Some half a century ago or more a native of Rannoch resided at Bonskeid
(_Bonn-sgaod_) in the neighbouring parish of Blair Athole. He was married
to a Badenoch woman, who had brought servants with her from her own
country. In fact the only servants about the house were from Badenoch.
In obedience to the law, which ascribes that which is mysterious to that
which is remote, Badenoch was at that time esteemed a great place for
witchcraft and things “uncanny.” A series of unaccountable noises and
appearances began about the house in Bonskeid. Turnips and peats, thrown
by unseen hands, flew about the house, lights were blown out, furniture
was mysteriously moved, bedclothes were pulled off, and no one could be
sure that an article would be found by him where he had left it. In all
this there was no appearance of mortal agency, and the whole business was
at once assumed to be the work of evil spirits. A friend from Rannoch,
who had been on a visit to the house, declared solemnly (and he was a
God-fearing, trustworthy man) that he himself heard the spinning-wheel
coming down stairs, and saw it falling in pieces on the floor of the room
in which he and the family were sitting, without any visible agency, and
without any part of it being broken or injured. He put it together again,
and with his own hands carried it upstairs and left it in its original
place. He had not sat long after coming down when the wheel again came in
the same mysterious manner, and fell in pieces on the floor. On another
occasion, as he stood in the byre, a turnip came and knocked the candle
out of his hand. To his certain knowledge there was no one in the byre
who could have thrown it. These flying turnips came sometimes as if they
had been hurled through the wall. The unhappy man, in whose house this
occurred, endured the persecution for more than a year, and was sadly
broken in health and spirits by the trouble. One day as he stood on the
hearth-stone, warming the back of his feet to the fire, the hearth-stone
began to move. A Badenoch dark hussy (_Caileag dhubh_) was at the time
standing by, with her elbow rested on the kitchen ‘dresser,’ and her chin
on her hand. He observed her smiling, and it struck him she was at the
bottom of all this bedevilment. He turned her and all the rest of the
Badenoch servants away, and no further disturbance took place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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