Public-domain ebook
Language: en1,469 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Mythology, Legends & Folklore·History - British
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #43966.
This work is a scholarly survey of the folklore and witch‑craft beliefs that flourished in Scotland’s south‑western districts. The author opens with a vivid, almost theatrical description of a world in which superstition and “the evil sister of Ignorance” dominate daily life, detailing the alleged secret societies of witches and warlocks who convened at sites such as Sweetheart Abbey, Caerlaverock Castle and the hill of Locharbriggs. He recounts the ritual signs, the midnight rides on broomsticks or rag‑wort chariots, and the dramatic weather that accompanied their gatherings, while interweaving excerpts from contemporary songs and poems that illustrate the local imagination. The narrative proceeds to catalog specific figures, Gyre Carline, Maggie Osborne, and the various rites, charms, and punishments attributed to them, grounding each episode in regional anecdotes and illustrations.
Written in a formal, nineteenth‑century academic voice, the text blends dense descriptive prose with occasional excerpts of dialect verse and period illustrations. Its style reflects the antiquarian interests of its time, offering a richly detailed, if occasionally sensational, account of Scottish witchcraft folklore. Readers who enjoy historical ethnography, the study of regional myths, or the literary atmosphere of Victorian‑era investigations into the occult will find this volume a rewarding, immersive resource.
The opening · free to read
TRADITIONAL WITCHCRAFT DESCRIBED.
"When out the hellish legion sallied." --_Tam o' Shanter._
In the far-off days, when Superstition, in close association with the "evil sister" of Ignorance, walked abroad in the land, the south-western district of Scotland shared very largely in the beliefs and terrors embraced under the general descriptive term of witchcraft. Active interference in the routine of daily life on the part of the Prince of Darkness and his agencies was fully believed in. The midnight ride, the power of conversion into animal semblance and form, mystic rite and incantation, spells and cantrips, as well as the presence on earth of the Devil himself, who generally appeared in some alluring form--all had a firmly-established place in the superstitious and impressionable minds of the people who dwelt in the land of those darker days.
In approaching the whole matter for descriptive purposes, the traditional, or as it may perhaps be fittingly termed, the "ideal" form of witchcraft, falls naturally first to be considered, and here the existence of a secret society or unholy order of witches and warlocks meeting together at certain appointed times, figures as an outstanding feature, qualification to belong to which, confessed rare powers of affinity with the powers of evil and darkness. The more these witches and warlocks were feared in their ordinary guise as human mortals by the country-side or district to which they belonged, the higher the rank accorded to them in secret conclave, and the special notoriety of having been branded or "scored," at the hands of an angry populace, with the sign of the cross on the forehead, carried with it special recognition of itself. Reputed gatherings or witch-festivals were celebrated periodically, the most important and outstanding taking place at Hallowmass, and such eerie places of meeting as the lonely ruins of Sweetheart Abbey and Caerlaverock Castle, were the appropriate scenes of their midnight rites and revels; but most of all in this south-western district was it to the rising slope of Locharbriggs Hill, not many miles from Dumfries, that the "hellish legion" repaired.
There is a remnant extant of an old song called the "Witches' Gathering," that with quaint and mystic indication tells of the preliminary signals and signs, announcing that a midnight re-union or "Hallowmass rade" as it was aptly termed, had been arranged and appointed:--
"When the gray howlet has three times hoo'd, When the grimy cat has three times mewed, When the tod has yowled three times i' the wode, At the red moon cowering ahin the cl'ud; When the stars ha'e cruppen' deep i' the drift, Lest cantrips had pyked them out o' the lift, Up horsies a' but mair adowe, Ryde, ryde for Locher-briggs-knowe!"
On such a night the very elements themselves seemed in sympathy. The wind rose, gust following gust, in angry and ever-increasing intensity, till it hurled itself in angry blasts that levelled hay-rick and grain-stack, and tore the thatched roof from homestead and cot, where the frightened dwellers huddled and crept together in terror. Over and with higher note than the blast itself, high-pitched eldritch laughter, fleeting and mocking, skirled and shrieked through the air. Then a lull, with a stillness more terrifying than even the wild force of the angry blast, only to be almost immediately broken with a crash of ear-splitting thunder, and the flash and the glare of forked and jagged flame, lighting up the unhallowed pathway of the "witches' ride."
