Scotland
(For early matter see the article Celts.) Witchcraft.-Witchcraft and sorcery appear to have been practised in the earliest historical and traditional times. It is related that during the reign of Natholocus in the second century there dwelt in Iona a witch of great renown, and so celebrated for her marvellous power that the king sent one of his captains to consult her regarding the issue of a rebellion then troubling his kingdom. The witch declared that within a short period the king would be murdered, not by his open enemies but by one of his most favoured friends, in whom he had most especial trust. The messenger enquired the assassin's name. "Even by thine own hands as shall be well-known within these few dayes," replied the witch. So troubled was the captain on hearing these words that he railed bitterly against her, vowing that he would see her burnt before he would commit such a villainous crime. But after reviewing the matter carefully in his mind, he arrived at the conclusion that if he informed the king of the witch's prophecy, the king might for the sake of his personal safety have him put to death, so thereupon he decoyed Natholocus into his private chamber and falling upon him with a dagger slew him outright. About the year 388 the devil was so enraged at the piety of St. Patrick that he assailed the saint by the whole band of witches in Scotland. St. Patrick fled to the Clyde embarking in a small boat for Ireland. As witches cannot pursue their victims over running water, they flung a huge rock after the escaping saint, which however fell harmless to the ground, and which tradition says now forms Dumbarton Rock. The persecution of witches constitutes one of the blackest chapters of history. All classes, Catholic and Protestant alike, pursued the crusade with equal vigour, undoubtedly inspired by the passage in Exodus xxii., 18. While it is most probable that the majority of those who practised witchcraft and sorcery were of weak mind and enfeebled intellect, yet a large number adopted the supposed art for the purpose of intimidation and extortion from their neighbours. Witches were held to have sold themselves body and soul to the devil. The ceremony is said to consist of kneeling before the evil one, placing one hand on her head and the other under her feet, and dedicating all between to the service of the devil, and also renouncing baptism. The witch was thereafter deemed to be incapable of reformation. No minister of any denomination whatever would intercede or pray for her. On sealing the compact the devil proceeded to put his mark upon her. Writing on the Witches' Mark" Mr. Bell, minister of Gladsmuir in 1705 says: "The witches' mark is sometimes like a blew spot, or a little tale, or reid spots, like fleabiting, sometimes the flesh is sunk in and hollow and this is put in secret places, as among the hair of the head, or eyebrows, within the lips, under the armpits, and even in the most secret parts of the body." Mr. Robert Kirk of Aberfoill in his Secret Commonwealth states: "A spot that I have seen, as a small mole, horny, and brown coloured, throw which mark when a large brass pin was thrust (both in buttock, nose, and rooff of the mouth) till it bowed (bent) and became crooked, the witches, both men and women, nather felt a pain nor did bleed, nor knew the precise time when this was doing to them (their eyes only being covered)." 66
In many cases the mark was invisible, and as it was considered that no pain accompanied the pricking of it, there arose a body of persons who pretending great skill therein constituted themselves as "witch prickers" and whose office was to discover and find out witches. The method employed was barbarous in the extreme. Having stripped and bound his victim the witch pricker proceeded to thrust his needles into every part of the body. When at last the victim worn out with exhaustion and agony remained silent, the witch pricker declared that he had discovered the mark. Another test for detection was trial by water. The suspects were tied hands and great toes together, wrapped in a sheet and flung into a deep pool. In cases where the body floated, the water of baptism was supposed to give up the accused, while those who sank to the bottom were absolved, but no attempt was made at rescue. When confession was demanded the most horrible of tortures were resorted to, burning with irons being generally the last torture applied. In some cases a diabolic contrivance called the "witches' bridle" was used. The "bridle" encircled the victim's head while an iron bit was thrust into the mouth from which prongs protruded piercing the tongue, palate and cheeks. In cases of execution, the victim was usually strangled and thereafter burned at the stake. Scotland Witches were accused of a great variety of crimes. A common offence was to bewitch milch cattle by turning their milk sour, or curtailing the supply, raising storms, stealing children from their graves, and promoting various illnesses. A popular device was to make a waxen image of their victim, thrust pins into it and sear it with hot irons, all of which their victim felt and at length succumbed. Upon domestic animals they cast an evil eye, causing emaciation and refusal to take food till at length death ensued. To those who believed in them and acknowledged their power, witches were supposed to use their powers for good by curing disease and causing prosperity. Witches had a weekly meeting at which the devil presided, every Saturday commonly called "the witches' Sabbath," their meetings generally being held in desolate places or in ruined churches, to which they rode through the air mounted on broomsticks. If the devil was not present on their arrival, they evoked him by beating the earth with a fir-stick, and saying "Rise up foul thief." The witches appeared to see him in different guises; to some he appeared as a boy clothed in green, others saw him dressed in white, while to others he appeared mounted on a black horse. After delivering a mock sermon, he held a court at which the witches had to make a full statement of their doings during the week. Those who had not accomplished sufficient evil were belaboured with their own broomsticks, while those who had been more successful were rewarded with enchanted bones. The proceedings finished with a dance, the music to which the fiend played on his bagpipes. Robert Burns in his Tale of Tam o' Shanter gives a graphic description of this orgy. There were great annual gatherings at Candlemas, Beltane and Hallow-eve. These were of an international character at which the witch sisterhood of all nations assembled, those who had to cross the sea performing the journey in barges of egg-shell, while their aerial journeys were on goblin horses with enchanted bridles.
