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
Nico
