But as he hates a single life In four weeks' time he got another. He is a crouse auld canty chiel, An' cares nae what the witches mutter; He'll never mair employ the Deil, Nor his auld agent Mary Butters. At day the tailor left his post Though he had seen no apparition, Nae wizard grim, nae witch, nor ghost, Though still he had a stray suspicion That some auld wizard wrinkled wife Had cast her cantrips o'er poor brawney Cause she and he did live in strife, An' whar's the man can blame poor Sawney. Wae sucks for our young lasses now, For who can read their mystic matters, Or tell if their sweethearts be true, The folks a' run to Mary Butters. To tell what thief a horse did steal, In this she was a mere pretender, An' has nae art to raise the Deil Like that auld wife, the Witch of Endor. If Mary Butters be a witch Why but the people all should know it, An' if she can the muses touch I'm sure she'll soon descry the poet. Her ain familiar aff she'll sen' Or paughlet wi' a tu' commission To pour her vengeance on the man That tantalizes her condition." There also exists a shorter version of the ballad, which seems to be a rather clumsy adaptation of what we have given above; in it the witch is incorrectly termed _Butlers_. That the heroine did not evolve the procedure she had adopted out of her own fervent imagination, but that she followed a method generally recognised and practised in the country-side is shown by a case that occurred at Newtownards in January 1871.[59] A farm-hand had brought an action against his employer for wages alleged to be due to him. It transpired in the course of the evidence that on one occasion he had been set to banish witches that were troubling the cows. His method of working illustrates the Carnmoney case. All left the house except the plaintiff, who locked himself in, closed the windows, stopped all keyholes and apertures, and put sods on top of the chimneys. He then placed a large pot of sweet milk on the fire, into which he threw three rows of pins that had never been used, and three packages of needles; all were allowed to boil together for half an hour, and, as there was no outlet for the smoke, the plaintiff narrowly escaped being suffocated.