of the
devil, and also renouncing baptism. The witch
was thereafter deemed to be incapable of
reformation. No minister of any denomination
whatever would intercede or pray for her. On
sealing the compact the devil proceeded to put
his mark upon her. Writing on the '' Witches'
Mark" Mr. Bell, minister of Gladsmuir in 1705
says: " The witches' mark is sometimes like a
blew spot, or a little tale, or reid spots, like
fleabiting, sometimes the flesh is sunk in and
hollow and this is put in secret places, as
amongthehairof the head.or eyebrows, within the
lips.under the armpits, and even in the most
secret parts of the body." Mr. Robert Kirk of
Aberfoill in his Secret Commonwealth states : "A
spot that I have seen, as a small mole, horny,
and brown coloured, throw which mark when a
large brass pin was thrust (both in buttock,
nose, and rooff of the mouth) till, it bowed
(bent) and became crooked, the . witches, both
men and women, nather felt a pain nor did bleed,
nor knew the precise time when this was doing to
them (their eyes only being covered)."
In many cases the mark was invisible, and as it
was considered that no pain accompanied the
pricking of it, there arose a body of persons
who pretending great skill therein constituted
themselves as " witch prickers " and whose
office was to discover and find out witches. The
method employed was barbarous in the extreme.
Having stripped and bound his victim the witch
pricker proceeded to thrust his needles into
every part of the body. When at last the victim
worn out with exhaustion and agony remained
silent, the witch pricker declared that he had
discovered the mark. Another test for detection
was trial by water. The suspects were tied hands
and great toes together, wrapped in a sheet and
flung into a deep pool. In cases where the body
floated, the water of baptism was supposed to
give up the accused, while those who sank to the
bottom were absolved, but no attempt was made at
rescue. When confession was demanded the most
horrible of tortures were resorted to, burning
with irons being generally the last torture
applied. In some cases a diabolic contrivance
called the " witches' bridle " was used. The "
bridle " encircled the victim's head while an
iron bit was thrust into the mouth from which
prongs protruded pierciiig the tongue, palate
and cheeks. In cases of execution, the victim
was usually strangled and thereafter burned at
the stake.
Witches were accused of a great variety of
crimes. A common offence was to bewitch milch
cattle by turning their milk sour, or curtailing
the supply, raising storms, stealing children
from their graves, and promoting various
illnesses. A popular device was to make a waxen
image of their victim, thrust pins into it and
sear it with hot irons, all of which their
victim felt and at length succumbed. Upon
domestic animals they cast an evil eye, causing
emaciation and refusal to take food till at
length death ensued. To those who believed in
them and acknowledged their power, witches were
supposed to use their powers for good by curing
disease and causing prosperity. Witches had a
weekly meeting at which the devil presided,
every Saturday commonly called " the witches'
Sabbath," their meetings generally being held in
desolate places or in ruined churches, to which
they rode through the air mounted on
broomsticks. If the devil was not present on
their arrival, they evoked him by beating the
earth with a fir-stick, and saying " Rise up
foul thief." The witches appeared to see him in
different guises ; to some he appeared as a boy
clothed in green, others saw him dressed in
white, while to others he appeared mounted on a
black horse. After delivering a mock sermon, he
held a court at which the witches had to make a
full statement of their doings during the week.
Those who had not accomplished sufficient evil
were belaboured with their own broomsticks,
while those who had been more successful were
rewarded with enchanted bones. The proceedings
finished with a dance, the music to which the
fiend played on his bagpipes.
Robert Burns in his Tale of Tarn o' Shatiter
gives a graphic description of this orgy. There
were great anneal gatherings at Candlemas,
Beltane and Hallow-eve. These were of an
international character at which the witch
sisterhood of all nations assembled, those who
had to cross the sea performing the journey in
barges of egg-shell, while their aerial journeys
were on goblin horses with enchanted bridles.
Witchcraft was first dealt with by law in
Scotland whea by a statute passed in 1563 in the
Parliament of Queen. Mary it was enacted: " That
na maner of person nor persons of quhatsumever
estaite, degree or condition they be of, take
upon hand in onie times hereafter to use onie
maner of witchcraft, sorcerie, or necromancie,
under the paine of death, alsweil to be execute
against the user, abuser, as the seeker of the
response of consultation."
The great Reformer, John Knox, was accused by
the Catholics of Scotland of being a renowned
wizard and having by sorcery raised up saints in
the churchyard of St. Andrews when Satan himself
appeared and so terrified Knox's secretary that
he became insane and died. Knox was also charged
that by his magical arts in his old age he
persuaded the beautiful young daughter of Lord
Ochiltree to marry him. Nicol Burne bitterly
denounces Knox for having secured the affections
of " ane damosil of nobii blude, and he ane auld
decrepit creatur of maist bais degree of onie
that could be found in the country."
