Witchcraft and superstitious record in the south-western district of Scotland — John Shaqi
Witchcraft and superstitious record in the south-western district of ScotlandWood, J. Maxwell (John Maxwell)
History
Witchcraft and superstitious record in the south-western district of Scotland
Wood, J. Maxwell (John Maxwell)
Folklore -- Scotland; Witchcraft -- Scotland
The following is the quotation:--"My husband brought hom the clay in his
plaid (newk). It ves maid in my hows; and the Divell himself with ws. We
brak the clay werie small, lyk meil, (and) sifted it with a siew, and
powred in vater amongst it, with wordis that the Divell leardned vs (in
the Di.) Vellis nam. I brought hom the water, in a pig, out of the
Rud-wall. We were all upon owr (kneyes) and our hair about owr eyes, and
owr handis liftet up to the Divell, and owr eyes stedfast looking (upon
him) praying and saying wordis which he learned ws, thryse ower, for
destroyeing of this Lairdis (meall) children, and to mak his hows airles.
It was werie sore wrought, lyk rye-bowt. It was about the bignes of a
feadge or pow. It was just maid lyk the bairn; it vanted no mark of any
maill child, such as heid, face, eyes, nose, mowth lippes, etc., and the
handis of it folded downe by its sydis. It ves putt to the fyre, first
till it scrunked, and then a cleir fyre about it, till it ves hard. And
then we took out of the fyre, in the Divell's nam; and we laid a clowt
about it and did lay (it) on a knag, and sometimes under a chist. Each day
we would water, and then rost and bek it; and turn it at the fyre, each
other day, whill that bairne died; and then layed it up, and steired it
not untill the nixt bairne wes borne; And then, within half an year efter
that bairne was born, (we) took it out again out of the cradle and clowt,
and would dip it now and than among water, and beck (it) and rost it at
the fyre, each other day once, as ve did against the other that was dead,
untill that bairn (died) also."(25)
The following is an example of a "Devil's Grace":--
"We eat this meat in the Divellis nam,
With sorrow, and sych,[9] and meikle shame,
We sall destroy hows and hald;
Both sheip and noat in till the fald.
Little good sall come to the fore
Of all the rest of the little store."
The following extract from a rare and fascinating work, _The Book of
Galloway_ (1745), possesses two points of much interest. It includes the
prophetic utterings of a witch called Meg Macmuldroch at the "cannie
moment" when Sir William Douglas of Gelston, whose name is so intimately
associated with the creation and development of the town of
Castle-Douglas, was born:--
"And anon as she came to the burden of her prophecy, pointing her
quivering fingers to the sky, and repeating the following words with much
emphasis:--'I looked at the starnies and they were in the right airt. It
was full tide, and bein' lown and in the deid howe o' nicht, in Sandy
Black's fey, I heard the sough o' the sea and the o'erswak o' the waves as
they broke their bellies on the sawns o' Wigtown. There was a scaum i' the
lift; the young mune was in the auld mune's arms, that was bad and
guid--bad for the father, guid for the son; and as sure as the de'ils in
the King's croft o' Stocking,[10] here's my benison and malison, mak' o't
what ye wull.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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