Witchcraft was first dealt with by law in Scotland when by a statute passed in 1563 in the Parliament of Queen Mary it was enacted: "That na maner of person nor persons of quhatsumever estaite, degree or condition they be of, take upon hand in onie times hereafter to use onie maner of witchcraft, sorcerie, or necromancie, under the paine of death, alsweil to be execute against the user, abuser, as the seeker of the response of consultation." The great Reformer, John Knox, was accused by the Catholics of Scotland of being a renowned wizard and having by sorcery raised up saints in the churchyard of St. Andrews when Satan himself appeared and so terrified Knox's secretary that he became insane and died. Knox was also charged that by his magical arts in his old age he persuaded the beautiful young daughter of Lord Ochiltree to marry him. Nicol Burne bitterly denounces Knox for having secured the affections of "ane damosil of nobil. blude, and he ane auld decrepit creatur of maist bais degree of onie that could be found in the country."
There were numerous trials for witchcraft in the Justiciary Court in Edinburgh and at the Circuit Courts, also session records preserved from churches all over Scotland show that numerous cases were dealt with by the local authorities and church officials.
A. J. B. G. "From Rodgers, in his Social Life in Scotland, says: the year 1479 when the first capital sentence was carried. out thirty thousand persons had on the charge of using enchantment been in Great Britain cruelly immolated; of these one fourth belonged to Scotland. No inconsiderable number of those who suffered on the charge of sorcery laid claim to necromantic acts with intents felonious or unworthy. When James VI. of Scotland, in the year 1603, was called upon to ascend the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, his own native kingdom was in rather a curious condition. James himself was a man of considerable learning, intimate with Latin and Theology, yet his book on Demonology marks him as distinctly superstitious ; and, while education and even scholarship were comparatively common at this date in Scotland, more common in fact than they were in contemporary England, the great mass of Scottish people shared abundantly their sovereign's dread of witches and the like. The efforts of Knox and his doughty confrères, it is true, had brought about momentous changes in Scottish life, but if the Reformation ejected certain superstitions it undoubtedly tended to introduce others. For that stern Calvinistic faith, which now began to take root in Scotland, nourished the idea that sickness and accident are a mark of divine anger, nor did this theory cease to be common in the north till long after King James's day.
It is a pity that the royal author, in the curious treatise mentioned above, volunteers but few precise facts anent the practitioners of magic who throve in Scotland during his reign. But other sources of information indicate that these people were very numerous, and whereas, in Elizabethan England, it was customary to put a witch to death by the merciful process of hanging, in Jacobean Scotland it was usual to take stronger measures. In short, the victim was burnt at the stake; and it is interesting to note that on North Berwick Law, in the county of East Lothian, there is standing to this day a tall stone which, according to local tradition, was erstwhile used for the ghastly business in question. Yet it would be wrong to suppose that witches and sorcerers, though handled roughly now and then, were regarded with universal hatred; for in seventeenth century Scotland medicine and magic went hand in hand, and the man suffering from a physical malady, particularly one whose cause he could not understand, very seldom entrusted himself to a professional leech, and much preferred to consult one who claimed healing capacities derived from intercourse with the unseen world. Physicians of the latter kind, however, were generally experts in the art of poisoning; and, while a good many cures are credited to them, their triumphs in the opposite direction would seem to have been much more numerous. Thus we find that in July, 1702, a certain James Reid of Musselburgh was brought to trial, being charged not merely with achieving miraculous cures, but with contriving the murder of one David Libbertoun, a baker in Edinburgh. This David and his family, it transspires, were sworn enemies of a neighbouring household, Christie by name, and betimes their feud grew as fierce as that between the Montagues and Capulets; SO the Christies swore they would bring things to a conclusion, and going to Reid they petitioned his nefarious aid. His first act was to bewitch nine stones, these to be cast on the fields of the offending baker with a view to destroying his crops; while Reid then proceeded to enchant a piece of raw flesh, and also to make a statuette of wax-the nature of the design is not recorded, but presumably Libbertoun himself was represented-and Mrs. Christie was enjoined to thrust the meat under her enemy's door, and then to go home and melt the waxwork before her own fire. These instructions she duly obeyed, and a little later the victim breathed his last; but Reid did not go unscathed, and after his trial the usual fate of burning alive was meted out to him.
