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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75485-0.txt b/75485-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00575ba --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3160 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75485 *** + + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE + + This book was published in 1893 and is a careful reproduction of a + book printed in 1815 from a manuscript of 1691 by Rev. Robert Kirk. + An Introduction and Notes have been added by Andrew Lang for the + 1893 publication. + + In this etext: + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. + + Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the Lang footnotes + have been placed at the end of the book in front of the two Catalog + pages. + + Except for a very few changes noted at the end of the book, all + misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have + been left unchanged. + + + + + THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH OF ELVES FAUNS & FAIRIES + + [Illustration: BIBLIOTHEQUE DE CARABAS] + + + + + Bibliothèque de Carabas + + VOL. VIII + + + + + _Five hundred and fifty copies of this Edition have been + printed, five hundred of which are for sale._ + + + [_All rights reserved._] + + + + +[Illustration: (Kilted shepherd looking at an apparition)] + + + + + The Secret Commonwealth of + + Elves, Fauns, & Fairies + + A Study in Folk-Lore & Psychical Research. The + Text by Robert Kirk, M.A., Minister of + Aberfoyle, A.D. 1691. The Comment + by Andrew Lang, M.A. + A.D. 1893 + + + [Illustration: (small decorative icon)] + + + _LONDON. M.D.CCCXCIII. PUBLISHED BY DAVID + NUTT, IN THE STRAND_ + + + + + Dedication. + + TO + + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. + + + O Louis! you that like them maist, + Ye’re far frae kelpie, wraith, and ghaist, + And fairy dames, no unco chaste, + And haunted cell. + Among a heathen clan ye’re placed, + That kens na hell! + + Ye hae nae heather, peat, nor birks, + Nae troot in a’ your burnies lurks, + There are nae bonny U.P. kirks, + An awfu’ place! + Nane kens the Covenant o’ Works + Frae that of Grace! + + But whiles, maybe, to them ye’ll read + Blads o’ the Covenanting creed, + And whiles their pagan wames ye’ll feed + On halesome parritch; + And syne ye’ll gar them learn a screed + O’ the Shorter Carritch. + + Yet thae uncovenanted shavers + Hae rowth, ye say, o’ clash and clavers + O’ gods and etins—auld wives’ havers, + But their delight; + The voice o’ him that tells them quavers + Just wi’ fair fright. + + And ye might tell, ayont the faem, + Thae Hieland clashes o’ oor hame. + To speak the truth, I tak’ na shame + To half believe them; + And, stamped wi’ TUSITALA’s name, + They’ll a’ receive them. + + And folk to come, ayont the sea, + May hear the yowl of the Banshie, + And frae the water-kelpie flee, + Ere a’ things cease, + And island bairns may stolen be + By the Folk o’ Peace. + + Faith, they might steal _me_, wi’ ma will, + And, ken’d I ony Fairy hill, + I’d lay me down there, snod and still, + Their land to win, + For, man, I’ve maistly had my fill + O’ this world’s din. + + + + + The Fairy Minister. + + IN MEMORY OF + THE REV. ROBERT KIRK, + _WHO WENT TO HIS OWN HERD_, AND ENTERED INTO + THE LAND OF THE PEOPLE OF PEACE, + IN THE YEAR OF GRACE SIXTEEN + HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO, + AND OF HIS AGE + FIFTY-TWO. + + + People of Peace! A peaceful man, + Well worthy of your love was he, + Who, while the roaring Garry ran + Red with the life-blood of Dundee, + While coats were turning, crowns were falling, + Wandered along his valley still, + And heard your mystic voices calling + From fairy knowe and haunted hill. + He heard, he saw, he knew too well + The secrets of your fairy clan; + You stole him from the haunted dell, + Who never more was seen of man. + Now far from heaven, and safe from hell, + Unknown of earth, he wanders free. + Would that he might return and tell + Of his mysterious company! + For we have tired the Folk of Peace; + No more they tax our corn and oil; + Their dances on the moorland cease, + The Brownie stints his wonted toil. + No more shall any shepherd meet + The ladies of the fairy clan, + Nor are their deathly kisses sweet + On lips of any earthly man. + And half I envy him who now, + Clothed in her Court’s enchanted green, + By moonlit loch or mountain’s brow + Is Chaplain to the Fairy Queen. + A. L. + + + + +KIRK’S + +SECRET COMMONWEALTH. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +I. THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND AUTHOR. + +The bibliography of the following little tract is extremely obscure. +The title-page of the edition of 1815, which we reproduce, gives +the date as 1691. Sir Walter Scott says in his _Demonology and +Witchcraft_ (1830, p. 163, note), “It was printed with the author’s +name in 1691, and reprinted, in 1815, for Longman & Co.” But was +there really a printed edition of 1691? Scott says that he never met +with an example. Research in our great libraries has discovered none, +and there is none save that of 1815 at Abbotsford. The reprint, of +one hundred copies, was made, as it states, from no printed text, +but from “a manuscript copy preserved in the Advocates’ Library.” On +page 45 of the edition of 1815, at the end of the comments on Lord +Tarbott’s Letters, there is a “Note by the Transcriber”—that is, the +person who wrote out the manuscript in the Advocates’ Library: “See +the rest in a little manuscript belonging to Coline Kirk.” Now Coline +or Colin Kirk, Writer to the Signet, was the son of the Rev. Mr. +Kirk, author of the tract. If the son had his father’s book only in +manuscript, it seems very probable that it was not printed in 1691; +that the title-page is only the title-page of a manuscript. Till some +printed text of 1691 is discovered, we may doubt, then, whether the +hundred copies published in 1815, and now somewhat rare, be not the +original printed edition. The editor has a copy of 1815, but it is +the only one which he has met with for sale. + +The Rev. Robert Kirk, the author of _The Secret Commonwealth_, was +a student of theology at St. Andrews: his Master’s degree, however, +he took at Edinburgh. He was (and this is notable) the youngest and +_seventh_ son of Mr. James Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, the place +familiar to all readers of _Rob Roy_. 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.” It would not surprise us if Mr. Kirk, no less than the +Rev. Robert Blair of St. Andrews (1650-60), could heal scrofula by +the touch, like royal persons—Charles III. in Italy, for example. +As is well known to all, the House of Brunswick has no such powers. +However this may have been, Mr. Kirk was probably drawn, by his +seventh sonship, to a more careful study of psychical phenomena +than most of his brethren bestowed. Little is known of his life. +He was minister originally of Balquidder, whence, in 1685, he was +transferred to Aberfoyle. This was no Covenanting district, and +there is no bigotry in Mr. Kirk’s dissertation. He was employed on +an “Irish” translation of the Bible, and he published a Psalter in +Gaelic (1684). 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. From his connection +with Campbells, we may misdoubt him for a Whig. 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 east 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. + + +II. THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH. + +The tract, of which the reader now knows the history, is a little +volume of somewhat singular character. Written in 1691 by the Rev. +Robert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, it is a kind of metaphysic of +the Fairy world. Having lived through the period of the sufferings +of the Kirk, the author might have been expected either to neglect +Fairyland altogether, or to regard it as a mere appanage of Satan’s +kingdom—a “burning question” indeed, for some of the witches who +suffered at Presbyterian hands were merely narrators of popular tales +about the state of the dead. That she trafficked with the dead, +and from a ghost won a medical recipe for the cure of Archbishop +Adamson of St. Andrews, was the charge against Alison Pearson. “The +Bischope keipit his castle lyk a tod in his holl, seik of a disease +of grait fetiditie, and oftymes under the cure of women suspected of +witchcraft, namlie, wha confessit hir to haiff learnit medecin of ane +callit Mr. Wilyeam Simsone, that apeired divers tymes to hir efter +his dead, and gaiff hir a buik.... She was execut in Edinbruche for a +witch” (James Melville’s _Diary_, p. 137, 1583). The Archbishop, like +other witches, had a familiar in the form of a hare, which once ran +before him down the street. These were the beliefs of men of learning +like James, the nephew and companion of Andrew Melville. Even in our +author’s own time, Archbishop Sharp was accused of entertaining “the +muckle black Deil” in his study at midnight, and of being “levitated” +and dancing in the air. This last feat, creditable to a saint or a +Neo-Platonist like Plotinus, was reckoned for sin to Archbishop +Sharp, as may be read in Wodrow’s _Analecta_. Thus all Fairydom was +commonly looked on as under the same guilt as witchcraft. Yet Mr. +Kirk of Aberfoyle, living among Celtic people, treats the land of +faery as a mere fact in nature, a world with its own laws, which +he investigates without fear of the Accuser of the Brethren. We +may thus regard him, even more than Wodrow, as an early student +in folk-lore and in psychical research—topics which run into each +other—and he shows nothing of the usual persecuting disposition. Nor, +again, is Mr. Kirk like Glanvil and Henry More. He does not, save in +his title-page and in one brief passage, make superstitious creeds +or psychical phenomena into arguments and proofs against modern +Sadducees. Firm in his belief, he treats his matter in a scientific +spirit, as if he were dealing with generally recognised physical +phenomena. + +Our study of Mr. Kirk’s little tractate must have a double aspect. +It must be an essay partly on folk-lore, on popular beliefs, their +relation to similar beliefs in other parts of the world, and the +residuum of fact, preserved by tradition, which they may contain. +On the other hand, as mental phenomena are in question—such things +as premonitions, hallucinations, abnormal or unusual experiences +generally—a criticism of Mr. Kirk must verge on “Psychical Research.” +The Society organised for that difficult subject certainly takes a +vast deal of trouble about all manner of odd reports and strange +visions. It “transfers” thoughts of no value, at a great expense of +time and of serious hard work. But, as far as the writer has read +the Society’s Proceedings, it “takes no keep,” as Malory says, of +these affairs in their historical aspect. Whatever hallucination, or +illusion, or imposture, or the “subliminal self” can do to-day, has +always been done among peoples in every degree of civilisation. An +historical study of the topic, as contained in trials for witchcraft, +in the reports of travellers and missionaries, in the works of the +seventeenth-century Platonists, More, Glanvill, Sinclair, and others, +and in the rare tracts such as _The Devil in Glen Luce_ and _The +Just Devil of Woodstock_, not to mention Lavater, Wierus, Thyræus, +Reginald Scott, and so on, is as necessary to the psychologist as +to the folk-lorist.[1] If there be an element of fact in modern +hypnotic experiments (a matter on which I have really no opinion), +it is plain that old magic and witchcraft are not mere illusions, +or not commonplace illusions. The subliminal self has his stroke in +these affairs. Assuredly the Psychologists should have an historical +department. The evidence which they would find is, of course, +vitiated in many obvious ways, but the evidence contains much that +coincides with that of modern times, and the coincidence can hardly +be designed—that is to say, the old Highland seers had no design of +abetting modern inquiry. It may be, however, that their methods and +ideas have been traditionally handed down to modern “sensitives” +and “mediums.” At all events, here is an historical chapter, if it +be but a chapter in “The History of Human Error.” These wide and +multifarious topics can only be touched on lightly in this essay; the +author will be content if he directs the attention of students with +more leisure and a better library of _diablerie_ to the matter. But +first we glance at _The Secret Commonwealth_ as folk-lorists. + + +III. “THE SUBTERRANEAN INHABITANTS.” + +Mr. Kirk’s first chapter, “Of the Subterranean Inhabitants,” +naturally suggests the recent speculations of Mr. MacRitchie. The +gist of Mr. MacRitchie’s _Testimony of Tradition_ is that there once +was a race of earth-dwellers in this island; that their artificial +caves still exist; that this people survive in popular memory as “the +legendary Feens,” and as the Pechts of popular tales, in which they +are regarded as dwarfs. “The Pechs were unco wee bodies, but terrible +strang.” Here, then, it might be thought that we have the origin of +Fairy beliefs. There really was, on this showing, a dwarf race, who +actually did live in the “fairy-hills,” or howes, now commonly looked +on as sepulchral monuments. + +There is much in Mr. MacRitchie’s theory which does not commend +itself to me. The modern legends of Pechts as builders of Glasgow +Cathedral, for example, do not appear to prove such a late survival +of a race known as Picts, but are on a level with the old Greek +belief that the Cyclopes built Mycenæ (_Testimony of Tradition_, p. +72). Granting, for the sake of discussion, that there were still +Picts or Pechs in Galloway when Glasgow Cathedral was built (in the +twelfth century), these wild Galloway men, scourges of the English +Border, were the very last people to be employed as masons. The +truth is that the recent Scotch have entirely forgotten the ages +of mediæval art. Accustomed to the ill-built barns of a robbed and +stinted Kirk, they looked on the Cathedral as no work of ordinary +human beings. It was a creation of the Pechts, as Mycenæ and Tiryns +of the mighty walls were creations of the Cyclopes. By another +coincidence, the well-known story of the last Pecht, who refuses +to divulge the secret of the heather ale, is told in the Volsunga +Saga, and in the _Nibelungenlied_, of the Last Niflung. Again, the +breaking of a bar of iron, which he takes for a human arm, by the +last Pecht is a tale current of the Drakos in modern Greece (see +Chambers’s _Popular Traditions of Scotland_ for the last Pecht). I +cannot believe that the historical Picts were a set of half-naked, +dwarfish savages, hairy men living underground. These are the topics +of Sir Arthur Wardour and Monkbarns. Mr. W. F. Skene may be said to +have put the historic Picts in their proper place as the ancestors +of the Highlanders. The Pecht of legend answers to the Drakos and the +Cyclopes: the beliefs about his habits may have been suggested by the +tumuli, still more by the _brochs_: it seems less probable that they +represent an historical memory. As to the Irish “Feens,” the topic +can only be discussed by Celtic scholars. But it does not follow, +because the leader of the Feens seemed a dwarf among giants, that +therefore his people were a dwarfish race.[2] The story proves no +more than Gulliver’s Travels. + +Once more, we often read in the Sagas of a hero like Grettir, who +opens a howe, has a conflict with a “barrow-wight,” as Mr. Morris +calls the “howe-dweller,” and wins gold and weapons. But the dweller +in the howe is often merely the able-bodied ghost of the Norseman, a +known and named character, who is buried there; he is not a Pecht. +Thus, as it seems to me, the Scotch and Celts possessed a theory of a +legendary people, as did the Greeks. Whether any actual traditions of +an earlier, perhaps a Finnish race, was at the bottom of the legend, +is an obscure question. But, having such a belief, the Scotch easily +discovered homes for the fancied people in the sepulchral howes: +they “combined their information.” The Fairies, again, are composite +creatures. As they came to births and christenings, and as Norse +wise-wives (as in the Saga of Eric the Red) prophesied at festivals, +Mr. MacRitchie combines his own information. The Wise-wife is a +Finn woman, and Finn and Fairy amalgamate. But the Egyptians, as in +the _Tale of Two Brothers_ (Maspero, _Contes Egyptiens_), had their +Hathors, who came and prophesied at births; the Greeks had their +Mœræ, as in the story of Meleager and the burning brand. The Hathors +and Mœræ play, in ancient Egypt and in ancient Greece, the part of +Fairies at the christening, but surely they were not Finnish women! +In short, though a memory of some old race may have mingled in the +composite Fairy belief, this is at most but an element in the whole, +and the part played by ancestral spirits, naturally earth-dwellers, +is probably more important. Bishop Callaway has pointed out, in +the preface to his _Zulu Tales_, that what the Highlanders say of +the Fairies the Zulus say of “the Ancestors.” In many ways, as +when persons carried off to Fairyland meet relations or friends +lately deceased, who warn them, as Persephone and Steenie Steenson +were warned, to eat no food in this place, Fairyland is clearly a +memory of the pre-Christian Hades. There are other elements in the +complex mass of Fairy tradition, but Chaucer knew “the Fairy Queen +Proserpina,” as Campion calls her, and it is plain that in very fact +“the dread Persephone,” the “Queen over death and the dead,” had +dwindled into the lady who borrows Tamlane in the ballad. Indeed +Kirk mentions but does not approve of this explanation, “that those +subterranean people are departed souls.” Now, as was said, the dead +are dwellers under earth. The worshippers of Chthonian Demeter +(Achaia) beat the earth with wands; so does the Zulu sorcerer when he +appeals to the Ancestors. And a Macdonald in Moidart, being pressed +for his rent, beat the earth, and cried aloud to his dead chief, +“Simon, hear me; you were always good to me.”[3] + + +IV. FAIRYLAND AND HADES. + +Thus, to my mind at least, the _Subterranean Inhabitants_ of Mr. +Kirk’s book are not so much a traditional recollection of a real +dwarfish race living underground (a hypothesis of Sir Walter +Scott’s), as a lingering memory of the Chthonian beings, “the +Ancestors.” A good case in point is that of Bessie Dunlop, of Dalry, +in Ayrshire, tried on 8th November 1576 for witchcraft. She dealt in +medicine and white magic, and obtained her prescriptions from Thomas +Reid, slain at Pinkie fight (1547), who often appeared to her, and +tried to lead her off to Fairyland. She, like Alison Pearson, was +“convict and burnt” (Scott’s _Demonology_, p. 146, and Pitcairn’s +_Criminal Trials_). Both ladies knew the Fairy Queen, and Alison +Pearson beheld Maitland of Lethington, and Buccleugh, in Fairyland, +as is recounted in a rhymed satire on Archbishop Adamson (Dalzell’s +_Scottish Poems_, p. 321). These are excellent proofs that Fairyland +was a kind of Hades, or home of the dead. + +Mr. Kirk, who speaks of the _Sleagh Maith_ as confidently as if he +were discussing the habits of some remote race which he has visited, +credits them, as the Greek gods were credited, with the power of +nourishing themselves on some fine essential part of human sacrifice, +of human food, “some fine spirituous Liquors, that peirce like pure +Air and Oil, on the poyson or substance of Corns and Liquors.” +Others, more gross, steal the actual grain, “as do Crowes and Mice.” +They are heard hammering in the howes: as Brownies they enter houses +and cleanse the hearths. They are the Domovoys, as the Russians +call them. John Major, in his exposition of St. Matthew (1518, +fol. xlviii.), gives perhaps the oldest account of Brownies, in a +believing temper. Major styles them Fauni or _brobne_. They thrash +as much grain in one night as twenty men could do. They throw stones +about among people sitting by the fire. Whether they can predict +future events is doubtful (see Mr. Constable in Major’s _Greater +Britain_, p. xxx. Edinburgh, 1892). To us they seem not much remote +from the Roman Lares—spirits of the household, of the hearth. In +all these creatures Mr. Kirk recognises “an abstruse People,” who +were before our more substantial race, whose furrows are still to be +seen on the hill-tops. They never were, to his mind, plain palpable +folk; they are only visible, in their quarterly flittings, to men +of the second sight. That gift of vision includes not only power to +see distant or future events, but the viewless forms of air. To shun +the flittings, men visit church on the first Sunday of the quarter: +then they will be hallowed against elf-shots, “these Arrows that fly +in the dark.” As is well known, superstition explained the Neolithic +arrow-heads as Fairy weapons; it does not follow that a tradition of +a Neolithic people suggested the belief in Fairies. But we cannot +deny absolutely that some such memory of an earlier race, a shy and +fugitive people who used weapons of stone, may conceivably play its +part in the Fairy legend. + +Thence Mr. Kirk glides into that singular theory of savage +metaphysics which somewhat resembles the Platonic doctrine of +Ideas. All things, in Red Indian belief, have somewhere their ideal +counterpart or “Father.” Thus a donkey, when first seen, was regarded +as “the Father” or archetype “of Rabbits.” Now the second-sighted +behold the “Double-man,” “Doppel-ganger,” “Astral Body,” “Wraith,” or +what you will, of a living person, and that is merely his counterpart +in the abstruse world. The industry of the Psychical Society has +collected much material—evidence, whatever its value, for the +existence of the Double-man. We may call it a hallucination, which +does not greatly increase our knowledge. From personal experience, +and the experience of friends, I am constrained to believe that we +may think we see a person who is not really present to the view—who +may be in the next room, or downstairs, or a hundred miles off. +This experience has occurred to the sane, the unimaginative, the +healthy, the free from superstition, and in circumstances by no +means mystic—for example, when the person supposed to be seen was +not dying, nor distressed, nor in any but the most normal condition. +Indeed, the cases when there was nothing abnormal in the state of the +person seen are far more numerous, in my personal knowledge, than +those in which the person seen was dying, or dead, or excited. The +reverse appears to be the rule in the experience of the Psychical +Society. “The actual proportion of coincidental to non-coincidental +cases, after all deduction for possible sources of error, was in +fact such that the probability against the supposition of chance +coincidence became enormous, on the assumption of ordinary accuracy +on the part of informants” (Professor Sidgwick, _Proc. S.P.R._, vol. +viii. p. 607). Some 17,000 answers were collected. We must apparently +accept these facts as not very abnormal nor very unusual, and +doubtless as capable of some subjective explanation. But when such +things occurred among imaginative and uneducated Highlanders, they +became foundations and proofs of the doctrine of second sight—proofs, +too, of the primitive metaphysical doctrine of counterparts and +_correspondances_. “They avouch that every Element and different +state of Being have Animals resembling these of another Element.” By +persons not knowing this, “the Roman invention of guardian Angels +particularly assigned” has been promulgated. The guardian Angel of +the Roman superstition is merely the Double or Co-walker—the type +(in the viewless world) of the man in the apparent world. Thus are +wraiths and ghosts explained by our Presbyterian psychologist and +his Highland flock. All things universally have their types, their +reflex: a man’s type, or reflex, or “co-walker” may be seen at a +distance from or near him during his life—nay, may be seen after +his death. The gifted man of second sight can tell the substantial +figure from the airy counterpart. Sometimes the reflex anticipates +the action of the reality: “was often seen of old to enter a House, +by which the people knew that the Person of that Likeness was to +visit them in a few days.” It may have occurred to most of us to +meet a person in the street whom we took for an acquaintance. It +is not he, but we meet the real man a few paces farther on. Thus a +distinguished officer, at home on leave, met a friend, as he tells +me, in Piccadilly. The other passed without notice: the officer +hesitated about following him, did not, and in some fifty yards met +his man. There is probably no more in this than resemblance and +coincidence, but this is the kind of thing which was worked by the +Highlanders into their metaphysics.[4] + +The end of the Co-walker is obscure. “This Copy, Echo, or living +Picture goes att last to his own Herd.” Thus Ghosts are short-lived, +and, according to M. d’Assier on the Manners of Posthumous Man +(_L’Homme Posthume_), seldom survive for more than a century. By +an airy being of this kind the Highlanders explained the false or +morbid appetite. A “joint-eater” inhabited the patient; “he feeds +two when he eats.” As a rule, the Fairies get their food as witches +do—take “the Pith and Milk from their Neighbours’ Cows unto their own +chiese-hold, throw a Hair-tedder, at a great distance, by Airt Magic, +only drawing a spigot fastened in a Post, which will bring Milk as +farr as a Bull will be heard to roar.” This is illustrated in the +drinking scene in _Faust_. This kind of charge is familiar in trials +for witchcraft. + +In accordance with the whole metaphysics of the system of doubles, +which are parasites on humanity, is the superstition of nurses stolen +by Fairies, and of children kidnapped while changelings are left +in their place. The latter accounts for sudden decline and loss of +health by a child; he is not the original child, but a Fairy brat. To +guard against this, bread (as human food hateful to Fairies—so the +Kanekas carry a boiled yam about at night), or the Bible, or iron +is placed in the bed of childbirth. “Iron scares spirits,” as the +scholiast says of the drawn sword of Odysseus in Hades. The Fairy +bride, in Wales, vanishes on being touched with iron. This belief +probably came in when iron was a new, rare, and mysterious metal. The +mortal nurses in Fairyland are pleasantly illustrated by the ballad + + “I heard a cow lowe, + A bonny, bonny cow lowe,” + +in C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s _Ballad Book_.