Part 27

{207b} Proceedings of Society for Psychical Research, xiv. 469.

{209} Edinburgh, 1827, vol. i. p. xxxii.

{214} In the author's case the hypnagogic phantasms seem to be created out of the floating spots of light which remain when the eyes are shut. Some crystal-gazers find that similar points de repere in the glass, are the starting-points of pictures in the crystal. Others cannot trace any such connection.

{215} Compare Blackwood, August, 1831, in Noctes Ambrosianae.

{216a} Paus., ii. 24, I.

{216b} Bouche Leclercq, i. 339.

{223} The accomplished scryer can see as well in a crystal ringstone, or in a glass of water, as in a big crystal ball. The latter may really be dangerous, if left on a cloth in the sun it may set the cloth on fire.

{224} Animal Magnetism, second edition, p. 135.

{228} Thus an educated gentleman, a Highlander, tells the author that he once saw a light of this kind 'not a meteor,' passing in air along a road where a funeral went soon afterwards. His companions could see nothing, but one of them said: 'It will be a death- candle'. It seems to have been hallucinatory, otherwise all would have shared the experience.

{231a} Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 481, Edinburgh, 1834.

{231b} Op. cit., p. 473.

{232a} Op. cit., p. 470

{232b} It is, perhaps, needless to add that the unhappy patients were executed.

{232c} Miscellanies, 1857, p. 184.

{233a} Wodrow, i. 44.

{233b} Aulus Gellius, xv. 18. Dio Cassius, lib. lxvii. Crespet, De la Hayne de Diable, cited by Dalyell.

{234} Miscellanies, 177.

{235} A copy presented by Scott to Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck is in the author's possession; it bears Scott's autograph.

{237} Information from Mr. Mackay, Craigmonie.

{238} 2 Kings, v. 26.

{244} i. 259. Longmans, London, 1811.

{245} Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 143.

{246} This belief is not confined to the Highlands. Mr. Podmore quotes Ghost 636 in the Psychical Society's collections: 'The narrator's mother is said to have seen the figure of a man'. The father saw nothing till his wife laid her hand on his shoulder, when he exclaimed, 'I see him now' (S. P. R., Nov., 1889, p. 247).

{250} 'Spectral evidence' was common in witch trials. Wierus (b. 1515) mentions a woman who confessed that she had been at a witch's covin, or 'sabbath,' when her body was in bed with her husband. If there was any confirmatory testimony, if any one chose to say that he saw her at the 'sabbath,' that was 'spectral evidence'. This kind of testimony made it vain for a witch to take Mr. Weller's advice, and plead 'a halibi,' but even Cotton Mather admits that 'spectral evidence' is inconclusive.

{253} Papon. Arrets., xx. 5, 9. Charondas, Lib. viii. Resp. 77. Covarruvias, iv. 6. Mornac, s. v., Habitations, 27 ff., Locat. and Conduct. Other doctors do not deny hauntings, but allege that a brave man should disregard them, and that they do not fulfil he legal condition, Metus cadens in constantem virim. These doctors may never have seen a ghost, or may have been unusually courageous. They held that a man might get accustomed to the annoyances of bogles, s'apprivoiser avec cette frayeur, like the Procter family at Willington.

{259} Miscellanies, p. 94, London, 1857.

{262} Hibbert, Philosophy of Apparitions, second edition, p. 224. Hibbert finds Graime guilty, but only because he knew where the body lay.

{263} Notices Relative to the Bannatyne Club, 1836, p. 191. Remarkable Trial in Maryland.