Gaelic Folklore (5): Ceasg

5.

Ceasg

The ceasg is a mermaid in Scottish Folklore with the upper body of a beautiful woman merging with the tail of a grilse (a young salmon).

What follows are some descriptions and tales from old sources:

1.

The Mermaid is known in Gaelic as the ceasg, maighdean na tuinne (maid of the wave) and maigddean mhara (maid of the sea) A ceasg is a half-woman, half-grilse, who haunts rivers and streams and is said to be very beautiful but dangerous. The maid of the wave, if caught, can be prevailed upon to grant three wishes. There are stories of  men marrying mermaids who left off their skin coverings. Like the swan maidens, they recover their hidden skins and escape, but they always take interest in their human descendants, shielding them in storms or guiding them to the best fishing grounds. Families of pilots are reputed to be descended from mermaids. The maid of the wave is in some tales a fierce demon. It may be that the maid of the wave was originally a sea-goddess to whom humans, especially children, were sacrificed.

Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life - Studies in Race, 

Culture and Tradition, by Donald Mackenzie, 1935

Black Mere, at Morridge, near Leek, in Staffordshire, was credited with the power of frightening away animals. Cattle would not drink its water, and birds would not fly over it. A mermaid was believed to dwell in its depths.

In the south of Scotland the very names of these sea-spirits have a far-off sound about them. No one beside the Firths of Forth and Clyde expects nowadays to catch sight of such strange forms sitting on rocks, or playing among the breakers; but among our Northern Isles it is otherwise. Every now and again (at long intervals, perhaps) the mysterious mermaid makes her appearance, and gives new life to an old superstition. About three years since, one was seen at Deerness in Orkney. She reappeared last year, and was then noticed by some lobstermen who were working their creels. She had a small black head, white body, and long arms. Somewhat later, a creature, believed to be this mermaid, was shot not far from the shore, but the body was not captured. In June of the present year another mermaid was seen by the Deerness people. At Birsay, recently, a farmer’s wife was down at the sea-shore, and observed a strange creature among the rocks. She went back for her husband, and the two returned quite in time to get a good view of the interesting stranger. The woman spoke of the mermaid as “a good-looking person”; while her husband described her as “having a covering of brown hair.” Curiosity seems to have been uppermost in the minds of the couple, for they tried to capture the creature. In the interests of folklore, if not of science, she managed to escape, and was quickly lost to sight beneath the waves. Perhaps, as the gurgling waters closed over her, she may have uttered an au revoir, or whatever corresponds to that phrase in the language of the sea.

2.

The following story about a mermaid, published in 1886, is fully credited in the district where the incident occurred:—“Roderick Mackenzie, the elderly and much respected boat-builder at Port Henderson, when a young man, went one day to a rocky part of the shore there. Whilst gathering bait he suddenly spied a mermaid asleep among the rocks. Rorie ‘went for’ that mermaid, and succeeded in seizing her by the hair. The poor creature in great embarrassment cried out that if Rorie would let go she would grant him whatever boon he might ask. He requested a pledge that no one should ever be drowned from any boat he might build. On his releasing her the mermaid promised that this should be so. The promise has been kept throughout Rorie’s long business career—his boats still defy the stormy winds and waves.” Mr. Dixon adds, “I am the happy possessor of an admirable example of Rorie’s craft. The most ingenious framer of trade advertisements might well take a hint from this veracious anecdote.”

There is, or was a belief at Chapel-en-le-Frith, in Derbyshire, that on Easter Eve a mermaid appears in a certain pool; and at Rostherne, in Cheshire, that another mermaid comes out of the lake there on Easter Day and rings a bell.

Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, By James M. Mackinlay, 1893.

Of all the old mythological existences of Scotland, in his there was none with whom the people of Cromarty were better acquainted than with the mermaid. Thirty years have not yet gone by since she has been seen by moonlight sitting on a stone in the sea, a little to the east of the town; and scarcely a winter passed, forty years earlier, in which she was not heard singing among the rocks or seen braiding up her long yellow tresses on the shore.

The Dropping-Cave ninety years ago was a place of considerable interest; but the continuous shower which converted into stone the plants and mosses on which it fell, and the dark recess which no one had attempted to penetrate, and of whose extent imagination had formed a thousand surmises, constituted some of merely the minor circumstances that had rendered it such. Superstition had busied herself for ages before in making it a scene of wonders. Boatmen, when sailing along the shore in the night-time, had been startled by the apparition of a faint blue light, which seemed glimmering from its entrance: on other occasions than the one referred to in a former chapter, the mermaid had been seen sitting on a rock a few yards before it, singing a low melancholy song, and combing her long yellow hair with her fingers; and a man who had been engaged in fishing crabs among the rocks, and was returning late in the evening by the way of the cave, almost shared the fate of its moss and lichens, when, on looking up, he saw an old greyheaded man, with a beard that descended to his girdle, sitting in the opening, and gazing wistfully on the sea.

Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland, Hugh Miller, 1850

The Sea-Maiden

here was once a poor old fisherman, and one year he was not getting much fish. On a day of days, while he was fishing, there rose a sea-maiden at the side of his boat, and she asked him, "Are you getting much fish?"

The old man answered and said, "Not I."

"What reward would you give me for sending plenty of fish to you?”

"Ach!" said the old man, "I have not much to spare."

"Will you give me the first son you have?" said she.

"I would give ye that, were I to have a son," said he.

"Then go home, and remember me when your son is twenty years of age, and you yourself will get plenty of fish after this."

Everything happened as the sea-maiden said, and he himself got plenty of fish; but when the end of the twenty years was nearing, the old man was growing more and more sorrowful and heavy hearted, while he counted each day as it came. He had rest neither day nor night. The son asked his father one day, "Is any one troubling you?"

The old man said, "Someone is, but that's nought to do with you nor anyone else."

The lad said, "I must know what it is."
His father told him at last how the matter was with him and the sea-maiden.

"Let not that put you in any trouble," said the son; "I will not oppose you."

"You shall not; you shall not go, my son, though I never get fish any more."

"If you will not let me go with you, go to the smithy, and let the smith make me a great strong sword, and I will go seek my fortune."

His father went to the smithy, and the smith made a doughty sword for him. His father came home with the sword. The lad grasped it and gave it a shake or two, and it flew into a hundred splinters. He asked his father to go to the smithy and get him another sword in which there should be twice as much weight; and so his father did, and so likewise it happened to the next sword—it broke in two halves. Back went the old man to the smithy; and the smith made a great sword, it’s like he never made before.

"There's thy sword for thee," said the smith, "and the fist must be good that plays this blade."

The old man gave the sword to his son; he gave it a shake or two. "This will do," said he; "it's high time now to travel on my way."

3

On the next morning he put a saddle on a black horse that his father had, and he took the world for his pillow. When he went on a bit, he fell in with the carcass of a sheep beside the road. And there were a great black dog, a falcon, and an otter, and they were quarrelling over the spoil. So they asked him to divide it for them. He came down off the horse, and he divided the carcass amongst the three. Three shares to the dog, two shares to the otter, and a share to the falcon.

"For this," said the dog, "if swiftness of foot or sharpness of tooth will give thee aid, mind me, and I will be at thy side."

Said the otter, "If the swimming of foot on the ground of a pool will lose thee, mind me, and I will be at thy side."

Said the falcon, "If hardship comes on thee, where swiftness of wing or crook of a claw will do good, mind me, and I will be at thy side."

On this he went onward till he reached a king's house, and he took service to be a herd, and his wages were to be according to the milk of the cattle. He went away with the cattle, and the grazing was but bare. In the evening when he took them home they had not much milk, the place was so bare, and his meat and drink was but spare that night. On the next day he went on further with them; and at last he came to a place exceedingly grassy, in a green glen, of which he never saw the like. But about the time when he should drive the cattle homewards, who should he see coming but a great giant with his sword in his hand?

 "HI! HO!! HOGARACH! " says the giant. "Those cattle are mine; they are on my land, and a dead man art thou."

"I say not that," says the herd; "there is no knowing, but that may be easier to say than to do."