[5] This part of the +superstition is not easy to elucidate. Kirk repeats the well-known +tales of the blinding of the mortal who saw too clearly “by making +use of their Oyntments.” Well-known examples occur in Gervase +of Tilbury, and are cited in Scott’s note on _Tamlane_ in the +_Border Minstrelsy_. As Homer fables of the dead, their speech is +a kind of whistling like the cry of bats—another indication of the +pre-Christian Hades.[6] They have feasts and burials; and Pashley, +in his _Travels in Crete_, tells the well-known Border story of +a man who fired on a Fairy bridal, and heard a voice cry, “Ye +have slain the bonny bridegroom.” It is, of course, to be noted +that the modern Greek superstition of the Nereids, who carry off +mortal girls to dance with them till they pine away, answers to +some of our Fairy legends, while it will hardly be maintained that +the Nereids are a memory of pre-historic Finns. “Antic corybantic +jollity” is a note of Nereids, as well as of the _Sleagh Maith_. “The +Inconvenience of their _succubi_,” the Fairy girls who make love to +young men, is well known in the Breton ballad, _Le Sieur Nan_. The +same superstition is current among the Kanekas of New Caledonia. My +cousin, Mr. Atkinson, was visited by a young Kaneka, who twice or +thrice returned to take leave of him with much emotion. When Mr. +Atkinson asked what was the matter, the lad said that he had just +met, as he thought, the girl of his heart in the forest. After a +scene of dalliance she vanished, and he knew that she was a forest +Fairy, and that he must die in three days, which he did. This is +the “inconvenience of their succubi,” regretted by Mr. Kirk. Thus +it appears that the mass of these opinions is not local, nor Celtic +merely, but of world-wide diffusion. Thus Sir Walter Scott observes +of the Afghans and Highlanders, “Their superstitions are the same, or +nearly so. The _Gholée Beabacan_ (demons of the desert) resemble the +_Boddach_ of the Highlanders, ‘who walked the heath at midnight and +at noon’” (_Quarterly Review_, xiv. 289). Again, Mr. Kirk says that +“Were-wolves and Witches’ true Bodies are (by the union of the spirit +of Nature that runs thorow all, echoing and doubling the Blow towards +another) wounded at home, when the astrial or assumed Bodies are +stricken elsewhere.” Thus, if a witch-hare is shot, the witch’s real +body is hurt in the same part; and Lafitau, in North America, found +that when a Huron shot a witch-bird, the real magician was stricken +in the same place. The theory that the Fairies appear as “a little +rough Dog” is illustrated by the Welsh Dogs of Hell. _Blackwood’s +Magazine_ for 1818 contains many examples of these Hell-dogs, which +are often invested in a sheet of fire, as Rink says is the case among +the Eskimo. Take a modern instance. “Mr. F. A. Paley and friend, +walking home at night on a lonely road, see a large black dog rise +from it, slowly walk to the side, and disappear. They search in vain. +Mr. Paley hears subsequently that this mysterious dog is the terror +of the neighbourhood, but no such real dog is known.” Date, summer +1837 (_Journ. of S.P.R._, Feb. 1893, p. 31). + +The dwellings of these airy shadows of mankind are, naturally, +“Fairie Hills.” There is such a hill, the Fairy Hill at Aberfoyle, +where Mr. Kirk resided: Baillie Nicol Jarvie describes its legends +in an admirable passage in _Rob Roy_. Mr. MacRitchie says, “How much +of this ‘howe’ is artificial, or whether any of it is, remains to be +discovered.” It is much larger than most artificial tumuli. According +to Mr. Kirk, the Highlanders “superstitiously believe the souls of +their Predecessors to dwell” in the fairy-hills. “And for that end, +say they, a Mote or Mount was dedicate beside every Churchyard, to +receive the souls till their adjacent bodies arise, and so become +as a Fairy hill.” Here the Highland philosophers have conspicuously +put the cart before the horse. The tumuli are much older than the +churches, which were no doubt built beside them because the place had +a sacred character. Two very good examples may be seen at Dalry, on +the Ken, in Galloway, and at Parton, on Loch Ken. The grassy howes +are large and symmetrical, and the modern Presbyterian churches +occupy old sites; at Parton there are ruins of the ancient Catholic +church. Round the tumulus at Dalry, according to the local form of +the _Märchen_ of Hesione, a great dragon used to coil in triple +folds, before it was killed by the blacksmith. Nobody, perhaps, can +regard these tumuli, and many like them, as anything but sepulchral. +On the road between Balantrae, in Ayrshire, and Stranraer, there is +a beautiful tumulus above the sea, which at once recalls the barrow +above the main that Elpenor in the _Odyssey_, asked Odysseus to build +for him, “the memorial of a luckless man.” In the _Argonautica_ of +Apollonius Rhodius, the ghost of a hero who fell at Troy appears to +the adventurers on a tumulus like this of the Ayrshire coast. In +speaking of these barrows Mr. Kirk tells how, during a famine about +1676, two women had a vision of a treasure hid in a fairy-hill. +This they excavated, and discovered some coins “of good money.” +The great gold corslet of the British Museum is said to have been +found in Wales, where tradition spoke of a ghost in golden armour +which haunted a hillock. The hillock was excavated, and the golden +corslet, like the Shakespearian bricks, is “alive to testify” to the +truth of the story. + + +V. FAIRIES AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. + +The Fairy belief, we have said, is a composite thing. On the +materials given by tradition, such as the memory, perhaps, of a +pre-historic race, and by old religion, as in the thoughts about +the pre-Christian Hades, poetry and fancy have been at work. +Consumption, lingering disease, unexplained disappearances, sudden +deaths, have been accounted for by the agency of the Fairies, or +People of Peace. If the superstition included no more than this, we +might regard it as a natural result of imagination, dealing with +facts quite natural in the ordinary course of things. But there are +elements in the belief which cannot be so easily dismissed. We must +ask whether the abnormal phenomena which have been so frequently +discussed, fought over, forgotten, and revived, do not enter into +the general mass of folk-lore. They appear most notably in the two +branches of Browniedom—of “Pixies,” as they say in Devonshire, who +haunt the house, and in the alleged examples of the second sight. +The former topic is the more obscure, if not the more curious. Let us +examine the occurrences, then, which may have begotten the belief in +Brownies, and in house-haunting Pixies or Fairies. These appearances +may be alleged, on one hand, to be actual facts in Nature, the +workings of some yet unexplained forces; or they may merely be the +consequences of some very old traditional method of imposture, +vulgar in itself, but still historical. That form of imposture, +again, may be wrought either by conscious agents, or unconsciously +and automatically by persons under the influence of somnambulism; +or, finally, the phenomena may in various cases be due to any one of +these three agencies, all of which may possibly be _veræ causæ_, as +conscious imposture and trickery is certainly one _vera causa_. + +In Mr. Kirk’s book we meet “the invisible Wights which haunt Houses, +... throw great Stones, Pieces of Earth and Wood at the Inhabitants,” +but “hurt them not at all.” As we have said, Major (1518) calls +these wights “Fauni or Brobne”—that is, Brownies—and says that they +thrash as much grain in one night as twenty men could do, and throw +stones about. The legend of their working was common in Scotland, +and a correspondent says that in Devonshire the belief in Pixies who +set the house in order exists among the grand-parents of the present +generation. But the sportive is more common than the kindly aspect +of Brownies. Through history we constantly find them causing objects +to move without visible contact, and “acting in sport, like Buffoons +and Drolls.” In his _Letters on Demonology_ (p. 377) Scott gives +instances where the buffoon or droll was detected, and confessed +that the rattlings of plates and movements of objects were caused +by an apparatus of threads or horse-hair. He also quotes the famous +doings of “The Just Devil of Woodstock” in 1649, which so perplexed +and discomfited the Cromwellian Commissioners. He accounts for those +annoyances by the confessions of Joe Collins of Oxford, “Funny Joe,” +which he quotes from Hone’s _Every-Day Book_, while Hone quotes +from the _British Magazine_ of 1747. But the writer in the _British +Magazine_ gives no references or authorities for the authenticity +of Funny Joe’s confessions, nor even for the existence of Joseph. +Scott could not find his original in the pamphlets of the British +Museum, and some of the statements attributed to Joe do not tally +with the official account, and other contemporary documents collected +in Sir Walter’s _Woodstock_. Joe pretends, for example, to have been +secretary to the Commission under the name of Giles Sharpe; but in +the other accounts the secretary is named Browne. A Royalist Brownie +or Polter-geist lies under shrewd suspicion, but Joe’s own existence +is unproved, and his alleged evidence is of no value. However, no +sane person can dream of doubting that many a Brownie has been as +much in flesh and blood as the Brownie of Bodsbeck in Hogg’s story. + +There remain the less easily explicable tales of strange and humorous +disturbances, accompanied by loud sounds, rappings, the moving of +objects without visible contact, and so forth.[7] Perhaps we may best +examine these by taking modern instances, collected by the Psychical +Society, in the first place, and then comparing them with cases +recorded at distant times and in remote places. Some curious common +features will be observed, and the evidence has at least the value +of undesigned coincidence. Glanvil, Telfair (minister of Rerrick), +the Wesleys, Dr. Adam Clarke, Increase Mather, were not modern +students of psychical research. The modern Psychical Researchers, +we fear, are not students of old legendary lore, which they dismiss +on evidence not first-hand nor scientifically valid. Thus they do +not seem to be aware that they are describing, almost in identical +terms, phenomena identical with those noted by Telfair, Mather, +Lavater, and the rest, and by those ancients attributed to devils. +The modern recorders are not consciously copying from old accounts; +the coincidences therefore have their value, as proving that certain +phenomena have occurred and recurred. Now those phenomena may be due +to conscious or to hysterical imposture, but they have been frequent +and common enough to keep alive, and probably to originate, a part +of the Fairy belief—that part which is concerned with Brownies and +house-haunting Pixies, or Domovoys. These, again, correspond to the +tricky beings described by Mr. Leland in his _Etruscan Remains_ as +survivals of old Roman and Etruscan popular religions, while we find +similar occurrences in the Empire of the Incas not long after the +Spanish conquest of Peru.[8] + +Beginning, then, with what is nearest to us in time, we take Mr. F. +W. H. Myers’s essays “On the Alleged Movement of Objects without +Contact, occurring not in the Presence of a Paid Medium.”[9] The +alleged phenomena are, of course, as common as blackberries in the +presence of paid mediums, but are to the last degree untrustworthy. +Even when there is no paid medium present, the mere contagious +excitement which is said to be developed at _séances_ makes all +that is thought to occur there a story to be taken with plenty of +salt.[10] One of Mr. Myers’s examples was the result of _séances_, +but it had features of great importance for the argument. It will +be found in _Proc. S. P. R._, vol. xix. p. 189, July 1891. The +performers are Mr. C., Mrs. C., and Mr. H. Mr. C. and Mrs. C. are +spoken of as good witnesses, known to Mr. Myers and Professor +Barrett. Mr. H.’s health has suffered so much that he cannot be +examined, and Mr. H. is the person who interests us here, for +reasons which will be given later. All three were “unbelievers” in +these matters. On the second evening “lights floated about the room,” +which was lit, apparently, by a full moon. “F.” (who is also “H.”) +felt cold hands touching, and “hands” recur in the old pre-scientific +accounts. The three mages were holding hands tightly at the time. Now +Mr. H. had hitherto been in excellent health, but after his chair +was dragged from under him, and he was “thrown down on the ground,” +he went into “a trance.” His watch and ring (on the finger of a hand +held by Mrs. C.) were carried to a remote part of the room. H. leaves +the circle and sits at the window. Another figure walks through the +room. H. returns, is “thrown down,” his coat is dragged off, and his +boots are discovered on a distant sofa. He asks for “something from +home,” goes into a trance, a photograph locked up by him at home is +found on the table. His wife, in town, “being quite ignorant of our +having had _séances_, told us that, at that very hour, a fearful +crash occurred in his bedroom. The photograph vanished, and returned +last night, when H. was in a trance.” He is “thrown down” again. +He has “alternate fits of unconsciousness and raving delirium.” The +home of Mr. and Mrs. C. (not the house where they sat) is vexed by +“figures,” noises, knockings; “we were sprinkled with water in the +night,” haunted by sounds of drums and horns, and so forth. Before a +“manifestation,” “we all felt a sudden chill, like either a wave of +intensely cold air passing, or a rapid decrease of temperature.”[11] + +This is a disgusting story if Mr. H.’s health was ruined by his +presence at the performances. The point, however, is that he did +behave in epileptic fashion while these events were in progress. +It is natural to suppose that, in his “trances,” he may have been +capable, unconsciously, of feats physically and morally impossible to +him in his normal condition. This explanation would not cover all the +alleged occurrences, but would account for many of them. + +We now take an ancient instance, similar disturbances at Newberry, +in New England, in 1679, similarly accompanied by the presence of +an epileptic patient.[12] The house of William Morse was “strangely +disquieted by a dæmon.” The inmates were Morse, his wife, and their +grandson, a boy whose age is not given. The trouble began on December +3, with a sound of heavy objects falling on the roof. On December 8, +large stones and bricks “were thrown in at the west end of the house +... the bedstead was lifted up from the floor, and the bed-staff +flung out of the window, and a cat was hurled at the wife. A long +staff danced up and down in the chimney. The man’s wife put the staff +in the fire, but she could not hold it there, inasmuch as it would +forcibly fly out; yet after much ado, with joynt strength, they made +it to burn.... A chair flew about, and at last lighted on the table, +where victuals stood ready to eat, and was likely to spoil all, only +by a nimble catching they saved some of their meat.... A chest was +removed from place to place, no hand touching it. Two keys would +fly about, making a loud noise by knocking against each other.... As +they lay in bed with their little boy between them, a great stone +from the floor of the loft was thrown upon the man’s stomach, and he +turning it down upon the floor, it was once more thrown upon him.” +On January 23, 1680, “his ink-horn was taken away from him while he +was writing” (he was keeping a diary of these events), “and when by +all his seeking he could not find it, at last he saw it drop out of +the air, down by the fire.... February 2, while he and his boy were +eating of cheese, the pieces which he cut were wrested from them.... +But as for the boy, he was a great sufferer in these afflictions, for +on the 18th of December he, sitting by his grandfather, was hurried +into great motions. The man made him stand between his legs, but the +chair danced up and down, and was like to have cast both man and boy +into the fire, and the child was tossed about in such a manner as +that they feared his brains would have been beaten out.” + +All these contortions of the boy were apparently what M. Charcot +calls _clownisms_.[13] When taken to a doctor’s house the boy “was +free of disturbances,” which returned with his return home. He barked +like a dog, clucked like a hen, talked nonsense about “Powel,” who +pinched and bullied him. While he was in bed with the old people, “a +pot with its contents was thrown upon them.” They were clutched by +hands, like Mr. and Mrs. C. Once a voice was heard singing, “Revenge, +revenge is sweet.” Finally a mate of a ship came, declared that the +grandmother was not rightly suspected as a witch, and offered, if +he were left alone with the boy, to cure him. “The mate came next +day betimes, and the boy was with him till night; since which time +his house, Morse saith, has not been molested with evil spirits.” +Probably the mate used a rope’s end: the boy was more speedily cured +than Mr. H. + +The phenomena are those of droll or buffooning wights, as Mr. Kirk +says, and no man can doubt that the boy was at the bottom of the +whole affair. But whether he was capable, when well and conscious, of +such diversions, is another question. Children like him produced the +famous witch-mania in New England. + +We have here, undeniably, a well-recorded case, analogous to that of +Mr. H. In a modern case of bell-ringing, heavy thumps, and movement +of objects, the agent was “a young girl who had never been out to +service before,” and who passed the night in a state of wildly +agitated somnambulism, repeating the whole of the Service for the +day.[14] Mather gives several other examples, in which motives for +trickery are manifest, while we hear nothing of an epileptic or +hysterical patient. + +In the majority of instances, ancient or modern, children are the +agents. Thus we have “Physical Phenomena obtained in a Family +Circle,” that of Mr. and Mrs. Davis, with their children, at Rio +Janeiro.[15] The time was 1888. Curiosity had been caused by “the +notorious Henry Slade.” There were “touches and grasps of hands.” +A table “ran after me” (Professor Alexander) “and attempted to hem +me in,” when only C., a little girl, was in the room. “As far as +I could see, she did not even touch the table.” The chair of Amy +(aged thirteen months) was moved about, like that of Master Morse +two hundred years earlier. A table jumped into the laps of the +public. There were raps and thumps, which “seemed to shake the whole +building.” Lights floated about. A slate, covered with flour, was +placed on C.’s lap; her hands lay on the table. Marks of fingers came +on the flour, and, in answer to request, the mark of “a naked baby +foot.” The children present were wearing laced boots, and we are +not told that little Amy was under the table. Bluish lights and the +phantasm of a dog were seen. + +All this answers to an ancient example—the disturbances in Mr. +Wesley’s house at Epworth, December 1715 to January 1716.[16] The +house was a new one, rebuilt in 1709. We have Mr. Samuel Wesley’s +Journal, with many contemporary letters from members of the family, +and later reminiscences. There were many lively girls in the house, +and two servants—a maid and a man, recently engaged. The disturbances +began with groanings; then came knockings, which flitted about the +house. Mr. Wesley heard nothing till December 21. The knocks replied +to those made by the family, but they never could imitate the sounds. +Mrs. Wesley and Emily saw an object “like a badger” run from under +a bed and vanish. The mastiff was much alarmed by the sounds. Mr. +Wesley was “thrice pushed by invisible power.” The bogie was a +Jacobite, as was Mrs. Wesley: Mr. Wesley was for King George. The +knocks were violent when that usurper was prayed for. They did not +try praying for King James. Robin, the servant, saw a hand-mill work +violently. “Naught vexed me but that it was empty. I thought, had it +but been full of malt, he might have ground his heart out for me.” +But this was a jocose, not an industrious devil. Robin called it +“old Jeffries,” after a gentleman lately dead; the family called it +“Jeffrey,” unless one name is a mere misspelling. It “seemed to sweep +after” Nancy Wesley, when she swept the chambers. “She thought he +might have done it for her, and saved her the trouble.” Mrs. Wesley +concealed the matter from her husband, “lest he should fancy it was +against his own death” (Letter of January 12, 1716-17). This belief +in noises foretelling death is very common; compare Scott’s nocturnal +disturbances at Abbotsford when Bullock, his agent in building it, +was dying in London. The racket occurred on April 28 and 29, 1818, +and Scott examined the scene “with Beardie’s broadsword under my +arm.”[17] Bullock died in Tenterden Street, in London, whether on +April 28 or 29 is not easily to be ascertained. “The noise resembled +half a dozen men putting up boards and furniture, and nothing can +be more certain than that there was nobody on the premises at the +time.”[18] The noises used to follow Hetty Wesley, and thump under +her feet, as under those of C. in Professor Alexander’s narrative. +Mr. Wesley’s plate “danced before him on the table a pretty while, +without anybody’s stirring the table.”[19] The disturbances quieted +down in January, but recurred on March 31. Similar phenomena had +occurred “long before” in the family.[20] “The sound very often +seemed in the air, in the middle of a room, nor could they ever make +any such themselves by any contrivance.”[21] On February 16, 1740, +twenty-three years later, Emily writes to Jack about “that _wonderful +thing_ called by us _Jeffrey_.... That something calls on me against +any extraordinary new affliction.” + +Priestley styles this affair “the best-authenticated that is anywhere +extant.” He supposes it to have been “a trick of the servants, for +mere amusement.” The _modus operandi_ is difficult to explain. We +hear nothing of bad health or hysterics in the household.[22] For +our purpose it is enough that a few incidents of this kind, however +produced, might originate and keep alive the belief in Brownies, and + + “That shrewd and knavish sprite + Called Robin Goodfellow,” + +who + + “Frights the maidens of the villagery, + Skims milk, and sometimes labours in the quern.” + +By a curious coincidence, we can show a case in which phenomena of +the kind usually reported as occurring at _séances_, and in examples +like that of William Morse, were actually accepted as manifestations +of the _Sleagh Maith_, or Fairies. In his account of the disturbances +in the Wesley family, Dr. Clarke, the author, averred that he had +himself witnessed similar events. It thus became necessary to consult +his _Life_ (London, 1833). “In the history of my own life,” says +Dr. Clarke, “I have related this matter in sufficient detail.”[23] +Unluckily, in his _Life_ (pp. 76, 77) he gives scarce any details. +Previous to sudden deaths in a family called Church, the phenomena of +falling plates, heavy tread, and other noises occurred. Mr. Clarke +“sat up one whole night in the kitchen, and most distinctly heard +the above noises.” He was a born mystic, and even in childhood a +reader of Cornelius Agrippa, and, later, of the alchemists. But he +records the instance of a woman, who solemnly declared to Mrs. Clarke +that a number of the _gentle people_ (_Sleagh Maith_) “occasionally +frequented her house; that they often conversed with her, one of +them putting its hands on her eyes during the time, which hands she +represented, from the sensation she had, to be about the size of +those of a child of four or five years of age.” The family were “worn +down” with these visits, and from the mention of touches of hands it +is pretty plain that we have to do with the kind of sprite who paws +people at _séances_. But these sprites are recognised (the scene is +the North of Ireland) as “gentle people,” Folk of Peace. The amusing +thing is, that Mr. Clarke, while he believes in Mr. Wesley’s Jeffrey, +and in the supernatural origin of a noise in a kitchen, laughs at +similar phenomena when assigned to Fairies. It is a mere difference +of terminology. + +Another old example may be given. It is Alexander Telfair’s “True +Relation” of disturbances at Ringcroft, in the parish of Rerrick.[24] +The story is attested by the signatures of Ewart, minister of Kells, +in Galloway; Monteith, minister of Borg; Murdoch, minister of +Crosmichael, on Loch Ken; Spalding, minister at Parton, also by Loch +Ken; Falconer, minister at Keltown; Mr. M‘Lellan of Colline, Lennox +of Milhouse, and a number of farmers. These were all neighbours, +and all attested what they saw and heard. Robert Chambers says, +“There never, perhaps, was any mystic history better attested. Few +narrations of the kind have included occurrences and appearances +which it was more difficult to reconcile with the theory of trick or +imposture.” Mr. Telfair himself had been chaplain, in 1687, to Sir +Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. He was then an Episcopalian. + +Andrew Mackie was a stone-mason at Rerrick. On March 7 (1695?), and +for long after, stones began to fly about in his house by night and +day. “The stones which hit any person had not half their natural +weight.” Mackie complained to Telfair, his minister, who entered +the house and prayed: nothing odd occurred. As he stood outside, he +“saw two little stones drop down on the croft;” then he was asked +to return, and was pelted inside the cottage. This was March 11. +For a week there was no more trouble, then the disturbances began +again. Mr. Telfair was sent for, and was pelted, beaten with a staff, +and heard loud knockings. “That night, as I was at prayer, leaning +on a bedside, I felt something lifting up my arm. I, casting my +eyes thither, perceived a little white hand and arm from the elbow +down, but presently it evanished.” “There was never anything seen +except that hand I saw,” and an apparition of a boy in grey clothes. +Sometimes the stoning went on in the open air.