A like sentence was passed in July 1605 on Patrick Lowrie, a native of Halic in Ayrshire, and known there as "Pat the Witch," who was found guilty of foregathering with endless sorceresses of the neighbourhood, and of assisting them in disinterring bodies which they afterwards Scotland dismembered. Doubtless "Alloway's auld haunted Kirk," sacred to the memory of Burns, was among those ransacked for corpses by the band; yet if the crime was a gruesome one it was harmless withal, and assuredly Lowrie's ultimate fate was distinctly a hard one! On the other hand Isobel Griersone, a Prestonpans woman, received no more than justice when burnt to death on the Castle Rock, Edinburgh, in March 1607; for the record of her poisonings was a formidable one, rivalling that of Wainewright or that of Cellini himself, while it is even recorded that she contrived to put an end to several people simply by cursing them... Equally wonderful were the exploits of another sorceress, Belgis Todd of Longniddry, who is reported to have compassed the death of a man she hated just by enchanting his cat; but this picturesque modus operandi was scorned by a notorious Perthshire witch Janet Irwing, who about the year 1610 poisoned sundry members of the family of Erskine of Dun, in the county of Angus. The criminal was detected anon, and suffered the usual fate; while a few years later a long series of tortures, culminating in burning, were inflicted on Margaret Dein (née Barclay), whose accomplishments appear to have been of no commonplace nature. The wife of a burgess of Irvine, John Dein, this woman conceived a violent aversion for her brother-in-law, Archibald; and on one occasion, when the latter was setting out for France, Margaret hurled imprecations at his ship, vowing none of its crew or passengers would ever return to their native Scotland. Months went by, and no word of Archibald's arrival reached Irvine; while one day a pedlar named Stewart came to John Dein's house, and declared that the baneful prophecy had been duly fulfilled. The municipal authorities now heard of the affair, and arresting Stewart, whom they had long suspected of practising magic, they commenced to cross-examine him. At first he would tell nothing, but when torture had loosened his tongue he confessed how, along with Margaret Dein, he had made a clay model of the ill-starred barque, and thrown this into the sea on a particularly stormy night. His audience were horrified at the news, but they hastened to lay hands on the sorceress, whereupon they dealt with her as noted above.
No doubt this tale, and many others like it, have blossomed very considerably in the course of being handed down from generation to generation, and no doubt the witches of Jacobean Scotland are credited with triumphs far greater than they really achieved. At the same time, scanning the annals of sorcery, we find that a number of its practitioners avowed stoutly, when confronted by a terrible death, that they had been initiated in their craft by the foul fiend himself, or haply by a band of fairies; and thus, whatever capacities these bygone magicians really had, it is manifest that they possessed in abundance that confidence which is among the secrets of power, and is perhaps the very key to success in any line of action. Small wonder, then, that they were dreaded by the simple, illiterate folk of their day; and, musing on these facts, we feel less amazed at the credulity displayed by an erudite man like James VI., we are less surprised at his declaring that all sorcerers ought to be put to death according to the law of God, the civill and imperiale Law, and municipall Law of all Christian nations." 66
The last execution of a witch in Scotland took place in Sutherland in 1722. An old woman residing at Loth was charged amongst other crimes of having transformed her daughter into a pony and shod by the devil which caused the girl to turn lame both in hands and feet, a calamity which entailed upon her son. Sentence of death was pronounced by Captain David Ross, the Sheriff-substitute. Rodgers relates : "The poor creature when lead to the stake was unconscious of the stir made on her account, and warming her wrinkled hands at the fire kindled to consume her, said she was thankful for so good a blaze. For his rashness in pronouncing the sentence of death, the Sheriff was emphatically reproved."
The reign of ignorance and superstition was fast drawing to a close.
Witchcraft, if it can be so called nowadays, is dealt with under the laws pertaining to rogues, vagabonds, fortunetellers, gamesters, and such like characters. (See Fortunetelling.)
Magic and Demonology. - Magic of the lower cultus, perhaps the detritus of Druidism, appears to have been common in Scotland until a late period. We find in the pages of Adamnan that the Druids were regarded by St. Columba and his priest as magicians, and that he met their sorcery with a superior celestial magic of his own. Thus does the religion of one race become magic in the eyes of another. Notices of sorcery in Scotland before the thirteenth century are scanty, if we except the tradition that Macbeth encountered three witches who prophesied his fate to him. We have no reason to believe that Thomas the Rhymer (who has been endowed by later superstition with adventures similar to those of Tannhauser) was other than a minstrel and maker of epigrams, or that Sir Michael Scot was other than a scholar and man of letters. Workers of sorcery were numerous but obscure, and although often of noble birth as Lady Glamis and Lady Fowlis, were probably very ignorant persons. We get a glimpse of Scottish demonology in the later middle ages in the rhymed fragment known as "The Cursing of Sir John Rowll," a priest of Corstorphine, near Edinburgh, which dates perhaps from the last quarter of the fifteenth century. It is an invective against certain persons who have rifled his poultry-yard, upon whom the priest calls down the divine vengeance. The demons who were to torment the evildoers are: Garog, Harog, Sym Skynar, Devetinus "the devill that maid the dyce," Firemouth, Cokadame, Tutivillus, Browny, and Syr Garnega, who may be the same as that Girnigo, to whom cross children are often likened by angry mothers of the Scottish working-classes, in such a phrase as "eh, ye're a wee girnigo," and the Scottish verb, to "girn," may find its origin in the name of a mediæval fiend, the last shadow of some Teutonic or Celtic deity of unlovable attributes. In Sym Skynar, we may have Skyrnir, a Norse giant in whose glove Thor found shelter from an earthquake, and who sadly fooled him and his companions. Skyrnir was, of course, one of the Jotunn or Norse Titans, and probably one of the powers of winter; and he may have received the popular surname of Sym" in the same manner as we speak of "Jack" Frost. A great deal has still to be done in unearthing the minor figures of Scottish mythology and demonology, and even the greater ones have not received the attention due to them. In Newhaven, a fishing district near Edinburgh, for example, we find the belief current in a fiend called Brounger, who is described as an old man who levies a toll of fish and oysters upon the local fisherman. he is not placated with these, he wreaks vengeance on the persons who fail to supply him. He is also described as a Flint and the son of a Flint," which proves conclusively that, like Thor and many other gods of Asia and America, he was a thunder or weather deity. In fact his name is probably a mere corruption of an ancient Scandinavian word meaning "to strike," which still survives in the Scottish expression to "make a breenge" at one. To return to instances of practical magic, a terrifying and picturesque legend tells how Sir Lewis Bellenden, a lord of session, and superior of the Barony of Broughton, near Edinburgh, succeeded by the aid of a sorcerer in raising the Devil in the backyard of his own house in the Canongate, somewhere about the end of the sixteenth century. Sir Lewis 66 66 If Scotland was a notorious trafficker with witches, with whom his barony of Broughton was overrun. Being desirous of beholding his Satanic majesty in person, he secured the services of one Richard Graham. The results of the evocation were disastrous to the inquisitive judge, whose nerves were so shattered at the apparition of the Lord of Hades that he fell ill and shortly afterwards expired.