He drew the great clean-sweeping sword, and he neared the giant. The herd drew back his sword, and the head was off the giant in a twinkling. He leaped on the black horse, and he went to look for the giant's house. In went the herd, and that's the place where there was money in plenty, and dresses of each kind in the wardrobe with gold and silver, and each thing finer than the other. At the mouth of night he took himself to the king's house, but he took not a thing from the giant's house. And when the cattle were milked this night there was milk. He got good feeding this night, meat and drink without stint, and the king was hugely pleased that he had caught such a herd. He went on for a time in this way, but at last the glen grew bare of grass, and the grazing was not so good. So he thought he would go a little further forward in on the giant's land; and he sees a great park of grass. He returned for the cattle, and he put them into the park.

They were but a short time grazing in the park when a great wild giant came full of rage and madness. "HI! HAW!! HOGARAICH!!!" said the giant. "It is a drink of thy blood that will quench my thirst this night." "There is no knowing," said the herd, "but that's easier to say than to do."

And at each other went the men. There was shaking of blades! At length and at last it seemed as if the giant would get the victory over the herd. Then he called on the dog, and with one spring the black dog caught the giant by the neck, and swiftly the herd struck off his head.

He went home very tired this night, but it's a wonder if the king's cattle had not milk. The whole family was delighted that they had got such a herd. Next day he betakes himself to the castle. When he reached the door, a little flattering carlin met him standing in the door.

4.

"All hail and good luck to thee, fisher's son; 'tis I myself am pleased to see thee; great is the honour for this kingdom, for thy like to be come into it—thy coming in is fame for this little bothy; go in first; honour to the gentles; go on, and take breath."  "In before me, thou crone; I like not flattery out of doors; go in and let's hear thy speech." In went the crone, and when her back was to him he drew his sword and whips her head off; but the sword flew out of his hand. And swift the crone gripped her head with both hands, and puts it on her neck as it was before. The dog sprung on the crone, and she struck the generous dog with the club of magic; and there he lay. But the herd struggled for a hold of the club of magic, and with one blow on the top of the head she was on earth in the twinkling of an eye. He went forward, up a little, and there was spoil! Gold and silver, and each thing more precious than another, in the crone's castle. He went back to the king's house, and then there was rejoicing.

He followed herding in this way for a time; but one night after he came home, instead of getting "All hail" and "Good luck" from the dairymaid, all were at crying and woe. He asked what cause of woe there was that night. The dairymaid said "There is a great beast with three heads in the loch, and it must get someone every year, and the lot had come this year on the king's daughter, and at midday tomorrow she is to meet the Loudly Beast at the upper end of the loch, but there is a great suitor yonder who is going to rescue her."

"What suitor is that?" said the herd.

"Oh, he is a great General of arms," said the dairymaid, "and when he kills the beast, he will marry the king's daughter, for the king has said that he who could save his daughter should get her to marry."

But on the morrow, when the time grew near, the king's daughter and this hero of arms went to give a meeting to the beast, and they reached the black rock, at the upper end of the loch. They were but a short time there when the beast stirred in the midst of the loch; but when the General saw this terror of a beast with three heads, he took fright, and he slunk away, and he hid himself. And the king's daughter was under fear and under trembling, with no one at all to save her. Suddenly she sees a doughty handsome youth, riding a black horse, and coming where she was. He was marvelously arrayed and full armed, and his black dog moved after him.

"There is gloom on your face, girl," said the youth; "what do you here?"

"Oh! that's no matter," said the king's daughter. "It's not long I'll be here, at all events."

"I say not that," said he.

"A champion fled as likely as you, and not long since," said she.

5.

"He is a champion who stands the war," said the youth. And to meet the beast he went with his sword and his dog. But there was a spluttering and a splashing between himself and the beast! The dog kept doing all he might, and the king's daughter was palsied by fear of the noise of the beast! One of them would now be under, and now above. But at last he cut one of the heads off it. It gave one roar, and the son of earth, echo of the rocks, called to its screech, and it drove the loch in spindrift from end to end, and in a twinkling it went out of sight.

"Good luck and victory follow you, lad!" said the king's daughter. "I am safe for one night, but the beast will come again and again, until the other two heads come off it."

He caught the beast's head, and he drew a knot through it, and he told her to bring it with her there tomorrow. She gave him a gold ring, and went home with the head on her shoulder, and the herd betook himself to the cows. But she had not gone far when this great General saw her, and he said to her, "I will kill you if you do not say that 'twas I took the head off the beast."

"Oh!" says she, "'tis I will say it; who else took the head off the beast but you! "

They reached the king's house, and the head was on the General's shoulder. But here was rejoicing, that she should come home alive and whole, and this great captain with the beast's head full of blood in his hand. On the morrow they went away, and there was no question at all but that this hero would save the king's daughter.

They reached the same place, and they were not long there when the fearful Loudly Beast stirred in the midst of the loch, and the hero slunk away as he did on yesterday, but it was not long after this when the man of the black horse came, with another dress on. No matter; she knew that it was the very same lad. "It is I am pleased to see you," said she. "I am in hopes you will handle your great sword to-day as you did yesterday. Come up and take breath."

But they were not long there when they saw the beast steaming in the midst of the loch. At once he went to meet the beast, but there was Cloopersteich and Claperstich, spluttering, splashing, raving, and roaring on the beast! They kept at it thus for a long time, and about the mouth of night he cut another head off the beast. He put it on the knot and gave it to her. She gave him one of her earrings, and he leaped on the black horse, and he betook himself to the herding. The king's daughter went home with the heads. The General met her, and took the heads from her, and he said to her, that she must tell that it was he who took the head off the beast this time also.

"Who else took the head off the beast but you?" said she. They reached the king's house with the heads. Then there was joy and gladness.

6.

About the same time on the morrow, the two went away. The officer hid himself as he usually did. The king's daughter betook herself to the bank of the loch. The hero of the black horse came, and if roaring and raving were on the beast on the days that were passed, this day it was horrible. But no matter, he took the third head off the beast, and drew it through the knot, and gave it to her. She gave him her other earring, and then she went home with the heads. When they reached the king's house, all were full of smiles, and the General was to marry the king's daughter the next day. The wedding was going on,

and every one about the castle longing till the priest should come. But when the priest came, she would marry only the one who could take the heads off the knot without cutting it.

"Who should take the heads off the knot but the man that put the heads on?" said the king.

The General tried them, but he could not lose them and at last there was no one about the house but had tried to take the heads off the knot, but they could not. The king asked if there were any one else about the house that would try to take the heads off the knot. They said that the herd had not tried them yet. Word went for the herd; and he was not long throwing them hither and thither.

"But stop a bit, my lad," said the king's daughter; "the man that took the heads off the beast, he has my ring and my two earrings."

The herd put his hand in his pocket, and he threw them on the board.

"Thou art my man," said the king's daughter.

The king was not so pleased when he saw that it was a herd who was to marry his daughter, but he ordered that he should be put in a better dress; but his daughter spoke, and she said that he had a dress as fine as any that ever was in his castle; and thus it happened. The herd put on the giant's golden dress, and they married that same day.

They were now married, and everything went on well. But one day, and it was the namesake of the day when his father had promised him to the sea-maiden, they were sauntering by the side of the loch, and lo and behold! she came and took him away to the loch without leave or asking. The king's daughter was now mournful, tearful, blind-sorrowful for her married man; she was always with her eye on the loch. An old soothsayer met her, and she told how it had befallen her married mate. Then he told her the thing to do to save her mate, and that she did. She took her harp to the sea-shore, and sat and played; and the sea-maiden came up to listen, for sea-maidens are fonder of music than all other creatures. But when the wife saw the sea-maiden she stopped. The sea-maiden said, "Play on!" but the princess said, "No, not till I see my man again." So the sea-maiden put up his head out of the loch. Then the princess played again, and stopped till the sea-maiden put him up to the waist. Then the princess played and stopped again, and this time the sea-maiden put him all out of the loch, and he called on the falcon and became one and flew on shore. But the sea-maiden took the princess, his wife.

