When I was at Glasgow in summer 1675, I was desirous to see the dumb girl, whom you mention in your first relation. At my first incoming, she declined to entertain discourse, but by friendly expressions, and giving her some money, I gained her. I first enquired anent her parentage. “I do not remember,” says she, “of my parents, but only that I was called by the name of Janet Douglas by all people who knew me. I was keeped when I was very young, by a poor woman that proved cruel to me, by beating and abusing me; whereupon I deserted the woman’s house, and went a begging.” I inquired next how she became dumb. She told me, by reason of a sore swelling she took in her throat and tongue; but afterwards by the application of Album Græcum, “which I thought,” said she, “was revealed to me, I recovered my speech.” “I asked her, how she came to the knowledge of witches and their practices. She answered, That she had it only by a vision, and knew all things as well as if she had been personally present with them; but had no revelation or information from the voice of any spirit; nor had she any communication with the devil, or any spirit of that kind; only,” says she, “the devil was represented to me, when he was in company with any of the witches, in that same shape and habit he was seen by them.”—She told me, she was altogether ignorant of the principles of religion, but had some smattering knowledge of the Lord’s prayer, which she had heard the witches repeat, it seems, by her vision, in presence of the devil; and at his desire, which she observed, they added to the word art, the letter w, which made it run, “Our Father which wart in heaven;” and made the third petition thus, “As on earth so it may in heaven;” by which means the devil made the application of the prayer to himself.——I remember, that one day there was a woman in the town who had the curiosity to give her a visit, who asked her, How she came to the knowledge of so many things? But the young wench shifted her, by asking the woman’s name. She told her name. Says the other, “Are there any other in Glasgow of that name?” No, says the woman. Then, said the girl, “You are a witch.” Says the other, “Then you are a devil.” The girl answers, “The devil doth not reveal witches; but I know you to be one, and I know your practices too.” Hereupon the woman run away in great confusion, being indeed a person suspected of witchcraft, and had been sometimes imprisoned on that account.—Another woman, whose name was Campbell, had the curiosity likewise to come and see her, and began to ask some questions at her. The wench shifting to give her an answer, says, “I pray you tell me where you were yesternight, and what you were doing? And withall,” says she, “let me see your arm.” She refusing, the landlord laid hold upon the woman, with some others in the house, and forced her to make bare her arm, where Janet Douglas shewed them an invisible mark, which she had gotten from the devil. The poor woman, much ashamed, ran home. A little time after, she came out and told her neighbours, that what Janet Douglas said of her was true; and earnestly entreated them that they would shew so much to the magistrates, that she might be apprehended, “otherwise the devil,” says she, “will make me kill myself.” But the neighbours judging her to be under a fit of distraction, carried her home to her house; but early next morning the woman was found drowned in Clyde.—The girl likewise told me at Glasgow, being then under no restraint, that it was revealed to her she would be carried before the great council at Edinburgh, imprisoned there, and scourged through the town. All which came to pass.—For about a year after, she was apprehended and imprisoned in the tolbooth of the Canongate, and was brought before the council, but nothing being found against her, she was dismissed; but thereafter, for several crimes committed within the town of Edinburgh, she was taken again, and imprisoned, scourged, and sent away to some foreign plantation; since which time I have not heard of her.——There are several other remarkable passages concerning her, which I cannot inform you of, which others perhaps may do; therefore I shall abruptly break off, and say no more, but that I am your affectionate friend. This information I have from a discreet understanding gentleman, who was one of my scholars at Glasgow several years ago.
XXXIV.—Touching Helen Elliot, burnt at Culross.
For Mr. Sinclair.
Edin. Oct. 8. 1684.