The case of Major Weir is one of the most interesting in the annals of Scottish sorcery. "It is certain," says Scott, "that no story of witchcraft or necromancy, so many of which occurred near and in Edinburgh, made such a lasting impression on the public mind as that of Major Weir. The remains of the house in which he and his sister lived are still shown at the head of the West Bow, which has a gloomy aspect, well suited for a necromancer. It was at different times a brazier's shop and a magazine for lint, and in my younger days was employed for the latter use; but no family would inhabit the haunted walls as a residence; and bold was the urchin from the High School who dared approach the gloomy ruin at the risk of seeing the Major's enchanted staff parading through the old apartments, or hearing the hum of the necromantic wheel, which procured for his sister such a character as a spinner. "
The case of this notorious wizard was remarkable chiefly from his being a man of some condition (the son of a gentleman, and his mother a lady of family in Clydesdale), which was seldom the case with those that fell under similar accusations. It was also remarkable in his case that he had been a Covenanter, and peculiarly attached to that cause. In the years of the Commonwealth this man was trusted and employed by those who were then at the head of affairs, and was in 1649 commander of the City-Guard of Edinburgh, which procured him his title of Major. In this capacity he was understood, as was indeed implied in the duties of that officer at the period, to be very strict in executing severity upon such Royalists as fell under his military charge. It appears that the Major, with a maiden sister who had kept his house, was subject to fits of melancholic lunacy, an infirmity easily reconcilable with the formal pretences which he made to a high show of religious zeal. He was peculiar in his gift of prayer, and, as was the custom of the period, was often called to exercise his talent by the bedside of sick persons, until it came to be observed that, by some association, which it is more easy to conceive than to explain, he could not pray with the same warmth and fluency of expression unless when he had in his hand a stick of peculiar shape and appearance, which he generally walked with. It was noticed, in short, that when this stick was taken from him, his wit and talent appeared to forsake him. This Major Weir was seized by the magistrates on a strange whisper that became current respecting vile practices, which he seems to have admitted without either shame or contrition. The disgusting profligacies which he confessed were of such a character that it may be charitably hoped most of them were the fruits of a depraved imagination, though he appears to have been in many respects a wicked and criminal hypocrite. When he had completed his confession, he avowed solemnly that he had not confessed the hundredth part of the crimes which he had committed. From this time he would answer no interrogatory, nor would he have recourse to prayer, arguing that, as he had no hope whatever of escaping Satan, there was no need of incensing him by vain efforts at repentance. His witchcraft seems to have been taken for granted on his own confession, as his indictment was chiefly founded on the same document, in which he alleged he had never seen the devil, but any feeling he had of him was in the dark. He received sentence of death, which he suffered 12th April, 1670, at the Gallow-hill, between Leith and Edinburgh. He died so stupidly sullen and impenitent as to justify the opinion that he was oppressed with a kind of melancholy frenzy, the consequence perhaps of remorse, but such as urged him not to repent, but to despair. It seems probable that he was burnt alive. His sister, with whom he was supposed to have had an incestuous connection, was condemned also to death, leaving a stronger and more explicit testimony of their mutual sins than could be extracted from the Major. She gave, as usual, some account of her connection with the queen of the fairies, and acknowledged the assistance she received from that sovereign in spinning an unusual quantity of yarn. Of her brother she said that one day a friend called upon them at noonday with a fiery chariot, and invited them to visit a friend at Dalkeith, and that while there her brother received information of the event of the battle of Worcester. No one saw the style of their equipage except themselves. On the scaffold this woman, determining, as she said, to die "with the greatest shame possible" was with difficulty prevented from throwing off her clothing before the people, and with scarce less trouble was she flung from the ladder by the executioner. Her last words were in the tone of the sect 66 to which her brother had so long affected to belong : Many," she said, "weep and lament for a poor old wretch like me; but alas, few are weeping for a broken covenant." 6 , Alchemy.-James IV. was attached to the science of alchemy. "Dunbar speaks of the patronage which the king bestowed upon certain adventurers, who had studied the mysteries of alchemy, and were ingenious in making 'quintiscence' which should convert other metals into pure gold; and in the Treasurer's Accounts there are numerous payments for the 'quinta essentia,' including wages to the persons employed, utensils of various kinds, coals and wood for the furnaces, and for a variety of other materials, such as quicksilver, aqua vitæ, litharge, auri, fine tin, burnt silver, alum, salt and eggs, saltpetre, etc. Considerable sums were also paid to several 'Potingairs for stuff of various kinds to the Quinta Essentia. Thus, on the 3rd of March, 1501, 'the king sent to Strivelin (Stirling) four Harry nobles in gold,'-a sum equal, as it is stated, to nine pounds Scots money-' for the leech to multiply.' On the 27th of May, 1502, the Treasurer paid to Robert Bartoun, one of the king's mariners, ' for certain droggis (drugs) brocht home by him to the French leich, £31:40. On the IIth of February, 1503-4, we find twenty shillings given to the man suld mak aurum potabile, be the king's commands.' And on the 13th of