There were numerous trials for witchcraft in the
Justiciary Court in Edinburgh and at the Circuit
Courts, also session records preserved from
churches all over Scotland show that numerous
cases were dealt with by the local authorities
and church officials. A. J. B. G.
Rodgers, in his Social Life in Scotland, says: "
From the year 1479 when the first capital
sentence was carried out thirty thousand persons
had on the charge of using enchantment been in
Great Britain cruelly immolated ; of these one
fourth belonged to Scotland. No inconsiderable
number of those who suffered on the charge of
sorcery laid claim to necromantic acts with
intents felonious or unworthy.
When James VI. of Scotland, in the year 1603,
was called upon to ascend the throne of Great
Britain and Ireland, his own native kingdom was
in rather a curious condition. James himself was
a man of considerable learning, intimate with
Latin and Theology, yet his book on Demonology
marks him as distinctly superstitious; and,
while education and even scholarship were
comparatively common at this date in Scotland,
more common in fact than they were in
contemporary England, the great, mass of
Scottish people shared abundantly their
sovereign's dread of witches and the like. The
efforts of Knox and his doughty confreres, it is
true, had brought about momentous changes in
Scottish life, but if the Reformation ejected
certain superstitions it undoubtedly tended to
introduce others. For that stern Calvinistic
faith, which now began to take root in Scotland,
nourished the idea that sickness and accident
are a mark of divine anger, nor did this theory
cease to be common in the north till long after
King James's day.
It is a pity that the royal author, in the
curious treatise mentioned above, volunteers but
few precise facts anent the practitioners of
magic who throve in Scotland during his reign.
But other sources of information indicate that
these people were very numerous, and whereas, in
Elizabethan England, it was customary to put a
witch to death by the merciful process of
hanging, in Jacobean Scotland it was usual to
take stronger measures. In short, the victim was
burnt at the stake; and it is interesting to
note that on North Berwick Law, in the county of
East Lothian, there is standing to this day a
tall stone which, according to local tradition,
was erstwhile used for the ghastly business in
question. Yet it would be wrong to suppose that
witches and sorcerers, though handled roughly
now and then, were regarded with universal
hatred ; for in seventeenth century Scotland
medicine and magic went hand in hand, and the
man suffering from a physical malady,
particularly one whose cause he could not
understand, very seldom entrusted himself to a
professional ;ech, and much preferred to consult
one who claimed ;ea!ing capacities derived from
intercourse with the unseen ~:r!d. Physicians of
the latter kind, however, were ;tnerally experts
in the art of poisoning; and, while a ::od many
cures are credited to them, their triumphs in :ie
opposite direction would seem to have been much
more
- irnerous. Thus we find that in July, 1702, a
certain
"imes Rekl of Musselburgh was brought to trial,
being
:.irged not merely with achieving miraculous
cures, but
~.-'.i contriving the murder of one David
Libbertoun, a
: .-:er in Edinburgh. This David and his family,
it trans-
: res, were sworn enemies of a neighbouring
household,
r.stie by name, and betimes their feud grew as
fierce as
: between the Montagues and Capulets; so the
: sties swore they would bring things to a
conclusion,
: going to Reid they petitioned his nefarious
aid. His
- - = : act was to bewitch nine stones, these to
be cast on the
- - is of the offending baker with a view to
destroying his • -?; while Reid then proceeded
to enchant a piece of raw
- .-., and also to make a statuette of wax—the
nature of
: design is not recorded, but presumably
Libbertoun
;elf was represented—and Mrs. Christie was
enjoined to
::st the meat under her enemy's door, and then
to go
e and melt the waxwork before her own fire.
