THE BLACK ART.
Nothing was known in the Highlands of the dark science beyond what is conveyed in the name given to it, ‘Satan’s black school’ (Sgoil du Shatain), and a few anecdotes of its more illustrious students. All accounts agree that Michael Scott was an advanced scholar. He, by his skill in it, made a brazen man, whom he compelled to do all his work for him. By means of him he brought the Flanders Moss (Mhòinteach Fhlansrach), in the Carse of Stirling, across from the continent on bearers (lunnun). The moss is twenty-three miles long, and lies north of Stirling, where, unfortunately, the bearers broke. The Mull doctor (an t-ollamh Muileach)[89] and the Islay doctor (an t-ollamh Ileach) also attended the school, and adventures are assigned to them as to the other scholars.
Cameron of Locheil (Mac Dhò’uill dui, the son of Black Donald, is the Highland patronymic of the chiefs of this house), Macdonald of Keppoch (Mac-ic-Rao’uill), and Mackenzie of Brahan were at the school together, and when their education was finished the devil was to get as his fee whoever of them was hindmost. The three young men made a plan to chase each other round and round in a circle so that none of them should be hindmost. At last the devil was for clutching some one, but the young man pointed to his shadow which was behind. The devil in his hurry caught at it, and the young man never had a shadow from that day.
Locheil hired a servant maid to attend to a set of valuable china dishes of which he was the possessor. Her post was onerous, and she had another waiting-maid under her. Her life was to be the forfeit of any of the dishes being broken. One night when ascending the stairs with the dishes on a tray, the under-servant leading the way with a light, she noticed that the sugar bowl was in two and began to weep. A gentleman, whom she had not till then observed, was walking backwards and forwards on the stair-head. He asked her why she wept, and she told. He asked what she would give to have the bowl made whole as it was before? Would she give herself? She thoughtlessly said she would give anything. The bargain was struck, and on drying her tears and looking up the maid found the bowl whole. She told all this to her master, and when the devil came that same night to claim her, Locheil gave his former teacher a hospitable reception. When it waxed late, the devil, afraid of the cock-crowing, was preparing to go away. Cameron coaxed him to remain till the inch still remaining of the candle on the table should burn down. Whenever he gave his consent Cameron blew out the candle and gave it to the servant, telling her her life depended on its safe custody. In this manner the devil was cheated by his own scholar.
A drover bought a flock of goats from Macdonald of Keppoch, who himself accompanied the drove to Locheil-side. Here, in crossing a ford, the goats were taken away by the stream, and went past the drover as red stalks of fern (nan cuiseagun ruadha rainich), all except one dun hornless goat (gobhar mhaol odhar). The drover returned in search of Macdonald and found him lying on the heather, seemingly asleep. He pulled his hand to awaken him, but the hand came away with him. In the end, however, the hand was put right, and the goats were restored to the astonished drover.
Another time Keppoch and his dairy-maid had a trial of skill in sorcery. While she was milking a cow in the cattle-fold, Macdonald, who was looking on, by his charms prevented the cow from yielding her milk. The dairy-maid removed to the other side of the cow and defeated his conjurations. He then removed the hoop on the milk-pail. This also she counteracted.
Macdonald is said to have put a stop in his own country to the women winding black thread at night, but how or why does not appear.
The mighty magician, Michael Scott, had a narrow escape from becoming the prey of the arch-fiend. On his death-bed he told his friends to place his body on a hillock. Three ravens and three doves would be seen flying towards it; if the ravens were first the body was to be burned, but if the doves were first it was to receive Christian burial. The ravens were foremost, but in their hurry flew beyond their mark. So the devil, who had long been preparing a bed for Michael, was disappointed.
CHAPTER XII.
THE DEVIL.
Superstition, in assigning to the devil a bodily shape and presence, endeavoured to make him horrible, and instead made him ridiculous. For this no doubt the monkish ceremonies of the middle ages are, as is commonly alleged, much to blame. The fiend was introduced into shows and dramatic representations with horns, tail, and the hoof of one of the lower animals; the representation was seized upon by the popular fancy, and exaggerated till it became a caricature. The human mind takes pleasure in mixing the ludicrous with the terrible, and in seeing that of which it is afraid made contemptible. There is, as is well known, but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, and, in being reduced to a bug-bear, the impersonation of evil has only come under the operation of a common law. One bad effect to be traced to the travesty is, that men’s attention is diverted from the power of evil as the spirit that now worketh strife, lying, dishonesty, and the countless forms of vice, and the foul fiend is become a sort of goblin, to frighten children and lonely travellers.
In Gaelic the exaggeration is not carried to the same lengths as in English. There is nothing said about the fiend’s having horns or tail. He has made his appearance in shape of a he-goat, but his horns have not attracted so much attention, or inspired such terror, as his voice, which bears a horrible resemblance to the bleating of a goat. A native of the Island of Coll is said to have got a good view of him in a hollow, and was positive that he was crop-eared (corc-chluasach).[90] He has often a chain clanking after him. In Celtic, as in German superstition, he has usually a horse’s hoof, but also sometimes a pig’s foot. This latter peculiarity, which evidently had its origin in the incident of the Gadarean swine, and in the pig being unclean under the ceremonial law, explains the cloven hoof always ascribed to him in English popular tales. In Scripture, the goat, as pointed out by Sir Thomas More, formed the sin offering, and is an emblem of bad men. The reason why a horse’s hoof has been assigned to him is not so apparent. In the Book of Job, Satan is described as “going to and fro in the earth”; and the red horses, speckled and white, which the prophet Zechariah (i. 8) saw among the myrtle trees, were explained to him to be those whom “the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.” The similarity of description may be casual, but it is on grounds, equally incidental and slight, that many of the inferences of superstition are based.
In addition to his Scripture names, the arch-fiend is known in Gaelic by the following titles:
The worthless one (am fear nach fhiach).
The one whom I will not mention (am fear nach abair mi).
Yon one (am fear ud).
The one big one (an aon fhear mòr).
The one from the abyss (an t-aibhisteir) from aibheis, an abyss, a
depth.
The mean mischievous one (an Rosad).
The big sorrow (an dòlas mòr).
The son of cursing (Mac-mollachd).
The big grizzled one (an Riabhach mòr).
The bad one (an donas).
The bad spirit (ain-spiorad, droch-spiorad).
Black Donald (Dòmhnull Du).
In the North Highlands he is also known as Bidein, Dithean, Bradaidh. It is said that Connan was a name given to him, and that aisling connain, a libidinous dream, means literally ‘a devil’s dream.’ The name must have been very local. There is a fable about Connan and his twelve sons pulling a plant in the peat moss, in which the name denoted the wren, and there was a St. Connan, whose memory is preserved in Cill-Chonnain, a burying-ground in Rannoch, and Feill-Connain, the autumn market at Dalmally in Glenorchy.
The occasions on which the devil has appeared in a bodily shape, have been at meetings of witches; at card-playing, which is the reading of his books; when he comes to claim his prey; and when summoned by masons or magicians. He is apt to appear to persons ready to abandon their integrity, and to haunt premises which are soon to be the scene of signal calamities. He sometimes comes in unaccountable shapes and in lonely places for no conceivable purpose but to frighten people.
The following tales will illustrate the character of his appearances and the notions popularly entertained regarding him.