The journey itself, or rather the mode of progression in passing to the "witch gathering," was itself steeped in "diabolerie" of varying degree. The simple broomstick served the more ordinary witch for a steed. Another vehicle was the chariot of "rag-wort" or ragweed, "harnessed to the wind;" for sisters of higher rank, broomsticks specially shod with the bones of murdered men, became high mettled and most spirited steeds; but the possession of a bridle, the leather of which was made from the skin of an unbaptised infant, and the iron bits forged at the "smithy" of the Evil One himself, gave to its possessor the power of most potent spell. Only let a witch shake this instrument of Satan over any living thing, man or beast, and at once it was transformed into an active witch steed in the form generally of a gray horse, with the full knowledge and resentment that a spell had been wrought, to compass this ignoble use. This was familiarly known and described as being "ridden post by a witch."
No better picture was ever drawn of the wild witch diabolerie and abandon than in "Tam o' Shanter," but it may be claimed for Galloway that in the possession of the powerful poem of "Maggie o' the Moss," Ayrshire is followed very closely, as the following quotation bearing upon this particular point brings out:--
"But Maggie had that nicht to gang Through regions dreary, dark, and lang, To hold her orgies.
Then cross his haunches striding o'er, She gave him the command to soar: At first poor Simon, sweir to yield, Held hard and fast the frosty field; His body now earth's surface spurn'd, He seem'd like gravitation turned; His heels went bickering in the air, He held till he could haud nae mair, Till first wi' ae han', syne the tither, He lost his haud o't a' thegither; And mounted up in gallant style, Right perpendicular for a mile.
For brawly ken'd she how to ride, And stick richt close to Simon's hide; For aft had Maggie on a cat Across the German Ocean sat; And wi' aul' Nick and a' his kennel, Had often crossed the British Channel, And mony a nicht wi' them had gone To Brussels, Paris, or Toulon; And mony a stormy Hallowe'en Had Maggie danced on Calais Green!"
Like a swarm of bees in full flight they passed, all astride of something, be it rag-wort, broomstick, kail-runt, hare, cat, or domestic fowl, or even as indicated riding post on a human steed.
Assembled at the Dumfriesshire or Galloway "Brocken," tribute to Satan, who presided in person, had to be paid for the privilege of exercising their unholy licence over their several districts and neighbourhoods. This took the form of unchristened "Kain Bairns," the witches' own by preference, but failing this, the stolen offspring of women of their own particular neighbourhood.
The rite of baptismal entry, which all novitiates had to undergo, was also a regular part of the weird proceedings of this witches' Sabbath.
A magic circle was drawn round the top of the meeting mound, across which none but the initiated and those about to be initiated, dare pass. In the centre of this circle a fire emitting a thick, dense, sulphurous smoke sprang up, round which the assembled company of witches and warlocks danced with joined hands and wild abandon. Into the charmed circle the converts, naked and terror-stricken, were brought and dragged to the fire, which now sent forth even thicker clouds as if in a measure to screen the secrecy of the rites even from those participating, and scream after scream arose as their naked bodies were stamped with the hellish sign-manual of the order. A powerful soothing ointment was, however, immediately poured on the raw wounds, giving instant relief and almost effacement to the ordinary eye, the well-concealed cicatrix becoming the "witch-mark." The grim nature of the ordeal now gave place to proceedings more in keeping with a festival, and dancing of the "better the worse" order and general hilarity and high revelry followed, the Prince of Darkness joining in the dance, giving expert exhibitions with favoured partners.
Next in importance to Satan himself at these "Walpurgis" night festivals at Locharbriggs tryst, was the celebrated witch "Gyre Carline," who possessed a wand of great creative and destructive power. It is told how in the days when Lochar Moss was an open arm of the Solway Firth, an extra large tide swept up and washed away several of the witch steeds from the Locharbrigg hill. This so enraged the "Gyre Carline" that over the unruly waters she waved her magic wand, and what was "once a moss and then a sea" became "again a moss and aye will be." At other meetings of less consequence the more important carlines of different districts met together, when schemes of persecution and revenge were evolved, and where philtres and charms were brewed and concocted for distribution amongst their inferior sisters whose office it was to give them effect. A concoction of virulent power was in the form of a bannock or cake, better known as the "witch cake," whose uncannie preparation and potency has been so quaintly described in verse by Allan Cunningham:--
THE WITCH CAKE.