These
•ructions she duly obeyed, and a little later
the victim
:hed his last; but Reid did not go unscathed,
and after
:rial the usual fate of burning alive was meted
out to
like sentence was passed in July 1605 on Patrick
r:e, a native of Halic in Ayrshire, and known
there as
: •-: the Witch," who was found guilty of
foregathering
endless sorceresses of the neighbourhood, and of
; ung them in disinterring bodies which they
afterwards
dismembered. Doubtless " Alloway's auld haunted
Kirk," sacred to the memory of Burns, v.-as
among those ransacked for corpses by the band ;
yet if the crime was a gruesome one it was
harmless withal, and assuredly Lowrie's ultimate
fate was distinctly a hard one ! On the other
hand Isobel Griersone, a Prestonpans woman,
received no more than justice when burnt to
death on the Castle Rock, Edinburgh, in March
1607; for the record of her poisonings was a
formidable one, rivalling that of Wainewright or
that of Cellini himself, while it is even
recorded that she contrived to put an end to
several people simply by cursing them. Equally
wonderful were the exploits of another
sorceress, Belgis Todd of Longniddry, who is
reported to have compassed the death of a man
she hated just by enchanting his cat; but this
picturesque modus operandi was scorned by a
notorious Perthshire witch Janet Irwing, who
about the year 1610 poisoned sundry members of
the family of Erskine of Dun, in the county of
Angus. The criminal was detected anon, and
suffered the usual fate; while a few years later
a long series of tortures, culminating in
burning, were inflicted on Margaret Dein (nee
Barclay), whose accomplishments appear to have
been of no commonplace nature. The.wife of a
burgess of Irvine, John Dein, this woman
conceived a violent aversion for her
brother-in-law. Archibald; and on one occasion,
when the latter was setting out for France,
Margaret hurled imprecations at his ship, vowing
none of its crew or passengers would ever return
to their native Scotland. Months went by, and no
word of Archibald's arrival reached Irvine ;
while one day a pedlar named Stewart came to
John Dein's house, and declared that the baneful
prophecy had been duly fulfilled. The municipal
authorities now heard of the affair, and
arresting Stewart, whom they had long suspected
of practising magic, they commenced to
cross-examine him. At first he would tell
nothing, but when torture had loosened his
tongue he confessed how, along with Margaret
Dein, he had made a clay model of the
ill-starred barque, and thrown this into the sea
on a particularly stormy night. His audience
were horrified at the news, but they hastened
to-lay hands on the sorceress, whereupon they
dealt with her as noted above.
No doubt this tale, and many others like it,
have blossomed very considerably in the course
of being handed down from generation to
generation, and no doubt the witches of Jacobean
Scotland are credited with triumphs far greater
than they really achieved. At the same time,
scanning the annals of sorcery, we find that a
number of its practitioners avowed stoutly, when
confronted by a terrible death, that they had
been initiated in their craft by the foul fiend
himself, or haply by a band of fairies; and
thus, whatever capacities these bygone magicians
really had, it is manifest that they possessed
in abundance that confidence which is among the
secrets of power, and is perhaps the very key to
success in any line of action. Small wonder,
then, that they were dreaded by the simple,
illiterate folk of their day; and, musing on
these facts, we feel less amazed at the
credulity displayed by an erudite man like James
VI., we are less surprised at his declaring that
all sorcerers " ought to be put to death
according to the law of God, the civill and
imperiale Law, and municipall Law of all
Christian nations."
The last execution of a witch in Scotland took
place in Sutherland in 1722. An old woman
residing at Loth was charged amongst other
crimes of having transformed her daughter into a
pony and shod by the devil which caused the girl
to turn lame both in hands and feet, a calamity
which entailed upon her son. Sentence of death
was pronounced by Captain David Ross, the
Sheriff-substitute. Rodgers relates: ;t The poor
creature when lead to the stake was unconscious
of the stir made on her account, and warming her
wrinkled hands at the fire kindled to consume
her, said she was thankful for so good a blaze.
For his rashness in pronouncing the sentence of
death, the Sheriff was emphatically reproved."
The reign of ignorance and superstition was fast
drawing to a close.
Witchcraft, if it can be so called nowadays, is
dealt with under the laws pertaining to rogues,
vagabonds, fortunetellers, gamesters, and such
like characters. (See Fortune-telling.)
Magic and Demonology.—Magic of the lower cultus,
perhaps the detritus of Druidism, appears to
have been common in Scotland until a late
period. We find in the pages of Adamnan that the
Druids were regarded by St. Columba and his
priest as magicians, and that he met their
sorcery with a superior celestial magic of his
own. Thus does the religion of one race become
magic in the eyes of another. Notices of sorcery
in Scotland before the thirteenth century are
scanty, if we except the tradition that Macbeth
encountered three witches who prophesied his
fate to him. We have no reason to believe that
Thomas the Rhymer (who has been endowed by later
superstition with adventures similar to those of
Tannhauser) was other than a minstrel and maker
of epigrams, or that Sir Michael Scot was other
than a scholar and man of letters. Workers of
sorcery were numerous but obscure, and although
often of noble birth as Lady Claim's and Lady
Fowlis, were probably very ignorant persons. We
get a glimpse of Scottish demonology in the
later middle ages in the rhymed fragment known
as " The Cursing of Sir John Rowll," a priest of
Corstorphine, near Edinburgh, which dates
perhaps from the last quarter of the fifteenth
century. It is an invective against certain
persons who have rifled his poultry-yard, upon
whom the priest calls down the divine vengeance.
