Part 1

Witchcraft and Superstitious Record

Witchcraft and Superstitious Record IN THE South-Western District of Scotland

Witchcraft Witch Trials Fairy Lore Brownie Lore Wraiths Warnings Death Customs Funeral Ceremony Ghost Lore Haunted Houses

BY J. MAXWELL WOOD, M.B.

Author of "Smuggling in the Solway and Around the Galloway Sea-board"

Editor of "The Gallovidian," 1900-1911

Illustrated from Special Drawings by John Copland, Esq., Dundrenna

DUMFRIES: J. MAXWELL & SON 1911

"For she's gathered witch dew in the Kells kirkyard, In the mirk how of the moon, And fed hersel' wi' th' wild witch milk With a red-hot burning spoon." --M'Lehan.

To Alison Jean Maxwell Wood

A "witch" of my most intimate acquaintance

PREFACE.

Throughout Dumfriesshire and Galloway remnants of old-world customs still linger, suggesting a remoter time, when superstitious practice and belief held all-important sway in the daily round and task of the people.

In gathering together the available material bearing upon such matters, more particularly in the direction of witchcraft, fairy-lore, death warnings, funeral ceremony and ghost story, the author trusts that by recording the results of his gleanings much as they have been received, and without at all attempting to subject them to higher analysis or criticism, a truer aspect and reflection of the influence of superstition upon the social life of those older days, may be all the more adequately presented.

112 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH, August 9th, 1911.

CONTENTS.

Page.

CHAPTER I.

Traditional Witchcraft Described 1

CHAPTER II.

Witch Narrative 21

CHAPTER III.

Witchcraft Trials and Persecution 66

CHAPTER IV.

Fairies and Brownies 142

CHAPTER V.

Wraiths and Warnings 198

CHAPTER VI.