October, 1507, the Treasurer paid six pounds for a puncheon of wine to the Abbot of Tungland, to 'mak Quinta Essentia.' The credulity and indiscriminate generosity of the Scottish monarch appear to have collected around him a multitude of quacks of all sorts, for, besides the Abbot, mention is made of the leech with the curland hair'; of 'the lang Dutch doctor,' of one Fullertone, who was believed to possess the secret of making precious stones; of a Dr. Ogilvy who laboured hard at the transmutation of metals, and many other empirics, whom James not only supported in their experiments, but himself assisted in their laboratory. The most noted of these adventurers was the person who is variously styled in the Treasurer's Accounts 'the French Leich,' 'Maister John the French Medicinar,' and 'French Maister John.' The real name of this empiric was John Damian; and we learn from Dunbar that he was a native of Lombardy, and had practised surgery and other arts in France before his arrival in Scotland. His first appearance at the court of James was in the capacity of a French leech, and as he is mentioned among the persons who received 'leveray' in 6 Scotland 1501-2, there can be no doubt that he held an appointment as a physician in the royal household. He soon succeeded in ingratiating himself with the king, and it is probable that it was from him that James imbibed a strong passion for alchemy, as he about this time erected at Stirling a furnace for prosecuting such experiments, and continued during the rest of his reign to expend considerable sums of money in attempts to discover the philosopher's stone. 'Maister John,' says Bishop Lesley, 'caused the king believe, that he by multiplying and utheris his inventions sold make fine gold of uther metal, quhilk science he callit the Quintassence, whereupon the king made great cost, but all in vain.' There are numerous entries in the Treasurer's Accounts of sums paid for saltpetre, bellows, two great stillatours, brass mortars, coals, and numerous vessels of various shapes, sizes, and denominations, for the use of this foreign adept in his mystical studies. These, however, were not his sole occupations; for after the mysterious labours of the day were concluded, Master John was wont to play at cards with the sovereign-a mode by which he probably transferred the contents of the royal exchequer into his own purse, as efficaciously as by his distillations.' We find that on the 4th of March, 1501, nine pounds five shillings were paid 'to the king and the French leich to play at cartis.' A few months later, on the occasion of a temporary visit which the empiric found it necessary to pay to France, James made him a present of his own horse and two hundred pounds. Early in the year 1504, the Abbot of Tungland, in Galloway, died, and the king, with a reckless disregard of the dictates of duty, and even of common decency, appointed this unprincipled adventurer to the vacant office. On the 11th March, the Treasurer paid 'to Gareoch Parsuivant fourteen shillings to pass to Tungland for the Abbacy to French Maister John.' On the 12th of the same month, 'by the king's command,' he paid 'to Bardus Altovite Lumbard twenty-five pounds for Maister John, the French Mediciner, new maid Abbot of Tungland, whilk he aucht (owed) to the said Bardus; ' and a few days later on the 17th, there was given to Maister John the new maid Abbot of Tungland, seven pounds.' Three years after, in 1507, July 27, occurs the following entry: 'Item, lent, by the king's command to the Abbot of Tungland, and can nocht be gettin fra him £33:6:8.' An adventure which befel this dexterous impostor afforded great amusement to the Scottish court. On the occasion of an embassy setting out from Stirling to the court of France, he had the assurance to declare that by means of a pair of artificial wings which he had constructed, he would undertake to fly to Paris and arrive long before the ambassadors. 'This time,' says Bishop Lesley, 'there was an Italiane with the king, who was made Abbot of Tungland. This abbot tuke in hand to flie with wings, and to be in France before the said ambassadors; and to that effect he caused make ane pair of wings of feathers, quhilk bein festinitt uponn him he flew off the castle-wall of Stirling ; but shortly he fell to the ground and broke his thie-bane; but the wyte (blame) thereof he ascribed to their beand some hen feathers in the wings, quhilk yarnit, and coveted the myddin and not the skies.' This incident gave rise to Dunbar's satirical ballad entitled, 'Of the Fenyeit Friar of Tungland,' in which the poet exposes in the most sarcastic strain the pretensions of the luckless adventurer, and relates with great humour the result of his attempt to soar into the skies, when he was dragged to the earth by the low-minded propensities of the 'hen feathers,' which he had inadvertently admitted into the construction of his wings. The unsuccessful attempt of the abbot, though, according to Lesley, it subjected him to the ridicule of the whole kingdom, does not appear to have lost him the king's favour, for the Treasurer's books, from October, 1507, to 6 Y August, 1508, repeatedly mention him as having played at dice and cards with his majesty; and on the 8th of September, 1508, 'Damiane, Abbot of Tungland,' obtained the royal permission to pursue his studies abroad during the space of five years. He must have returned to Scotland, however, before the death of James; and the last notice given to this impostor is quite in character. On the 27th of March, 1513, the sum of twenty pounds was paid to him for his journey to the mine in Crawford Moor, where the king had at that time artisans at work searching for gold." From this reign to that of Mary no magician or alchemical practitioner of note appears to have existed in Scotland, and in the reign of James VI. too great severity was exhibited against such to permit of them avowing themselves publicly. In James's reign, however, lived the celebrated Alexander Seton (q.v.), of Port Seton near Edinburgh, known abroad as 'The Cosmopolite' who is said to have succeeded in achieving the transmutation of metals. 66 LS.