Sorrowful was each one that was in the town on this night. Her man was mournful, tearful, wandering down and up about the banks of the loch, by day and night. The old soothsayer met him. The soothsayer told him that there was no way of killing the sea-maiden but the one way, and this is it—

"In the island that is in the midst of the loch is the white-footed hind of the slenderest legs and the swiftest step, and though she he caught, there will spring a hoodie out of her, and though the hoodie should be caught, there will spring a trout out of her, but there is an egg in the mouth of the trout, and the soul of the sea-maiden is in the egg, and if the egg breaks, she is dead."

7.

Now, there was no way of getting to this island, for the sea-maiden would sink each boat and raft that would go on the loch. He thought he would try to leap the strait with the black horse, and even so he did. The black horse leaped the strait. He saw the hind, and he let the black dog after her, but when he was on one side of the island, the hind would he on the other side.

"Oh! would the black dog of the carcass of flesh were here!"

No sooner spoke he the word than the grateful dog was at his side; and after the hind he went, and they were not long in bringing her to earth. But he no sooner caught her than a hoodie sprang out of her. "Would that the falcon grey, of sharpest eye and swiftest wing, were here!"

No sooner said he this than the falcon was after the hoodie, and she was not long putting her to earth; and as the hoodie fell on the bank of the loch, out of her jumps the trout.

"Oh! that thou wert by me now, oh otter!" No sooner said than the otter was at his side, and out on the loch she leaped, and brings the trout from the midst of the loch; but no sooner was the otter on shore with the trout than the egg came from his mouth. He sprang and he put his foot on it.

'Twas then the sea-maiden appeared, and she said, "Break not the egg, and you shall get all you ask." "Deliver to me my wife!" In the wink of an eye she was by his side. When he got hold of her hand in both his hands, he let his foot down on the egg, and the sea-maiden died.

Celtic Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs, 1892

Mermaid Traditions.

The manner in which the seal-women of the Western Isles and of Ireland and the lady-trows of the Northern Isles immediately returned to the sea, on recovering their hidden skins, recalls similar traditions of the maighdean-mara or mermaid, a creature of the sea, half-woman and half-fish, with long, dishevelled hair which she sometimes might be seen combing at dawn or dusk, while seated on a rock offshore. Mermaids have been known to put off the fish-like covering of their lower limbs; and, if the finder of such covering can keep it hidden, the owner is unable to return to her life in the sea. Both in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, folk-tales are told of how ordinary men have detained mermaids by hiding their covering, have married them, and have had large families by them. Eventually some member of the family, discovering the mother's covering, brings it to her in surprise, thus enabling her to desert her human home for the sea. Such mermaids are said to spend much of their time in pursuing vessels, just as do the Blue Men of the Minch. Celtic tradition has it that, in order to rid themselves of her company, mariners have been known to cast overboard a number of empty barrels. While the mermaid continued to be distracted by examining these barrels, the vessel was sailing beyond her reach. Upon a time, a native of a Harris township, that goes by the Gaelic name signifying Unripe Island, captured a mermaid, and retained her in close confinement for a year. How ultimately the mermaid effected her escape is not recorded. And a Skye-man, likewise, caught a mermaid, whom he released only when she had granted him his three wishes—that he should have the faculty of foretelling the future, that he should be able to cure scrofula or the king's evil, and that he should acquire the art of music. Belief in the mermaid was widespread among the seafarers of the north-east coast of Scotland. Many of the fisher-folks held the opinion that the caves penetrating the more inaccessible parts of the coast were tenanted by mermaids. "Some old men, remember a mermaid pitching upon the bowsprit of a small vessel belonging to Peterhead, which was driven among the rocks near Slains Castle, and all hands  perished save one man who bore the tidings to land."

A Merman Sighted.

8.

In the year, 1814, a merman was sighted off Port Gordon, in Banffshire. According to an account supplied by the schoolmaster of Rathven, two fishermen, whose testimony was above suspicion, were returning from the fishing " about three or four o'clock yesterday afternoon, when about a quarter of a mile from the shore, the sea being perfectly calm, they observed, at a small distance from their boat, with its back towards them, and half its body above the water, a creature of a tawny colour, appearing like a man sitting, with his body half-bent. Surprised at this, they approached towards him, till they came within a few yards, when the noise made by the boat occasioned the creature to turn about, which gave the men a better opportunity of observing him. His countenance was swarthy, his hair short and curled, of a colour between a green and a grey: he had small eyes, a flat nose, his mouth was large, and his arms of an extraordinary length. Above the waist, he was shaped like a man, but as the water was clear, my informants could perceive that, from the waist downwards, his body tapered considerably or, as they expressed it, like a large fish without scales, but could not see the extremity."  The creature did not give the observers much time to examine him closely, for, although he gazed at them intently for a moment or two, he suddenly dived out of sight. A little later he reappeared at some distance from the boat, accompanied by what the fishermen concluded to be a female of the same species. Somewhat alarmed at the sight of this merman, the fishermen pulled for the shore with all haste.   used to relate a mermaid story told him by a shepherd dwelling in a lonely glen in South Uist. According to the shepherd, two local fishermen, when drawing their net about twenty years ago, found that it had ensnared a baby mermaid. The mother mermaid pleaded with the fishermen to release her baby, promising that, if they did so, " none of them would be drowned evermore."
To the schoolmaster they gave this account without the slightest variation. My late, dearly beloved friend, John Wilson Dougal, who wandered through the Outer Hebrides

" It was strange," the shepherd used to remark, " that the mermaid could speak the Gaelic !"

A Mermaid's Burial on Benbecula.
In Barra and Benbecula and in North and South Uist are current several traditional tales about the mermaid, who sometimes is referred to in these parts as the maighdean nan tonn, the maiden of the waves. The story is told in Benbecula of how a number of Isleswomen, while cutting seaware at low tide on the Oitir Mhor, were startled by a splashing sound that came from a still sea-pool near the end of the reef. On approaching the spot, they were surprised to find in the pool a miniature woman, whose long, dark hair floated like a great cluster of seaweed upon the face of the water. Closer investigation proved that in shape the lower part of her body resembled that of a salmon, but had no scales upon it.  Convinced that at long last they were beholding the maighdean-mara, the women of Benbecula raised the alarm, so that their husbands and sons might hurry to the scene, and capture the creature if possible. In their endeavour to catch her, some of the men waded into the sea after her. But the mermaid was far too nimble for them; and, had it not been for the fact that a young lad had accidentally wounded her on the head with a stone, they never would have seen her again. The mermaid succumbed to her injuries ; and, a week or so later, her body was found by the shore, not far from Nunton. And it was none other than Duncan Shaw, Clan Ranald's factor at the time of this incident, who, on examining the body of the mermaid, perceived that she was a creature worthy of reverent burial. And, so, he directed a special coffin and a special winding-sheet to be prepared for the mermaid, whose remains at length were interred in the burial-ground at Nunton, and in the presence of a great assemblage of the Hebridean people. A similar fate almost befell a mermaid on the Isle of Barra, when an old sailor, living at Kentangval, espied on a reef what he took to be an otter devouring a fish. It was not until he had picked up his glass that he discovered the creature on the reef was not an otter at all, but a mermaid holding a child.

Children of the Mermaid.
Once there lived among the sea-tangled caverns of northwestern Scotland a people called the Children of the Mermaid. Tradition in the remote sea-clachans of Sutherland maintains that the Children of the Mermaid were the offspring of a fisherman by a mermaid who, having forfeited the fish-tail-shaped seal-skin covering the lower part of her body, made it possible for her admirer to capture her and take her to his home. But there came a day when the Children of the Mermaid, while playing in the barn, chanced to discover among the rafters a seal-skin with a fish-like tail. This they instantly brought to their mother, who recognised it to be her long lost coat. Before their eyes she donned the seal-skin, and, without even bidding them good-bye, rushed away to the sea. Not since that day has the mermaid been seen by the shores of Sutherland, nor have the natives heard tell of her. But they declare that her descendants have derived from the sea richer and fuller harvests than have the ordinary inhabitants of these parts.

The Mermaid of Kessock.

