[169] i.e. or a devil in its stead.
[170] The text up till this point has been published separately under the title of ‘The Miseries of Poor Simple Innocent Silly Tam.’ The ‘Misfortunes’ are not given in that chap-book. In all the other editions of Simple John which have come under the notice of the editor, each of the ‘misfortunes’ is given a separate numerical title, as ‘Misfortune I.,’ etc.
[171] The inhabitants of Buck-haven have always been acknowledged to be a peculiar people. An account of their origin is to the effect that they are the descendants of the crew of a ship from the Netherlands, which stranded on the coast of Fifeshire in reign of James IV. The village of Buckie, mentioned in the text, is on the Moray Firth, in the parish of Ruthven, county of Banff.
[172] This paragraph is omitted in the modern and Randall’s editions. The narrative in them begins with the next paragraph.
[173] In Randall’s and the modern edition this paragraph begins:—‘Again, these people are said to have descended from one Tom, and his two sons,’ etc.
[174] ‘Other hand,’ instead of ‘fishers of Bucky-harbour,’ in abridged editions.
[175] The sentence reads thus in abridged editions:—‘The Lord o’ the manor decided all disputable points, and wise Willie,’ etc.
[176] The word ‘mancoes’ is substituted for ‘mutches’ in the two abridged editions. They seem to have the same significance.
[177] The people of Buckhaven seem to have been free from the old superstition regarding the horse-shoe charm. A horse-shoe nailed to a stable door kept the four-footed inmates free from the power of ‘uncanny’ beings. The custom still lingers in the country, but it is due more to use and wont than any active belief in its virtues.
[178] A similar circumstance is related in the History of John Cheap the Chapman. See text and note at [p. 93], vol. ii.