Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
In 1649, John Kinnaird, the witch-finder, made deposition that he had
"pricked" Patrik Watson, of West Fenton, and Manie Haliburton, his spouse,
and that he had found the devil's mark on Patrik's back a little under the
point of his left shoulder, and on Manie's neck a little above her left
shoulder; of which marks they were not sensible (had no feeling in them),
neither came there any blood when pricked. So Manie, seeing that the scent
was hot and the game up, made confession, and saved further trouble. She
said that eighteen years ago, the devil had come to her in likeness of a
man, calling himself a physician, saying that he had good salves, and
specially oylispek (oil of spike or spikenard), wherewith he would cure
her daughter, then sick. So she bought some of his salves, and gave him
two English shillings for her bargain, forbye bread and milk and a pint of
ale. In eight days' time he came again, and stayed all night; and the next
morning, Patrik being "forth" and Manie yet in bed, she became more
intimately acquainted with the devil than an honest woman should. We do
not read that Manie was tortured, and, considering that it was not an
unusual thing to keep suspected witches twenty-eight days and nights on
bread and water, they being stripped stark naked, with only a haircloth
over them, and laid on a cold stone, or to put them into hair-shirts
steeped in vinegar, so that the skin might be pulled from off them, we
feel that poor Manie got off pretty well with only cremation as the result
of her mad confessions.
But one of the most extraordinary things of all was that wonderful bit of
knavery and credulity called
THE DEVIL OF GLENLUCE,[44]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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