Highlands. Pagan Scotland appears to have been entirely devoid of benevolent deities. Those representatives of the spirit world who were on friendly terms with mankind were either held captive by magic spells, or had some sinister object in view which caused them to act with the most plausible duplicity. The chief demon or deity-one hesitates which to call her was a one-eyed Hag who had tusks like a wild bear. She is referred to in folk tales as "the old wife" (Cailleach), "Grey Eyebrows" "the Yellow Muitearteach," etc., and reputed to be a great worker of spells. Apparently she figured in a lost creation myth, for fragmentary accounts survive of how she fashioned the hills, brought lochs into existence and caused whirlpools by vengeful operations in the sea. She is a lover of darkness, desolations and winter. With her hammer she alternately splinters mountains, prevents the growth of grass or raises storms. Numerous wild animals follow her, including deer, goats, wild boars. When one of her sons is thwarted in his love affairs by her, he transforms her into a mountain boulder looking over the sea," a form she retains during the summer. She is liberated again on the approach of winter. During the Spring months the Hag drowns fishermen and preys on the food supply: she also steals children and roasts them in her cave. Her progeny includes a brood of monstrous giants each with several heads and arms. These are continually operating against mankind, throwing down houses, abducting women and destroying growing crops. Heroes who fight against them require the assistance of the witch who is called "Wise Woman," from whom they obtain magic wands. The witch of Scottish folk tales is the "friend of man," and her profession was evidently regarded in ancient times as a highly honourable one. Wizards also enjoyed high repute; they were the witch-doctors, priests and magicians of the Scottish Pagans, and it was not until the sixteenth century that legal steps were taken to suppress them in the Highland districts. There was no sun-worship or moon-worship in Scotland; neither sun nor moon were individualised in the Gælic language; these bodies, however were reputed to exercise a magical influence. The moon especially was a Magic Tank" from which supplies of power were drawn by those capable of performing requsite ceremonies. But although there were no lunar or solar spirits, there were numerous earth and water spirits. The "water wife," like the English "mere wife," was a greatly dreaded being who greedily devoured victims. She must not be confused with the Banshee, that Fate whose chief business it was to foretell disasters, either by washing blood-stained garments or knocking, knocking on a certain boulder beside a river, or in the locality where some great tragedy was impending. The water wife usually con- 66 دو 66 66 Scotland دو 66 fronted a late traveller at a ford. She claimed him as her own and if he disputed her claim, asked what weapons he had to use against her. The unwary one named each in turn, and when he did so the power to harm her passed away. One story of this character runs: "The wife rose up against the smith who rode his horse, and she said, "I have you : what have you against me? My sword," the man answered. "I have that," she said, "what else? My shield," the man said. "I have that and you are mine." But," protested the man, “I have something else." "What is that?" the water wife demanded. To this question the cautious smith answered, "I have the long, grey, sharp thing at my thigh." This was his dirk, and not having named it, he was able to make use of it. As he spoke he flung his plaid round the water wife and lifted her up on his horse behind him. Enclosed in the magic circle she was powerless to harm him, and he rode home with her, deaf to her entreaties and promises. He took her to his smithy and tied her to the anvil. That night her brood came to release her. They raised a tempest and tore the roof off the smithy, but the smith defied them. When day dawned they had to retreat. Then he bargained with the water wife, and she consented if he would release her that neither he nor any of his descendants should ever be drowned in any three rivers he might name. He named three and received her promise, but as she made her escape she reminded him of a fourth river. is mine still," she added. In that particular river the smith himself ultimately perished." To this day fishermen will not name either the fish they desire to procure or those that prey on their catches. Haddocks are "white bellies," salmon "red ones," and the dog-fish "the big black fellow." It is also regarded unlucky to name a minister, or refer to Sunday, in a fishing boat-a fact which suggests that in early Christian times fishermen might be pious churchmen on land but continued to practise paganism when they went to sea, like the Icelandic Norsemen who believed that Christ ruled their island, and Thor the ocean. Fairies must not be named on Fridays or at Hallowe'en, and Beltain (May. Day) when charm fires were lit. "It Earth worship, or rather the propitiation of earth spirits, was a prominent feature of Scottish paganism. There again magic played a leading role. Compacts were confirmed by swearing over a piece of turf, certain moors or mounds were set apart for ceremonial practices, and these were visited for the performance of child-procuring and other ceremonies which were performed at a standing stone. In cases of sickness a divination cake was baked and left at a sacred place; if it disappeared during the night, the patient was supposed to recover; if it remained untouched until the following morning it was believed that the patient would die. This practice is not yet obsolete. Offerings were constantly made to the earth spirits. In a witch trial recorded in Humbie Kirk Session Register (23rd September, 1649) one Agnes Gourlay is accused of having made offerings of milk, saying, "God betuch ws to; they are wnder the yird that have as much need of it as they that are above the yird"; i.e., "God preserve us too; they are under the earth that have as much need of it as they that are above the earth." The milk poured out upon the earth at magical ceremonies was supposed to go to the fairies. Gruagach stones have not yet entirely vanished in the Highlands. These are flat stones with deep cup" marks. After a cow is milked, the milker pours into a hole the portion of milk required by the Gruagach, a long-haired spirit who is usually "dressed like a gentleman." If no offering is given to him, the cream will not rise on the milk, and, if it does the churning will be a failure. There are interesting records in the Presbytery records of Dingwall, Ross-shire, regarding the prevalence of 66 Scott “ دو milk pouring and other ceremonies during the seventeenth century. Among the abominations referred to are those for which Gairloch parish continued to be notoriousfrequent approaches to some ruinous chappels and circulateing them; and that future events in reference especiallie to lyfe and death, in takeing of Journeyes, was exspect to be manifested by a holl (hole) of a round stone quherein (wherein) they tryed the entering of their heade, which (if they) could doe, to witt, be able to put in their heade, they exspect thair returning to that place, and failing they considered it ominous." Objection was also taken by the horrified Presbytery to "their adoring of wells and superstitious monuments and stones," and to the "sacrifice of bulls at a certaine tyme uppon the 25 of August" and to "pouring milk upon hills as oblationes."
