Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
Quite as full of poetic feeling was James Knarstoun's manner of charming
with stones, when he took one stone for the ebb, another for the hill, and
the third for the kirkyard, listening carefully as to what stone should
make the "bullering" noise that would betray the tormenting spirit, and
enable the magician to send him home again: a process through which
Katherine Carey went (1617) when she found that her patient was troubled
with the spirit of the sea, which would not let him bide in peace and
quiet. Such touches as these redeem the subject from the sad monotony of
sorrow and death which else pervades it from end to end, and lift it from
the domain of the devil into the brighter and lovelier world of the
Spirits of Nature.
SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE.
In 1643 there was a fierce onslaught against the poor persecuted servants
of the devil. Thirty women suffered at once in Fife alone; and the more
zealous of the ministers hounded on the people to terrible cruelties.
There was one John Brugh,[36] "a notorious warlock in the parachin of
Fossoquhy, by the space of 36 yearis," who was wirreit at a stake and
burnt; and Janet Barker and Margaret Lauder, "indwellers and servands in
Edinburgh," who came to confession boldly, and showed that they had read
the story of Europa to some purpose, though to a great deal of confusion.
They accused Janet Cranstoun of seducing them, by promising them that if
they gave themselves over to her and the devil, they should be "as trimlie
clad as the best servands in Edinburgh." Coupled with the fact that they
had witch-marks, their confession was accepted as undeniable, and their
fate inevitably sealed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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