"I saw yestreen, I saw yestreen, Little wis ye what I saw yestreen, The black cat pyked out the gray ane's een At the hip o' the hemlock knowe yestreen.
Wi' her tail i' her teeth, she whomel'd roun', Wi' her tail i' her teeth, she whomel'd roun', Till a braw star drapt frae the lift aboon, An' she keppit it e'er it wan to the grun.
She hynt them a' in her mou' an' chowed, She hynt them a' in her mou' an' chowed, She drabbled them owre wi' a black tade's blude, An' baked a bannock an' ca'd it gude!
She haurned it weel wi' ae blink o' the moon, She haurned it weel wi' ae blink o' the moon, An withre-shines thrice she whorled it roun', There's some sall skirl ere ye be done.
Some lass maun gae wi' a kilted sark, Some priest maun preach in a thackless kirk, Thread maun be spun for a dead man's sark, A' maun be done e'er the sang o' the lark.
Tell me what ye saw yestreen, Tell me what ye saw yestreen, There's yin may gaur thee sich an' green, For telling what ye saw yestreen."
At such minor meetings also, effigies were moulded in clay of those who had offended, which pierced with pins conveyed serious bodily injuries and disorder in their victims corresponding to the pin punctures. Two of these carlines dispensing the "black art" in the respective parishes of Caerlaverock and Newabbey were in the habit of meeting with each other for such purpose, but the holy men of Sweetheart Abbey overcame their wicked designs by earnest prayers, so much so that their meetings on the solid earth were rendered futile, and thus thwarted, their intercourse had to take place on the water.
Of this the following tale from "Cromek," as reputed to be told by an eye-witness, is descriptive:--
"I gaed out ae fine summer night to haud my halve at the Pow fit. It was twal' o'clock an' a' was lowne; the moon had just gotten up--ye mought a gathered preens. I heard something firsle like silk--I glowered roun' an' lake! what saw I but a bonnie boat, wi' a nob o' gowd, and sails like new-coined siller. It was only but a wee bittie frae me. I mought amaist touch't it. 'Gude speed ye gif ye gang for guid,' quoth I, 'for I dreed our auld carline was casting some o' her pranks.' Another cunning boat cam' off frae Caerla'rick to meet it. Thae twa bade a stricken hour thegither sidie for sidie. 'Haith,' quoth I, 'the deil's grit wi' some!' sae I crap down amang some lang cowes till Luckie cam' back. The boat played bowte again the bank, an out lowpes Kimmer, wi' a pyked naig's head i' her han'. 'Lord be about us!' quo' I, for she cam' straught for me. She howked up a green turf, covered her bane, an' gaed her wa's. When I thought her hame, up I got and pou'd up the bane and haed it. I was fleyed to gae back for twa or three nights, lest the deil's minnie should wyte me for her uncannie boat and lair me 'mang the sludge, or maybe do waur. I gaed back howsever, and on that night o' the moon wha comes to me but Kimmer. 'Rabbin,' quo' she, 'fand ye are auld bane amang the cowes?' ''Deed no, it may be gowd for me,' quo' I. 'Weel, weel,' quo' she, 'I'll byde and help ye hame wi' your fish.' God's be me help, nought grippit I but tades and paddocks! 'Satan, thy nieve's here,' quo' I. 'Ken ye' (quo' I) 'o' yon new cheese our wyfe took but frae the chessel yestreen? I'm gaun to send't t' ye i' the morning, ye're a gude neebor to me: an' hear'st thou me? There's a bit auld bane whomeled aneath thae cowes; I kent nae it was thine.' Kimmer drew't out. 'Ay, ay, it's my auld bane; weel speed ye.' I' the very first pow I got sic a louthe o' fish that I carried 'till me back cracked again."(1)
The book keeps going
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
New illustrated classics
Once or twice a month: the latest books to get full character casts, scene art, and free comic editions. No account needed.
