Children and women for to slay,
And swains that he might over-ta:
And ate them all that he get might:
Chrysten Cleek till name be hight.
That sa’ry life continued he,
While waste but folk was the countrie.”
[1]. Abundance.
[2]. Traps.
Lindsay of Pitscottie tells a dismal story of a man who lived during the reign of James II., (about 1460), at a time also within the recollection of people alive during the epoch of the historian. He says: “About this time there was are brigand ta’en, with his haill family, who haunted a place in Angus. This mischievous man had ane execrable fashion, to tak all young men and children he could steal away quietly, or tak away without knowledge, and eat them; and the younger they were, esteemed them the maer tender and delicious. For the whilk cause and dreadful abuse, he with his wife and bairns were all burned, except ane young wench of a year old, wha was saved and brought to Dundee, where she was brought up and fostered; and when she came to woman’s years, she was condemned and burnt quick for that crime. It is said that when she was coming to the place of execution, there gathered are huge multitude of people, and especially women, cursing her that she was so unhappy to commit so infamous deeds; to whom she turned about with an ireful countenance, saying, ‘Wherefore chide ye me, as if I had committed ane unworthy act? Give me credence, and trow me, if ye had experience of eating men and women’s flesh, ye would think it so delicious that ye would never forbear it again.’ So, without any sign of repentance, this unhappy creature died in the sight of the people.”
In the sunny land of Italy, in the year 1519, at the beautiful city of Milan, a record appears in its annals that a Milanese woman named Elizabeth had an invincible inclination to human flesh. She enticed children to her house, where she killed, salted and ate them. Being discovered, she was broken on the wheel and burnt.