The demons who were to torment the evildoers
are: Garog, Harog, Sym Skynar, Devetinus " the
devill that maid the dyce," Firemouth, Cokadame,
Tutivillus, Browny, and Syr Garnega, who may be
the same as that Girnigo, to whom cross children
are often likened by angry mothers of the
Scottish working-classes, in such a phrase as "
eh, ye're a wee girnigo," and the Scottish verb,
to " girn," may find its origin in the name of a
mediaeval fiend, the last shadow of some
Teutonic or Celtic deity of unlovable
attributes. In Sym Skynar, we may have Skyrnir,
a Norse giant in whose glove Thor found shelter
from an earthquake, and who sadly fooled him and
his companions. Skyrnir was, of course, one of
the Jotunn or Norse Titans, and probably one of
the powers of winter ; and he may have received
the popular surname of " Sym " in the same
manner as we speak of " Jack " Frost. A great
deal has still to be done in unearthing the
minor figures of Scottish mythology and
demonology, and even the greater ones have not
received the attention due to them. In Newhaven,
a fishing district near Edinburgh, for example,
we find the belief current in a fiend called
Brounger, who is described as an old man who
levies a toll of fish and oysters upon the local
fisherman. If he is not placated with these, he
wreaks vengeance on the persons who fail to
supply him. He is also described as " a Flint
and the son of a Flint," which proves
conclusively that, like Thor and many other gods
of Asia and America, he was a thunder or weather
deity. In fact his name is probably a mere
corruption of an ancient Scandinavian Word
meaning "to strike," which still survives in the
Scottish expression to " make a breenge " at
one. To return to instances of practical magic,
a terrifying and picturesque legend tells how
Sir Lewis Bellenden, a lord of session, and
superior of the Barony of Broughton, near
Edinburgh, succeeded by the aid of a sorcerer in
raising the Devil in the backyard of his own
house in the Canongate, somewhere about the end
of the sixteenth century. Sir Lewis
was a notorious trafficker with witches, with
whom his barony of Broughton was overrun. Being
desirous of beholding his Satanic majesty in
person, he secured the services of one Richard
Graham. The results of the evocation were
disastrous to the inquisitive judge, whose
nerves were so shattered at the apparition of
the Lord of Hades that he fell ill and shortly
afterwards expired.
The case of Major Weir is one of the most
interesting in the annals of Scottish sorcery. "
It is certain, says Scott, " that no story of
witchcraft or necromancy, so many of which
occurred near and in Edinburgh, made such a
lasting impression on the public mind as that of
Major Weir. The remains of the house in which he
and his sister lived are still shown at the head
of the Wes: Bow, which has a gloomy aspect, well
suited for a necromancer. It was at different
times a brazier's shop and a magazine for lint,
and in my younger days was employee for the
latter use ; but no family would inhabit the
haunted walls as a residence; and bold was the
urchin from the High School who dared approach
the gloomy ruin at the risk of seeing the
Major's enchanted staff parading through the old
apartments, or hearing the hum of the
necromantic wheel, which procured for his sister
such a character as a spinner.
" The case of this notorious wizard was
remarkable chiefly from his being a man of some
condition (the soa of a gentleman, and his
mother a lady of family in Clydesdale), which
was seldom the case with those that fell under
similar accusations. It was also remarkable m
his case that he had been a Covenanter, and
peculiarly attached to that cause. In the years
of the Commonwealth this man was trusted and
employed by those who were then at the head of
affairs, and was in 1649 commander of th*
City-Guard of Edinburgh, which procured him his
title 01 Major. In this capacity he was
understood, as was indeed implied in the duties
of that officer at the period, to be very strict
in executing severity upon such Royalists ^ fell
under his military charge. It appears that the
Major with a maiden sister who had kept his
house, was subje-:" to fits of melancholic
lunacy, an infirmity easily reconcilable with
the formal pretences which he made to a hig;
show of religious zeal. He was peculiar in his
gift c: prayer, and, as was the custom of the
period, was often called to exercise his talent
by the bedside of sick person? until it came to
be observed that, by some association which it
is more easy to conceive than to explain, be
could not pray with the same warmth and fluency
~-expression unless when "he had in his hand a
stick of pec--liar shape and appearance, which
he generally walke; with. It was noticed, in
short, that when this stick w&i taken from him,
his wit and talent appeared to forsake him, This
Major Weir was seized by the magistrates on a
strange whisper that became current respecting
vile practices, which he seems to have admitted
without either shame or contrition. The
disgusting profligacies which he confessed were
of such a character that it may be charitably
hoped most of them were the fruits of a depraved
imagination, though he appears to have been in
many respects a wicked and criminal hypocrite.
