Bessie Millie, of Pomo´na, in the Orkney Islands, helped to eke out her living (even so late as 1814) by selling favorable winds to mariners, for the small sum of sixpence per vessel.
Winds were also at one time sold at Mont St. Michel, in Normandy, by nine druidesses, who likewise sold arrows to charm away storms. These arrows were to be shot off by a young man 25 years of age.
⁂ Witches generally were supposed to sell wind.
’Oons! I’ll marry a Lapland witch as soon, and live upon selling contrary winds and wrecked vessels.--W. Congreve, Love for Love, iii. (1695).
In Ireland and in Denmark both,
Witches for gold will sell a man a wind,
Which, in the corner of a napkin wrapped,
Shall blow him safe unto what coast he will.
Summer, Last Will and Test. (1600).
⁂ See note to the Pirate: “Sale of Winds” (Waverley Novels, xxiv. 136).