[25] There were plenty +of touchings, grippings, and scratchings. “The door-bar” (a long, +heavy piece of squared wood) “would go thorow the house as if a +person were carrying it in their hand, yet nothing seen doing it.” +Here we compare, in _Proc. S. P. R._, February 1892, the story of a +carpenter’s shop at Swanland, in Yorkshire, where pieces of wood were +“levitated” into abnormal flight. No imposture was discovered, nor +was the presence of any one person necessary. + +The ministers of Kells and Crosmichael were pelted with stones of +eight pounds weight. On April 6, fire-balls floated through the +cottage. When five ministers were present, “it made all the house +shake, brake a hole through the thatch, and poured in great stones.” +“It handled the legs of some as with a man’s hand;” it hoisted Mr. +Telfair, Lennox of Millhouse, and others off the ground! A sieve +flew through the house; Mackie caught it; a force gripped it, and +pulled the interior part out of the rim. A day of humiliation was +solemnly kept in the parish, which only excited the emulation +of the disturbing agent; “it continued in a most fearful manner +without intermission.” Voices were heard, which talked nonsense of a +semi-scriptural kind; finally the thing died out early in May. By +the way, on April 28, “it pulled down the end of the house, all the +stone-work thereof.” + +This is a very odd case, as no suspicion is thrown on the children. +The attestations of several witnesses are given, not only at the +close, but for almost every separate incident. The vision of the +white hand is agreeable. + +_The Devil of Glen Luce_, in Galloway, was published by Sinclair in +his _Hydrostaticks_, of all places, in 1672, and again in _Satan’s +Invisible World_, and by Glanvil in _Sadducismus Triumphatus_. In +this affair a boy called Thomas, a son of the unlucky householder, +was clearly the agent. The phenomena were stone-throwing, beating +with sticks, levitation of a plate, and a great deal of voices, +probably uttered by the aforesaid Thomas. The Synod ordered a day of +humiliation (1655-56). + +The affair of the Drummer of Tedworth (1661) is, or ought to be, too +well known for quotation. The troubles began after Mr. Mompesson +seized the drum of a vagrant musician. In the presence of a +clergyman, chairs walked about the room of themselves, “a bed-staff +was thrown at the minister, but so favourably that a lock of wool +could not have fallen more softly.” The children, as usual, were +especially haunted. A jingling of money was common, as it also was +at Epworth. Lights wandered about the house, “blue and glimmering.” +The noise was persistent in the woodwork of the children’s beds, +while their hands were outside. The knocks answered knocks made by +visitors. There were divers other marvels. The Drummer was suspected, +but, consciously or not, the children were probably the agents. They +seem to have been in their usual health.[26] In Galashiels (date not +given), loud knocks on the floor accompanied a hystero-epileptic +girl wherever she sat. In bed, “her body was so lifted up that many +strong men were not able to keep it down.” The minister, who could +make nothing of her, was Mr. Wilkie; the girl was Margaret Wilson +(Sinclair, p. 200). + +This little parcel of strange stories may suffice to show that part +of the Fairy belief is based on such incidents as still occur, or are +reported to occur, just in the old fashion. It is for psychologists +and physicians to ascertain how far, if at all, the incidents are +produced by hysterical, or epileptic, or somnambulistic patients. +Common forthright trickery is usually detected in paid mediums. But +the trickery simulates real events, or continues an old traditional +form of imposture. The moral that parents should not allow their +children to be present at _séances_ hardly needs enforcing. Some of +them may escape unharmed, but frightful injuries may be inflicted on +health and on character.[27] + + +VI. SECOND SIGHT AND “TELEPATHY.” + +We have already hinted that events of an ordinary kind—illusions, +cases of mistaken identity, or hallucination—are probably the +ground-work in part of the Highland belief in second sight. Of +course, if a certain proportion of hallucinations were or could be +taken for “veridical,” attention would be given to these alone: the +others would be neglected. The Psychical Society has collected and +examined hundreds of these cases in modern life. + +The Society may find out, experimentally, whether second sight can +be acquired in the manner described by Mr. Kirk—whether by the +hair tether, or by merely putting the foot under that of a seer. +Thus contact is used in thought reading, as, in second sight, the +seer by contact communicates his hallucination. Second sight itself +is now called telepathy, which, however, does not essentially +advance our knowledge of the subject. It is either very common, or +people who choose to claim the possession of it are very common. +In our society it is mere matter for idle tales; in the Highlands +the second sight was a belief and a system. Mr. Pepys and Dr. +Johnson investigated the matter, and Dr. Johnson came away open to +conviction, but unconvinced. The Psychical Society is now examining +second sight in the Highlands. It is interesting to learn that the +Presbyterian seers justified their visions out of the Bible, which +also justified the burning of these gifted men on occasion. Mr. +Kirk is tolerant enough to ascribe their visions to a “bounty of +Providence.” This may have passed, north of the Highland line, but in +Fife and the south the seers would speedily have been accommodated +with a stake and tar-barrel. The writings of Wodrow and Mr. Robert +Blair of St. Andrews (1650-60) prove that if a savoury preacher +wrought marvels, he was inspired, but if an amateur did the very same +things,—prophesied, healed diseases, and so forth,—he, or she, was +likely to be haled before the Presbytery, and possibly dragged to +the stake. In the Highlands these invidious distinctions were less +forcibly drawn. Mr. Kirk treats the whole question in his curiously +cold scientific way. If these things occur, they are in the realm of +Nature, and are results of causes which may be variously conjectured. +They may be providential, or a sport of evolution, derived from “a +complexionall Quality of the first acquirer,” which often becomes +hereditary in his lineage. + +Lord Tarbott’s letter to an inquirer, Robert Boyle, is added by Mr. +Kirk to his little treatise, with his own annotations. His belief +that the Fairy sights could only be seen while the eyes are kept +steady without twinkling, is attested by a well-known anecdote. On +the afternoon of Culloden, a little girl, staying with Lord Lovat at +Gortuleg, was reading in a window-seat. Chancing to look out, she +saw a company of headlong riders hastening to the castle. Believing +them to be the _Sleagh Maith_, she tried hard to keep her eyes from +twinkling, that she might not lose the vision. But these, alas! were +no Fairies, they were Prince Charles and his men flying from the +victorious English. The tale proves that the belief long survived the +day of the minister of Aberfoyle. Lord Tarbott mentions, also, the +vision of the shroud on the breast of a man about to die, which seems +to be alluded to in the prophecy of Theoclymenus in the _Odyssey_. +Lord Tarbott’s tales are of the familiar kind, there are dozens +of such in _Theophilus Insulanus_. Mr. Kirk’s notes are chiefly +remarkable for his citation of Walter Grahame’s “evil eye,” which +killed what he praised,—a world-wide superstition, too common to need +supporting by foreign and classical examples. + +Unluckily, at this point Mr. Kirk abandons what we may call his +scientific attitude. He has accounted for his “supernatural” affairs +as not supernatural at all, but phenomena in Nature, and subject, +like other phenomena, to laws. But now it occurs to him to explain +the conduct of his _Sleagh Maith_ as the result of missionary zeal on +their part: “they endeavour to convince us of a Deity;” though, on +the face of his argument, a Co-walker no more proves a Deity than +does an ordinary “walker.” He may have been reading “the learned +Dr. Mor” (More the Platonist), and may have altered his ideas. His +account of a girl who learned, or rather composed, a long poem by +aid of “our nimble and courteous spirits,” affords an early example +of what is called “an inspirational medium.” It is unlucky that Mr. +Kirk did not publish this work, of which he had a copy. The ordinary +“spiritual” poetry may be written, as Dr. Johnson said of _Ossian_, +“by any one who would abandon his mind to it.” When Mr. Kirk +maintains that Neolithic arrow-heads could not have been executed “by +all the Airt of man,” he relapses from his usual odd common-sense. He +also believes in men who are magically shot-proof, like Claverhouse, +who had to be shot by a silver bullet; like Archbishop Sharp, on +whom his pious assassins erroneously held that their bullets took +no effect; and like certain soldiers mentioned by Dugald Dalgetty +of Drumthwacket. This absurd belief was very generally held by +the Covenanters. Where his local superstitions and those of his +generation are not concerned, Mr. Kirk recovers his clearness of +intellect. In Purgatory he finds only the pre-Christian Hades, “our +Secret Republick,” with an ecclesiastical colouring—“additional +Fictions of Monks’ doting and crazied Heads.” Mr. Kirk did not +perceive the danger involved in his own argument. If a Highland +second-sighted man answers to a Hebrew prophet in his visions and +trances, a Hebrew prophet is in danger of being no more considered +than a Highland second-sighted man. However, it is to Mr. Kirk’s +praise that he shows no persecuting disposition as far as witches are +concerned (though he has seen them pricked), and that he argues very +fairly from his premisses, and within his limits.[28] He recognises +the unity of spiritual phenomena and of popular beliefs, whether it +springs from a common well-head of delusion in our nature, or whether +it really has a source in the observation of peculiar and rather rare +phenomena. + +To the Edinburgh edition of 1815 (probably the only one) the editor +added the work of Theophilus Insulanus on Second Sight. This is +not rare nor expensive, and we do not reproduce it. One case of +“telepathy” may be quoted from Theophilus. + +“Donald Beaton, residenter in Hammir, related that, in his passage +from Glasgow to the Isle of Sky, he stopped at Tippermory, a known +harbour in the Isle of Mull.” Here some one gave him a loin of +venison. Donald, whose wife’s mother was a seer, to try her powers, +wished that piece of venison in her hands. “The same night the seer, +who lived with her daughter, his wife, apprehended she saw him enter +the house with a shapeless lump in his hands—she knew not what, but +it resembled flesh, which gave herself and her daughter great joy, as +they had despaired of him by his long absence.” This is “telepathy,” +if telepathy there be. + +Another picturesque tale shows how, on the night before the Rout +of Moy, Patrick M‘Caskill met the famed M‘Rimmon (_sic_), M‘Leod’s +piper, in the town of Inverness, and saw him contract into the +size of a boy of five or six, and expand again into his athletic +proportions. M‘Rimmon was killed in the Rout of Moy—an attempt +to surprise and seize Prince Charles. Before leaving Skye he had +prophesied— + + “M‘Leod shall come back, + But M‘Rimmon shall never.” + +The editor is acquainted with a splendid case of second sight in +Kensington. The seer was an accomplished English gentleman, and +mentioned his vision at the moment to a witness who remembers and +corroborates the statement. Thus the Hebrides and Highlands have no +monopoly of second sight. + +The researches of M. Charcot, M. Richet, and other psychologists do +not at present help us much in the matter of veridical second sight. +It is not a hallucination “suggested” to a hypnotised subject, but +an impression produced by a remote person or event on a subject who +has not been hypnotised at all. For example, Dr. Adam Clarke, in his +_Life_ (vol. ii. p. 16) tells us of Mr. Tracy Clarke, who, being in +the Isle of Man with his son, dreamed that he had visited his wife in +Liverpool. He told his son that Mrs. Clarke was looking very well, +but, contrary to her habit, was sleeping in the best bedroom. On the +day when Mr. Clarke said this, Mrs. Clarke, who had been sleeping in +her best bedroom, told the little son who lay in her room that she +had heard his father ride up to the house, stable his horse, open +the door, come upstairs, and walk round her bed, but that she could +not see him. This is a case at least of second hearing, and has no +hypnotic explanation. + +We end in the candid spirit of Dr. Johnson, as far as the +Polter-Geist and second sight are concerned—willing to be convinced, +but far indeed from conviction. As to the Fairy belief, we conceive +it to be a complex matter, from which tradition, with its memory of +earth-dwellers, is not wholly absent, while more is due to a survival +of the pre-Christian Hades, and to the belief in local spirits—the +Vuis of Melanesia, the Nereids of ancient and modern Greece, the +Lares of Rome, the fateful Mœræ and Hathors—old imaginings of a world +not yet “dispeopled of its dreams.”[29] + +[Illustration: Puss-in-Boots smells a rat.] + + + + + AN ESSAY + + OF + + The Nature and Actions of the Subterranean (and, for the most + Part,) Invisible People, heretofoir going under the name of + ELVES, FAUNES, and FAIRIES, or the lyke, 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 displayeing the Chiefe 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 + Writters; and yet ventured on in an Essay + to suppress the impudent and growing + Atheisme of this Age, and to + satisfie the desire of some + choice Freinds. + + + _Then a Spirit passed before my Face, the Hair of my Flesh stood + up; it stood still, but I could not discerne the Forme thereof; + ane Image was before mine Eyes._—Job, 4. 15, 16. + + _This is a_ REBELLIOUS PEOPLE, _which say to the Siers, sie not; + and to the Prophets, prophesie not unto us right Things, bot + speak unto us smoothe Things._—Isaiah, 30. 9, 10. + + _And the Man whose Eyes were open hath said._—Numbers, 24. 15. + + _For now we sie 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 lyke + God, and sie him as he is._—1 John, 3. 2. + + Μη γιγαντες μαιωδησονται ὑποκατωδεν ὑδατος και των γειτονων + αυτον;—Job, 26. 5 (Septuag.). + + +By MR ROBERT KIRK, Minister at Aberfoill. + +1691. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OF THE SUBTERRANEAN 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 Harme of;) and are said to +be of a midle Nature betuixt Man and Angel, as were Dæmons thought +to be of old; of intelligent studious Spirits, and light changable +Bodies, (lyke those called Astral,) somewhat of the Nature of a +condensed Cloud, and best seen in Twilight. Thes Bodies be so plyable +thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate them, that they +can make them appear or disappear att Pleasure. Some have Bodies or +Vehicles so spungious, thin, and defecat, that they are fed by only +sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that peirce lyke pure +Air and Oyl: others feid more gross on the Foyson or substance of +Corns and Liquors, or Corne it selfe that grows on the Surface of +the Earth, which these Fairies steall 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 lyke Services within the little Hillocks they most haunt: +some whereof of old, before the Gospell 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 +goe under the name of Brownies. When we have plenty, they have +Scarcity at their Homes; and on the contrarie (for they are empowred +to catch as much Prey everywhere as they please,) there Robberies +notwithstanding oft tymes occassion great Rickes of Corne not to +bleed so weill, (as they call it,) or prove so copious by verie farr +as wes expected by the Owner. + +THERE Bodies of congealled Air are some tymes caried aloft, other +whiles grovell in different Schapes, and enter into any Cranie 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. + +2. WE then (the more terrestriall kind have now so numerously planted +all Countreys,) do labour for that abstruse People, as weill as for +ourselves. Albeit, when severall Countreys were unhabitated by us, +these had their easy Tillage above Ground, as we now. The Print of +those Furrous do yet remaine 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 imputent and [impotent +of?] staying in one Place, and finding some Ease by so purning +[Journeying] and changing Habitations. Their chamælion-lyke Bodies +swim in the Air near the Earth with Bag and Bagadge; and at such +revolution of Time, SEERS, or Men of the SECOND SIGHT, (Fæmales +being seldome so qualified) have very terrifying Encounters with +them, even on High Ways; who therefoir uswally shune to travell +abroad at these four Seasons of the Year, and thereby have made it +a Custome to this Day among the Scottish-Irish to keep Church duely +evry first Sunday of the Quarter to sene or hallow themselves, their +Corns and Cattell, from the Shots and Stealth of these wandring +Tribes; and many of these superstitious People will not be seen in +Church againe till the nixt 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.[30] + +THEY are distributed in Tribes and Orders, and have Children, Nurses, +Mariages, Deaths, and Burialls, in appearance, even as we, (unless +they so do for a Mock-show, or to prognosticate some such Things +among us.) + +3. THEY are clearly seen by these Men of the SECOND SIGHT to eat +at Funeralls [and] Banquets; hence many of the Scottish-Irish will +not teast Meat at these Meittings, lest they have Communion with, +or be poysoned by, them. So are they seen to carrie the Beer or +Coffin with the Corps among the midle-earth Men to the Grave. Some +Men of that exalted Sight (whither by Art or Nature) have told me +they have seen at these Meittings a Doubleman, 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 Tockens and Operations, and so go speak to the Man his +Neighbour and Familiar, passing by the Apparition or Resemblance of +him. They avouch 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 Angells particularly assigned, is called by them an ignorant +Mistake, sprung only from this Originall. 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 Originall,) both before and after the Originall is +dead; and wes also often seen of old to enter a Hous, by which the +People knew that the Person of that Liknes wes to Visite them within +a few days. This Copy, Echo, or living Picture, goes att last to his +own Herd. It accompanied that Person so long and frequently for Ends +best known to it selfe, whither to guard him from the secret Assaults +of some of its own Folks, or only as ane sportfull Ape to counterfeit +all his Actions. However, the Stories of old WITCHES prove beyond +contradiction, that all Sorts of People, Spirits which assume light +aery Bodies, or crazed Bodies co-acted by forrein Spirits, seem to +have some Pleasure, (at least to asswage from Pain or Melancholy,) +by frisking and capering like Satyrs, or whistling and screeching +(like unlukie Birds) in their unhallowed Synagogues and Sabboths. +If invited and earnestly required, these Companions make themselves +knowne and familiar to Men; other wise, being in a different State +and Element, they nather can nor will easily converse with them. They +avouch that a Heluo, or Great-eater, hath a voracious Elve to be his +attender, called a Joint-eater or Just-halver, feeding on the Pith or +Quintessence of what the Man eats; and that therefoir he continues +Lean like a Hawke or Heron, notwith 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, lyke +inchanted Puppets. What Food they extract from us is conveyed to +their Homes by secret Paths, as sume skilfull Women do the Pith and +Milk from their Neighbours Cows into their own Chiese-hold thorow +a Hair-tedder, at a great Distance, by Airt Magic, or by drawing a +spickot fastened to a Post, which will bring milk as farr of as a +Bull will be heard to roar.[31] The Chiese made of the remaineing +Milk of a Cow thus strain’d will swim in Water like a Cork. The +Method they take to recover their Milk is a bitter chyding of the +suspected Inchanters, charging them by a counter Charme to give them +back their own, in God, or their Master’s Name. But a little of the +Mother’s Dung stroakit on the Calves Mouth before it suck any, does +prevent this theft. + +4. THEIR Houses are called large and fair, and (unless att some +odd occasions) unperceaveable by vulgar eyes, like Rachland, and +other inchanted 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 Mirrour,) which (as if +it were some insatiable Spirit in ane assumed Bodie) 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 +naturall and common Death. The Child, and Fire, with Food and other +Necessaries, are set before the Nurse how soon she enters; but she +nather perceaves any Passage out, nor sees what those People doe +in other Rooms of the Lodging. When the Child is wained, the Nurse +dies, or is conveyed back, or gets it to her choice to stay there. +But if any Superterraneans be so subtile, as to practice Slights for +procuring a Privacy to any of their Misteries, (such as making use +of their Oyntments, which as Gyges’s Ring makes them invisible, or +nimble, or casts 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 naturall and +acquired Sights in the twinkling of ane Eye, (both these Sights, +where once they come, being in the same Organ and inseparable,) or +they strick them Dumb. The Tramontains to this Day put Bread, the +Bible, or a piece of Iron, in Womens Beds when travelling, to save +them from being thus stollen; and they commonly report, that all +uncouth, unknown Wights are terrifyed by nothing earthly so much as +by cold Iron. They delyver 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 ane 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 eather begun, or feared to come hereafter. + +5. THEIR Apparell and Speech is like that of the People and Countrey +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 litle, and that by way of whistling, clear, +not rough. The verie Divels conjured in any Countrey, do answer in +the Language of the Place; yet sometimes the Subterraneans speak +more distinctly than at other times. Ther Women are said to Spine +very fine, to Dy, to Tossue, and Embroyder: but whither it is as +manuall Operation of substantiall refined Stuffs, with apt and solid +Instruments, or only curious Cob-webs, impalpable Rainbows, and a +fantastic Imitation of the Actions of more terrestricall Mortalls, +since it transcended all the Senses of the Seere to discerne +whither, I leave to conjecture as I found it. + +6. THERE Men travell much abroad, either presaging or aping the +dismall and tragicall Actions of some amongst us; and have also many +disastorous Doings of their own, as Convocations, Fighting, Gashes, +Wounds, and Burialls, both in the Earth and Air. They live much +longer than wee; yet die at last, or [at] least vanish from that +State. ’Tis ane of their Tenets, that nothing perisheth, 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 Bodie 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. + +7. THEY are said to have aristocraticall Rulers and Laws, but no +discernible Religion, Love, or Devotion towards God, the blessed +Maker of all: they disappear whenever they hear his Name invocked, +or the Name of JESUS, (at which all do bow willinglie, 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 Spel to appear to himselfe +or others when he pleases, as readily as Endor Witch to those of her +Kind. He tells, they are ever readiest to go on hurtfull Errands, +but seldome 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 +surpryze (as often he does) frights him extreamly. And glaid would +he be quite of such, for the hideous Spectacles seen among them; +as the torturing of some Wight, earnest ghostly stairing Looks, +Skirmishes, and the like. They do not all the Harme which appearingly +they have Power to do; nor are they perceaved to be in great Pain, +save that they are usewally silent and sullen. They are said to have +many pleasant toyish Books; but the operation of these Peices only +appears in some Paroxisms of antic corybantic Jolity, as if ravisht +and prompted by a new Spirit entering into them at that Instant, +lighter and mirrier than their own. Other Books they have of involved +abstruse Sense, much like the Rosurcian [Rosycrucian] Style. They +have nothing of the Bible, save collected Parcells for Charms and +counter Charms; not to defend themselves withall, but to operate on +other Animals, for they are a People invulnerable by our Weapons; +and albeit Were-wolves and Witches true Bodies are (by the union +of the Spirit of Nature that runs thorow all, echoing and doubling +the Blow towards another) wounded at Home, when the astrial assumed +Bodies are stricken elsewhere; as the Strings of a Second Harp, tune +to ane unison, Sounds, though only ane be struck; yet these People +have not a second, or so gross a Bodie at all, to be so pierced; but +as Air, which when divyded units againe; or if they feel Pain by +a Blow, they are better Physicians than wee, and quickly cure it. +They are not subject to sore Sicknesses, but dwindle and decay at a +certain Period, all about ane Age. Some say their continual Sadness +is because of their pendulous State, (like those Men, Luc. 13. 