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
_A._ I must cause some brother of trade who dwells near hand them to tell
them who have them that they must be brought back and they should not be
wronged.
_Q._ Why did you not tell of the people who took away these cloaths,
seeing thieves ought to be discovered for the good of the country?
_A._ It doth not belong to me to put out any man, otherwise I should be in
eternity this day eight days.
_Q._ Did any person bring the things back, or how came they back?
_A._ I brought them not back, but the people who took them away brought
them back.
_Q._ But how could the silver tumbler be brought back and put in a
fast-locked room?
_A._ The person who took it flung it in at the window upon one of the
shelves.
(_Notandum_--Now it was told him that all the windows were fast-snecked,
as the servants who went in to take up the tumbler declared.)
_Q._ Did you not say when the tumbler was got, 'I must have the hair that
was in and about it, for it is the hair of a horse which belonged to a man
who is shortly to be hanged for stealing?'
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Did you not say to Sir Walter Laurie, 'lock me ever so close in a
room and I will cause all the cloaths that were taken away hang down upon
the spouts of the tower upon the morrow morning?'
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Did you not say before me, the Minister, 'lock the cloaths again in
as fast a room as you can, and I'll cause them, for a little money, go all
back in the place where they were?'
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Why did you not bring back the silver spoon that was lost?
_A._ It was in Edinburgh, and the name was scraped out, and I could not
bring it back until I went to Edinburgh.
_Q._ Why did you not bring back the mattock and other things?
_A._ It had been on fire.
_Q._ Why did you not bring back all the aprons, for there is one of them
awanting yet?
_A._ I could not bring it back because it was burnt, and when a thing is
hid beneath the ground or the like I can't get wott of that.
_Q._ Did you not mutter some words when you used these charms?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ What are they?
_A._ 'Cloaths, cloaths, cloaths, and other things lost.'
_Q._ Whether did you use such charms afore Hallow-een as throwing nuts in
the fire, sowing seeds up and down the house, and herbs to every corner,
going backwards from the fire to the door, round the close backwards, up
the stairs backward, and to your bed backward?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Being told by a Minister that from what he had heard there was either
devolrie in it, or he was the thief himself. To which he replied, 'I shall
make it out to be no devolrie; or if it be devolrie, it is unknown to
me.'
_Q._ Did you not bring back a book of Mrs Violet's?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Did you not say you could cause any woman in London come down to you
if but told her name?
_A._ I could do it, and I can.
_Q._ Did you not say in the presence of Sir Walter Laurie, Bailie Corbet
in Dumfries, James Gordoun, Wryter, Yr., and me, that you could cause any
of us dance naked?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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