Of similar nature is a story told in the locality of Inverness and the Black Isle about a mermaid known traditionally as the Mermaid of Kessock. One Paterson to name, when strolling along the shore by the Kessock Ferry, came upon a mermaid, whom he sought to detain. Paterson proceeded to remove some of the scales from her tail, in conformity with the old belief that, by so doing, a mermaid was compelled to assume human form. No sooner had he removed the scales than, lo ! there stood before him a beautiful woman, whom he immediately married, and by whom he begat children. The mermaid's scales Paterson carefully wrapped up, and concealed in an outhouse. The day came, however, when one of his children discovered the scales, and took them to his mother, who thereupon made for the shore, returned to her mermaid state, and was never seen again. It is said, moreover, that Paterson's wife, long before she recovered her scales, used to plead with him to allow her to return to her original element, promising him that, if he did so, his family would be blessed at all times with a plentiful supply of fish, and that no member of it would ever be drowned at the Kessock Ferry. To this day there are folks dwelling at Kessock and elsewhere on the Black Isle, who firmly believe the story of the Mermaid of Kessock.

The Peat-Fire Flame, Folk-tales and Traditions of the Highlands & Islands By A. A. MacGregor, 1937

Pictures source:

1: https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/99782947977431500/ 1892

2: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vintage-book-illustration-literature-1721918/
3.: https://owips.com/clipart-11758089

4: https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Wicked_Witch

5,6,7; Celtic Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs, 1892
8: https://picsart.com/i/sticker-mermaid-mermaids-baby-fantasy-fantasyart-terrieasterly-285230329018211

Nico

Gaelic Folklore (4): Rev. Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth.

4.
The Secret Commonwealth

Robert Kirk (9 December 1644 – 14 May 1692) was a minister, Gaelic scholar and folklorist, best known for The Secret Commonwealth, a treatise on fairy folklore, witchcraft, ghosts and second sight of the Scottish Highlands. The Secret Commonwealth is a collection of folklore collected between 1691-1692 and published in 1815. Kirk collected these stories into a manuscript sometime between 1691–1692, but died before it could be published. More than a century would pass before the book was finally released by Scottish author Walter Scott in 1815 under the title The Secret Commonwealth or an Essay on the Nature and Actions of the Subterranean (and for the most part) Invisible People heretofore going under the names of Fauns and Fairies, or the like, among the Low Country Scots as described by those who have second sight, 1691. Folklore scholars consider The Secret Commonwealth one of the most important and authoritative works on fairy folk beliefs. (Wikipedia)

I downloaded this book from the Internet and made an excerpt of it, containing the original essay of Robert Kirk. This excerpt was made for use in the FBgroup Faerie, Fables & Sea-folk tales from the Grotto. I’ve changed most of the old-fashioned spelling into a more modern one, it should make the reading more easy. I’ve put the footnotes in the text. I did leave out Kirk’s letters concerning ‘second-sight’. 

KIRK'S

SECRET COMMONWEALTH.

INTRODUCTION.

The Rev. Robert Kirk, the author of The Secret Commonwealth,  was (and this is notable) the youngest and seventh son of Mr. James Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle.  As a seventh son, he was, no doubt, specially gifted, and in The Secret Commonwealth he lays some stress on the mystic privileges of such birth. There may be "some secret virtue in the womb of the parent, which increaseth until the seventh son be borne, and decreaseth by the same degree afterwards." Little is known of his life. He was minister originally of Balquidder, whence, in 1685, he was transferred to Aberfoyle.  He married, first, Isobel, daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Mochester, who died in 1680, and, secondly, the daughter of Campbell of Fordy: this lady survived him.  By his first wife he had a son, Colin Kirk, W.S.; by his second wife, a son who was minister of Dornoch. He died (if he did die, which is disputed) in 1692, aged about fifty-one; his tomb was inscribed—

ROBERTUS KIRK, A.M.

Linguæ Hiberniæ Lumen.

The tomb, in Scott's time, was to be seen in the cast end of the churchyard of Aberfoyle; but the ashes of Mr. Kirk are not there. His successor, the Rev. Dr. Grahame, in his Sketches of Picturesque Scenery, informs us that, as Mr. Kirk was walking on a dun-shi, or fairy-hill, in his neighbourhood, he sunk down in a swoon, which was taken for death. " After the ceremony of a seeming funeral," writes Scott (op. cit., p. 105), "the form of the Rev. Robert Kirk appeared to a relation, and commanded him to go to Grahame of Duchray. 'Say to Duchray, who is my cousin as well as your own, that I am not dead, but a captive in Fairyland; and only one chance remains for my liberation. When the posthumous child, of which my wife has been delivered since my disappearance, shall be brought to baptism, I will appear in the room, when, if Duchray shall throw over my head the knife or dirk which he holds in his hand, I may be restored to society; but if this is neglected, I am lost for ever.'" True to his tryst, Mr. Kirk did appear at the christening and "was visibly seen;" but Duchray was so astonished that he did not throw his dirk over the head of the appearance, and to society Mr. Kirk has not yet been restored. This is extremely to be regretted, as he could now add matter of much importance to his treatise. Neither history nor tradition has more to tell about Mr. Robert Kirk, who seems to have been a man of good family, a student, and, as his book shows, an innocent and learned person.

AN ESSAY

OF

The Nature and Actions of the Subterranean (and, for the most Part,) Invisible People, heretofore going under the name of ELVES, FAUNES, and FAIRIES, or the like, among the Low-Country Scots, as they are described by those who have the SECOND SIGHT; and now, to occasion further Inquiry, collected and compared, by a Circumspect Inquirer residing among the Scottish-Irish in Scotland.

Secret Commonwealth

OR,

A Treatise displaying the Chief Curiosities as they are in Use among diverse of the

People of Scotland to this Day;

SINGULARITIES for the most Part peculiar to that Nation.

A Subject not heretofore discoursed of by any of our

Writers; and yet ventured on in an Essay to suppress the impudent and growing

Atheism of this Age, and to satisfy the desire of some choice Friends.

Then a Spirit passed before my Face, the Hair of my Flesh stood up; it stood still, but I could not discern the Form thereof; an Image was before mine Eyes.--Job, 4. 15, 16. This is a REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, which say to the Siers, see not; and to the Prophets, prophesise not unto us right Things, but speak unto us smooth Things.--Isaiah, 30. 9, 10. And the Man whose Eyes were open hath said.--Numbers, 24. 15. For now we see thorough a Glass darkly, but then Face to Face.--1 Corinth. 13. 12.

It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we shall be like God, and see him as he is.--1 John, 3.2.

Μη γ ι γ ι αν τ ε ς μ αι ωδ η σο ν τ αι ὑπο κ ατ ωδ ε ν ὑδ ατ ο ς κ αι τ ων

γ ε ι τ ο ν ων αυ τ ο ν ;--Job, 26. 5 (Septuag.).

By MR ROBERT KIRK, Minister at Aberfoill.

1691.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE SUBTERRANAN INHABITANTS.

THESE Siths, or FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People, it would seem, to prevent the Dint of their ill Attempts, (for the Irish use to bless all they fear Harm of;) and are said to be of a middle Nature betwixt Man and Angel, as were Dæmons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidious (?) Spirits, and light changeable Bodies, (like those called Astral,) somewhat of the Nature of a condensed Cloud, and best seen in Twilight. These Bodies be so pliable thorough the Subtlety of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at Pleasure. Some have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and delicate (?), that they are set by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that pierce like pure Air and Oil: others said more gross on the Foyson or substance of Corns and Liquors, or Corn it self that grows on the Surface of the Earth, which these Fairies steal away, partly invisible, partly preying on the Grain, as do Crowes and Mice; wherefore in this same Age, they are some times heard to bake Bread, strike Hammers, and do such like Services within the little Hillocks they most haunt: some whereof of old, before the Gospel dispelled Paganism, and in some barbarous Places as yet, enter Houses after all are at rest, and set the Kitchens in order, cleansing all the Vessels. Such Drags go under the name of Brownies. When we have plenty, they have Scarcity at their Homes; and on the contraire (for they are empowered to catch as much Prey everywhere as they please,) there Robberies notwithstanding oft times occasion great Rickes of Corne not to bleed so well, (as they call it,) or prove so copious by very far as was expected by the Owner. THEIR Bodies of congealed Air are some times carried aloft; other whiles grovel in different Shapes, and enter into any Cran or Clift of the Earth where Air enters, to their ordinary Dwellings; the Earth being full of Cavities and Cells, and there being no Place nor Creature but is supposed to have other Animals (greater or lesser) living in or upon it as Inhabitants; and no such thing as a pure Wilderness in the whole Universe.

