Mingle, mingle, in the pingle,
Join the cantrip wi’ the jingle;
Now we see, and now we see,
Plots o’ poachin’ ane, twa, three.”
By tugging at a hair-rope, in the usual manner of milking a cow—said rope being made up of tufts of hair drawn from cows’ tails, and having on it a knot for each cow—and chanting the following, or a similar charm—
“Cow’s milk, and mare’s milk,
And every beast that bears milk,
Between St. Johnstone’s and Dundee,
Come a’ to me, come a’ to me,”
it was vulgarly believed, as late as the beginning of the century, that a witch could draw away every drop of milk from the cattle in her neighbourhood. Only a horse-shoe nailed to the byre door, and sprigs of rowan-tree tied with red thread to the cow’s tail, was a certain protection here; for