When he had completed his confession, he avowed
solemnly that he had not confessed the hundredth
part of the crimes which he had committed. From
this time he would answer no interrogatory, nor
would he have recourse to prayer, arguing that,
as he had no hope whatever of escaping Satan,
there was no need of incensing him by vain
efforts at repentance. His witchcraft seems to
have been taken for granted on his own
confession, as his indictment was chiefly
founded on the same document, in which he
alleged he had never seen the devil, but any
feeling he had of him was in the dark. He
received sentence of death, which he suffered
izth April, 1670, at the Gallow-hill, between
Leith and'Edinburgh. He died so stupidly sullen
and impenitent as to justify the opinion that he
was oppressed with a kind of melancholy frenzy,
the consequence perhaps of remorse, but such as
urged him not to repent, but to despair. It
seems probable that he was burnt alive. His
sister, with whom he was supposed to have had an
incestuous connection, was condemned also to
death, leaving a, stronger and more explicit-
testimony of their mutual sins than could be
extracted from the Major. She gave, as usual,
some account of her connection with the queen of
the fairies, and acknowledged the assistance she
received from that sovereign in
•spinning an unusual quantity of yarn. Of her
brother she said that one day a friend called
upon them at noonday with a fiery chariot, and
invited them to visit a friend at Dalkeith, and
that while there her brother received
information of the event of the battle of
Worcester. No one saw the style of their
equipage except themselves. On the scaffold this
woman, determining, as she said, to die " with
the greatest shame possible " was with
difficulty prevented from throwing off her
clothing before the people, and with scarce less
trouble was she flung from the ladder by the
executioner. Her last words were in the tone of
the sect to which her brother had so long
affected to belong: " Many," she said, " weep
and lament for a poor old wretch like me; but
alas, few are weeping for a broken covenant."
Alchemy.—James IV. was attached to the science
of alchemy. " Dunbar speaks of the patronage
which the king bestowed upon certain
adventurers, who had studied the mysteries of
alchemy, and were ingenious in making '
quintiscence' which should convert other metals
into pure gold ; and in the Treasurer's Accounts
there are numerous payments for the ' quinta
essentia,' including
•wages to the persons employed, utensils of
various kinds, coals and wood for the furnaces,
and for a variety of other materials, such as
quicksilver, aqua vitae, litharge, auri, fine
tin, burnt silver, alum, salt and eggs,
saltpetre, etc. Considerable sums were also paid
to several ' Potingairs' for stuff of various
kinds to the Quinta Essentia. Thus, on the 3rd
of March, 1501, ' the king sent to Strivelin (Stirling)
four Harry nobles in gold,'—a sum equal, as it
is stated, to nine pounds Scots money—' for the
leech to multiply.' On the 27th of May, 1502,
the Treasurer paid to Robert Bartoun, one of the
king's mariners,' for certain droggis (drugs)
brocht home by him to the French leich, £31 : 4
: o.' On the nth of February, 1503-4, we find
twenty shillings given' to the man suld mak
aurum potabile, be the king's commands.' And on
the I3th of October, 1507, the Treasurer, paid
six pounds for a puncheon of wine to the Abbot
of Tungland, to ' mak Quinta Essentia.' The
credulity and indiscriminate generosity of the
Scottish monarch appear to have collected around
him a multitude :f quacks of all sorts, for,
besides the Abbot, mention is Tiade of ' the
leech with the curland hair'; of ' the lang
Jutch doctor,' of one Fullertone, who was
believed to : :ssess the secret of making
precious stones; of a Dr. jgilvy who laboured
hard at the transmutation of metals, ind many
other empirics, whom James not only supported ra
their experiments, but himself assisted in their
laboratory. The most noted of these adventurers
was the person •»ho is variously styled in the
Treasurer's Accounts ' the French Leich,1 '
Maister John the French Leich,' ' Maister ^-hn
the French Medicinar,' and ' French Maister
John.' r.-.e real name of this empiric was John
Damian ; and we j=arn from Dunbar that he was a
native of Lombardy, and iad practised surgery
and other arts in France before his arrival in
Scotland. His first appearance at the court of
James was in the capacity of a French leech, and
as he is Mentioned among the persons who
received ' leveray' in
1501-2, there can be no doubt that he held an
appointment as a physician in the royal
household. He soon succeeded in ingratiating
himself with the king, and it is probable that
it was from him that James imbibed a strong
passion for alchemy, as he about this time
erected at Stirling a furnace for prosecuting
such experiments, and continued during the rest
of his reign to expend considerable sums of
money in attempts to discover the philosopher's
stone. ' Maister John,' says Bishop Lesley, '
caused the king believe, that he by multiplying
and utheris his inventions sold make fine gold
of uther metal, quhilk science he callit the
Quintassence, whereupon the king made great
cost, but all in vain.' There are numerous
entries in the Treasurer's Accounts of sums paid
for saltpetre, bellows, two great stillatours,
brass mortars, coals, and numerous vessels of
various shapes, sizes, and denominations, for
the use of this foreign adept in his mystical
studies. ' These, however, were not his sole
occupations; for after the mysterious labours of
the day were concluded, Master John was wont to
play at cards with the sovereign—a mode by which
he probably transferred the contents of the
royal exchequer into his own purse, as
efficaciously as by his distillations.' We find
that on the 4th of March, 1501, nine pounds five
shillings were paid ' to the king and the French
leich to play at cartis.' A few months later, on
the occasion of a temporary visit which the
empiric found it necessary to pay to France,
James made him a present of his own horse and
two hundred pounds. Early in the year 1504, the
Abbot of Tungland, in Galloway, died, and the
king, with a reckless disregard of the dictates
of duty, and even of common decency, appointed
this unprincipled adventurer to the vacant
office. On the nth March, the Treasurer paid '
to Gareoch Parsuivant fourteen shillings to pass
to Tungland for the Abbacy to French Maister
John.' On the I2th of the same month, ' by the
king's command,' he paid ' to Bardus Altovite
Lumbard twenty-five pounds for Maister John, the
French Mediciner, new maid Abbot of Tungland,
whilk he aucht (owed) to the said Bardus ;' and
a few days later on the I7th, there was given '
to Maister John the new maid Abbot of Tungland,
seven pounds.' Three years after, in 1507, July
27, occurs the following entry : ' Item, lent,
by the king's command to the Abbot of Tungland,
and can nocht be gettin fra him ^33 : 6 : 8.' An
adventure which befel this dexterous impostor
afforded great amusement to the Scottish court.