CHAPTER 2. 

WE then (the more terrestrial kind have now so numerously planted all Countries,) do labour for that abstruse People, as well as for ourselves. Albeit, when several Countries were inhabited by us, these had their easy Tillage above Ground, as we now. The Print of those Furrows do yet remain to be seen on the Shoulders of very high Hills, which was done when the champayn Ground was Wood and Forrest. THEY remove to other Lodgings at the Beginning of each Quarter of the Year, so traversing till Doomsday, being impudent and [impotent of?] staying in one Place, and finding some Ease by so purning [Journeying] and changing Habitations. Their chameleon-like Bodies swim in the Air near the Earth with Bag and Baggage; and at such revolution of Time, SEERS, or Men of the SECOND SIGHT, (Females being seldom so qualified) have very terrifying Encounters with them, even on High Ways; who therefore usually shone to travel abroad at these four Seasons of the Year, and thereby have made it a Custom to this Day among the Scottish-Irish to keep Church duly every first Sunday of the Quarter to seen or hallow themselves, their Corns and Cattle, from the Shots and Stealth of these wandering Tribes; and many of these superstitious People will not be seen in Church again till the next Quarter begin, as if no Duty were to be learned or done by them, but all the Use of Worship and Sermons were to save them from these Arrows that fly in the Dark.  [1] (THEY are distributed in Tribes and Orders, and have Children, Nurses, Marriages, Deaths, and Burials, in appearance, even as we, (unless they so do for a Mock-show, or to prognosticate some such Things among us.) 

[1] The arrows are the ancient flint arrow-heads, which Mr. Kirk later asserts to be too delicate for human artificers. On this matter Isabel Gowdie, the witch, confessed, "As for Elf arrows, the Divell sharpes them with his ain hand, and deliveris them to Elf boys, wha whyttlis and dightis them with a sharp thing lyk a paking needle; bot whan I was in Elfland, I saw them whyttling and dighting them." Isabel described the manner in which witches use this artillery: "We spang them from the naillis of our thoombs," and with these she and her friends shot and slew many men and women. The confessions of Isabel Gowdie are in the third volume of Pitcairn's Scottish Criminal Trials. They contain little or nothing of the "psychical;" all is mere folk-lore, fairy tales, and charms derived from the old Catholic liturgy. The poor woman, having begun to fable, fabled with manifest enjoyment and considerable power. It seems from her account that each "Covin," or assembly of witches, had a maiden in it, and "without our maiden we could do no great thing." On the other hand, an extraordinary case of an epileptic boy, who was hurled about, and beheld distant occurrences in trance, may be read in Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland, iii. 449. Candles used to go out when this boy, a third son of Lord Torpichen, was in the room. The date (1720) and the place (Mid-Lothian) prevented any one from being burned for bewitching him. A fast was proclaimed. The boy recovered, and did good service in the navy. He is said to have been "levitated" frequently."  

CHAPTER 3. 

THEY are clearly seen by these Men of the SECOND SIGHT to eat at Funerals [and] Banquets; hence many of the Scottish-Irish will not taste Meat at these Meetings, lest they haveCommunion with, or be poisoned by, them. So are they seen to carry the Beer or Coffin with the Corps among the middle-earth Men to the Grave. Some Men of that exalted Sight (whither by Art or Nature) have told me they have seen at these Meetings a Double man, or the Shape of some Man in two places; that is, a superterranean and a subterranean Inhabitant, perfectly resembling one another in all Points, whom he notwithstanding could easily distinguish one from another, by some secret Tokens and Operations, and so go speak to the Man his Neighbour and Familiar, passing by the Apparition or Resemblance of him. They vouch that every Element and different State of Being have Animals resembling these of another Element; as there be Fishes sometimes at Sea resembling Monks of late Order in all their Hoods and Dresses; so as the Roman invention of good and bad Dæmons, and guardian Angels particularly assigned, is called by them an ignorant Mistake, sprung only from this Original. They call this Reflex-man a Co-walker, every way like the Man, as a Twin-brother and Companion, haunting him as his shadow, as is oft seen and known among Men (resembling the Original,) both before and after the Original is dead, and was also often seen of old to enter a House, by which the People knew that the Person of that Likeness was to Visit them within a few days. This Copy, Echo, or living Picture, goes at last to his own Herd. It accompanied that Person so long and frequently for

Ends best known to it self, whither to guard him from the secret Assaults of some of its own Folks, or only as a sport full Ape to counterfeit all his Actions. However, the Stories of old WITCHES prove beyond contradiction, that all Sorts of People, Spirits which assume light aerie Bodies, or crazed Bodies co-acted by foreign Spirits, seem to have some Pleasure, (at least to assuage from Pain or Melancholy,) by frisking and capering like Satyrs, or whistling and screeching (like unlucky Birds) in their unhallowed Synagogues and Sabbaths. If invited and earnestly required, these Companions make themselves known and familiar to Men; other wise, being in a different State and Element, they neither can nor will easily converse with them. They avouch that a Heluo, or Great-eater, hath a voracious Elve to be his attendee, called a Joint-eater or Just-halver, feeding on the Pith or Quintessence of what the Man eats; and that therefore he continues Lean like a Hawke or Heron, not with standing his devouring Appetite: yet it would seem that they convey that substance elsewhere, for these Subterraneans eat but little in their Dwellings; there Food being exactly clean, and served up by Pleasant Children, like enchanted Puppets. What Food they extract from us is conveyed to their Homes by secret Paths, as some skilful Women do the Pith and Milk from their Neighbours Cows into their own Chief-hold through a Hair-tedder, at a great Distance, by Art Magic, or by drawing a spickot fastened to a Post which will bring milk as far of as a Bull will be heard to roar. [2] The Chief made of the remaining Milk of a Cow thus strained will swim in Water like a Cork. The Method they take to recover their Milk is a bitter chiding of the suspected Enchanters, charging them by a counter Charm to give them back their own, in God, or their Master’s Name. But a little of the Mother's Dung stroked on the Calves Mouth before it suck any, does prevent this theft. 

 [2]Isabel Gowdie confessed to stealing milk from the cow by magic. "We plait the rope the wrong way, in the Devil's name, and we draw the tether between the cow's hind feet, and out betwixt her forward feet, in the Devil's name, and thereby take with us the cow's milk." Mr. Kirk, it will be observed, does not connect the Fairy kingdom with that of Satan, as some of his contemporaries were inclined to do.

CHAPTER 4. 

THEIR Houses are called large and fair, and (unless at some odd occasions) unperceivable by vulgar eyes, like Rachland, and other enchanted Islands, having fir Lights, continual Lamps, and Fires, often seen without Fuel to sustain them. Women are yet alive who tell they were taken away when in Child-bed to nurse Fairie Children, a lingering voracious Image of their (them?) being left in their place, (like their Reflexion in a Mirror,) which (as if it were some insatiable Spirit in an assumed Body) made first semblance to devour the Meats that it cunningly carried by, and then left the Carcase as if it expired and departed thence by a natural and common Death. The Child, and Fire, with Food and other Necessaries, are set before the Nurse how soon she enters; but she nether perceives any Passage out, nor sees what those People do in other Rooms of the Lodging. When the Child is waned, the Nurse dies, or is conveyed back, or gets it to her choice to stay there. But if any Superterranans be so subtle, as to practice Slights for procuring a Privacy to any of their Mysteries, (such as making use of their Ointments, which as Gyges's Ring makes them invisible, or nimble, or carts them in a Trance, or alters their Shape, or makes Things appear at a vast Distance, &c.) they smite them without Paine, as with a Puff of Wind, and bereave them of both the natural and acquired Sights in the twinkling of an Eye, (both these Sights, where once they come, being in the same Organ and inseparable,) or they strike them Dumb. The Tramontains to this Day put Bread, the Bible, or a piece of Iron, in Women’s Beds when travelling, to save them from being thus stolen; and they commonly report, that all uncouth, unknown Wights are terrified by nothing earthly so much as by cold Iron. They deliver the Reason to be that Hell lying betwixt the chill Tempests, and the Fire Brands of scalding Metals, and Iron of the North, (hence the Loadstone causes a tendency to that Point,) by an Antipathy thereto, these odious far-scenting Creatures shrug and fright at all that comes thence relating to so abhorred a Place, whence their Torment is either begun, or feared to come hereafter.