2. +6.) as uncertain what at the last Revolution will become of them, +when they are lock’t up into ane unchangeable Condition; and if they +have any frolic Fitts of Mirth, ’tis as the constrained grinning of a +Mort-head, or rather as acted on a Stage, and moved by another, ther +[than?] cordially comeing 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 throwgh their Almsdeeds in this Lyfe; fluid, active, +ætheriall Vehicles to hold them, that they may not scatter, or +wander, and be lost in the Totum, or their first Nothing; but if any +were so impious as to have given no Alms, they say when the Souls of +such do depairt, they sleep in an unactive State till they resume the +terrestriall Bodies again: others, that what the Low-countrey Scotts +calls a Wreath, and the Irish TAIBHSHE[32] 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, exhal’d and congeal’d into a various Likness,[33] +(as Ships and Armies are sometimes shapt in the Air,) and called +astral Bodies, agitated as Wild-fire with Wind, and are neather Souls +or counterfeiting Spirits; yet not a few avouch (as is said,) that +surelie these are a numerous People by them selves, having their +own Polities. Which Diversities of Judgments may occasion severall +Inconsonancies in this Rehearsall, after the narrowest Scrutiny made +about it. + +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 Dairt, with great Force. These +Armes (cut by Airt and Tools it seems beyond humane) have something +of the Nature of Thunderbolt subtilty, 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 inspyred 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 Bodie 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 +divyded; at other Times he out wrested [wrestled?] some of them. His +Neibours often perceaved this Man to disappear at a certane Place, +and about one Hour after to become visible, and discover him selfe +near a Bow-shot from the first Place. It was in that Place where he +became invisible, said he, that the Subterraneans did encounter and +combate with him. Those who are unseened or unsanctified (called Fey) +are said to be pierced or wounded with those People’s Weapons, which +makes them do somewhat verie unlike their former Practice, causing +a sudden Alteration, yet the Cause thereof unperceavable at present; +nor have they Power (either they cannot make use of their natural +Powers, or ask’t not the heavenly Aid,) to escape the Blow impendent. +A Man of the Second Sight perceaved a Person standing by him (sound +to others view) wholly gored in Blood, and he (amazed-like) bid him +instantly flee. The whole Man laught at his Airt 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 stab’d him with their Weapons. They also pierce Cows or other +Animals, usewally said to be Elf-shot, whose purest Substance (if +they die) these Subterraneans take to live on, viz. the aereal and +ætherial Parts, the most spirituous Matter for prolonging of Life, +such as Aquavitæ (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 +warme Hand were Antidote sufficient against their poyson’d Dairts. + +9. AS Birds and Beasts, whose Bodies are much used to the Change of +the frie and open Air, forsee Storms; so those invisible People are +more sagacious to understand by the Books of Nature Things to come, +than wee, who are pestered with the grosser Dregs of all elementary +Mixtures, and have our purer Spirits choaked by them. The Deer scents +out a Man and Powder (tho a late Invention) at a great Distance; a +hungry Hunter, Bread; and the Raven, a Carrion: Ther Brains, being +long clarified by the high and subtil Air, will observe a very +small Change in a Trice. Thus a Man of the Second Sight, perceaving +the Operations of these forecasting invisible People among us, +(indulged thorow a stupendious 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 Midle, then to the +Shoulders, and at last over the Head, which was visible to no other +Persone. And by observing the Spaces of Time betwixt the severall +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. + +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 beleiving the Souls of their +Predicessors to dwell there.[34] 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 useing Bodies of Air when called Abroad. They also affirme 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 revealling a Murther or notable Injurie done or +receaved, or a Treasure that was forgot in their Liftyme on Earth, +which when disclos’d to a Conjurer alone, the Ghost quite removes. + +IN the nixt Country to that of my former Residence, about the Year +1676, when there was some Scarcity of Graine, a marvelous Illapse 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 Fayrie-hill. The Appearance of +a Treasure was first represented to the Fancy, and then an audible +Voyce named the Place where it was to their awaking Senses. Whereupon +both arose, and meitting accidentallie at the Place, discovered their +Designe; and joyntly digging, found a Vessell as large as a Scottish +Peck, full of small Pieces of good Money, of ancient Coyn; which +halving betuixt them, they sold in Dish-fulls for Dish-fulls of Meall +to the Countrey People. Very many of undoubted Credit saw, and had +of the Coyn 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. + +11. THESE Subterraneans have Controversies, Doubts, Disputs, 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 reveal’d, they transgress and +commit Acts of Injustice, and Sin, by what is above said, as to +their stealling of Nurses to their Children, and that other sort +of Plaginism in catching our Children away, (may seem to heir some +Estate in those invisible Dominions,) which never returne. 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, Hypocracie, Lieing, and +Dissimulation. + +12. AS our Religion oblidges 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 Occurrances as make +a modest Inquiry not contemptable. How much is written of Pigme’s, +Fairies, Nymphs, Syrens, Apparitions, which tho 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, stricking of Hammers, +clashing of Armour, fyling of Iron, will be heard distinctly ever +since Merlin inchaunted those subterranean Wights to a solid manuall +forging of Arm’s to Aurelius Ambrosius and his Brittans, till he +returned; which Merlin being killed in a Battell, and not coming to +loose the Knot, these active Vulcans are there ty’d to a perpetuall +Labour. But to dip no deeper into this Well, I will nixt give some +Account how the Seer my Informer comes to have this secret Way of +Correspondence beyond other Mortalls. + +THERE be odd Solemnities at investing a Man with the Priviledges +of the whole Mistery of this Second Sight. He must run a Tedder +of Hair (which bound a Corps to the Bier) in a Helix [?] about +his Midle, from End to End; then bow his Head downwards, as did +Elijah, 1 Kings, 18, 42. and look back thorough his Legs untill he +sie a Funerall advance till the People cross two Marches; or look +thus back thorough a Hole where was a Knot of Fir. But if the Wind +change Points while the Hair Tedder is ty’d about him, he is in +Peril of his Lyfe. The usewall Method for a curious Person to get a +transient Sight of this otherwise invisible Crew of Subterraneans, +(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 hes ane ill Appearance, as if by this Ceremony ane implicit +Surrender were made of all betwixt the Wizard’s Foot and his Hand, +ere the Person can be admitted a privado to the Airt;) then will he +see a Multitude of Wight’s, like furious hardie Men, flocking to him +haistily from all Quarters, as thick as Atoms in the Air; which are +no Nonentities or Phantasms, Creatures proceiding from ane affrighted +Apprehensione, confused or crazed Sense, but Realities, appearing to +a stable Man in his awaking Sense, and enduring a rationall Tryall of +their Being. Thes thorow Fear strick him breathless and speechless. +The Wizard, defending the Lawfullness 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 Airt, by vouching Elisha to have had the same, and +disclos’d it thus unto his Servant in 2 Kings, 6. 17. when he blinded +the Syrians; and Peter in Act, 5. 9. forseing the Death of Saphira, +by perceaving 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 exhalted 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, tho in their naturall Situations and Stations at a +vast Distance from other. And ’tis said expresly he did let sie them; +not in a Map it seems, nor by a phantastick magicall jugling 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, (compairing this Relation of Math. 4. 8. with the +former,) that the extraordinary or Second Sight can be given by the +Ministery of bad as weill 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 Scholler, by telling of +the Gradations of Nature, ordered by a wise Provydence; that as the +Sight of Bats and Owls transcend that of Shrews and Moles, so the +visive Faculties of Men are clearer than those of Owls; as Eagles, +Lynxs, and Cats are brighter than Mens. 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 ane artificiall +Improvement of their natural Sight in others; resembling in their own +Kynd the usuall artificiall Helps of optic Glasses, (as Prospectives, +Telescopes, and Microscopes,) without which ascititious Aids those +Men here treated of do perceive Things that, for their Smallness, or +Subtility, and Secrecy, are invisible to others, tho dayly conversant +with them; they having such a Beam continuallie about them as that +of the Sun, which when it shines clear only, lets common Eyes see +the Atomes, in the Air, that without those Rayes they could not +discern; for some have this Second Sight transmitted from Father to +Sone thorow 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 complexionall Quality of the first Acquirer. As +it may seem alike strange (yet nothing vicious) in such as Master +Great-rake,[35] the Irish Stroaker, Seventh-sons, and others that +cure the King’s Evill, and chase away Deseases and Pains, with only +stroaking of the affected Pairt; which (if it be not the Reliques +of miraculous Operations, or some secret Virtue in the Womb, of the +Parent, which increaseth until Seventh-sons be borne, and decreaseth +by the same Degrees afterwards,) proceids only from the sanitive +Balsome of their healthfull Constitutions; Virtue going out from them +by spirituous Effluxes unto the Patient, and their vigorous healthy +Spirits affecting the sick as usewally the unhealthy Fumes of the +sick infect the sound and whole. + +13. THE Minor Sort of Seers prognosticat 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 Opperations of those that +travell 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 Moneth; and if any Cattell there will take a +Trake, as if Planet-struck. Then will they prescribe a Preservative +and Prevention. + +14. A WOMAN (it seems ane Exception from the generall Rule,) +singularlie wise in these Matters of Foirsight, living in Colasnach, +ane Isle of the Hebrides, (in the Time of the Marquess of Montrose +his Wars with the States in Scotland,) being notorious among many; +and so examined by some that violently seazed 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 Enemyes, sometime for Friends; and morover they look’t +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 Enemie sailed, was a little befoir taken from the +Inhabitants of that same 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 deceave. +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 neer 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 +succeid, the Beast would furiously thrust her and the Crosses over on +the Ground, and so vanish to his Place. + +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 lingring Image +of her substituted Bodie in her Roome, which Resemblance decay’d, +dy’d, and was bur’d. But the Person stollen returning to her Husband +after two Years Space, he being convinced by many undenyable Tokens +that she was his former Wyfe, admitted her Home, and had diverse +Children by her. Among other Reports she gave her Husband, this was +one: That she perceived litle what they did in the spacious House +she lodg’d in, untill she anointed one of her Eyes with a certain +Unction that was by her; which they perceaving to have acqainted +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 +Countrey nixt to that of my last Residence, and might furnish Matter +of Dispute amongst Casuists, whither if her Husband had been mary’d +in the Interim of her two Years Absence, he was oblidged to divorse +from the second Spouse at the Return of the first. There is ane Airt, +appearingly without Superstition, for recovering of such as are +stolen, but think it superfluous to insert it. + +I SAW a Woman of fourtie Years of Age, and examined her (having +another Clergie Man in my Companie) about a Report that past of her +long fasting [_her Name is not intyre_.][36] It was told by them of +the House, as well as her selfe, that she tooke verie little or no +Food for severall 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 sleep’t upon a Hillock, and finding her +self transported to another Place before Day. The Woman had a Child +since that Time, and is still prettie melanchollyous and silent, +hardly ever seen to laugh. Her natural Heat and radical Moisture seem +to be equally balanced, lyke ane unextinguished Lamp, and going in a +Circle, not unlike to the faint Lyfe of Bees, and some Sort of Birds, +that sleep all the Winter over, and revive in the Spring. + +IT is usuall in all magicall Airts to have the Candidates +prepossessit with a Believe of their Tutor’s Skill, and Ability to +perform their Feats, and act their jugling 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 soe put +to it by a Seer, before many Witnesses, that he lost his Speech and +Power of his Legs, and breathing excessively, as if expyring, because +of the many fearfull Wights that appeared to him. The Companie were +forced to carrie him into the House. + +IT is notoriously known what in Killin, within Perthshire, fell +tragically out with a Yeoman that liv’d hard by, who coming into a +Companie within ane 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 Hous; and being asked the Reason of his hast, told that +the intrant Man should die within two Days; at which News the named +Intrant stabb’d the Seer, and was himself executed two Days after for +the Fact. + +A MINISTER, verie intelligent, but misbelieving all such Sights as +were not ordinar, chanceing to be in a narrow Lane with a Seer, who +perceaving a Wight of a known Visage furioslie to encounter them, +the Seer desired the Minister to turn out of the Way; who scorning +his Reason, and holding him selfe 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 +Lyfe. A little after the Minister was carried Home, one came to tol +the Bell for the Death of the Man whose Representation met them in +the narrow Path some Halfe ane Hour before. + +ANOTHER Example is: A Seer in Kintyre, in Scotland, sitting at Table +with diverse others, suddenly did cast his Head aside. The Companie +asking him why he did it, he answered, that such a Friend of his, by +Name, then in Ireland, threatened immediately to cast a Dish-full 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 verie 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 Opticks perceive no other Object so readily as this, at +such a Distance. + + + + + A SUCCINT ACCOMPT + OF + MY LORD TARBOTT’S RELATIONS, + IN A LETTER TO THE + HONOURABLE ROBERT BOYLE, ESQUIRE, + OF THE + PREDICTIONS MADE BY SEERS, + Whereof himself was Ear and Eye-witness. + + [I thought fit to adjoyne [it] hereunto, that I might not + be thought singular in this Disquisition; that the Mater of + Fact might be undenyably made out; and that I might, with all + Submission, give Annotations, with Animadversions, on his + supposed Causes of that Phenomenon, with my Reasons of Dissent + from his Judgement.] + + +SIR, + +I HEARD very much, but beleived very little, of the Second Sight; +yet its being assumed by severall of great Veracity, I was induced +to make Inquirie after it in the Year 1652, being then confin’d to +abide in the North of Scotland by the English Usurpers. The more +generall Accounts of it were, that many Highlanders, yet far more +Islanders, were qualified with this Second Sight; that Men, Women, +and Children, indistinctly, were subject to it, and Children, where +Parents were not. Some times People came to age, who had it not when +young, nor could any tell by what Means produced. It is a Trouble to +most of them who are subject to it, and they would be rid of it any +Rate if they could. The Sight is of no long Duration, only continuing +so long as they can keep their Eyes steady without twinkling. The +hardy therefore fix their look, that they may see the longer; but +the timorous see only Glances, their Eyes always twinkles at the +first Sight of the Object. That which generally is seen by them, are +the Species of living Creatures, and of inanimate Things, which was +in Motion, such as Ships, and Habits upon Persons. They, never sie +the Species of any Person who is already dead. What they foirsie +fails not to exist in the Mode, and in that Place where it appears +to them. They cannot well know what Space of Time shall interveen +between the Apparition and the real Existance: But some of the +hardiest and longest Experience have some Rules for Conjectures; as, +if they sie a Man with a shrowding Sheet in the Apparition, they will +conjecture at the Nearness or Remoteness of his Death by the more +or less of his Bodie that is covered by it. They will ordinarily +sie their absent Friends, tho at a great Distance, some tymes no +less than from America to Scotland, sitting, standing, or walking +in some certain Place; and then they conclude with a Assurance that +they will sie them so and there. If a Man be in love with a Woman, +they will ordinarily sie the Species of that Man standing by her, +and so likewise if a Woman be in love; and they conjecture at their +Enjoyments (of each other) by the Species touching (of) the Person, +or appearing at a Distance from her (if they enjoy not one another.) +If they sie the Species of any Person who is sick to die, they sie +them covered over with the shrowding Sheet. + +THESE Generalls I had verified to me by such of them as did sie, +and were esteemed honest and sober by all the Neighbourhood; for I +inquired after such for my Information. And because there were more +of these Seers in the Isles of Lewis, Harris, and Uist, than in any +other Place, I did entreat Sir James M‘Donald (who is now dead) Sir +Normand M‘Loud, and Mr. Daniel Morison, a verie honest Person, (who +are still alive,) to make Inquirie in this uncouth Sight, and to +acquaint me therewith; which they did, and all found ane Agriement in +these Generalls, and informed me of many Instances confirming what +they said. But though Men of Discretion and Honour, being but at +2d Hand, I will choose rather to put myself than my Friends on the +Hazard of being laughed at for incredible Relations. + +I WAS once travelling in the Highlands, and a good Number of Servants +with me, as is usuall there; and one of them going a little before +me, entering into a House where I was to stay all Night, and going +haistily to the Door, he suddenly stept back with a Screech, and did +fall by a Stone, which hit his Foot. I asked what the Matter was, for +he seemed to be very much frighted. He told me very seriously that I +should not lodge in that House, because shortly a dead Coffin would +be carried out of it, for many were carrying of it when he was heard +cry. I neglecting his Words, and staying there, he said to other of +his Servants, he was sorry for it, and that surely what he saw would +shortly come to pass. Tho no sick Person was then there, yet the +Landlord, a healthy Highlander, died of ane appoplectick Fit before I +left the House. + +In the year 1653, Alexander Monro (afterward Lieut. Coll. to the +Earl of Dunbarton’s Regiment,) and I were walking in a Place called +Ullabill, in Lochbroom, on a little Plain, at the Foot of a rugged +Hill. There was a Servant working with a Spade in the Walk before +us; his Back was to us, and his Face to the Hill. Before we came +to him, he let the Spade fall, and looked toward the Hill. He took +Notice of us as wee passed neer by him, which made me look at him; +and perceiving him to stair a little strangely, I conjectured him to +be a Seer. I called at him, at which he started and smiled. What are +you doing? said I. He answered, I have seen a very strange Thing; ane +Army of Englishmen, leeding of Horses, coming doun that Hill; and a +Number of them are come down to the Plain, and eating the Barley, +which is growing in the Field neer to the Hill. This was on the 4th +May, (for I notted the Day,) and it was four or fyve Days before the +Barley was sown in the Field he spoke of. Alexander Monro asked him +how he knew they were Englishmen? He said, because they were leeding +of Horses, and had on Hats and Bootts, which he knew no Scot Man +would have there. We took little Notice of the whole Storie, as other +than a foolish Vision; but wished that ane English Partie were there, +we being then at Warr with them, and the Place almost unaccessable +for Horsemen. But in the Beginning of August therafter, the Earle of +Midleton (then Lieut. for the King in the Highlands) having occasion +to march a Party of his toward the South Highlands, he sent his Foot +thorow a Place called Inverlawell; and the Fore-partie which was +first down the Hill, did fall off eating the Barley which was on the +litle Plain under it. And Monro calling to mynd what the Seer told +us, in May preceiding, he wrote of it, and sent ane Express to me to +Lochslin, in Ross, (where I then was) with it. + +I HAD Occasion once to be in Companie where a Young Lady was, (excuse +my not naming of Persons,) and I was told there was a notable Seer +in the Companie. I called him to speak with me, as I did ordinarly +when I found any of them; and after he had answered me to several +Questions, I asked if he knew any Person to be in love with that +Lady. He said he did, but he knew not the Person; for during the two +Dayes he had been in her Company, he perceaved one standing neer her, +and his Head leaning on her Shoulder; which he said did fore-tell +that the Man should marrie her, and die before her, according to his +Observation. This was in the Year 1655. I desired him to describe the +Person, which he did; so that I could conjecture, by the Description, +of such a one, who was of that Ladyes Acquaintance, tho there were +no thought of their Marriage till two Years thereafter. And having +Occasion, in the Year 1657, to find this Seer, who was ane Islander, +in Company with the other Person whom I conjectured to have been +described by him, I called him aside, and asked if that was the +Person he saw beside the Lady near two Years then past. He said it +was he indeed, for he had seen that Lady just then standing by him +Hand in Hand. This was some few Months before their Marriage, and +that Man is since dead, and the Lady still alive. + +I SHALL trouble you but with one more, which I thought most +remarkable of any that occurred to me. In January 1652, the above +mentioned Lieut. Coll. Alex. Monro and I happened to be in the House +of one Wm. M‘Cleud of Ferrinlea, in the County of Ross. He, the +Landlord, and I were sitting in three Chairs neir the Fire, and in +the Corner of the great Chimney there were two Islanders, who were +that verie Night come to the Hous, and were related to the Landlord. +While the one of them was talking with Monro, I perceaved the other +to look oddly toward me. From this Look, and his being ane Islander, +I conjectured him a Seer, and asked him, at what he stair’d? He +answered, by desiring me to rise from that Chair, for it was ane +unluckie one. I asked him why. He answered, because there was a dead +Man in the Chair nixt to me. Well, said I, if it be in the nixt +Chair, I may keep mine own. But what is the Likness of the Man? He +said he was a tall Man, with a long Grey Coat, booted, and one of +his Legs hanging over the Arme of the Chair, and his head hanging +dead to the other Side, and his Arme backward, as if it were brocken. +There were some English Troops then quartered near that Place, and +there being at that Time a great Frost after a Thaw, the Country was +covered all over with Yce. Four or Fyve of the English ryding by +this House some two Hours after the Vision, while we were sitting by +the Fire, we heard a great Noise, which prov’d to be those Troopers, +with the Help of other Servants, carrying in one of their Number, who +had got a very mischeivous Fall, and had his Arme broke; and falling +frequently in swooning Fits, they brought him into the Hall, and set +him in the verie Chair, and in the verie Posture that the Seer had +prophesied. But the Man did not die, though he recovered with great +Difficulty. + +AMONG the Accounts given me by Sir Normand M‘clud, there was one +worth of special Notice, which was thus. There [was] a Gentleman in +the Isle of Harris, who was always seen by the Seers with ane Arrow +in his Thigh. Such in the Isle who thought those prognostications +infalliable, did not doubt but he would be shot in the Thigh before +he died. Sir Normand told me that he heard it the Subject of their +Discourse for many Years. At last he died without any such Accident. +Sir Normand was at his Buriall, at St Clement’s Church in the Harris. +At the same Time, the Corps of another Gentleman was brought to be +buried in the same verie Church. The Friends on either Side came to +debate who should first enter the Church, and in a Trice from Words +they came to Blows. One of the Number (who was arm’d with Bow and +Arrows) let one fly among them. (Now everie Familie in that Isle have +their Buriall-place in the Church in Stone Chests, and the Bodies +are carried in open Biers to the Buriall-place.) Sir Normand having +appeased the Tumult, one of the Arrows was found shot in the dead +Man’s Thigh. To this Sir Normand was a Witness. + +IN the Account which Mr Daniel Morison, Parson in the Lewis, gave +me, there was one, tho it be hetergeneous from the subject, yet it +may [be] worth your Notice. It was of a young Woman in his Parish, +who was mightily frightned by seeing her own Image still before her, +alwayes when she came to the open Air; the Back of the Image being +alwayes to her, so that it was not a reflection as in a Mirrour, but +the Species of such a Body as her own, and in a very like Habit, +which appeared to herself continually before her. The Parson keept +her a long whyle with him, but had no Remedy of her Evill, which +troubled her exceidingly. I was told afterwards, that when she was +four or fyve Years elder she saw it not. + +THESE are Matters of Fact, which I assure yow they are truely +related. But these, and all others that occurred to me, by +Information or otherwise, could never lead me into a remote +Conjecture of the Cause of so extraordinary a Phænomenon. Whither it +be a Quality in the Eyes of some People into these Pairts, concurring +with a Quality in the Air also; whither such Species be every where, +tho not seen by the Want of Eyes so qualified, or from whatever other +Cause, I must leave to the Inquiry of clearer Judgements than mine. +But a Hint may be taken from this image which appeared still to this +Woman abovementioned, and from another mentioned by Aristotle, in +the 4th of his Metaphysicks (if I remember right, for it is long +since I read it;) as also from the common Opinion that young Infants +(unsullied with many Objects) do sie Appearitions, which were not +seen by those of elder Years; as like wise from this, that severalls +did sie the Second Sight when in the Highlands or Isles, yet when +transported to live in other Countreys, especially in America, they +quite lose this Qualitie, as was told me by a Gentleman who knew some +of them in Barbadoes, who did see no Vision there, altho he knew them +to be Seers when they lived in the Isles of Scotland. + + Thus far my Lord Tarbett. + + * * * * * + +MY LORD, after narrow Inquisition, hath delivered many true and +remarkable observes on this Subject; yet to encourage a further +Scrutiny, I crave leave to say, + +THAT 1. But a few Women are endued with this Sight in respect of Men, +and their Predictions not so certane. + +2. This Sight is not criminal, since a Man can come by it unawares, +and without his Consent; but it is certaine he sie more fatall and +fearfull Things than he do gladsome. + +3. THE Seers avouch, that severalls who go to the _Siths_, (or +People at Rest, and, in respect of us, in Peace,) before the natural +Period of their Lyfe expyre, do frequently appear to them. + +4. A VEHEMENT Desyre to attain this Airt is very helpfull to the +Inquyrer; and the Species of ane Absent Friend, which appears to the +Seers, as clearly as if he had sent his lively Picture to present it +selfe before him, is no phantastick Shaddow of a sick Apprehension, +but a reality, and a Messinger, coming for unknown Reasons, not from +the originall Similitude of it selfe, but from a more swift and +pragmantick People, which recreat them selves in offering secret +Intelligence to Men, tho generally they are unacquainted with that +Kind of Correspondence, as if they had lived in a different element +from them. + +5. THO my Collections were written long before I saw My Lord of +Tarbett’s, yet I am glad that his descriptions and mine correspond +so nearly. The Maid my Lord mentions, who saw her Image still before +her, suteth with the CO-WALKER named in my Account; which tho some, +at first Thought, might conjecture to be by the Refraction of a Cloud +or Mist, as in the Parelij, (the whole Air and every Drop of Water +being a Mirrour to returne the Species of Things, were our visive +Faculty sharpe enough to apprehend them,) or a naturall Reflexion, +from the same Reasons that an Echo can be redoubled by Airt; yet it +were more fasable to impute this Second Sight to a Quality infused +into the Eye by ane Unction: for Witchies have a sleepie Oyntment, +that, when applyed, troubles their Fantasies, advancing it to have +unusuall Figures and Shapes represented to it, as if it were a Fit +of Fanaticism, Hypocondriack Melancholly, or Possession of some +insinuating Spirit, raising the Soul beyond its common Strain, if the +palpable Instances and Realities seen, and innocently objected to the +Senses did not disprove it, make the Matter a palpable Verity, and no +Deception; yet since this Sight can be bestowed without Oyntment, or +dangerous Compact, the Qualification is not of so bad an Originall. +Therefore, + +6. BY my Lord’s good Leave, I presume to say, that this Sight can +be no Quality of the Air nor of the Eyes; becaus, 1. such as live in +the same Air, and sie all other Things as farr off and as clearly, +yet have not the SECOND SIGHT. 