On the occasion of an embassy setting out from
Stirling to the court of France, he had the
assurance to declare that by means of a pair of
artificial wings which he had constructed, he
would undertake to fly to Paris and arrive long
before the ambassadors. ' This time,' says
Bishop Lesley, ' there was an Italiane with the
king, who was made Abbot of Tungland. This abbot
tuke in hand to flie with wings, and to be in
France before the said ambassadors ; and to that
effect he caused make ane pair of wings of
feathers, quhilk bein festinitt uponn him he
flew off the castle-wall of Stirling ; but
shortly he fell to the ground and broke his thie-bane
; but the wyte (blame) thereof he ascribed to
their beand some hen feathers in the wings,
quhilk yarnit, and coveted the myddin and not
the skies.' This incident gave rise to Dunbar's
satirical ballad entitled, ' Of the Fenyeit
Friar of Tungland,' in which the poet exposes in
the most sarcastic strain the pretensions of the
luckless adventurer, and relates with great
humour the result of his attempt to soar into
the skies, when he was dragged to the earth by
the low-minded propensities of the ' hen
feathers,' which he had inadvertently admitted
into the construction of his wings. The
unsuccessful attempt of the abbot, though,
according to Lesley, it subjected him to the
ridicule of the whole kingdom, does not appear
to have lost him the king's favour, for the
Treasurer's books, from October, 1507, to
August, 1508, repeatedly mention him as having
played at dice and cards with his majesty; and
on the 8th of September, 1508, ' Damiane, Abbot
of Tungland,' obtained the royal permission to
pursue his studies abroad during the space of
five years. He must have returned to Scotland,
however, before the death of James; and the last
notice given to this impostor is quite in
character. On the 27th of March, 1513, the sum
of twenty pounds was paid to him for his journey
to the mine in Crawford Moor, where the king had
at that time artisans at work searching for
gold." From this reign to that of Mary no
magician or alchemical practitioner of note
appears to have existed in Scotland, and in the
reign of James VI. too great severity was
exhibited against such to permit of them avowing
themselves publicly. In James's reign, however,
lived the celebrated Alexander Seton (q.v.), of
Port Seton near Edinburgh, known abroad as ' The
Cosmopolite ' who is said to have succeeded in
achieving the transmutation of metals. L.S.
Highlands.—Pagan Scotland appears to have been
entirely devoid of benevolent deities. Those
representatives of the spirit world who were on
friendly terms with mankind were either held
captive by magic spells, or had some sinister
object in view which caused them to act with the
most plausible duplicity. The chief demon or
deity—one hesitates which to call her—was a
one-eyed Hag who had tusks like a wild bear. She
is referred to in folk tales as " the old wife "
(Cailleach), " Grey Eyebrows " " the Yellow
Muitearteach," etc., and reputed to be a great
worker of spells. Apparently she figured in a
lost creation myth, for fragmentary accounts
survive of how she fashioned the hills, brought
lochs into existence and caused Avhirlpools by
vengeful operations in the sea. She is a lover
of darkness, desolations and winter. With her
hammer she alternately splinters mountains,
prevents the growth of grass or raises storms.