The seer was usually wrapped in the skin of a sacrificed bull and left lying all night beside a river. He was visited by supernatural beings in the darkness and obtained answers regarding future events. Another way to perform this divination ceremony was to roast a live cat. The cat was turned on a spit until the "Big Cat" (the devil) appeared and either granted the wish of the performer of the ceremony, or foretold what was to take place in answer to a query. At the present day there are many surviving beliefs regarding witchcraft, fairies, the evil eye, second sight and magical charms to cure or injure. 66 66 " 66
Individuals, domesticated animals and dwellings are charmed against witchcraft by iron and certain herbs or berries. The evil eye influence is dispelled by drinking water of silver from a wooden bowl or ladle. The water is taken from a river or well of high repute; silver is placed in it; then a charm is repeated, and when it has been passed over a fire, the victim is given to drink and what remains is sprinkled round the hearth-stone with ceremony which varies in districts. Curative charms are handed down in families from a male to a female and a female to a male. Blood-stopping charms are still regarded with great sanctity and the most persistent collectors have been unable to obtain them from those who are reported to be able to use these with effect. Accounts are still given of blood-stopping " from a distance. Although the possessor of the power has usually a traditional charm, he or she rarely uses it without praying also. Some Highland doctors bear testimony in private to the wonderful effects of blood-stopping" operations. A few years ago a medical officer of Inverness-shire stated in his official report to the County Council that he was watching with interest the operations of "King's Evil Curers" who still enjoy great repute in the Western Isles. These are usually "seventh sons." "Second-sight," like the power to cure and stop blood, runs in families. There is not a parish in the Scottish Highlands without its family in which one or more individuals are reputed to have occult powers. Some have visions either while awake or asleep. Others hear ominous sounds on occasions and are able to understand what they signify. Certain individuals confess, but with no appreciation of the faculty, that they are sometimes, not always, able to foretell that a person is likely to die ere long. Two instances of this kind may be given. A younger brother caught a chill. When an elder brother visited him he knew at once the young man would die soon, and communicated a statement to that effect to a mutual friend. According to medical opinion the patient who was not confined to bed, was in no danger, but three months afterwards he developed serious symptoms and died suddenly. When intelligence of the death was communicated to the elder brother he had a temporary illness. The same individual met a gentleman in a friend's house and had a similar experience: he "felt he could not explain how, that this man was near death. On two دو occasions within the following week he questioned the gentleman's daughter regarding her father's health and was informed that he was as usual." The daughter was surprised at the inquiries. Two days after this meeting the gentleman in question expired suddenly while sitting in his chair. Again the individual, on hearing of the death, had a brief but distressing illness, with symptoms usually associated with shock. The mother of this man has a similar faculty. On several occasions she has seen lights. One day during the Boer War an officer passing her door bade her good-bye as he had been ordered to South Africa. She said, "He will either be slain or come back deformed," and turned ill immediately. A few months afterwards the officer was wounded in the lower jaw with a bullet and returned home with his face much deformed. 66 The Second-sight" faculty manifests itself in various ways, as these instances show, and evidence that it is possessed by individuals may occur only once or twice in a lifetime. There are cases, however, in which it is constantly active. Those who are reputed to have the faculty are most reticent regarding it, and appear to dread it. At the close of the nineteenth century tow-charms to cure sprains and bruises were sold in a well-known Highland town by a woman who muttered a metrical spell over each magic knot she tied as the afflicted part was treated by her. She had numerous patients among all classes. Bonesetters still enjoy high repute in localities: not many years ago a public presentation was made to a Ross-shire bone-setter in recognition of his life-long services to the community. His faculty was inherited from his forbears. Numerous instances may be gleaned in the Highlands of the appearance of the spirits of the living and the dead. The appearance of the spirit of a living person is said to be a sure indication of the approaching death of that individual. It is never seen by a member of the family, but appears to intimate friends. Sometimes it speaks and gives indication of the fate of some other mutual acquaintance. DONALD MACKENZIE.