CHAPTER 5. 

THEIR Apparel and Speech is like that of the People and Country under which they live: so are they seen to wear Plaids and variegated Garments in the Highlands of Scotland, and Suanochs therefore in Ireland. They speak but little, and that by way of whistling, clear, not rough. The very Devils conjured in any Country, do answer in the Language of the Place; yet sometimes the Subterranean speak more distinctly than at other times. Their Women are said to Spin very fine, to Dye, to Tissue, and Embroider: but whither it is as manual Operation of substantial refined Stuffs, with apt and solid Instruments, or only curious Cob-webs, impalpable Rainbows, and a fantastic Imitation of the Actions of more terrestrial Mortals, since it transcended all the Senses of the Seere to discern whither, I leave to conjecture as I found it.

CHAPTER 6. 

THERE Men travel much abroad, either presaging or aping the dismal and tragically Actions of some amongst us; and have also many disastrous Doings of their own, as Convocations, Fighting, Gashes, Wounds, and Burials, both in the Earth and Air. They live much longer than we; yet die at last, or [at] least vanish from that State. 'Its an of their Tenets, that nothing perished, but (as the Sun and Year) every Thing goes in a Circle, lesser or greater, and is renewed and refreshed in its Revolutions; as 'tis another, that every Body in the Creation moves, (which is a sort of Life;) and that nothing moves, but [h]as another Animal moving on it; and so on, to the utmost minutest Corpuscle that's capable to be a Receptacle of Life.

CHAPTER 7. 

THEY are said to have aristocratically Rulers and Laws, but no discernible Religion, Love, or Devotion towards God, the blessed Maker of all: they disappear whenever they hear his Name invoked, or the Name of JESUS, (at which all do bow willingly, or by constraint, that dwell above or beneath within the Earth, Philip. 2. 10;) nor can they act ought at that Time after hearing of that sacred Name. The TABHAISVER, or Seer, that corresponds with this kind of Familiars, can bring them with a Spell to appear to himself or others when he pleases, as readily as Endor Witch to those of her Kind. He tells, they are ever readiest to go on hurtful Errands, but seldom will be the Messengers of great Good to Men. He is not terrified with their Sight when he calls them, but seeing them in a surprise (as often he does) frights him extremely. And glad would he be quite of such, for the hideous Spectacles seen among them; as the torturing of some Wight, earnest ghostly staring Looks, Skirmishes, and the like. They do not all the Harm which appears they have Power to do; nor are they perceived to be in great Pain, save that they are usually silent and sullen. They are said to have many pleasant boyish Books; but the operation of these Pieces only appears in some Paroxysms of antic corybantic Jollity, as if ravished and prompted by a new Spirit entering into them at that Instant, lighter and merrier than their own. Other Books they have of involved abstruse Sense, much like the Rosicrucian Style. They have nothing of the Bible, save collected Parcells for Charms and counter Charms; not to defend themselves withal, but to operate on other Animals, for they are a People invulnerable by our Weapons; and albeit Werewolves and Witches true Bodies are (by the union of the Spirit of Nature that runs through all, echoing and doubling the Blow towards another) wounded at Home, when the astral assumed Bodies are stricken elsewhere; as the Strings of a Second Harp, tune to an unison, Sounds, though only an be struck; yet these People have not a second, or so gross a Body at all, to be so pierced; but as Air, which when divided units again; or if they feel Pain by a Blow, they are better Physicians than we, and quickly cure it. They are not subject to sore Sicknesses, but dwindle and decay at a certain Period, all about an Age. Some say their continual Sadness is because of their their pendulous State, (like those Men, Luc. 13. 2. 6.) as uncertain what at the last Revolution will become of them, when they are locked up into an unchangeable Condition; and if they have any frolic Fits of Mirth, 'tis as the constrained grinning of a Mort-head, or rather as acted on a Stage, and moved by another, there [than?] cordially coming of themselves. But other Men of the Second Sight, being illiterate, and unwary in their Observations, learn from those; one averring those subterranean People to be departed Souls, attending awhile in this inferior State, and clothed with Bodies procured through their Alms deeds in this Life; fluid, active, ethereal Vehicles to hold them, that they may not scatter, or wander, and be lost in the Totem, or their first Nothing; but if any were so impious as to have given no Alms, they say when the Souls of such do depart, they sleep in an inactive State till they resume the terrestrial Bodies again: others, that what the Low-country Scots calls a Wreath, and the Irish TAIBHSHE  or Death's Messenger, appearing sometimes as a little rough Dog, and if crossed and conjured in Time, will be pacified by the Death of any other Creature instead of the sick Man,) is only exuvious Fumes of the Man approaching Death, exhaled and congealed into a various Likeness, [3] (as Ships and Armies are sometimes shaped in the Air,) and called astral Bodies, agitated as Wild-fire with Wind, and are neither Souls or counterfeiting Spirits; yet not a few avouch (as is said,) that surely these are a numerous People by them selves, having their own Polities. Which Diversities of Judgments may occasion several Inconsonance’s in this Rehearsal, after the narrowest Scrutiny made about it.

[3] What is this theory of "Men illiterate and unwary in their Observations," but Von Hartmann's doctrine of "the nerve force which issues from the body of the medium, and then proceeds to set up fresh centres of force in all neighbouring objects . . . while it still remains under the control of

the medium's unconscious will"? See Mr. Walter Leaf on Hartmann's Der Geisterhypothese des

Spiritismus, Proc. S. P. R., xix. 293   It is amusing to find a learned German coinciding in scientific theory with "ignorant and unwary" Highland seers. Both regard the phantasms as manifestations of "nerve-force," "exuvious fumes," and as "neither souls nor counterfeiting

spirits."

CHAPTER 8.

 THEIR Weapons are most what solid earthly Bodies, nothing of Iron, but much of Stone, like to yellow soft Flint Spa, shaped like a barbed Arrow-head, but flung like a Dart, with great Force. These Arms (cut by Art and Tools it seems beyond human) have something of the Nature of

Thunderbolt subtlety, and mortally wounding the vital Parts without breaking the Skin; of which

Wounds I have observed in Beasts [, and felt them with my Hands. They are not as infallible

Benjamites, hitting at a Hair's-breadth; nor are they wholly unvanquishable, at least in Appearance. THE MEN of that SECOND SIGHT do not discover strange Things when asked, but at Fits and Raptures, as if inspired with some Genius at that Instant, which before did lurk in or about them. Thus I have frequently spoke to one of them, who in his Transport told he cut

the Body of one of those People in two with his Iron Weapon, and so escaped this Onset, yet he saw nothing left behind of that appearing divided; at other Times he out wrested [wrestled?] some of them. His Neighbours often perceived this Man to disappear at a certain Place, and

about one Hour after to become visible, and discover him self near a Bow-shot from the first

Place. It was in that Place where he became invisible, said he, that the Subterranean did encounter and combat with him. Those who are unseen or unsanctified (called Fey) are said to be pierced or wounded with those People's Weapons, which makes them do somewhat very unlike

their former Practice, causing a sudden Alteration, yet the Cause thereof unperceivable at present; nor have they Power (either they cannot make use of their natural Powers, or asked not the

heavenly Aid,) to escape the Blow impendent. A Man of the Second Sight perceived a Person standing by him (found to others view) wholly gored in Blood, and he (amazed-like) bid him

instantly flee. The whole Man laughed at his Art and Warning, since there was no appearance of Danger. He had scarce contracted his Lips from Laughter, when unexpectedly his Enemy leapt in at his Side, and stabbed him with their Weapons. They also pierce Cows or other Animals, usually said to be Elf-shot, whose purest Substance (if they die) these Subterranean take to live on, viz. the aerial and ethereal Parts, the most spirituous Matter for prolonging of Life, such as Aquavit

(moderately taken) is among Liquors, leaving the terrestrial behind. The Cure of such Hurts is, only for a Man to find out the Hole with his Finger; as if the Spirits flowing from a Man's Warm Hand were Antidote sufficient against their poisoned Darts.