Numerous wild animals follow her, including
deer, goats, wild boars. When one of her sons is
thwarted in his love affairs by her, he
transforms her into a mountain boulder " looking
over the sea," a form she retains during the
summer. She is liberated again on the approach
of winter. During the Spring months the Hag
drowns fishermen and preys on the food supply:
she also steals children and roasts them in her
cave. Her progeny includes a brood of monstrous
giants each with several heads and arms. These
are continually operating against mankind,
throwing down houses, abducting women and
destroying growing crops. Heroes who fight
against them require the assistance of the witch
who is called " Wise Woman," from whom they
obtain magic wands. The witch of Scottish folk
tales is the " friend of man," and her
profession was evidently regarded in ancient
times as a highly honourable one. Wizards also
enjoyed high repute; they were the witch -
doctors, priests and magicians of the Scottish
Pagans, and it was not until the sixteenth
century that legal steps were taken to suppress
them in the Highland districts. There was no
sun-worship or moon-worship in Scotland; neither
sun nor moon were individualised in the Gaelic
language; these bodies, however were reputed to
exercise a magical influence. The moon
especially was a " Magic Tank " from which
supplies of power were drawn by those capable of
performing requsite ceremonies. But although
there were no lunar or solar spirits, there were
numerous earth and water spirits. The " water
wife," like the English " mere wife," was a
greatly dreaded being who greedily devoured
victims. She must not be confused with the
Banshee, that Fate whose chief business it was
to foretell disasters, either by washing
blood-stained garments or knocking, knocking on
a certain boulder beside a river, or in the
locality where some great tragedy was impending.
The water wife usually con-
fronted a late traveller at a ford.5' She
claimed him as her own and if he disputed her
claim, asked what weapons he had to use against
her. The unwary one named each in turn, and when
he did so the power to harm her passed away. One
story of this character runs : " The wife rose
up against the smith who rode his horse, and she
said, " I have you : what have you against me ?
" " My sword," the man answered. " I have that,"
she said, " what else ? " " My shield," the man
said. " I have that and you are mine." " But,"
protested the man, " I have something else." "
What is that ? " the water wife demanded. To
this question the cautious smith answered, " I
have the long, grey, sharp thing at my thigh."
This was his dirk, and not having named it, he
was able to make use of it. As he spoke he flung
his plaid round the water wife and lifted her up
on his horse behind him. Enclosed in the magic
circle she was powerless to harm him, and he
rode home with her, deaf to her entreaties and
promises. He took her to his smithy and tied her
to the anvil. That night her brood came to
release her. They raised a tempest and tore the
roof off the smithy, but the smith defied them.
When day dawned they had to retreat. Then he
bargained with the water wife, and she consented
if he would release her that neither he nor any
of his descendants should ever be drowned in any
three rivers he might name. He named three and
received her promise, but as she made her escape
she reminded him of a fourth river. " It is mine
still," she added. In that particular river the
smith himself ultimately perished." To this day
fishermen will not name either the fish they
desire to procure or those that prey on their
catches. Haddocks are " white bellies," salmon "
red ones," and the dog-fish " the big black
fellow." It is also regarded unlucky to name a
minister, or refer to Sunday, in a fishing
boat—a fact which suggests that in early
Christian times fishermen might be pious
churchmen on land but continued to practise
paganism when they went to sea, like the
Icelandic Norsemen who believed that Christ
ruled their island, and Thor the ocean. Fairies
must not be named on Fridays or at Hallowe'en,
and Beltain (May Day) when charm fires were lit.
Earth worship, or rather the propitiation of
earth spirits, was a prominent feature of
Scottish paganism. There again magic played a
leading role. Compacts were confirmed by
swearing over a piece of turf, certain moors or
mounds were set apart for ceremonial practices,
and these were visited for the performance of
child-procuring and other ceremonies which were
performed at a standing stone. In cases of
sickness a divination cake was baked and left at
a sacred place; if it disappeared during the
night, the patient was supposed to recover ; if
it remained untouched until the following
morning it was believed that the patient would
die. This practice is not yet obsolete.
Offerings were constantly made to the earth
spirits. In a witch trial recorded in Humbie
Kirk Session Register (23rd September, 1649) one
Agnes Gourlay is accused of having made
offerings of milk, saying, '" God betuch vs to ;
they are wnder the yird that have as much need
of it as they that are above the yird " ; i.e.,
" God preserve us too ; they are under the earth
that have as much need of it as they that are
above the earth." The milk poured out upon the
earth at magical ceremonies was supposed to go
to the fairies. Gruagach stones have not yet
entirely vanished in the Highlands. These are
flat stones with deep " cup " marks. After a cow
is milked, the milker pours into a hole the
portion of milk required by the Gruagach, a
long-haired spirit who is usually " dressed like
a gentleman." If no offering is given to him,
the cream will not rise on the milk, and, if it
does the churning will be a failure. There are
interesting records in the Presbytery records of
Dingwall, Ross-shire, regarding the prevalence
of milk pouring and other ceremonies during the
seventeenth century. Among the " abominations "
referred to are those for which Gairloch parish
continued to be notorious— " frequent approaches
to some ruinous chappels and circu-lateing them
; and that future events in reference
especiallie to lyfe and death, in takeing'of
Journeyes, was exspect to be manifested by a
holl (hole) of a round stone quherein (wherein)
they tryed the/entering of their heade, which
(if they) could doe, to vfttx, be able to put in
their heade, they exspect thair returning to
that place, and failing they considered it
ominous." Objection was also taken by the
lwrrified"Pre§feytery to " their adoring of
wells and superstitious-monuments and stones,"
and to the " sacrifice of bolls at a certaine
tyme uppon the 25 of August" and to " pouring
milk upon hills as oblationes."