Sir, I cannot but much approve of your design in publishing “Satan’s invisible world discovered,” especially at this time, when there are so many that deny the existence of devils, spirits, and witches, and will credit nothing but what they see with their eyes. I shall inform you of three remarkable stories, which may be attested by famous witnesses, many of which are yet living.——I had the curiosity, when I was a scholar, to pass over from Borrowstounness to Culross, to see a notable witch burnt. She was carried to the place of execution in a chair by four men, by reason her legs and her belly were broken, by one of the devil’s cunning tricks which he played her. This woman was watched one night in the steeple of Culross by two men, John Shank, a flesher, and one John Drummond; who being weary, went to another room, where there was a fire, to take a pipe. But to secure her, they put her feet in the stocks, and locked them as well as might be. But no sooner were they gone out of the room, but the devil came into the prison, and told her he was obliged to deliver her from the shame she was like to suffer for his sake; and accordingly took her out of the stocks, and embracing her, carried her out of the prison; at which she being terrified, made this exclamation by the way, “O God, whither art thou taking me?” At which words he let her fall, at the distance from the steeple, about the breadth of the street of Edinburgh, where she broke her legs and belly. I saw the impression and dimple of her heels, as many thousands did, which continued for six or seven years; upon which place no grass would ever grow. At last there was a stone-dike built upon the place.—My second relation shall be of some witches at Borrowstounness, which were the occasion of much inquiry after them there. Anno 1644, a certain woman in the town came about eight o’clock in the morning into her neighbour’s house, after a most furious manner, and assaulted her, by scratching her face, and pulling the hair out of her head, saying, “Thou traitor thief, thou thought to have destroyed my son this morning, but it was not in thy power.” The ship wherein the young man was a sailor, had been under a dreadful tempest off and on St. Abb’s Head, that morning; with the violence of a sea, which came in upon the deck, he was cast over board on one side of the ship, and, to the admiration of all, he was cast upon deck again, upon the other side, without harm. This marvellous business being reported about eight o’clock by the mariners, when they came a-shore, and being compared with what the one woman said to the other that morning, both of them were apprehended, and, after their confession, were both burnt, many hundreds being spectators, whereof I was one.—The last, which is more remarkable, shall be anent the wife of one Goodall, a cooper in the parish of Carron. This woman was about thirty-two or thirty-three years of age, a most beautiful and comely person as was in the country about. She was often filed and delated by many who had been burnt. They told, that amongst them all, she was the person whom the devil at their meetings did most court and embrace, calling her constantly, “My dear mistress,” setting her always at his right hand, to the great discontent of his old hags, whom, as they conceived, he now slighted. She was apprehended, and committed to prison. At this time there was one James Fleming, a master of a ship there, a person of great courage, strength, and resolution, who had it insinuate to him by her, when he was exhorting her to confess, that in respect she understood he was to be upon her watch the next night, if she got no deliverance as she expected before one o’clock in the morning, she would lay her heart open to him before others. At which he being apprehensive of what might fall out, as indeed he had reason, went to his uncle, a grave and experienced person, who advised him to take all his ships company, to the number of fourteen able men, and keep watch, not forgetting the reading of scripture, and earnest prayer to God. The night was still and calm, like a summer’s night, without the least appearance of change, when upon a sudden at midnight, as James Fleming himself was discoursing to her, and again, as the custom was, holding her by the hand, I say, upon a sudden, a terrible tempest, like a hurricane, came on, which took the roof from the house, to their great consternation; and a voice was heard three times, calling her by a strange name to come away; at which time she made three several leaps upward, increasing gradually, till her feet were as high as his breast. But he held her by both the arms, and (as he used to say, when he spoke of it), he be-teached himself strongly and earnestly to God, though with great amazement, his hair standing widdershins in his head. And after the third call, he prevailed against the greatest effort which ever he felt, and threw her on the ground, she grovelling and foaming like one having the falling sickness, where she fell into a profound sleep, for the space of two or three hours. When she awakened, she declaimed most bitterly against the devil’s treachery and perfidiousness, who had promised to carry her to Ireland before four o’clock in the morning, and to touch at Paisley, where she might see her sister in passing. She made a free and full confession, and delated many women, some of them of good repute, who afterwards confessed and died also. The author of this letter is a person of great honesty and sincerity. From the first relation of his, we have an evident instance, that the devil can transport the bodies of men and women through the air. ’Tis true, he did not carry her far off, but not for want of skill and power. Neither was he afraid to hear the name of God spoken; but proposing to destroy both the soul and body of the poor creature, he has pretended so much to excuse himself at her hand.