CHAPTER 9. 

As Birds and Beasts, whose Bodies are much used to the Change of the free and open Air, force

Storms; so those invisible People are more sagacious to understand by the Books of Nature

Things to come, than we, who are pestered with the grosser Dregs of all elementary Mixtures, and have our purer Spirits choked by them. The Deer scents out a Man and Powder (though a late Invention) at a great Distance; a hungry Hunter, Bread; and the Raven, a Carrion: Their Brains, being long clarified by the high and subtle Air, will observe a very small Change in a

Trice. Thus a Man of the Second Sight, perceiving the Operations of these forecasting invisible

People among us, (indulged through a stupendous Providence to give Warnings of some remarkable Events, either in the Air, Earth, or Waters,) told he saw a Winding-shroud creeping on a walking healthful Persons Legs till it come to the Knee; and afterwards it came up to the

Middle, then to the Shoulders, and at last over the Head, which was visible to no other Person.

And by observing the Spaces of Time betwixt the several Stages, he easily guessed how long the Man was to live who wore the Shroud; for when it approached his Head, he told that such a Person was ripe for the Grave.

CHAPTER 10. 

THERE be many Places called Fairie-hills, which the Mountain People think impious and dangerous to peel or discover, by taking Earth or Wood from them; superstitiously believing the Souls of their Predecessors to dwell there. [4] And for that End (say they) a Mote or Mount was dedicate beside every Church-yard, to receive the Souls till their adjacent Bodies arise, and so become as a Fairie-hill; they using Bodies of Air when called Abroad. They also affirm those Creatures that move invisibly in a House, and cast hug great Stones, but do no much Hurt, because counter-wrought by some more courteous and charitable Spirits that are everywhere ready to defend Men, (Dan. 10. 13.) to be Souls that have not attained their Rest, thorough a vehement Desire of revealing a Murder or notable Injury done or received, or a Treasure that was forgot in their Lifetime on Earth, which when disclosed to a Conjurer alone, the Ghost quite removes.IN the next Country to that of my former Residence, about the Year 1676, when there was some Scarcity of Grain, a marvellous Ellipse and Vision strongly struck the Imagination of two Women in one Night, living at a good Distance from one another, about a Treasure hid in a Hill, called SITHBHRUAICH, or Fairy-hill. The Appearance of a Treasure was first represented to the Fancy, and then an audible Voice named the Place where it was to their awaking Senses. Whereupon both arose, and meeting accidentally at the Place, discovered their Designee; and jointly digging, found a Vessel as large as a Scottish Peck, full of small Pieces of good Money, of ancient Coin; which halving betwixt them, they sold in Dishfuls for Dishfuls of Meal to the Country People. Very many of undoubted Credit saw, and had of the Coin to this Day. But whither it was a good or bad Angell, one of the subterranean People, or the restless Soul of him who hid it, that discovered it, and to what End it was done, I leave to the Examination of others.

[4] The hypothesis that the Fairy belief may be a tradition of an ancient race dwelling in subterranan homes, is older than Mr. McRitchie or Sir Walter Scott. In his Scottish Scenery (1803), Dr. Cririe suggests that the germ of the Fairy myth is the existence of dispossessed aboriginals dwelling in subterranan houses, in some places called Picts' houses, covered with artificial mounds. The lights seen near the mounds are lights actually carried by the mound-dwellers. Dr. Cririe works out in some detail "this marvellously absurd supposition," as the Quarterly Review calls it (vol. lix., p.)

CHAPTER 11. 

THESE Subterranean have Controversies, Doubts, Disputes, Feuds, and Siding of Parties; there being some Ignorance in all Creatures, and the vastest created Intelligences not compassing all Things. As to Vice and Sin, whatever their own Laws be, sure, according to ours, and Equity, natural, civil, and revealed, they transgress and commit Acts of Injustice, and Sin, by what is above said, as to their stealing of Nurses to their Children, and that other sort of Plaginism in catching our Children away, (may seem to their some Estate in those invisible Dominions,) which never return. For the Inconvenience of their Succubi, who tryst with Men, it is abominable; but for Swearing and Intemperance, they are not observed so subject to those Irregularities, as to Envy, Spite, Hypocrisy, Lying, and Dissimulation.

CHAPTER 12. 

As our Religion obliges us not to make a peremptory and curious Search into these Obstrusenesses, so that the Histories of all Ages give as many plain Examples of extraordinary Occurrences  [as make a modest Inquiry not contemptible. How much is written of Pigmy’s, Fairies, Nymphs, Sirens, Apparitions, which though not the tenth Part true, yet could not spring of nothing! Even English Authors relate (of) Barry Island, in Glamorganshire, that laying your Ear into a Clift of the Rocks, blowing of Bellows, striking of Hammers, clashing of Armour, filing of Iron, will be heard distinctly ever since Merlin enchanted those subterranean Wights to a solid manual forging of Arm's to Aurelius Ambrosius and his Brittan’s, till he returned; which Merlin being killed in a Battle, and not coming to loose the Knot, these active Vulcans are there tied to a perpetual Labour. But to dip no deeper into this Well, I will next give some Account how the Seer my Informer comes to have this secret Way of Correspondence beyond other Mortals. THERE be odd Solemnities at investing a Man with the Privileges of the whole Mystery of this Second Sight. He must run a Tedder of Hair (which bound a Corps to the Bier) in a Helix [?] about his Middle, from End to End; then  bow his Head downwards, as did Elijah, 1 Kings, 18. 42. and look back through his Legs until he see a Funeral advance till the People cross two Marches; or look thus back through a Hole where was a Knot of Fir. But if the Wind change Points while the Hair Tedder is tied about him, he is in Peril of his Life. The usual Method for a curious Person to get a transient Sight of this otherwise invisible Crew of Subterranean, (if impotently and over rashly sought,) is to put his [left Foot under the Wizard's right] Foot, and the Seer's Hand is put on the Inquirer's Head, who is to look over the Wizard's right Shoulder, (which he’s an ill Appearance, as if by this Ceremony an implicit Surrender were made of all betwixt the Wizard's Foot and his Hand, ere the Person can be admitted a privado to the Art;) then will he see a Multitude of Wight's, like furious hardy Men, flocking to him hastily from all Quarters, as thick as Atoms in the Air; which are no Nonentities or Phantasms, Creatures proceeding from an affrighted Apprehension, confused or crazed Sense, but Realities, appearing to a stable Man in his awaking Sense, and enduring a rational Trial of their Being. These through Fear struck him breathless and speechless. The Wizard, defending the Lawfulness of his Skill, forbids such Horror, and comforts his Novice by telling of Zacharias, as being struck speechless at seeing Apparitions, Luke, 1. 20. Then he further maintains his Art, by vouching Elisha to have had the same, and disclosed it thus unto his Servant in 2 Kings, 6. 17. when he blinded the Syrians; and Peter in Act, 5. 9. foreseeing the Death of Saphira, by perceiving as it were her Winding-sheet about her before hand; and Paul, in 2nd Corinth. 12. 4. who got such a Vision and Sight as should not, nor could be told. Elisha also in his Chamber saw Gehazi his Servant, at a great Distance, taking a reward from Naaman, 2d Kings, 5. 26. Hence were the Prophets frequently called SEERS, or Men of a 2d or more exalted Sight than others. He acts for his Purpose also Math. 4. 8. where the Devil undertakes to give even Jesus a Sight of all Nations, and the finest Things in the World, at one Glance, though in their natural Situations and Stations at a vast Distance from other. And 'tis said expressly he did let see them; not in a Map it seems, nor by a fantastic magical juggling of the Sight, which he could not impose upon so discovering a Person. It would appear then to have been a Sight of real solid Substances, and Things of worth, which he intended as a Bait for his Purpose. Whence it might seem, (comparing this Relation of Math. 4. 8. with the former,) that the extraordinary or Second Sight can be given by the Ministry of bad as well as good Spirits to those that will embrace it. And the Instance of Balaam and the Pytheniss make it nothing the less probable. Thus also the Seer trains his Scholar, by telling of the Gradations of Nature, ordered by a wise Providence; that as the Sight of Bats and Owls transcend that of Shrews and Moles, so the visual Faculties of Men are clearer than those of Owls; as Eagles, Lynxes, and Cats are brighter than Men. And again, that Men of the Second Sight (being designed to give warnings against secret Engyns) surpass the ordinary Vision of other Men , which is a native Habit in some, descended from their Ancestors, and acquired as an artificial Improvement of their natural Sight in others; resembling in their own Kind the usual artificial Helps of optic Glasses, (as Prospectives, Telescopes, and Microscopes,) without which as  Aids those Men here treated of do perceive Things that, for their Smallness, or Subtlety, and Secrecy, are invisible to others, though daily conversant with them; they having such a Beam continually about them as that of the Sun, which when it shines clear only, lets common Eyes see the Atoms, in the Air, that without those Rays they could not discern; for some have this Second Sight transmitted from Father to Son trough the whole Family, without their own Consent or others teaching, proceeding only from a Bounty of Providence it seems, or by Compact, or by a complexional Quality of the first Acquirer. As it may seem alike strange (yet nothing vicious) in such as Master Great-rake, [5] the Irish Stroker, Seventh-sons, and others that cure the King's Evil, and chase away Deceases and Pains, with only stroking of the affected Part; which (if it be not the Relics of miraculous Operations, or some secret Virtue in the Womb, of the Parent, which increased until Seventh-sons be borne, and decreased by the same Degrees afterwards,) proceeds only from the sanative Balsam of their healthful Constitutions; Virtue going out from them by spirituous Effluxes unto the Patient, and their vigorous healthy Spirits affecting the sick as usually the unhealthy Fumes of the sick infect the found and whole. 