The seer was usually wrapped in the skin of a
sacrificed bull and left lying all night beside
a river. He was visited by supernatural beings
in the darkness and obtained answers regarding
future events. Another way to perform this
divination ceremony was to roast a live cat. The
cat was turned on a spit until the " Big Cat"
(the devil) appeared and either granted the wish
of the performer of flbc ceremony, or foretold
what was to take place in answer to a query. At
the present day there are many surviving beliefs
regarding witchcraft, fairies, the evil eye,
second tight and magical charms to cure or
injure. §• Individuals, domesticated animals and
dwellings are cfcarmed against witchcraft by
iron and certain herbs or terries. The evil eye
influence is dispelled by drinking ".water of
silver " from a wooden bowl or ladle. The voter
is taken from a river or well of high repute ;
silver is jfeced in it; then a charm is
repeated, and when it has
•een passed over a fire, the victim is given to
drink and A remains is sprinkled round the
hearth-stone with iony which varies in
districts. Curative charms are
•i-.ded down in families from a male to a female
and a --.;ie to a male. Blood-stopping charms
are still re-- ;d with great sanctity and the
most persistent coirs have been unable to obtain
them from those who .:- reported to be able to
use these with effect. Accounts .:-. still given
of "blood-stopping" from a distance. : ugh the
possessor of the power has usually a traditional
1.: m, he or she rarely uses it without praying
also. Some
• ; :..3,nd doctors bear testimony in private to
the wonder-
: ;rfects of " blood-stopping" operations. A few
years
,.; i medical officer of Inverness-shire stated
in his official
: ". to the County Council that he was watching
with
_ •; rest the operations of " King's Evil Curers
" who still
great repute in the. Western Isles. These are
usually
rath sons." '• Second-sight," like the power to
cure
::op blood, runs in families. There is not a
parish in
::ottish Highlands without its family in which
one
- :re individuals are reputed to have occult
powers.
nave visions either while awake or asleep.
Others
minous sounds on occasions and are able to
under-
what they signify. Certain individuals confess,
:h no appreciation of the faculty, that they are
mes, not always, able to foretell that a person
is
:o die ere long. Two instances of this kind may
en. A younger brother caught a chill. When an
rrother visited him he knew at once the young
man
die soon, and communicated a statement to that
: a mutual friend. According to medical opinion
the
who was not confined to bed, was in no danger,
but
-onths afterwards he developed serious symptoms
-.d suddenly. When intelligence of the death was
zicated to the elder brother he had a temporary
The same individual met a gentleman in a
friend's ^nd had a similar experience : he "
felt " he could : lain how, that this man was
near death. On two
occasions within the following week he
questioned the gentleman's daughter regarding
her father's health and was informed that he was
" as usual." The daughter was surprised at the
inquiries. Two days after this meeting the
gentleman in question expired suddenly while
sitting in his chair. Again the individual.on
hearing of the death, had a brief but
distressing illness, with symptoms usually
associated with shock. The mother of this man
has a similar faculty. On several occasions she
has seen lights. One day during the Boer War an
officer passing her door bade her good-bye as he
had been ordered to South Africa. She said,'' He
will either be slain or come back deformed," and
turned ill immediately. A few months afterwards
the officer was wounded in the lower jaw with a
bullet and returned home with his face much
deformed.
The " Second-sight" faculty manifests itself in
various ways, as these instances show, and
evidence that it is possessed by individuals may
occur only once or twice in a lifetime. There
are cases, however, in which it is constantly
active. Those who are reputed to have the
faculty are most reticent regarding it, and
appear to dread it. At the close of the
nineteenth century tow-charms to cure sprains
and bruises were sold in a well-known Highland
town by a woman who muttered a metrical spell
over each magic knot she tied as the afflicted
part was treated by her. She had numerous
patients among all classes. Bone-setters still
enjoy high repute in localities: not many years
ago a public presentation was made to a
Ross-shire bone-setter in recognition of his
life-long services to the community. His faculty
was inherited from his forbears.
Numerous instances may be gleaned in the
Highlands of the appearance of the spirits of
the living and the dead. The appearance of the
spirit of a living person is said to be a sure
indication of the approaching death of that
individual. It is never seen by a member of the
family, but appears to intimate friends.
Sometimes it speaks and gives indication of the
fate of some other mutual acquaintance.
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