2. A SEER can give another Person +this Sight transiently, by putting his Hand and Foot in the Posture +he requires of him. 3. The unsullied Eyes of Infants can naturally +perceave no new unaccustomed Objects, but what appear to other Men, +unless exalted and clarified some Way, as Ballaam’s Ass for a Time; +tho in a Witches Eye the Beholder cannot sie his own Image reflected, +as in the Eyes of other People; so that Defect of Objects, as well +as Diversities of the Subject, may appear differently on severall +Tempers and Ages. 4. Tho also some are of so venemous a Constitution, +by being radicated in Envy and Malice, that they pierce and kill +(like a Cockatrice) whatever Creature they first set their Eye on +in the Morning; so was it with Walter Grahame, some Time living in +the Paroch wherein now I am, who killed his own Cow after commending +its Fatness, and shot a Hair with his Eyes, having praised its +swiftness, (such was the Infection of ane evill Eye;) albeit this was +unusuall, yet he saw no Object but what was obvious to other Men as +well as to himselfe. 5. If the being transported to live in another +Countrey did obscure the Second Sight, nather the Parson nor the Maid +needed be much troubled for her Reflex-selfe; a little Peregrination, +and going from her wonted Home, would have salved her Fear. Wherefore, + +7. SINCE the Things seen by the Seers are real Entities, the Presages +and Predictions found true, but a few endued with this Sight, and +those not of bad Lyves, or addicted to Malifices, the true Solution +of the Phænomenon seems rather to be, the courteous Endeavours of +our fellow Creatures in the Invisible World to convince us, (in +Opposition to Sadduce’s, Socinians, and Atheists,) of a Deity; of +Spirits; of a possible and harmless Method of Correspondence betwixt +Men and them, even in this Lyfe; of their Operation for our Caution +and Warning; of the Orders and Degrees of Angells, whereof one +Order, with Bodies of Air condensed and curiously shap’t, may be +nixt to Man, superior to him in Understanding, yet unconfirmed; and +of their Region, Habitation, and Influences on Man, greater than +that of Starrs on inanimat Bodies; a Knowledge (be-like) reserved +for these last atheistick Ages, wherein the Profanity of Mens Lives +hath debauched and blinded their Understanding, as to MOSES, JESUS, +and the Prophets, (unless they get Convictions from Things formerly +known,) as from the Regions of the Dead: nor doth the ceasing of +the Visions, upon the Seers Transmigration into forrein Kingdoms, +make his Lordship’s Conjecture of the Quality of the Air and Eye a +white the more probable; but, on the Contrary, it confirms greatly +my Account of ane Invisible People, guardian over and care-full of +Men, who have their different Offices and Abilities in distinct +Counterey’s, as appears in Dan. 10. 13. viz. about Israels, Grecia’s, +and Persia’s assistant Princes, whereof who so prevaileth giveth +Dominion and Ascendant to his Pupills and Vassalls over the opposite +Armies and Countreys; so that every Countrey and Kingdom having +their topical Spirits, or Powers assisting and governing them, +the SCOTTISH SEER banished to America, being a Stranger there, as +well to the invisible as to the visible Inhabitants, and wanting +a Fimiliarity of his former Correspondents, he could not have the +Favour and Warnings, by the severall Visions and Predictions which +were wont to be granted him by these Acquantances and Fayourites in +his own Countrey. For if what he wont to sie were Realities, (as I +have made appear,) ’twere too great ane Honour for Scotland to have +such seldom-seen Watchers and predominant Powers over it alone, +acting in it so expressly, and all other Nations wholly destitute of +the lyke; tho, without all peradventure, all other People wanted the +right Key of their Cabinet, and the exact Method of Correspondence +with them, except the sagacious active Scots, as many of them have +retained it of a long Time, and by Surpryses and Raptures do often +foirtell what in Kyndness is really represented to them at severall +Occasions. To which Purpose the learned lynx-ey’d Mr. Baxter, on Rev. +12. 7. writting of the Fight betwixt Michaell and the Dragon, gives a +verie pertinent Note, viz. That he knows not but ere any great Action +(especiall tragicall) is don on Earth, that first the Battell and +Victory is acted and atchieved in the Air betwixt the good and evill +Spirits: Thus he. It seems these were the mens Guardians; and the +lyke Battells are oft tymes perceav’d in a Loaft in the Nycht-time; +the Event of which myght easily be represented by some one of the +Number to a Correspondent on Earth, as frequently the Report of +great Actions have been more swiftly caried to other Countreys than +all the Airt of us Mortals could possibly dispatch it. St. Austine, +on Mark, 9. 4. giveth no small Intimation of this Truth, averring +that Elias appeared with Jesus on the Mount in his proper Bodie, but +Moses in ane aereall Bodie, assumed like the Angels who appeared, and +had Ability to eat with Abraham, tho no Necessity on the Account of +their Bodies. As lyke wise the late Doctrine of the Pre-existence +of Souls, living into aereall Vehicles, gives a singular Hint of +the Possibility of the Thing, if not a direct Prooff of the whole +Assertion; which yet moreover may be illuminated by diverse other +Instances of the lyke Nature, and as wonderfull, besides what is +above said. As, + +8. THE invisible Wights which haunt Houses seem rather to be some +of our subterranean Inhabitants, (which appear often to Men of the +Second Sight,) than evill Spirits or Devills; because, tho they +throw great Stones, Pieces of Earth and Wood, at the Inhabitants, +they hurt them not at all, as if they acted not malitiously, like +Devills at all, but in Sport, lyke Buffoons and Drolls. All Ages have +affoorded some obscure Testimonies of it, as Pythagoras his Doctrine +of Transmigration; Socrates’s Dæmon that gave him [Warning] of future +Dangers; Platoe’s classing them into various vehiculated Specieses +of Spirits; Dionisius Areopagita’s marshalling nyne Orders of +Spirits, superiour and subordinate; the Poets their borrowing of the +Philosophers, and adding their own Fancies of Fountain, River, and +Sea Nymphs, Wood, Hill, and Montain Inhabitants, and that every Place +and Thing, in Cities and Countreys, had speciall invisible regular +Gods and Governours. Cardan speaks of his Father his seeing the +Species of his Friend, in a moon-shyn Night, riding fiercely by his +Window on a white Horse, the verie Night his Friend dy’d at a Vast +Distance from him; by which he understood that some Alteration would +suddenly ensue. Cornelius Aggrippa, and the learned Dr. Mor, have +severall Passages tending that Way. The Noctambulo’s themselves would +appear to have some forrein joquing Spirit possessing and supporting +them, when they walk on deep Waters and Topes of Houses without +Danger, when asleep and in the dark; for it was no way probable that +their Apprehension, and strong Imagination setting the Animal Spirits +a work to move the Body, could preserve it from sinking in the +Deepth, or falling down head-long, when asleep, any more than when +awake, the Body being then as ponderous as before; and it is hard +to attribute it to a Spirit flatelie evill and Enemy to Man, because +the Noctambulo returns to his own Place safe. And the most furious +Tribe of the Dæmons are not permitted by Providence to attacke Men so +frequently either by Night or by Day: For in our Highlands, as there +may be many fair Ladies of this aereal Order, which do often tryst +with lascivious young Men, in the quality of Succubi, or lightsome +Paramours and Strumpets, called _Leannain Sith_, or familiar +Spirits (in Dewter. 18. 11.); so do many of our Hyghlanders, as if +a strangling by the Night MARE, pressed with a fearfull Dream, or +rather possessed by one of our aereall Neighbours, rise up fierce in +the Night, and apprehending the neerest Weapons, do push and thrust +at all Persons in the same Room with them, sometymes wounding their +own Comerades to dead. The lyke whereof fell sadly out within a few +Miles of me at the writting hereof. I add but one Instance more, of +a very young Maid, who lived neir to my last Residence, that in one +Night learned a large Peice of Poesy, by the frequent Repetition +of it, from one of our nimble and courteous Spirits, whereof a Part +was pious, the rest superstitious, (for I have a Copy of it,) and no +other Person was ever heard to repeat it before, nor was the Maid +capable to compose it of herself. + +9. He demonstrated and made evident to Sense this extraordinary +Vision of our Tramontain Seers, and what is seen by them, by what is +said above, many haveing seen this same Spectres and Apparitions at +once, haveing their visive Faculties entire; for _non est disputandum +de gustu_. Itt now remaines to shew that it is not unsutable to +Reason nor the Holy Scriptures. + +FIRST, That it is not repugnant to Reason, doeth appear from this, +that it is no less strange for Immortal Sparks and Souls to come +and be immersed into gross terrestrial elementary Bodies, and be +so propagated, so nourished, so fed, soe cloathed as they are, +and breathe in such ane Air and World prepared for them, then for +Hollanders or Hollow-cavern Inhabitants to live and traffick among +us, in another State of Being, without our Knowledge. For Raymond de +Subinde, in his 3d Booke, Chap. 12. argues quaintly, that all Sorts +of Living Creatures have a happie rational Politie of there own, with +great Contentment; which Government and mutual Converse of theirs +they all pride and pluim themselves, because it is as unknown to Man, +as Man is to them. Much more, that the Sone of the HIGHEST SPIRIT +should assume a Bodie like ours, convinces all the World that no +other Thing that is possible needs be much wondered at. + +2. The Manucodiata, or Bird of Paradise, living in the highest +Region of the Air; common Birds in the second Region; Flies and +Insects in the lowest; Men and Beasts on the Earth’s Surface; +Worms, Otters, Badgers, in Waters; lyke wise Hell is inhabited at +the Centre, and Heaven in the Circumference: can we then think +the middle Cavities of the Earth emptie? I have seen in Weems, (a +Place in the Countie of Fyfe, in Scotland,) divers Caves cut out +as vast Temples under Ground; the lyke is a Countie of England; +in Malta is a Cave, wherein Stons of a curious Cut are thrown in +great Numbers every Day; so I have had barbed Arrow-heads of yellow +Flint, that could not be cut so small and neat, of so brittle a +Substance, by all the Airt of Man. It would seem therefoir that +these mention’d Works were done by certaine Spirits of pure Organs, +and not by Devills, whose continual Torments could not allow them +so much Leasure. Besides these, I have found fyve Curiosities in +Scotland, not much observ’d to be elsewhere. 1. The Brounies, who +in some Families are Drudges, clean the Houses and Dishes after all +go to Bed, taking with him his Portion of Food and removing befor +Day-break. 2. The Mason Word, which tho some make a Misterie of it, +I will not conceal a little of what I know. It is lyke a Rabbinical +Tradition, in way of Comment on Jachin and Boaz, the two Pillars +erected in Solomon’s Temple, (1 Kings, 7. 21.) with ane Addition +of some secret Signe delyvered from Hand to Hand, by which they +know and become familiar one with another. 3. This Second Sight, +so largely treated of before. 4. Charmes, and curing by them very +many Diseases, sometimes by transferring the Sicknes to another. +5. A being Proof of Lead, Iron, and Silver, or a Brieve making Men +invulnerable. Divers of our Scottish Commanders and Souldiers have +been seen with blue Markes only, after they were shot with leaden +Balls; which seems to be an Italian Trick, for they seem to be a +People too currious and magically inclyned, Finally Iris-men, our +Northern-Scotish, and our Athole Men are so much addicted to and +delighted with Harps and Musick, as if, like King Saul, they were +possessed with a forrein Spirit, only with this Difference, that +Musick did put Saul’s Pley-fellow a sleep, but roused and awaked +our Men, vanquishing their own Spirits at Pleasure, as if they were +impotent of its Powers, and unable to command it; for wee have seen +some poor Beggers of them, chattering their Teeth for Cold, that how +soon they saw the Fire, and heard the Harp, leapt thorow the House +like Goats and Satyrs. As there paralell Stories in all Countries and +Ages reported of these our obscure People, (which are no Dotages,) +so is it no more of Necessitie to us fully to know their Beings and +Manner of Life, then to understand distinctly the Politie of the nyne +Orders of Angels; or with what Oyl the Lamp of the Sun is maintained +so long and regularlie; or why the Moon is called a great Luminary +in Scripture, while it only appears to be so; or if the Moon be +truly inhabited, because Telescopes discover Seas and Mountains in +it, as well as flaming Furnishes in the Sun; or why the Discovery of +America was look’t on as a Fairie Tale, and the Reporters hooted at +as Inventors of ridiculous Utopias, or the first probable Asserters +punished as Inventures of new Gods and Worlds; or why in England the +King cures the Struma by stroaking, and the Seventh Son in Scotland; +whither his temperat Complexion conveys a Balsome, and sucks out +the corrupting Principles by a frequent warme sanative Contact, or +whither the Parents of the Seventh Child put furth a more eminent +Virtue to his Production than to all the Rest, as being the certain +Meridian and hight to which their Vigour ascends, and from that furth +have a graduall declyning into a feebleness of the Bodie and its +Production. And then, 1. Why is not the 7th Son infected himselfe +by that Contagion he extracts from another? 2. How can continual +stroaking with a cold Hand have foe strong a natural Operation, as +to exhale all the Infections warming corroding Vapours. 3. Why may +not a 7th Daughter have the same Vertue? So that it appears, albeit, +a happie natural Constitution concurre, yet something in it above +Nature. Therefore every Age hath left some secret for its Discoverie; +who knows but this Entercourse betwixt the two Kinds of rationall +Inhabitants of the same Earth may be not only beleived shortly, +but as friely entertain’d, and as well known, as now the Airt of +Navigation, Printing, Limning, riding on Saddles with Stirrups, +and the Discoveries of Microscopes, which were sometimes a great a +Wonder, and as hard to be beleived. + +10. THO I will not be so curious nor so peremptorie as he who will +prove the Posibility of the Philosopher’s Stone from Scripture, +Job, 28. 1. 2. Job, 22. 24. 25.; or the Pluralitie of Worlds, from +John, 14. 2. and Hebrews ij. 3.; nor the Circulation of Blood from +Eccles. 12. and 6.; nor the Tanismanical Airt, from the Blind and +Lame mentioned in 2d of Samuel, 5. 6. yet I humblie propose these +Passages which may give some Light to our Subject at least, and show +that this Polity and Rank of People is not a Thing impossible, nor +the modest and innocent Scrutiny of them impertinent or unsafe. The +Legion or Brigad of Spirits (mentioned Mark, 5. 10.) besought our +Saviour not to send them away out of the Countrey; which shows they +were DÆMONES LOCI, Topical Spirits, and peculiar Superintendents and +Supervisors assign’d to that Province. And the Power over the Nations +granted (Rev. 2. 26.) to the Conquerors of Vice and Infidelitie, +Sound somewhat to that Purpose. Tobit had a Dæmon attending Marriage, +Chap. 6. Verse, 15; and in Matth. 4. and 5. ane evill Spirit came in +a Visible Shape to tempt our Saviour, who himselfe denyed not the +sensible appearing of Ghosts to our Sight, but said, their Bodies +were not composed of Flesh and Bones, as ours, Luke, 24. 39. And in +Philip. 2. 10. our verie Subterraneans are expressly said to bow to +the Name of JESUS. Elisha, not intellectually only, but sensibly, saw +Gehazi when out of the Reach of ane ordinary View. It wants not good +Evidents that there are more managed by God’s Spirits, good, evill, +and intermediate Spirits, among Men in this World, then we are aware +of; the good Spirits ingesting fair and heroick Apprehensions and +Images of Vertue and the divyne Life, thereby animating us to act for +a higher Happines, according to our Improvement; and relinquishing +us as strangely upon our Neglect, or our embraceing the deceatfull +syrene-like Pictures and Representations of Pleasures and Gain, +presented to our Imaginations by evill and sportfull Angells, to +allure to ane unthinking, ungenerous, and sensual Lyfe; non of them +having power to compell us to any Misdemeanour without our flat +Consent. Moreover, this Life of ours being called a Warfair, and +God’s saying that at last there will be no Peace to the Wicked, our +bussie and silent Companions also being called _Siths_, or _People +at Rest and Quiet_, in respect of us; and withall many Ghosts +appearing to Men that want this _Second Sight_, in the very Shapes, +and speaking the same Language, they did when incorporate and alive +with us; a Matter that is of ane old imprescriptible Tradition, (_our +Highlanders_ making still a Distinction betwixt _Sluagh Saoghalta_ +and _Sluagh Sith_, averring that the Souls goe to the _Sith_ when +dislodged;) many real Treasures and Murders being discovered by Souls +that pass from among our selves, or by the Kindness of these our +airie Neighbours, non of which Spirits can be altogither inorganical. +No less than the Conseits about Purgatory, or a State of Rescue; the +_Limbus Patrum et Infantum_, Inventions, [which] tho misapplyed, yet +are not Chimæras, and altogither groundless. For _ab origine_, it is +nothing but blansh and faint Discoveries of this SECRET REPUBLICK +of ours here treated on, and additional Fictions of Monks doting +and crazied Heads, our Creed saying that our Saviour descended εἰς +ᾅδου, to the invisible Place and People. And many Divines supposing +that the Deity appear’d in a visible Shape seen by Adam in the Cooll +of the Day, and speaking to him with ane audible voice. And Jesus, +probably by the Ministery of invisible Attendants, conveying more +meat of the same Kind to the fyve Thowsand that wes fed by him with +a very few Loaves and Fishes, (for a new Creation it was not.) The +Zijmjiim and Ochim, in Isa. 13. 21. 22. Thes Satyres, and doolfull +unknown Creatures of Islands and Deserts, seem to have a plain +Prospect that Way. Finally, the eternal Happiness enjoyed in the 3d +Heavens, being more mysterious than most of Men take it to be. It is +not a sense whollie adduced to Scripture to say, that this SIGHT, and +the due Objects of it, hath some Vestige in holy Write, but rather +’tis modestly deduced from it. + +11. It only now remains to ansear the obvious Objections against the +Reality and Lawfullness of this Speculation. + +QUESTION 1. How do you salve the Second Sight from Compact and +Witchcraft? + +ANSWER. Tho this Correspondence with the Intermediate Unconfirm’d +People (betwixt Man and Angell) be not ordinary to all of us who are +Superterraneans, yet this SIGHT falling some Persons by Accident, and +its being connatural to others from their Birth, the Derivation of it +cannot always be wicked. A too great Curiositie, indeed, to acquyre +any unnecessary Airt, may be blameworthy; but diverse of the SECRET +COMMONWEALTH may, by Permission, discover themselves as innocently to +us, who are in another State, as some of us Men do to Fishes, which +are in another Element, when we plunge and dive into the Bottom of +the Seas, their native Region; and in Process of Time we may come to +converse as familiarly with these nimble and agile Clans (but with +greater Pleasure and Profit,) as we do now with the Chino’s Antipodes. + +QUESTION 2. Are they subject to Vice, Lusts? Passion, and Injustice, +as we who live on the Surface of the Earth? + +ANSWER. The Seers tell us that these wandering Aereal People have +not such an Impetus and fatall Tendency to any Vice as Men, as not +being drenched into so gross and dregy Bodies as we, but yet are +in ane imperfect State, and some of them making better Essays for +heroick Actions than others; having the same Measures of Vertue +and Vice as wee, and still expecting advancement to a higher and +more splendid State of Lyfe. One of them is stronger than many +Men, yet do not incline to hurt Mankind, except by Commission for +a gross Misdemeanour, as the destroying Angell of Ægypt, and the +Assyrians, Exod. 12. 29. 2 Kings, 10. 35. They haunt most where is +most Barbaritie; and therefoir our ignorant Ancestors, to prevent the +Insults of that strange People, used as rude and course a Remedie; +such as Exorcisms, Donations, and Vows: But how soon ever the true +Piety prevailed in any Place, it did not put the Inhabitants beyond +the Reach and Awthoritie of these subtile inferiour Co-inhabitants +and Colleagues of ours: The FATHER OF ALL SPIRITS, and the Person +himselfe, having the only Command of his Soul and Actions, a +concurrance they may have to what is virtuously done; for upon +committing of a foul Deed, one will find a Demure upon his Soul, as +if his cheerfull Collegue had deserted him. + +QUESTION 3. Do these airie Tribes procreate? If so, how are they +nourished, and at what period of Time do they die? + +ANSWER. Supposing all Spirits to be created at once in the Beginning, +Souls to pre-exist and to circle about into several States of +Probationship; to make them either totally unexcusable, or perfectly +happie against the last Day, solves all the Difficulties. But in +very Deed, and speaking suteable to the Nature of Things, there is +no more Absurditie for a Spirit to inform ane Infant in Bodie of +Airs, than a Bodie composed of dull and drusie Earth; the best of +Spirits have alwayes delyghted more to appear into aereal, than +into terrestrial Bodyes. They feed most what on Quintessences, and +aetheriall Essences. The Pith and Spirits only of Women’s Milk feed +their Children, being artificially conveyed, (as Air and Oyl sink +into our Bodies,) to make them vigorous and fresh. And this shorter +Way of conveying a pure Aliment, (without the usuall Digestions,) +by transfusing it, and transpyring thorow the Pores into the Veins, +Arteries, and Vessells that supplie the Bodie, is nothing more +absurd, than ane Infant’s being fed by the Navel before it is borne, +or than a Plant, which groweth by attracting a livelie Juice from the +Earth thorow many small Roots and Tendons, whose courser Pairts be +adapted and made connatural to the Whole, doth quickly coalesce by +the ambient Cold; and so are condens’d and bak’d up into a confirm’d +Wood in the one, and solid Bodie of the Flesh and Bone in the other. +A Notion which, if intertained and approv’d, may shew that the late +Invention of soaking and transfusing (not Blood, but) athereal +virtuall Spirits, may be usefull both for Nourishment and Health, +whereof is a Vestige in the damnable Practise of evill Angells, their +sucking of Blood and Spirits out of Witches Bodys (till they drew +them into a deform’d and dry Leanness,) to feid their own Vehicles +withall, leaving what we call the Witches Mark behind; a Spot that I +have seen, as a small Mole, horny, and brown-coloured; throw which +Mark, when a large Brass Pin was thrust (both in Buttock, Nose, and +Rooff of the Mouth,) till it bowed and become crooked, the Witches, +both Men and Women, nather felt a Pain, nor did bleed, nor knew the +precise Time when this was adoing to them, (there Eyes only being +covered.) Now the Air being a Body as well as Earth, no Reason can be +given why there may not be Particles of more vivific Spirit form’d +of it for Procreation, then is possible to be of Earth, which takes +more Time and Pains to rarify and ripen it, ere it can come to have +a prolific Virtue. And if our Aping Darlings did not thus procreate, +there whole Number would be exhausted after a considerable Space of +Time. For tho they are of more refyned Bodies and Intellectualls than +wee, and of far less heavy and corruptive Humours, (which cause a +Dissolution,) yet many of their Lives being dissonant to right Reason +and their own Laws, and their Vehicles not being wholly frie of Lust +and Passion, especially of the more spirituall and hautie Sins they +pass (after a long healthy Lyfe) into one Orb and Receptacle fitted +for their Degree, till they come under the general Cognizance of the +last Day. + +QUESTION 4. Doth the acquiring of this Second Sight make any Change +on the Acquirers Body, Mind, or Actions? + +ANSWER. All uncouth SIGHTS enfeebles the SEER. Daniel, tho familiar +with divyne Visions, yet fell frequently doun without Strength, +when dazzled with a Power which had the Ascendant of, and passed +on him beyond his Comprehension, Chap. 10. 