Scott, David and William Bell: These brothers; of whom David is by far the more important, certainly deserve a place in this volume, Born at Edinburgh in 1777, David lived a comparatively uneventful life, his lofty gifts being quite unrecognised by his contemporaries, and his death in 1849 being hastened in some degree by this persistent neglect. Nowadays, however, connoisseurs in Scotland are beginning to appreciate him, perceiving in his output technical merits far transcending those of Raeburn himself; while people who care for art dealing with the supernatural are coming to see, slowly but surely, that Scott's Paracelsus and Vasco de Gama are in the forefront of work of this kind; and that his beautiful drawings for The Ancient Mariner render the very spirit of Coleridge, the arch-mystic, render it with a skill unsurpassed in any previous or subsequent illustrations to the poem.
William Bell Scott was also a native of Edinburgh, being born there in 1811, and his career was very different from David's, for he won worldly success from the first, and ere his death in 1890 he had received many laurels. Etching some of his brother's works, and painting a host of pictures, he was also a voluminous writer; and his Autobiography contains some really valuable comments on the mystic symbolism permeating the painting of the middle-ages, and embodies also a shrewd and interesting account of Rossetti's essays in table-turning and kindred practices. Moreover, William Bell's poems are almost all of a metaphysical order; and though it is extravagant to call him "the Scottish Blake," as many people have done, his mystical verse undoubtedly reflects a certain "meditative beauty," as Fiona Macleod once wrote on the subject. Scott or Scot, Michael: Scottish Astrologer and Magician (
1175-1234). Though Michael Scott's life is wrapped in obscurity his name is rather a familiar one, various causes having brought this about. In the first place, Dante refer to him in his Inferno, speaking of him as one singularly skilled in magical arts; while he is also mentioned by Boccaccio, who hails him as among the greatest masters of necromancy. Moreover, Coleridge projected a drama dealing with Michael, whom he asserted was a much more interesting personality than Faustus; and then there is a novel about him by Allan Cunningham, while, above all, he figures in The Lay of the Last Minstrel. And Sir Walter Scott, no very careful antiquarian, identifies the astrologer with one Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie, who, along with Sir David Wemyss of Wemyss, went to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland in 1290; but this identification is manifestly wrong, for in a poem by Vincent de Beauvais published so early as 1235, Michael is mentioned as lately deceased. Of course this does not vitiate the idea that he emanated from the family of Balwearie, whose estates were situate near Kirkcaldy, in Fife; and it is almost certain indeed, that he was a man of gentle birth, it being recorded that he studied at Oxford university, where it is improbable he would have gone had his parents not been in comparatively affluent circumstances. When his Oxonian days were over Michael proceeded to the Sorbonne at Paris, where he acquired the title of mathematicus; and from the French capital he wandered on to Bologna, in those days famous as a seat of learning. He did not tarry here for long, however, but went to Palermo; while subsequently he settled for a while at Toledo, for he was anxious to study Arabic, and that town afforded good facilities therefor. He appears to have been successful with these studies, mastering the intricacies of the Arabic tongue thoroughly; yet there was nothing to induce him to continue in Spain, and accordingly he went to Sicily, where he became attached to the court of Ferdinand II., probably in the capacity of state-astrologer. At least, he is so designated in an early manuscript copy, now in the Bodleian Library, of his book on astronomy; yet it is clear that, at some time or other, Michael had espoused holy orders. For in 1223 the Pope, Honorius III., wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, urging him to procure an English benefice for Scott, while it appears that in the following year the Archbishopric of Cashel in Ireland was offered to him, and that he declined this on account of his total ignorance of the Erse language. This refusal to take a post for which he was unsuited reflects great credit on him, and it is patent that he was highly esteemed at the Vatican, for in 1227 Gregory IX., successor of Honorius, made further overtures to the English primate on behalf of Michael; and, whether these proved fruitful or not, according to Roger Bacon the necromancer came to England in 1230, bringing with him the works of Aristotle-at that date virtually unknown in this country and contriving to give them a certain popularity amongst scholars.
It is reasonable to suppose that Michael, having come to England, also paid a visit to his native Scotland. And, though no documentary evidence is forthcoming to support this theory, local tradition at Melrose contends that the astrologer came to that town in his old age, and that he died there and was buried somewhere in the neighbourhood. Various other places in the Borders likewise claim this distinction, and Sir Walter Scott tells that, throughout the south of Scotland, " any great work of great labour or antiquity is ascribed either to Auld Michael, Sir William Wallace, or the Devil." One popular story about the necromancer maintains that he used to ride through the air on a demon horse, and another that he was wont to sail the seas on the back of some fabulous animal; while yet a 66 Sea Phantoms further legend recounts that he went as Scottish envoy to the king of France, and that the first stamp of his black steed's horse rang the bells of Notre Dame, whereupon his most Christian majesty granted the messenger all he desired. As regards the writings of Michael, he is credited with a translation of Aristotle's De Animalibus, but the ascription is not very well founded. However, it is almost certain that he wrote Quæsto Curiosa de Natura Solis et Lunae, which is included in the Theatrum Chemicum; while he was undoubtedly author of Mensa Philosophica, published at Frankfort in 1602; and also of Liber Physiognomiæ Magistri Michaelis Scot, a book which was reprinted nearly twenty times, and was translated into various languages. Reference has already been made to a manuscript in the Bodleian Library attributed to Michael, and it behoves to add here that at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, at the Vatican and at the Sorbonne, there are further documents purporting to have been penned by the astrologer himself, to have been written at his dictation, or to have been copied out by scribes soon after the actual author's decease.