[5]Glanvill, in Essays on Several Important Subjects (1675), prints a letter from an Irish Bishop on Greatrex, the "stroker." He cured diseases "by a sanative contagion." According to the Bishop, Greatrex had an impression that he could do "faith-healing," and found that he could, but whether by virtue of some special power or by "the people's fancy," he knew not. He frequently failed, and his patients had relapses. See his own Account of Strange Cures: in a Letter to Robert Boyle. London, 1666.

CHAPTER 13.

 THE Minor Sort of Seers prognosticate many future Events, only for a Month's Space, from the Shoulder-bone of a Sheep on which a Knife never came, (for as before is said, and the Nazarits of old had something of it) Iron hinders all the Operations of those that travel in the Intrigues of these hidden Dominions. By looking into the Bone, they will tell if Whoredom be committed in the Owner's House; what Money the Master of the Sheep had; if any will die out of that House for that Month; and if any Cattle there will take a Trake, as if Plant-struck. Then will they prescribe a Preservative and Prevention.

CHAPTER 14. 

A WOMAN (it seems an Exception from the general Rule,) singularly wise in these Matters of Foresight, living in Colasnach, an Isle of the Hebrides, (in the Time of the Marquis of Montrose his Wars with the States in Scotland,) being notorious among many; and so examined by some that violently ceased that Isle, if she saw them coming or not? She said, she saw them coming many Hours before they came in View of the Isle. But earnestly looking, she some times took them for Enemies, sometime for Friends; and moreover they looked as if they went from the Isle, not as Men approaching it, which made her not put the Inhabitants on their Guard. The Matter was, that the Barge wherein the Enemy sailed, was a little before taken from the Inhabitants of that fame Isle, and the Men had their Backs towards the Isle, when they were plying the oares towards it. Thus this old Scout and Delphian Oracle was at least deceived, and did deceive. Being asked who gave her such Sights And  Warnings, she said, that as soon as she set three Crosses of Straw upon the Palm of her Hand, a great ugly Beast sprang out of the Earth near her, and flew in the Air. If what she enquired had Success according to her Wish, the Beast would descend calmly, and lick up the Crosses. If it would not succeed, the Beast would furiously thrust her and the Crosses over on the Ground, and so vanish to his Place.

CHAPTER 15. 

AMONG other Instances of undoubted Verity, proving in these the Being of such aerial People, or Species of Creatures not vulgarly known, I add the subsequent Relations, some whereof I have from my Acquaintance with the Actors and Patients, and the Rest from the Eye-witnesses to the Matter of Fact. The first whereof shall be of the Woman taken out of her Child-bed, and having a lingering Image of her substituted Body in her Room, which Resemblance decayed, died, and was buried. But the Person stolen returning to her Husband after two Years Space, he being convinced by many undeniable Tokens that she was his former Wife, admitted her Home, and had diverse Children by her. Among other Reports she gave her Husband, this was one: That she perceived little what they did in the spacious House she lodged in, until she anointed one of her Eyes with a certain Unction that was by her; which they perceiving to have acquainted her with their Actions, they fain'd her blind of that Eye with a Puff of their Breath. She found the Place full of Light, without any Fountain or Lamp from whence it did spring. This Person lived in the Country next to that of my last Residence, and might furnish Matter of Dispute amongst Casuists, whither if her Husband had been married in the Interim of her two Years Absence, he was obliged to divorce from the second Spouse at the Return of the first. There is an Art, appealingly without Superstition, for recovering of such as are stolen, but think it superfluous to inert it. I SAW a Woman of forty Years of Age, and examined her (having another Clergy Man in my Company) about a Report that past of her long fasting, [her Name is not intyre.] 1 It was told by them of the House, as well as her self, that she took very little or no Food for several Years past; that she tarried in the Fields over Night, saw and conversed with a People she knew not, having wandered in seeking of her Sheep, and slept upon a Hillock, and finding her self transported to another Place before Day. The Woman had a Child since that Time, and is still

pretty melanchollyous and silent, hardly ever seen to laugh. Her natural Heat and radical Moisture seem to be equally balanced, like an unextinguished Lamp, and going in a Circle, not unlike to the faint Life of Bees, and some Sort of Birds, that sleep all the Winter over, and revive in the Spring. IT is usual in all magical Arts to have the Candidates prepossessed with a Believe of their Tutor's Skill, and Ability to perform their Feats, and act their juggling Pranks and Legerdemain; but a Person called Stewart, possessed with a prejudice at that was spoken of the 2d Sight, and  living near to my House, was so put to it by a Seer, before many Witnesses, that he lost his Speech and Power of his Legs, and breathing excessively, as if expiring, because of the many fearful Wights that appeared to him. The Company were forced to carry him into the House. IT is notoriously known what in Killin, within Perthshire, fell tragically out with a Yeoman that lived hard by, who coming into a Company within an Ale-house, where a Seer sat at Table, that at the Sight of the Intrant Neighbour, the Seer starting, rose to go out of the House; and being asked the Reason of his haste, told that the intrant Man should die within two Days; at which News the named Intrant stabbed the Seer, and was himself executed two Days after for the Fact. A MINISTER, very intelligent, but misbelieving all such Sights as were not ordinary, chancing to be in a narrow Lane with a Seer, who perceiving a Wight of a known Visage furiously to encounter them, the Seer desired the Minister to turn out of the Way; who scorning his Reason , and holding him self in the Path with them, when the Seer was going hastily out of the Way, they were both violently cast a side to a good Distance, and the Fall made them lame for all their Life. A little after the Minister was carried Home, one came to toll the Bell for the Death of the Man whose Representation met them in the narrow Path some Half an Hour before. ANOTHER Example is: A Seer in Kintyre, in Scotland, sitting at Table with diverse others, suddenly did cast his Head aside. The Company asking him why he did it, he answered, that such a Friend of his, by Name, then in Ireland, threatened immediately to cast a Dishful of Butter in his Face. The Men wrote down the Day and Hour, and sent to the Gentleman to know the Truth; which Deed the Gentleman declared he did at that very Time, for he knew that his Friend was a Seer, and would make sport with it. The Men that were present, and examined the Matter exactly, told me this Story; and with all, that a Seer would with all his Optics perceive no other Object so readily as this, at such a Distance.

Nico