8. 17. So our SEER is +put in a Rapture, Transport, and sort of Death, as divested of his +Body and all its Senses, when he is first made participant of this +curious Peice of Knowledge: But it maketh no Wramp or Strain in the +Understanding of any; only to the Fancy’s of clownish or illiterate +Men, it creates some Affrightments and Disturbances, because of the +Strongness of the Showes, and their Unacquaintedness with them. And +as for their Lyfe, the Persons endued with this Rarity are, for +the most Part, candid, honest, and sociable People. If any of them +be subject to Immoralities, this obstruse Skill is not to be blamed +for it; for unless themselves be the Tempters, the Colonies of the +Invisible Plantations, with which they intercommune, do provoke them +by no Villainy or Malifice, nather at their first Acquaintance nor +after a long Familiarity. + +QUESTION 5. Doth not Sathan interpose in such Cases by many subtile +unthought Insinuations, as to him who let the Fly, or Familiar, go +out of the Box, and yet found the Fly of his own putting in, as +serviceable as the other would have been? + +ANSWER. The Goodness of the Lyfe, and Designs of the ancient Prophets +and Seers, was one of the best Prooffs of their Mission.[37] + + + + +NOTE. + + +In trying to collect evidence as to the Rerrick “evil spirit” from +Kirk-Session Records, I have been most kindly assisted by the Rev. +Mr. M‘Conachie, Minister of Rerrick. Mr. M‘Conachie finds that only +two parishes in the Stewartry, Kells and Girthon, have records +containing the years 1695, 1696. The records of Rerrick do not go so +far back. We are therefore left to the pamphlet of 1696, by Telfair, +which is an unusually business-like statement, the names of attesting +witnesses being added in the marginal notes. For phenomena singularly +similar to those of Rerrick, _Obeah_, by Mr. H. J. Bell, may be +consulted. (_Obeah_, Sampson Low & Co., London, 1889, p. 93.) + + + + +NOTES. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +_Note_ (_a_), p. xvi.—“The Psychical Society.” + + The Psychical Society, as far as the writer is aware has not + examined officially the old accounts of the phenomena which it + investigates at present. The Catalogue of the Society’s Library, + however, proves that it does not lack the materials. + + +_Note_ (_b_), p. xxx.—“Their speech is a kind of whistling.” + + That the voice of spirits is a kind of whistling, twittering, + or chirping, is a very widely diffused and ancient belief. The + ghosts in Homer twitter like bats; in New Caledonia an English + settler found that he could scare the natives from a piece of + ground by whistling there at night. Mr. Samuel Wesley says, “I + followed the noise into almost every room in the house, both by + day and by night, with lights and without, and have sat alone for + some time, and, when I heard the noise, spoke to it to tell me + what it was, but never heard any articulate voice, and only once + or twice two or three feeble squeaks, a little louder than the + chirping of a bird, and not like the noise of rats, which I have + often heard” (_Memoirs of the Wesley Family_, p. 164). Professor + Alexander mentions the “pecular whistling sound” at some + manifestations in Rio Janeiro as “rather frequent” (_Proc. S. P. + R._, xix. 180). Here children were the mediums; how did they get + the idea of the traditional whistle? See also the following note. + + +_Note_ (_c_), p. xl.—“Not long after the Spanish conquest of Peru.” + + The phenomena alluded to here are said to have occurred in + 1549. The evidence is a mere report by Cieza de Leon, who does + not pretend to have been an eye-witness. But, as Mr. Clements + Markham, Cieza’s editor, remarks, the phenomena are analogous to + those of spiritualism. At the very least, we find a belief in + this kind of manifestation at a remote date, and in an outlandish + place. Cieza says:[38] + + “When the Adelantado Belalcazar was governor of the province of + Popyan, and when Gomez Hernandez was his lieutenant in the town + of Auzerma, there was a chief in a village called Pirsa, almost + four leagues from the town, whose brother, a good-looking youth + named Tamaraqunga, inspired by God, wished to go to the town of + the Christians to receive baptism. But the devils did not wish + that he should attain his desire, fearing to lose what seemed + secure, so they frightened this Tamaraqunga in such sort that + he was unable to do anything. God permitting it, the devils + stationed themselves in a place where the chief alone could see + them, in the shape of birds called _auras_. Finding himself so + persecuted by the devils, he sent in great haste to a Christian + living near, who came at once, and hearing what he wanted, signed + him with the sign of the cross. But the devils then frightened + him more than ever, appearing in hideous forms, which only were + visible to him. _The Christian only saw stones falling from the + air and heard whistling._ A brother of one Juan Pacheco, citizen + of the same town, then holding office in the place of Gomez + Hernandez, who had gone to Caramanta, came from Auzerma with + another man to visit the Indian chief. They say that Tamaraqunga + was much frightened and ill-treated by the devils, who carried + him through the air from one place to another in presence of the + Christians, he complaining and the devils whistling and shouting. + Sometimes when the chief was sitting with a glass of liquor + before him, the Christians saw the glass raised up in the air and + put down empty, and a short time afterwards the wine was again + poured into the cup from the air.” Compare what Ibn Batuta, the + old Arab traveller, saw at the court of the King of Delhi. The + matter is discussed in Colonel Yule’s _Marco Polo_. + + This may suffice as a specimen of the manifestations. They + continued while the chief was on his way to church; he was lifted + into the air, and the Christians had to hold him down. In church + the ghostly whistling was heard, and stones fell around, while + the chief said that he saw devils standing upside down, and + himself was thrown into that unusual posture. The combination of + convulsive movements with the other phenomena is that which we + have already remarked in the cases of “Mr. H.” and the grandson + of William Morse. Cieza de Leon says that the chief was not + troubled after his baptism. The illusions of the newly-converted, + so like those of the early Christian hermits, are described by + Callaway in his _Zulu Tales_. + + +_Note_ (_d_), p. l. + + Priestley’s explanation of the Epworth disturbances is imposture + by the servants, by way of a practical joke. Coleridge, on the + other hand, says that “all these stories, and I could produce + fifty cases at least equally well authenticated, and, as far + as the veracity of the narrators, and the single fact of their + having seen and heard such and such sights or sounds, above all + rational scepticism, are as much like one another as the symptoms + of the same disease in different patients.” + + It is a pity that Coleridge did not produce his fifty + well-authenticated examples. The similarity of the narratives + everywhere, all the world over, is exactly what makes them + interesting. Coleridge goes on: “This indeed I take to be the + true and only solution—a contagious nervous disease, the acme, + or intensest form of which is catalepsy” (Southey’s _Wesley_, + vol. i. p. 14, Coleridge’s note). If there be such a contagious + nervous disease, it is a very remarkable malady, and well worth + examining. The Wesleys were not alarmed; they bantered the + spirit; they wished they could set him to work; and beyond the + trembling of the children when Jeffrey was knocking during their + sleep, there is no sign of morbid conditions. A neighbouring + clergyman, who was asked to pass a night in the house, saw and + heard just what the others heard and saw.[39] The hypothesis of a + contagious nervous disease, in which every witness exhibits the + same symptoms of illusion in all parts of the world, is a theory + which needs a good deal of verification. Where material traces + of the disturbances remain, it is absurd to speak of contagious + hallucinations. We must fall back on the hypothesis of trickery, + or must say with Southey, “Such things may be preternatural, + yet not miraculous; they may not be in the ordinary course of + nature, yet imply no alteration of its laws.” Any theory is more + plausible than the idea that Mr. Wesley and Mr. Hoole were in a + state bordering on catalepsy. Believers in hypnotism may think + it possible that this, that, and the other persons, if they + submitted themselves to hypnotic influences, might have the same + hallucinations suggested to them. But there is no evidence, in + the Epworth case nor in the Rerrick case, of any such matter. + “So far as we yet know, sensory hallucination of several + persons together, _who are not in a hypnotic state_, is a rare + phenomenon, and therefore not a probable explanation” (_Proc. S. + P. R._, iv. 62). There is some evidence that epileptic patients + suffer from the same illusions—for example, the presence of a + woman in a red cloak; and in _delirium tremens_ the “horrors” are + usually similar. But that all the persons who enter a given house + should be impressed by the same material illusions, as of chairs + and tables, and even beds (like Nancy Wesley’s) flying about, is + a theory more incredible than the hypothesis either of trickery + or of abnormal occurrences. When the disturbances always cease on + the arrival of a competent witness, then it is not hard to say + which theory we ought to choose. For imposture see next note. + + +_Note_ (_e_), p. lvii.—“Children at _séances_.” + + The phenomena discussed are most frequently connected with + children, who may be regarded either as mediums or impostors, + conscious or unconscious. In _Proc. S. P. R._, iv. 25-42, + Professor Barrett gives the case of a little girl whom he + knew. She had raps wherever she went, even when alone with the + Professor, who made her stand with her hands against the wall, + at the greatest stretch of her arms, “with the muscles of the + legs and arms all in tension.” “A brisk pattering of raps” + followed Professor Barrett’s request. But he also mentions + a boy “of juvenile piety,” who “for twelve months deceived + his father, a distinguished surgeon, and all his family, by + pretended spiritualistic manifestations, which appeared at first + sight inexplicable, until the cunning trickery of the lad was + discovered.” The only difference between these cases is that an + “outsider” discovered trickery in one instance and not in the + other. This is a very ticklish kind of certainty, and it is plain + that children can do a great deal in the way of mere imposture. + The state of any young Wesley who might have been caught out + is unenviable. Verily Mr. Wesley would not have spared for his + crying. + + +_Note_ (_f_), p. lxii.—“The pricking of witches.” + + It is pretty certain that some of there unlucky old women were + pricked “in anæsthetic areas.” + + * * * * * + + +_Note_ (_a_), p. 8.—“These Arrows that fly in the Dark.” + + 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. + + +_Note_ (_b_), p. 11.—“Milk thorow a hair-tedder.” + + 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. + + + _Note_ (_c_), p. 19.—“The Wreath (wraith) ... is only exuvious + fumes of the Man, ... exhaled and congealed into a various + likeness.” + + 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.” + + +_Note_ (_d_), p. 23.—“Fairy hills.” + + The hypothesis that the Fairy belief may be a tradition of an + ancient race dwelling in subterranean 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 subterranean + 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. 280). + + +_Note_ (_e_), p. 30.—“Master Great-rake, the Irish Stroaker.” + + 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. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT. + + +It has been said that no trace can be found of a printed _Secret +Commonwealth_ before 1815. The present editor is inclined to believe +that in 1699 the work was still in manuscript. In a letter of Lord +Reay’s to Mr. Samuel Pepys (Oct. 24, 1699), he says, “I have got a +manuscript since I last came to Scotland, whose author, though a +parson, after giving a very full account of the Second Sight, defends +there being no sin in it.... With the first opportunity I shall send +you a copy of his books.” This description answers very well to Mr. +Kirk’s treatise, and to no other contemporary work with which I +am acquainted, unless it be _A Discourse of the Second Sight_, by +the Rev. Mr. John Frazer, minister of Tiree and Coll. There were, +doubtless, other parsons busy with these topics; and the minister of +Rerrick informs me that several MSS. by Mr. Telfair, author of the +tract already quoted, were only dispersed about 1877. Examples of +these clerical psychical researchers may be found in C. K. Sharpe’s +prefatory notice to Law’s _Memorials_ (Edinburgh, 1818). Such an +one is the Rev. Robert Knox, who writes from Cavers to the Rev. Mr. +Wyllie on the case of Sir George Maxwell of Pollock. He dare not +attribute the mediumship of Janet Douglas “positively to an evil +cause.... _It is our ignorance of any natural agent_ that makes us +impute the effects to evil spirits” (_Memorials_, p. lxxv). Moreover, +Lord Reay writes as if his “parson” were still alive in 1699, +whereas Mr. Kirk “went to his own herd” in 1692. “I am promised the +acquaintance of this man, of which I am very covetous.” Lord Reay was +at Durness, and may not have heard of the mishap which carried the +minister of Aberfoyle into Fairyland. It may be added that Dr. Hickes +writes to Mr. Pepys about neolithic arrow heads as “a subject of near +alliance to that of the Second Sight, and of witchcraft, which is +akin to them both.” He also speaks of “a very tragical, but authentic +story told me by the Duke of Lauderdale, which happened in the family +of Sir John Dalrymple, Laird of Stair, and then Lord President. His +Grace had no sooner told it me, but my Lord President coming into +the room, he desired my Lord to tell it himself, which, altering his +countenance, he did with a very melancholick air; but it is so long +since that I dare not trust my memory with relating the particulars +of it” (June 19, 1700). + +Dr. Hickes calls the first Lord Stair “John,” Scott calls him +“James.” There can be no doubt that Dr. Hickes refers to the woful +tale of the bride of Lammermoor, who died on September 12, 1669. +Law, in his _Memorials_, says she “was harled through the house”—by +spirits, he means. This “harling” or tossing about of a patient, +probably epileptic, we have noticed in many of the old stories, +as in the modern instance of “Mr. H.” Now, in his Introduction to +the _Bride of Lammermoor_, Scott gives all the authorities at his +command: Law, Symson’s _Elegie_, and Hamilton of Whitelaw’s _Satire_, +which avers that Satan seized the bride and “threw the bridegroom +from the nuptial bed.” Sir Walter was unacquainted with Dr. Hickes’ +hint, which actually produces the bride’s own father as evidence +for a story which was plainly regarded as supernatural. It is most +unlucky that Dr. Hickes distrusted his memory. However, it is +something to feel assured that “a memorable story” was accepted at +the time by the family of the bride, and was known to Lauderdale.[40] +Lauderdale himself, by the way, was a psychical researcher, and +accommodated Richard Baxter with some accounts of haunted houses, +published in his _World of Spirits_. One story of a haunted house, +where a spectral hand appeared, he gives on the authority of “the +Rev. James Sharp,” afterwards the famous Archbishop. Lauderdale +inspected the famed Loudun nuns, and saw only “wanton wenches singing +baudy songs in French.” His letter to Mr. Baxter is dated March 12, +1659. His best haunted house is of the Epworth type. + + + _Printed by_ BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + _Edinburgh and London_ + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Note (_a_), p. 81. + +[2] _The Testimony of Tradition_, p. 75. + +[3] In Father Macdonald’s book on Moidart. + +[4] A much odder case is reported. Two young men photographed a +reach of a river. In the photograph, when printed, was visible the +dead body of a woman floating on the stream. The water was dragged. +Nothing was found; but two or three days later a girl drowned herself +in the pool! As the Reports of the Psychical Society sometimes say, +“no confirmation has been obtained;” but this is a pleasing instance +of the Reflex, and of second sight in a photographic camera. + +[5] It is also published in Mrs. Graham Tomson’s _Border Ballads_ +(Walter Scott). + +[6] Note (_b_), p. 81. + +[7] Many instances may be read of in a little anonymous work, +_Obeah_. The scene is Hayti. + +[8] Note (_c_), p. 82. + +[9] _Proc. S. P. R._, July 1891, February 1892. + +[10] As far as the author has watched _séances_ personally, they have +ended in nothing but “giggling and making giggle.” + +[11] Some _séances_ were held at —— College, Oxford, about 1875. The +performers were all athletic undergraduates. The breath of chill air +was always felt “before anything happened,” and, when the out-college +men had gone, the owner of the rooms, in his bed-chamber, was +disturbed by the racket which continued in the sitting-room. But I +know not if he had sported his oak! + +[12] _An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences_, by +Increase Mather. Boston, 1684; London, Reeves & Turner, 1890, pp. +101-111. + +[13] _Diseases of the Nervous System_, iii. 249. London, 1890. + +[14] _Proc. S. P. R._, xix. 160-173. + +[15] _Op. cit._, pp. 173-189. + +[16] _Memoirs of the Wesley Family_, by Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.A.S. +London, 1823, pp. 161-200. + +[17] Letter to Terry, April 30. Lockhart, v. 309. + +[18] Scott to Terry, May 16. + +[19] Susannah Wesley to Samuel Wesley, March 27, 1717. + +[20] _Op. cit._, p. 193. + +[21] _Op. cit._, p. 194. + +[22] Note (_d_), p. 83. + +[23] _Memoirs of the Wesley Family_, p. 198. + +[24] Edinburgh: Mossman, 1696. There is a London reprint, of which I +have a copy. The pamphlet is republished in Mr. Stevenson’s edition +of Sinclair’s _Satan’s Invisible World Discovered_, 1685-1871, +Appendix, p. xix. + +[25] Compare similar phenomena in _Obeah_, and in Peruvian example, +note (_c_), p. 82. + +[26] Glanvil’s version is given in Sinclair’s _Satan’s Invisible +World_. + +[27] Note (_e_), p. 85. + +[28] Note (_f_), p. 86. + +[29] The “earth-houses” in Scotland and the isles, which seem to +have been inhabited at an early period, can seldom be called hills +or mounds; being built for purposes of concealment, they are usually +almost on a level with the surrounding land. The _Fairy hills_, on +the other hand, are higher and much more notable, and were probably +sepulchral. This, at least, is the impression left on me by Mr. +MacRitchie’s book, _The Underground Life_. (Privately printed. +Edinburgh, 1892.) + +[30] Note (_a_), p. 86. + +[31] Note (_b_), p. 87. + +[32] The _Death-candle_ is called DRUIG. + +[33] Note (_c_), p. 87. + +[34] Note (_d_), p. 88. + +[35] Note (_e_), p. 88. + +[36] Thus in the Manuscript, which is only a Transcript of Mr. Kirk’s +Original. Perhaps M‘Intyre? + +[37] The original Transcriber has added: “See the Rest in a little +Manuscript belonging to Coline Kirk,” probably the author’s son of +that name.—A.L. + +[38] _The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon_, ch. cxviii. + +[39] Mr. Hoole’s account, _Memoirs of the Wesleys_, p. 91. + +[40] The letters to Pepys are quoted from his Correspondence, +published as Vol. X. of his _Diary_ (New York, 1885). + + + + + Bibliothèque de Carabas. + + _Crown 8vo Volumes, Printed on Hand-made Paper, with + Wide Margins and Uncut Edges, done up + in Japanese Vellum Wrappers._ + + The Prices are net for cash. + + _THESE VOLUMES WILL NEVER BE REPRINTED._ + + + =I. CUPID AND PSYCHE=: The Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of + the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche. Done into English by WILLIAM + ADLINGTON, of University College in Oxford. With a Discourse on + the Fable by ANDREW LANG, late of Merton College, in Oxford. + Frontispiece by W. B. RICHMOND, and Verses by the EDITOR, MAY + KENDALL, J. W. MACKAIL, F. LOCKER-LAMPSON, and W. H. POLLOCK. + (lxxxvi. 66 pp.) 1887. _Out of print._ + + =II. EUTERPE=: The Second Book of the Famous History of + Herodotus. Englished by B. R. 1584. Edited by ANDREW LANG, + with Introductory Essays on the Religion and the good Faith of + Herodotus. Frontispiece by A. W. TOMSON; and Verses by the EDITOR + and GRAHAM R. TOMSON. (xlviii. 174 pp.) 1888. _Out of print._ + + =III. THE FABLES OF BIDPAI; or, The Morall Philosophie of Doni=: + Drawne out of the auncient writers, a work first compiled in + the Indian tongue. Englished out of Italian by THOMAS NORTH, + Brother to the Right Honourable Sir ROGER NORTH, Knight, Lord + NORTH of Kyrtheling, 1570. Now again edited and induced by + JOSEPH JACOBS, together with a Chronologico-Biographical Chart + of the translations and adaptations of the Sanskrit Original, + and an Analytical Concordance of the Stories. With a full-page + Illustration by EDWARD BURNE JONES, A.R.A., Frontispiece from + a 16th century MS. of the Anvari Suhaili, and facsimiles of + Woodcuts in the Italian Doni of 1532. (lxxxii. 264 pp.) 1888. + _Nearly out of print._ The few remaining copies, 12_s._ + + =IV.-V. THE FABLES OF ÆSOP=, as first printed by W. CAXTON + in 1484. Now again edited and induced by J. JACOBS. With + Introductory Verses by Mr. ANDREW LANG. 2 Vols. (280 pp., 320 + pp.) 1890. £1, 1_s._ + + “Ces deux volumes de la ‘Bibliothèque de Carabas’ (Bidpai et + Æsop) constituent l’examen le plus complet et le plus savant qui + ait été fait depuis Benfey de cette grande question de l’origine + et de la migration des fables, et la critique de l’auteur s’y + montre partout aussi sage que bien informée.”—M. A. BARTH, in + _Mélusine_. + + “The degree and quality of the editor’s learning are not to + be doubted; it is varied, profound, and without a spice of + pedantry.”—_Scots Observer._ + + =VI. THE ATTIS OF CAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS.= Translated into + English Verse, with Dissertations on the Myth of Attis, on the + Origin of Tree-Worship, and on the Galliambic Metre. By GRANT + ALLEN, B.A., formerly Postmaster of Merton College, Oxford. (xvi. + 154 pp.) 1892. 7_s._ 6_d._ + + “The paramount interest of this book lies in its two + disquisitions upon the meaning of the Attis myth and upon the + meaning of tree-worship.”—_Speaker._ + + “As a contribution to folk-lore it is of real value and interest, + and to a considerable extent new in the line it takes.”—_Literary + World._ + + “This theory, in which ‘the ghost plays ... the same part that + guano and phosphates play to-day,’ when stated thus baldly sounds + strange, but when read in the author’s own vivacious narrative, + along with the excellent illustrations which he brings forward, + it is singularly attractive.”—_Bookman._ + + “Highly interesting, and at this time will probably fall in with + prevailing opinions.”—ROBINSON ELLIS in _The Academy_. + + “Whether readers adopt Mr. Allen’s conclusions or net, all + must agree that he has propounded a most interesting theory, + and stated it in a manner forcible and stimulating to + thought.”—_Nation._ + + =VII. PLUTARCH’S ROMANE QUESTIONS.= Translated, A.D. 1603, by + PHILEMON HOLLAND. Now again Edited by FRANK BYRON JEVONS, M. A., + Classical Tutor to the University of Durham. With Dissertations + on Italian Cults, Myths, Taboos, Man Worship, Aryan Marriage, + Sympathetic Magic, and the Eating of Beans. (cxxviii. 170 pp.) + 1892. 10_s._ + + “Mr. Jevons’s essay is learned and interesting, and in some cases + he has probably found out the reason of behaviour which the + Romans could not account for themselves.”—_Daily News_, Jan. 10, + 1893. + + “All antiquaries and folk-lorists will thank him for enabling + them to peruse in a convenient form that part of Plutarch’s + ‘Moralia’ which bears upon their science.”—_Daily Chronicle_, + Jan. 6, 1893. + + “An admirable essay on Roman religion and on the characteristics + of Aryan religion.”—_Glasgow Herald_, Jan. 5, 1893. + + “Holland’s quaintness and homely vigour make his translations + delightful reading. A most valuable and interesting introduction + is supplied by a sound scholar and shrewd thinker, Mr. F. B. + Jevons.”—_Athenæum_, Jan. 7, 1893. + + “Holland’s translation, a delightful piece of Elizabethan + English, as Mr. Jevons says, provides a seemly garb for + Plutarch’s ancient reasonings. Mr. Jevons’s own contribution + to the volume is, as a help towards a true interpretation, of + scarcely less value than the translation itself.”—_Scotsman_, + Dec. 26, 1892. + + “Mr. Jevons’s introduction is at once learned and + readable.”—_Times_, Dec. 22, 1892. + + “The editor has supplied an excellent commentary upon some of + the most striking parts in a series of dissertations on Italian + cults, myths, taboos, man-worship, Aryan marriage, sympathetic + magic, and the eating of beans. The mere titles of these essays + show the curiosity and interest of the problems dealt with in the + text.”