"One of the most famous witches of tradition belonging to Corrie (Dumfriesshire) was the witch-wife of the Wyliehole, whose strange exploits and infernal doings were the subject of many a winter evening's conversation around the farmer's hearth. "She was represented as having been terribly implacable in her resentments, and those who fell under her displeasure were certain to feel all the severity of her revenge. She pursued them incessantly with strange accidents and misfortunes, sometimes with nocturnal visits in the form of fierce wild cats and weasels, and not only disturbed their repose but kept them in constant terror of their lives. She seems also to have been somewhat peculiar in her movements, as she was seen, on one occasion, on the top of Burnswark crags switching lint by moonlight."(20) It may now be well to dwell for a little on the popular measures resorted to, to counteract witch influence and render it futile. Relief and protection were sought in various ways. Charm and popular antidote had an abiding place in the domestic usage of the day, and faith, if wedded to empirical methods, was at all events all-prevailing. The mountain ash or rowan tree was believed to have a strong counter influence against unholy rite, and a very usual custom was to plait a branch and fasten it above the byre door to ensure the protection of their cows. Young women wore strings of rowan berries as beads on a string of the same colour, implicitly believing "Rowan tree and red threid, Put the witches to their speed"-- and Robert Heron, in his _Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland_ (1792), further illustrates this point of superstitious observance by reference to an acquaintance:--"An anti-burgher clergyman in these parts, who actually procured from a person who pretended to skill in these charms, two small pieces of wood, curiously wrought, to be kept in his father's cow-house as a security for the health of his cows. It is common (he adds) to bend into a cow's tail a small piece of mountain ash-wood as a charm against witchcraft." Inside the cottage the rowan bunch was suspended from the top of the corner-cupboard or box-bed. Salt was supposed to possess a strong power of evil resistance in various ways, not least in the operation of "churning," a handful being added to the cream before even commencing. To this day old horse-shoes are nailed over stable and byre doors "for luck," a vague application of what in the older days was specific belief in their potency as a charm against witch-mischief. Stones with holes through them naturally perforated by the action of the water, popularly called "elf-cups," were also considered to possess protective power and were commonly nailed over the stable door. It was further quite usual, when passing the hut of any old woman whom people eyed askance, to put the thumb upon the palm of the hand and close the fingers over it--a relic of the sign of the cross--to avert the evil eye.