——The first story brings me in mind of one Creek, a witch put in prison in the steeple of Culross, to whom several years ago Mr. Alexander Colvil, justice-depute, came, a gentleman of great sagacity and knowledge as to witches. He asked if she was a witch? She denied. “Dare you hold up your hand and swear that you are not a witch!” “Yes, Sir,” said she. But behold what a remarkable judgment of God came upon her! While she was swearing, with her arm lifted up, it become as stiff as a tree, that she could not pull it in again, to the amazement of all that were present. One person yet living there was a witness, and can attest this. The gentleman, seeing the vengeance of God upon her for her wickedness, falls down presently upon his knees, and entreated the Lord on her behalf, who was graciously pleased to hear him.—Some are of opinion, that the devil cannot raise winds and storms upon the sea and land. This is evident from the last relation in the letter, which puts me in mind of a terrible tempest in the Firth, that day when Bessie Fowler was burnt at Musselburgh, in May 16. The devil promised to her, that she should not die at that time; whereupon she looking out at the prison window, spake very confidently to the folk below, “You think to see me burnt the day, but you will be deceived.” The hurricane did so prevail, that in effect every body suspected that she should not have died that day. The morning and the forenoon were very calm.
XXXV.—Anent some Prayers, Charms, and Aves, used in the Highlands.
In the time of ignorance and superstition, when the darkness of Paganism was not dispelled by the gospel-light, spirits kept a more familiar converse with families; and even in the time of Popery, what was more frequent in houses than brownies, whom they employed in many services. It were unreasonable and ridiculous to rehearse all the stories which have been told of Brownies and Fairies, commonly called our good neighbours: how there was a king and queen of fairies, of such a court and train as they had; and how they had the tein and duty, as it were, of all corns, flesh and meal; how they rode, and went along the sides of hills, all in green apparel. I verily believe many have seen such spectres. But what were they? nothing but the delusion of the senses of sundry people, whom the devil made believe they did see and hear such things. Brownie was a spirit that haunted divers houses familiarly, without doing any evil, but doing necessary turns up and down the house, and frequently was found working in the barn, threshing the corn in the night-time, who appeared like a rough hairy man. Such then, was the ignorance of many, that they believed their house was all the sonsier that Brownie was about it, as King James says in his Demonology.—I will not speak of ridiculous friets, such as our meeting with a lucky or unlucky foot, when we are going about important business; these unquestionably are the devil’s lessons for the most part, and denying of God’s providence. The practice of the Heathen was to attribute good or evil luck to the slaying of birds, as Virgil says, “Sæpe sinister cava prædixit ab illice cornix.”—Whether there be any magic in the practice of some young women too curious, who, upon Hallowe’n, go to bed without speaking to any, having first eaten a cake made of soot, and dreaming they see in their sleep the man that shall be their husband, I shall not determine; but it looks like a very bad practice. I heard of a woman who dipped her smock in south-running water, on that night, and hanged it up before the fire to dry. One comes in the likeness of the man who was to be her husband, and turns it, and went immediately to the bed, where she was attending the event, and kissed her. It seems she did not believe it was the devil. To speak of the second sight I cannot, till fuller information be given. I am undoubtedly informed, that men and women in the Highlands can discern fatality approaching others, by seeing them in waters, or with winding sheets about them; and that others can lecture in a sheep’s shoulder-bone a death within the parish seven or eight days before it come. It is not improbable, but that such preternatural knowledge comes first by a compact with the devil, and is derived downward by succession to their posterity; many of which I suppose are innocent, and have this sight against their will and inclination.
Charms and spells have been first taught to men and women in confederacy with the devil, many of which are received by tradition, and used by witches, and ignorant persons too. The virtue of curing must be from the devil’s active invisible application of them to such or such a disease, as the curing of an universal gout by this unintelligible charm.