—_Manchester Guardian_, Jan. 10, 1893. + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE + + Except for the changes below, all spelling in the text has been + left unchanged. + + Main text (probable printer’s errors): + Pg 1: ‘heretofioir going’ replaced by ‘heretofoir going’. + (befoir, therefoir and foirtell all appear in the text) + Pg 7: ‘by ws’ replaced by ‘by us’. + Pg 18: ‘unaictve State’ replaced by ‘unactive State’. + Pg 67: ‘bewixt the two’ replaced by ‘betwixt the two’. + + Lang’s Notes and Footnotes: + Pg 86: ‘distingnished surgeon’ replaced by ‘distinguished surgeon’. + + Publisher’s Catalog: + “de l’ateur” replaced by “de l’auteur”. + “Plutarch’s ‘Moralio’” replaced by “Plutarch’s ‘Moralia’”. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75485 *** diff --git a/75485-h/75485-h.htm b/75485-h/75485-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12f07b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/75485-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4755 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns, & fairies | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; 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margin-left: 4.5em;} + + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif;} + +.transnote p {text-indent: 0em;} + + +/* custom cover (cover.jpg) */ +.customcover {visibility: hidden; display: none;} +.x-ebookmaker .customcover {visibility: visible; display: block;} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} +.poetry .indent25 {text-indent: 11em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0em;} +.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1em;} + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowe2 {width: 2em;} +.illowe5 {width: 5em;} +.illowp60 {width: 60%;} +.illowp75 {width: 75%;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75485 ***</div> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<p><strong>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</strong></p> + +<p>This book was published in 1893 and is a careful reproduction of a +book printed in 1815 from a manuscript of 1691 by Rev. Robert Kirk. +An Introduction and Notes have been added by Andrew Lang for the +1893 publication.</p> + +<p>Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the Lang footnotes +have been placed at the end of the book in front of the two Catalog +pages.</p> + +<p class="customcover">New original cover art included with this eBook is +granted to the public domain.</p> + +<p>Except for a very few changes noted at the <a href="#TN">end of the book</a>, all +misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have +been left unchanged.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<h1 id="The_Secret_Commonwealth">The Secret Commonwealth<br> +<span class="pad2">of Elves Fauns & Fairies</span></h1> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp60" id="a0001" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/a0001.jpg" alt="A cat wearing boots reading a book by a window"> + <figcaption class="caption">BIBLIOTHEQUE DE CARABAS</figcaption> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<p class="p4 pfs150 antiqua">Bibliothèque de Carabas</p> + +<p class="p1 p6b pfs120">VOL. VIII</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<p class="p6 pfs90"> +<em>Five hundred and fifty copies of this Edition have been<br> +printed, five hundred of which are for sale.</em></p> + +<p class="p6 pfs80">[<em>All rights reserved.</em>]</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="i_a002" style="max-width: 25em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_a002.jpg" alt="Kilted shepherd looking at an apparition"> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<div class="antiqua lht2 fs120"> +<p class="center">The Secret Commonwealth of<br> +<br> +<span class="fs150">Elves, Fauns, & Fairies</span><br> +<br> +A Study in Folk-Lore & Psychical Research. The<br> +Text by Robert Kirk, M.A., Minister of<br> +Aberfoyle, A.D. 1691. The Comment<br> +by Andrew Lang, M.A.<br> +A.D. 1893</p> +</div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowe2" id="i_a003"> + <img class="p4 p4b w100" src="images/i_a003.jpg" alt="small decorative icon"> +</figure> + +<p class="pfs90"><i>LONDON. M.D.CCCXCIII. PUBLISHED BY DAVID<br> +NUTT, IN THE STRAND</i></p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Dedication"><span class="antiqua">Dedication.</span><br> +<span class="fs80">TO<br> +ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.</span></h2> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">O Louis! you that like them maist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ye’re far frae kelpie, wraith, and ghaist,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And fairy dames, no unco chaste,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">And haunted cell.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Among a heathen clan ye’re placed,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">That kens na hell!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ye hae nae heather, peat, nor birks,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nae troot in a’ your burnies lurks,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There are nae bonny U.P. kirks,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">An awfu’ place!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nane kens the Covenant o’ Works</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Frae that of Grace!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But whiles, maybe, to them ye’ll read</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blads o’ the Covenanting creed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And whiles their pagan wames ye’ll feed</div> + <div class="verse indent6">On halesome parritch;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And syne ye’ll gar them learn a screed</div> + <div class="verse indent6">O’ the Shorter Carritch.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet thae uncovenanted shavers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hae rowth, ye say, o’ clash and clavers</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O’ gods and etins—auld wives’ havers,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">But their delight;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The voice o’ him that tells them quavers</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Just wi’ fair fright.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And ye might tell, ayont the faem,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thae Hieland clashes o’ oor hame.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To speak the truth, I tak’ na shame</div> + <div class="verse indent6">To half believe them;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, stamped wi’ <span class="smcap">Tusitala</span>’s name,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">They’ll a’ receive them.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And folk to come, ayont the sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">May hear the yowl of the Banshie,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And frae the water-kelpie flee,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Ere a’ things cease,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And island bairns may stolen be</div> + <div class="verse indent6">By the Folk o’ Peace.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Faith, they might steal <em>me</em>, wi’ ma will,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, ken’d I ony Fairy hill,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’d lay me down there, snod and still,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Their land to win,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For, man, I’ve maistly had my fill</div> + <div class="verse indent6">O’ this world’s din.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="The_Fairy_Minister">The Fairy Minister.</h2> + +<p class="pfs90 lht2"> +IN MEMORY OF<br> +<span class="smcap fs120">The Rev. ROBERT KIRK,</span><br> +<em>WHO WENT TO HIS OWN HERD</em>, AND ENTERED INTO<br> +THE LAND OF THE PEOPLE OF PEACE,<br> +IN THE YEAR OF GRACE SIXTEEN<br> +HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO,<br> +AND OF HIS AGE<br> +FIFTY-TWO. +</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">People of Peace! A peaceful man,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Well worthy of your love was he,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who, while the roaring Garry ran</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Red with the life-blood of Dundee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">While coats were turning, crowns were falling,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Wandered along his valley still,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And heard your mystic voices calling</div> + <div class="verse indent2">From fairy knowe and haunted hill.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He heard, he saw, he knew too well</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The secrets of your fairy clan;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You stole him from the haunted dell,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Who never more was seen of man.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Now far from heaven, and safe from hell,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Unknown of earth, he wanders free.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would that he might return and tell</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Of his mysterious company!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For we have tired the Folk of Peace;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">No more they tax our corn and oil;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Their dances on the moorland cease,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The Brownie stints his wonted toil.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No more shall any shepherd meet</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The ladies of the fairy clan,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor are their deathly kisses sweet</div> + <div class="verse indent2">On lips of any earthly man.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And half I envy him who now,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Clothed in her Court’s enchanted green,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By moonlit loch or mountain’s brow</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Is Chaplain to the Fairy Queen.</div> + <div class="verse indent25">A. L.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span></p> + +<p class="p4 pfs120">KIRK’S</p> +<p class="pfs150">SECRET COMMONWEALTH.</p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<h3>I. <span class="smcap">The History of the Book and Author.</span></h3> + +<p class="noindent">The bibliography of the following little tract is +extremely obscure. The title-page of the edition +of 1815, which we reproduce, gives the date as +1691. Sir Walter Scott says in his <cite>Demonology +and Witchcraft</cite> (1830, p. 163, note), “It was +printed with the author’s name in 1691, and reprinted, +in 1815, for Longman & Co.” But was +there really a printed edition of 1691? Scott +says that he never met with an example. Research +in our great libraries has discovered none, +and there is none save that of 1815 at Abbotsford. +The reprint, of one hundred copies, was +made, as it states, from no printed text, but from +“a manuscript copy preserved in the Advocates’ +Library.” On page 45 of the edition of 1815,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span> +at the end of the comments on Lord Tarbott’s +Letters, there is a “Note by the Transcriber”—that +is, the person who wrote out the manuscript +in the Advocates’ Library: “See the rest +in a little manuscript belonging to Coline Kirk.” +Now Coline or Colin Kirk, Writer to the Signet, +was the son of the Rev. Mr. Kirk, author of the +tract. If the son had his father’s book only in +manuscript, it seems very probable that it was +not printed in 1691; that the title-page is only +the title-page of a manuscript. Till some printed +text of 1691 is discovered, we may doubt, then, +whether the hundred copies published in 1815, +and now somewhat rare, be not the original +printed edition. The editor has a copy of 1815, +but it is the only one which he has met with +for sale.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Robert Kirk, the author of <cite>The +Secret Commonwealth</cite>, was a student of theology +at St. Andrews: his Master’s degree, however, +he took at Edinburgh. He was (and this is +notable) the youngest and <em>seventh</em> son of Mr. +James Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, the place +familiar to all readers of <cite>Rob Roy</cite>. As a seventh +son, he was, no doubt, specially gifted, and in +<cite>The Secret Commonwealth</cite> he lays some stress on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span> +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.” It would not surprise us if Mr. +Kirk, no less than the Rev. Robert Blair of +St. Andrews (1650-60), could heal scrofula by +the touch, like royal persons—Charles III. in +Italy, for example. As is well known to all, +the House of Brunswick has no such powers. +However this may have been, Mr. Kirk was +probably drawn, by his seventh sonship, to a +more careful study of psychical phenomena than +most of his brethren bestowed. Little is known +of his life. He was minister originally of Balquidder, +whence, in 1685, he was transferred to +Aberfoyle. This was no Covenanting district, +and there is no bigotry in Mr. Kirk’s dissertation. +He was employed on an “Irish” translation +of the Bible, and he published a Psalter +in Gaelic (1684). 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. +From his connection with Campbells, we may +misdoubt him for a Whig. By his first wife he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span> +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—</p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="lsp2">ROBERTUS KIRK</span>, A.M.<br> +Linguæ Hiberniæ Lumen.</p> + +<p>The tomb, in Scott’s time, was to be seen in +the east end of the churchyard of Aberfoyle; +but the ashes of Mr. Kirk <em>are not there</em>. His +successor, the Rev. Dr. Grahame, in his <cite>Sketches +of Picturesque Scenery</cite>, informs us that, as Mr. +Kirk was walking on a <em>dun-shi</em>, 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 (<i>op. +cit.</i>, 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span> +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.</p> + + +<h3>II. <span class="smcap">The Secret Commonwealth.</span></h3> + +<p>The tract, of which the reader now knows the +history, is a little volume of somewhat singular +character. Written in 1691 by the Rev. Robert +Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, it is a kind of +metaphysic of the Fairy world. Having lived +through the period of the sufferings of the Kirk, +the author might have been expected either to +neglect Fairyland altogether, or to regard it as +a mere appanage of Satan’s kingdom—a “burning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span> +question” indeed, for some of the witches +who suffered at Presbyterian hands were merely +narrators of popular tales about the state of the +dead. That she trafficked with the dead, and +from a ghost won a medical recipe for the cure +of Archbishop Adamson of St. Andrews, was +the charge against Alison Pearson. “The +Bischope keipit his castle lyk a tod in his holl, +seik of a disease of grait fetiditie, and oftymes +under the cure of women suspected of witchcraft, +namlie, wha confessit hir to haiff +learnit medecin of ane callit Mr. Wilyeam Simsone, +that apeired divers tymes to hir efter his +dead, and gaiff hir a buik.... She was execut +in Edinbruche for a witch” (James Melville’s +<cite>Diary</cite>, p. 137, 1583). The Archbishop, like +other witches, had a familiar in the form of a +hare, which once ran before him down the +street. These were the beliefs of men of learning +like James, the nephew and companion of +Andrew Melville. Even in our author’s own +time, Archbishop Sharp was accused of entertaining +“the muckle black Deil” in his study at +midnight, and of being “levitated” and dancing +in the air. This last feat, creditable to a saint or +a Neo-Platonist like Plotinus, was reckoned for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[xv]</span> +sin to Archbishop Sharp, as may be read in +Wodrow’s <cite>Analecta</cite>. Thus all Fairydom was +commonly looked on as under the same guilt as +witchcraft. Yet Mr. Kirk of Aberfoyle, living +among Celtic people, treats the land of faery as +a mere fact in nature, a world with its own +laws, which he investigates without fear of the +Accuser of the Brethren. We may thus regard +him, even more than Wodrow, as an early +student in folk-lore and in psychical research—topics +which run into each other—and he +shows nothing of the usual persecuting disposition. +Nor, again, is Mr. Kirk like Glanvil +and Henry More. He does not, save in his +title-page and in one brief passage, make superstitious +creeds or psychical phenomena into +arguments and proofs against modern Sadducees. +Firm in his belief, he treats his matter in a +scientific spirit, as if he were dealing with +generally recognised physical phenomena.</p> + +<p>Our study of Mr. Kirk’s little tractate must +have a double aspect. It must be an essay +partly on folk-lore, on popular beliefs, their relation +to similar beliefs in other parts of the +world, and the residuum of fact, preserved by +tradition, which they may contain. On the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</span> +other hand, as mental phenomena are in question—such +things as premonitions, hallucinations, +abnormal or unusual experiences generally—a +criticism of Mr. Kirk must verge on “Psychical +Research.” The Society organised for that +difficult subject certainly takes a vast deal of +trouble about all manner of odd reports and +strange visions. It “transfers” thoughts of no +value, at a great expense of time and of serious +hard work. But, as far as the writer has read +the Society’s Proceedings, it “takes no keep,” +as Malory says, of these affairs in their historical +aspect. Whatever hallucination, or illusion, or +imposture, or the “subliminal self” can do to-day, +has always been done among peoples in +every degree of civilisation. An historical study +of the topic, as contained in trials for witchcraft, +in the reports of travellers and missionaries, in +the works of the seventeenth-century Platonists, +More, Glanvill, Sinclair, and others, and in the +rare tracts such as <cite>The Devil in Glen Luce</cite> and +<cite>The Just Devil of Woodstock</cite>, not to mention +Lavater, Wierus, Thyræus, Reginald Scott, and +so on, is as necessary to the psychologist as to +the folk-lorist.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> If there be an element of fact<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</span> +in modern hypnotic experiments (a matter on +which I have really no opinion), it is plain that +old magic and witchcraft are not mere illusions, +or not commonplace illusions. The subliminal +self has his stroke in these affairs. Assuredly +the Psychologists should have an historical department. +The evidence which they would find +is, of course, vitiated in many obvious ways, but +the evidence contains much that coincides with +that of modern times, and the coincidence can +hardly be designed—that is to say, the old +Highland seers had no design of abetting modern +inquiry. It may be, however, that their methods +and ideas have been traditionally handed down +to modern “sensitives” and “mediums.” At all +events, here is an historical chapter, if it be but +a chapter in “The History of Human Error.” +These wide and multifarious topics can only be +touched on lightly in this essay; the author will +be content if he directs the attention of students +with more leisure and a better library of <i lang="fr">diablerie</i> +to the matter. But first we glance at <cite>The Secret +Commonwealth</cite> as folk-lorists.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</span></p> + + +<h3>III. “<span class="smcap">The Subterranean Inhabitants.</span>”</h3> + +<p>Mr. Kirk’s first chapter, “Of the Subterranean +Inhabitants,” naturally suggests the recent speculations +of Mr. MacRitchie. The gist of Mr. +MacRitchie’s <cite>Testimony of Tradition</cite> is that +there once was a race of earth-dwellers in this +island; that their artificial caves still exist; that +this people survive in popular memory as “the +legendary Feens,” and as the Pechts of popular +tales, in which they are regarded as dwarfs. +“The Pechs were unco wee bodies, but terrible +strang.” Here, then, it might be thought that +we have the origin of Fairy beliefs. There really +was, on this showing, a dwarf race, who actually +did live in the “fairy-hills,” or howes, now commonly +looked on as sepulchral monuments.</p> + +<p>There is much in Mr. MacRitchie’s theory +which does not commend itself to me. The +modern legends of Pechts as builders of Glasgow +Cathedral, for example, do not appear to prove +such a late survival of a race known as Picts, but +are on a level with the old Greek belief that the +Cyclopes built Mycenæ (<cite>Testimony of Tradition</cite>, +p. 72). Granting, for the sake of discussion,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[xix]</span> +that there were still Picts or Pechs in Galloway +when Glasgow Cathedral was built (in the +twelfth century), these wild Galloway men, +scourges of the English Border, were the very +last people to be employed as masons. The +truth is that the recent Scotch have entirely +forgotten the ages of mediæval art. Accustomed +to the ill-built barns of a robbed and stinted +Kirk, they looked on the Cathedral as no work +of ordinary human beings. It was a creation +of the Pechts, as Mycenæ and Tiryns of the +mighty walls were creations of the Cyclopes. +By another coincidence, the well-known story +of the last Pecht, who refuses to divulge the +secret of the heather ale, is told in the Volsunga +Saga, and in the <cite lang="de">Nibelungenlied</cite>, of the Last +Niflung. Again, the breaking of a bar of iron, +which he takes for a human arm, by the last +Pecht is a tale current of the Drakos in modern +Greece (see Chambers’s <cite>Popular Traditions of +Scotland</cite> for the last Pecht). I cannot believe +that the historical Picts were a set of half-naked, +dwarfish savages, hairy men living underground. +These are the topics of Sir Arthur +Wardour and Monkbarns. Mr. W. F. Skene +may be said to have put the historic Picts in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[xx]</span> +their proper place as the ancestors of the Highlanders. +The Pecht of legend answers to the +Drakos and the Cyclopes: the beliefs about his +habits may have been suggested by the tumuli, +still more by the <em>brochs</em>: it seems less probable +that they represent an historical memory. As +to the Irish “Feens,” the topic can only be discussed +by Celtic scholars. But it does not follow, +because the leader of the Feens seemed a dwarf +among giants, that therefore his people were a +dwarfish race.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The story proves no more than +Gulliver’s Travels.</p> + +<p>Once more, we often read in the Sagas of a +hero like Grettir, who opens a howe, has a +conflict with a “barrow-wight,” as Mr. Morris +calls the “howe-dweller,” and wins gold and +weapons. But the dweller in the howe is often +merely the able-bodied ghost of the Norseman, +a known and named character, who is buried +there; he is not a Pecht. Thus, as it seems to +me, the Scotch and Celts possessed a theory of +a legendary people, as did the Greeks. Whether +any actual traditions of an earlier, perhaps a +Finnish race, was at the bottom of the legend, +is an obscure question. But, having such a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</span> +belief, the Scotch easily discovered homes for +the fancied people in the sepulchral howes: +they “combined their information.” The Fairies, +again, are composite creatures. As they came +to births and christenings, and as Norse wise-wives +(as in the Saga of Eric the Red) prophesied +at festivals, Mr. MacRitchie combines his +own information. The Wise-wife is a Finn +woman, and Finn and Fairy amalgamate. But +the Egyptians, as in the <cite>Tale of Two Brothers</cite> +(Maspero, <cite lang="fr">Contes Egyptiens</cite>), had their Hathors, +who came and prophesied at births; the Greeks +had their Mœræ, as in the story of Meleager +and the burning brand. The Hathors and +Mœræ play, in ancient Egypt and in ancient +Greece, the part of Fairies at the christening, +but surely they were not Finnish women! In +short, though a memory of some old race may +have mingled in the composite Fairy belief, this +is at most but an element in the whole, and the +part played by ancestral spirits, naturally earth-dwellers, +is probably more important. Bishop +Callaway has pointed out, in the preface to his +<cite>Zulu Tales</cite>, that what the Highlanders say of +the Fairies the Zulus say of “the Ancestors.” +In many ways, as when persons carried off to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</span> +Fairyland meet relations or friends lately deceased, +who warn them, as Persephone and +Steenie Steenson were warned, to eat no food +in this place, Fairyland is clearly a memory of +the pre-Christian Hades. There are other elements +in the complex mass of Fairy tradition, +but Chaucer knew “the Fairy Queen Proserpina,” +as Campion calls her, and it is plain +that in very fact “the dread Persephone,” the +“Queen over death and the dead,” had dwindled +into the lady who borrows Tamlane in the +ballad. Indeed Kirk mentions but does not +approve of this explanation, “that those subterranean +people are departed souls.” Now, as +was said, the dead are dwellers under earth. +The worshippers of Chthonian Demeter (Achaia) +beat the earth with wands; so does the Zulu +sorcerer when he appeals to the Ancestors. And +a Macdonald in Moidart, being pressed for his +rent, beat the earth, and cried aloud to his dead +chief, “Simon, hear me; you were always good +to me.”<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</span></p> + + +<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">Fairyland and Hades.