‘I forbid the quaking-fevers, the sea-fevers, the land-fevers, and all the fevers that ever God ordained, Out of the head, out of the heart, out of the back, out of the sides, out of the knees, out of the thies, Frae the points of the fingers to the nebs of the taes: Out sall the fevers go, some to the hill, some to the hope, Some to the stone, some to the stock, In St Peter’s name, St Paul’s name, and all the saints of heaven, In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Haly Ghaist!’ More generally, however, they were employed in planting or prolonging diseases. Isobel Gowdie told the minister that, in the preceding winter, when he was sick, they made a bagful of horrible broth of the entrails of toads, parings of nails, the liver of a hare, pickles of beir and bits of rag, and, at the dictation of the devil, pronounced over it this charm: ‘He is lying in his bed, he is lying sick and sair, Let him lie intill his bed two months and three days mair,’ &c. [Sidenote: 1662.] ‘Then we fell down upon our knees, with our hair down over our shoulders and eyes, and our hands lifted up, and our eyes steadfastly fixed upon the devil, and said the foresaid words thrice over.... In the night-time, we came into Mr Harry Forbes’s chalmer, with our hands all smeared, to swing [the bag] upon Mr Harry, where he was sick in his bed; and in the daytime [there came ane of our number] to swing the bag [upon the said Mr Harry, as we could][204] not prevail in the night-time against him.’ Isobel stated the charm for taking away a cow’s milk. ‘We pull the tow [rope] and twine it, and plait it the wrong way in the devil’s name; and we draw the tether, sae made, in betwixt the cow’s hinder feet, and out betwixt the cow’s forward feet, in the devil’s name; and thereby takes with us the cow’s milk.... The way to give back the milk again is to cut the tether. When we take away the strength of any person’s ale, and gives it to another, we take a little quantity out of each barrel or stand of ale, and puts it in a stoup, in the devil’s name; and, in his name, with our awn hands, puts it amang another’s ale, and gives her the strength and substance of her neighbour’s ale. [The way] to keep the ale from us, that we have no power of it, is to sanctify it weel.’