</span></h3> + +<p>Thus, to my mind at least, the <em>Subterranean +Inhabitants</em> of Mr. Kirk’s book are not so much +a traditional recollection of a real dwarfish race +living underground (a hypothesis of Sir Walter +Scott’s), as a lingering memory of the Chthonian +beings, “the Ancestors.” A good case in point +is that of Bessie Dunlop, of Dalry, in Ayrshire, +tried on 8th November 1576 for witchcraft. +She dealt in medicine and white +magic, and obtained her prescriptions from +Thomas Reid, slain at Pinkie fight (1547), who +often appeared to her, and tried to lead her +off to Fairyland. She, like Alison Pearson, was +“convict and burnt” (Scott’s <cite>Demonology</cite>, p. +146, and Pitcairn’s <cite>Criminal Trials</cite>). Both +ladies knew the Fairy Queen, and Alison Pearson +beheld Maitland of Lethington, and Buccleugh, +in Fairyland, as is recounted in a rhymed satire +on Archbishop Adamson (Dalzell’s <cite>Scottish Poems</cite>, +p. 321). These are excellent proofs that Fairyland +was a kind of Hades, or home of the dead.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kirk, who speaks of the <em>Sleagh Maith</em> as +confidently as if he were discussing the habits +of some remote race which he has visited, credits<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</span> +them, as the Greek gods were credited, with +the power of nourishing themselves on some fine +essential part of human sacrifice, of human food, +“some fine spirituous Liquors, that peirce like +pure Air and Oil, on the poyson or substance of +Corns and Liquors.” Others, more gross, steal +the actual grain, “as do Crowes and Mice.” +They are heard hammering in the howes: as +Brownies they enter houses and cleanse the +hearths. They are the Domovoys, as the Russians +call them. John Major, in his exposition +of St. Matthew (1518, fol. xlviii.), gives perhaps +the oldest account of Brownies, in a believing +temper. Major styles them Fauni or <em>brobne</em>. +They thrash as much grain in one night as +twenty men could do. They throw stones about +among people sitting by the fire. Whether they +can predict future events is doubtful (see Mr. +Constable in Major’s <cite>Greater Britain</cite>, p. xxx. +Edinburgh, 1892). To us they seem not much +remote from the Roman Lares—spirits of the +household, of the hearth. In all these creatures +Mr. Kirk recognises “an abstruse People,” who +were before our more substantial race, whose +furrows are still to be seen on the hill-tops. +They never were, to his mind, plain palpable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</span> +folk; they are only visible, in their quarterly +flittings, to men of the second sight. That gift +of vision includes not only power to see distant +or future events, but the viewless forms of air. +To shun the flittings, men visit church on the +first Sunday of the quarter: then they will be +hallowed against elf-shots, “these Arrows that +fly in the dark.” As is well known, superstition +explained the Neolithic arrow-heads as Fairy +weapons; it does not follow that a tradition of a +Neolithic people suggested the belief in Fairies. +But we cannot deny absolutely that some such +memory of an earlier race, a shy and fugitive +people who used weapons of stone, may conceivably +play its part in the Fairy legend.</p> + +<p>Thence Mr. Kirk glides into that singular +theory of savage metaphysics which somewhat +resembles the Platonic doctrine of Ideas. All +things, in Red Indian belief, have somewhere +their ideal counterpart or “Father.” Thus a +donkey, when first seen, was regarded as “the +Father” or archetype “of Rabbits.” Now the +second-sighted behold the “Double-man,” “Doppel-ganger,” +“Astral Body,” “Wraith,” or what +you will, of a living person, and that is merely +his counterpart in the abstruse world. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvi">[xxvi]</span> +industry of the Psychical Society has collected +much material—evidence, whatever its value, for +the existence of the Double-man. We may call it +a hallucination, which does not greatly increase +our knowledge. From personal experience, and +the experience of friends, I am constrained to +believe that we may think we see a person who +is not really present to the view—who may be +in the next room, or downstairs, or a hundred +miles off. This experience has occurred to the +sane, the unimaginative, the healthy, the free +from superstition, and in circumstances by no +means mystic—for example, when the person +supposed to be seen was not dying, nor distressed, +nor in any but the most normal condition. Indeed, +the cases when there was nothing abnormal +in the state of the person seen are far more +numerous, in my personal knowledge, than those +in which the person seen was dying, or dead, or +excited. The reverse appears to be the rule in +the experience of the Psychical Society. “The +actual proportion of coincidental to non-coincidental +cases, after all deduction for possible +sources of error, was in fact such that the probability +against the supposition of chance coincidence +became enormous, on the assumption of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxvii">[xxvii]</span> +ordinary accuracy on the part of informants” +(Professor Sidgwick, <cite>Proc. S.P.R.</cite>, vol. viii. +p. 607). Some 17,000 answers were collected. +We must apparently accept these facts as not +very abnormal nor very unusual, and doubtless +as capable of some subjective explanation. +But when such things occurred among +imaginative and uneducated Highlanders, they +became foundations and proofs of the doctrine +of second sight—proofs, too, of the primitive +metaphysical doctrine of counterparts and <em>correspondances</em>. +“They avouch that every Element +and different state of Being have Animals resembling +these of another Element.” By persons +not knowing this, “the Roman invention of +guardian Angels particularly assigned” has been +promulgated. The guardian Angel of the Roman +superstition is merely the Double or Co-walker—the +type (in the viewless world) of the man +in the apparent world. Thus are wraiths and +ghosts explained by our Presbyterian psychologist +and his Highland flock. All things universally +have their types, their reflex: a man’s +type, or reflex, or “co-walker” may be seen at a +distance from or near him during his life—nay, +may be seen after his death. The gifted man of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxviii">[xxviii]</span> +second sight can tell the substantial figure from +the airy counterpart. Sometimes the reflex +anticipates the action of the reality: “was often +seen of old to enter a House, by which the people +knew that the Person of that Likeness was to +visit them in a few days.” It may have occurred +to most of us to meet a person in the street +whom we took for an acquaintance. It is not +he, but we meet the real man a few paces farther +on. Thus a distinguished officer, at home on +leave, met a friend, as he tells me, in Piccadilly. +The other passed without notice: the officer +hesitated about following him, did not, and in +some fifty yards met his man. There is probably +no more in this than resemblance and +coincidence, but this is the kind of thing which +was worked by the Highlanders into their metaphysics.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>The end of the Co-walker is obscure. “This<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxix">[xxix]</span> +Copy, Echo, or living Picture goes att last to +his own Herd.” Thus Ghosts are short-lived, +and, according to M. d’Assier on the Manners +of Posthumous Man (<cite lang="fr">L’Homme Posthume</cite>), +seldom survive for more than a century. By an +airy being of this kind the Highlanders explained +the false or morbid appetite. A “joint-eater” +inhabited the patient; “he feeds two when he +eats.” As a rule, the Fairies get their food as +witches do—take “the Pith and Milk from +their Neighbours’ Cows unto their own chiese-hold, +throw a Hair-tedder, at a great distance, +by Airt Magic, only drawing a spigot fastened +in a Post, which will bring Milk as farr as a +Bull will be heard to roar.” This is illustrated +in the drinking scene in <cite>Faust</cite>. This kind of +charge is familiar in trials for witchcraft.</p> + +<p>In accordance with the whole metaphysics of +the system of doubles, which are parasites on +humanity, is the superstition of nurses stolen by +Fairies, and of children kidnapped while changelings +are left in their place. The latter accounts +for sudden decline and loss of health by a child; +he is not the original child, but a Fairy brat. +To guard against this, bread (as human food +hateful to Fairies—so the Kanekas carry a boiled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxx">[xxx]</span> +yam about at night), or the Bible, or iron is +placed in the bed of childbirth. “Iron scares +spirits,” as the scholiast says of the drawn sword +of Odysseus in Hades. The Fairy bride, in +Wales, vanishes on being touched with iron. +This belief probably came in when iron was a +new, rare, and mysterious metal. The mortal +nurses in Fairyland are pleasantly illustrated by +the ballad</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I heard a cow lowe,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A bonny, bonny cow lowe,”</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">in C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s <cite>Ballad Book</cite>.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> This +part of the superstition is not easy to elucidate. +Kirk repeats the well-known tales of the blinding +of the mortal who saw too clearly “by making +use of their Oyntments.” Well-known examples +occur in Gervase of Tilbury, and are cited in +Scott’s note on <i>Tamlane</i> in the <cite>Border Minstrelsy</cite>. +As Homer fables of the dead, their +speech is a kind of whistling like the cry of +bats—another indication of the pre-Christian +Hades.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> They have feasts and burials; and +Pashley, in his <cite>Travels in Crete</cite>, tells the well-known +Border story of a man who fired on a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxi">[xxxi]</span> +Fairy bridal, and heard a voice cry, “Ye have +slain the bonny bridegroom.” It is, of course, +to be noted that the modern Greek superstition +of the Nereids, who carry off mortal girls to +dance with them till they pine away, answers to +some of our Fairy legends, while it will hardly +be maintained that the Nereids are a memory of +pre-historic Finns. “Antic corybantic jollity” +is a note of Nereids, as well as of the <em>Sleagh +Maith</em>. “The Inconvenience of their <em>succubi</em>,” +the Fairy girls who make love to young men, is +well known in the Breton ballad, <cite lang="fr">Le Sieur Nan</cite>. +The same superstition is current among the +Kanekas of New Caledonia. My cousin, Mr. +Atkinson, was visited by a young Kaneka, who +twice or thrice returned to take leave of him +with much emotion. When Mr. Atkinson asked +what was the matter, the lad said that he had +just met, as he thought, the girl of his heart +in the forest. After a scene of dalliance she +vanished, and he knew that she was a forest +Fairy, and that he must die in three days, +which he did. This is the “inconvenience of +their succubi,” regretted by Mr. Kirk. Thus it +appears that the mass of these opinions is not +local, nor Celtic merely, but of world-wide<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxii">[xxxii]</span> +diffusion. Thus Sir Walter Scott observes of the +Afghans and Highlanders, “Their superstitions +are the same, or nearly so. The <em>Gholée Beabacan</em> +(demons of the desert) resemble the <em>Boddach</em> of +the Highlanders, ‘who walked the heath at +midnight and at noon’” (<cite>Quarterly Review</cite>, xiv. +289). Again, Mr. Kirk says that “Were-wolves +and Witches’ true Bodies are (by the union of +the spirit of Nature that runs thorow all, echoing +and doubling the Blow towards another) wounded +at home, when the astrial or assumed Bodies are +stricken elsewhere.” Thus, if a witch-hare is +shot, the witch’s real body is hurt in the same +part; and Lafitau, in North America, found that +when a Huron shot a witch-bird, the real magician +was stricken in the same place. The theory +that the Fairies appear as “a little rough Dog” +is illustrated by the Welsh Dogs of Hell. +<cite>Blackwood’s Magazine</cite> for 1818 contains many +examples of these Hell-dogs, which are often +invested in a sheet of fire, as Rink says is the +case among the Eskimo. Take a modern instance. +“Mr. F. A. Paley and friend, walking +home at night on a lonely road, see a large black +dog rise from it, slowly walk to the side, and +disappear. They search in vain. Mr. Paley<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxiii">[xxxiii]</span> +hears subsequently that this mysterious dog is +the terror of the neighbourhood, but no such +real dog is known.” Date, summer 1837 (<cite>Journ. +of S.P.R.</cite>, Feb. 1893, p. 31).</p> + +<p>The dwellings of these airy shadows of mankind +are, naturally, “Fairie Hills.” There is +such a hill, the Fairy Hill at Aberfoyle, where +Mr. Kirk resided: Baillie Nicol Jarvie describes +its legends in an admirable passage in <cite>Rob Roy</cite>. +Mr. MacRitchie says, “How much of this ‘howe’ +is artificial, or whether any of it is, remains to +be discovered.” It is much larger than most +artificial tumuli. According to Mr. Kirk, the +Highlanders “superstitiously believe the souls +of their Predecessors to dwell” in the fairy-hills. +“And for that end, say they, a Mote or Mount +was dedicate beside every Churchyard, to receive +the souls till their adjacent bodies arise, and so +become as a Fairy hill.” Here the Highland +philosophers have conspicuously put the cart +before the horse. The tumuli are much older +than the churches, which were no doubt built +beside them because the place had a sacred +character. Two very good examples may be +seen at Dalry, on the Ken, in Galloway, and at +Parton, on Loch Ken. The grassy howes are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxiv">[xxxiv]</span> +large and symmetrical, and the modern Presbyterian +churches occupy old sites; at Parton +there are ruins of the ancient Catholic church. +Round the tumulus at Dalry, according to the +local form of the <i lang="de">Märchen</i> of Hesione, a great +dragon used to coil in triple folds, before it was +killed by the blacksmith. Nobody, perhaps, +can regard these tumuli, and many like them, +as anything but sepulchral. On the road between +Balantrae, in Ayrshire, and Stranraer, there is a +beautiful tumulus above the sea, which at once +recalls the barrow above the main that Elpenor +in the <cite>Odyssey</cite>, asked Odysseus to build for him, +“the memorial of a luckless man.” In the +<cite>Argonautica</cite> of Apollonius Rhodius, the ghost +of a hero who fell at Troy appears to the adventurers +on a tumulus like this of the Ayrshire +coast. In speaking of these barrows Mr. Kirk +tells how, during a famine about 1676, two +women had a vision of a treasure hid in a fairy-hill. +This they excavated, and discovered some +coins “of good money.” The great gold corslet +of the British Museum is said to have been +found in Wales, where tradition spoke of a ghost +in golden armour which haunted a hillock. The +hillock was excavated, and the golden corslet,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxv">[xxxv]</span> +like the Shakespearian bricks, is “alive to +testify” to the truth of the story.</p> + + +<h3>V. <span class="smcap">Fairies and Psychical Research.</span></h3> + +<p>The Fairy belief, we have said, is a composite +thing. On the materials given by tradition, +such as the memory, perhaps, of a pre-historic +race, and by old religion, as in the thoughts +about the pre-Christian Hades, poetry and fancy +have been at work. Consumption, lingering +disease, unexplained disappearances, sudden +deaths, have been accounted for by the agency +of the Fairies, or People of Peace. If the +superstition included no more than this, we +might regard it as a natural result of imagination, +dealing with facts quite natural in the +ordinary course of things. But there are elements +in the belief which cannot be so easily +dismissed. We must ask whether the abnormal +phenomena which have been so frequently discussed, +fought over, forgotten, and revived, do +not enter into the general mass of folk-lore. +They appear most notably in the two branches +of Browniedom—of “Pixies,” as they say in +Devonshire, who haunt the house, and in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxvi">[xxxvi]</span> +alleged examples of the second sight. The +former topic is the more obscure, if not the +more curious. Let us examine the occurrences, +then, which may have begotten the belief in +Brownies, and in house-haunting Pixies or +Fairies. These appearances may be alleged, on +one hand, to be actual facts in Nature, the +workings of some yet unexplained forces; or +they may merely be the consequences of some +very old traditional method of imposture, vulgar +in itself, but still historical. That form of imposture, +again, may be wrought either by conscious +agents, or unconsciously and automatically +by persons under the influence of somnambulism; +or, finally, the phenomena may in various cases +be due to any one of these three agencies, all of +which may possibly be <i lang="la">veræ causæ</i>, as conscious +imposture and trickery is certainly one <i lang="la">vera +causa</i>.</p> + +<p>In Mr. Kirk’s book we meet “the invisible +Wights which haunt Houses, ... throw great +Stones, Pieces of Earth and Wood at the Inhabitants,” +but “hurt them not at all.” As we +have said, Major (1518) calls these wights +“Fauni or Brobne”—that is, Brownies—and +says that they thrash as much grain in one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxvii">[xxxvii]</span> +night as twenty men could do, and throw +stones about. The legend of their working was +common in Scotland, and a correspondent says +that in Devonshire the belief in Pixies who set +the house in order exists among the grand-parents +of the present generation. But the +sportive is more common than the kindly aspect +of Brownies. Through history we constantly +find them causing objects to move without +visible contact, and “acting in sport, like Buffoons +and Drolls.” In his <cite>Letters on Demonology</cite> +(p. 377) Scott gives instances where the buffoon +or droll was detected, and confessed that the +rattlings of plates and movements of objects +were caused by an apparatus of threads or horse-hair. +He also quotes the famous doings of +“The Just Devil of Woodstock” in 1649, which +so perplexed and discomfited the Cromwellian +Commissioners. He accounts for those annoyances +by the confessions of Joe Collins of Oxford, +“Funny Joe,” which he quotes from Hone’s +<cite>Every-Day Book</cite>, while Hone quotes from the +<cite>British Magazine</cite> of 1747. But the writer in +the <cite>British Magazine</cite> gives no references or +authorities for the authenticity of Funny Joe’s +confessions, nor even for the existence of Joseph.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxviii">[xxxviii]</span> +Scott could not find his original in the pamphlets +of the British Museum, and some of the statements +attributed to Joe do not tally with the +official account, and other contemporary documents +collected in Sir Walter’s <cite>Woodstock</cite>. Joe +pretends, for example, to have been secretary to +the Commission under the name of Giles Sharpe; +but in the other accounts the secretary is named +Browne. A Royalist Brownie or Polter-geist +lies under shrewd suspicion, but Joe’s own +existence is unproved, and his alleged evidence +is of no value. However, no sane person can +dream of doubting that many a Brownie has +been as much in flesh and blood as the Brownie +of Bodsbeck in Hogg’s story.</p> + +<p>There remain the less easily explicable tales +of strange and humorous disturbances, accompanied +by loud sounds, rappings, the moving of +objects without visible contact, and so forth.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +Perhaps we may best examine these by taking +modern instances, collected by the Psychical +Society, in the first place, and then comparing +them with cases recorded at distant times and +in remote places. Some curious common features<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxxix">[xxxix]</span> +will be observed, and the evidence has at least +the value of undesigned coincidence. Glanvil, +Telfair (minister of Rerrick), the Wesleys, Dr. +Adam Clarke, Increase Mather, were not modern +students of psychical research. The modern +Psychical Researchers, we fear, are not students +of old legendary lore, which they dismiss on +evidence not first-hand nor scientifically valid. +Thus they do not seem to be aware that they +are describing, almost in identical terms, phenomena +identical with those noted by Telfair, +Mather, Lavater, and the rest, and by those +ancients attributed to devils. The modern recorders +are not consciously copying from old +accounts; the coincidences therefore have their +value, as proving that certain phenomena have +occurred and recurred. Now those phenomena +may be due to conscious or to hysterical imposture, +but they have been frequent and common +enough to keep alive, and probably to originate, +a part of the Fairy belief—that part which is +concerned with Brownies and house-haunting +Pixies, or Domovoys. These, again, correspond +to the tricky beings described by Mr. Leland in +his <cite>Etruscan Remains</cite> as survivals of old Roman +and Etruscan popular religions, while we find<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xl">[xl]</span> +similar occurrences in the Empire of the Incas +not long after the Spanish conquest of Peru.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Beginning, then, with what is nearest to us in +time, we take Mr. F. W. H. Myers’s essays “On +the Alleged Movement of Objects without Contact, +occurring not in the Presence of a Paid +Medium.”<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The alleged phenomena are, of +course, as common as blackberries in the presence +of paid mediums, but are to the last degree +untrustworthy. Even when there is no paid +medium present, the mere contagious excitement +which is said to be developed at <i lang="fr">séances</i> makes +all that is thought to occur there a story to be +taken with plenty of salt.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> One of Mr. Myers’s +examples was the result of <i lang="fr">séances</i>, but it had +features of great importance for the argument. +It will be found in <cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, vol. xix. p. 189, +July 1891. The performers are Mr. C., Mrs. +C., and Mr. H. Mr. C. and Mrs. C. are spoken +of as good witnesses, known to Mr. Myers and +Professor Barrett. Mr. H.’s health has suffered +so much that he cannot be examined, and Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xli">[xli]</span> +H. is the person who interests us here, for +reasons which will be given later. All three +were “unbelievers” in these matters. On the +second evening “lights floated about the room,” +which was lit, apparently, by a full moon. +“F.” (who is also “H.”) felt cold hands touching, +and “hands” recur in the old pre-scientific +accounts. The three mages were holding hands +tightly at the time. Now Mr. H. had hitherto +been in excellent health, but after his chair was +dragged from under him, and he was “thrown +down on the ground,” he went into “a trance.” +His watch and ring (on the finger of a hand held +by Mrs. C.) were carried to a remote part of +the room. H. leaves the circle and sits at the +window. Another figure walks through the +room. H. returns, is “thrown down,” his coat +is dragged off, and his boots are discovered on a +distant sofa. He asks for “something from +home,” goes into a trance, a photograph locked +up by him at home is found on the table. His +wife, in town, “being quite ignorant of our +having had <i lang="fr">séances</i>, told us that, at that very +hour, a fearful crash occurred in his bedroom. +The photograph vanished, and returned last +night, when H. was in a trance.” He is “thrown<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlii">[xlii]</span> +down” again. He has “alternate fits of unconsciousness +and raving delirium.” The home of +Mr. and Mrs. C. (not the house where they sat) +is vexed by “figures,” noises, knockings; “we +were sprinkled with water in the night,” haunted +by sounds of drums and horns, and so forth. +Before a “manifestation,” “we all felt a sudden +chill, like either a wave of intensely cold air +passing, or a rapid decrease of temperature.”<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>This is a disgusting story if Mr. H.’s health +was ruined by his presence at the performances. +The point, however, is that he did behave in +epileptic fashion while these events were in +progress. It is natural to suppose that, in his +“trances,” he may have been capable, unconsciously, +of feats physically and morally impossible +to him in his normal condition. This +explanation would not cover all the alleged occurrences, +but would account for many of them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xliii">[xliii]</span></p> + +<p>We now take an ancient instance, similar +disturbances at Newberry, in New England, in +1679, similarly accompanied by the presence of +an epileptic patient.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The house of William +Morse was “strangely disquieted by a dæmon.” +The inmates were Morse, his wife, and their +grandson, a boy whose age is not given. The +trouble began on December 3, with a sound of +heavy objects falling on the roof. On December +8, large stones and bricks “were thrown in at +the west end of the house ... the bedstead +was lifted up from the floor, and the bed-staff +flung out of the window, and a cat was hurled +at the wife. A long staff danced up and down +in the chimney. The man’s wife put the staff +in the fire, but she could not hold it there, inasmuch +as it would forcibly fly out; yet after +much ado, with joynt strength, they made it to +burn.... A chair flew about, and at last +lighted on the table, where victuals stood ready +to eat, and was likely to spoil all, only by a +nimble catching they saved some of their meat.... +A chest was removed from place to place,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xliv">[xliv]</span> +no hand touching it. Two keys would fly +about, making a loud noise by knocking against +each other.... As they lay in bed with their +little boy between them, a great stone from the +floor of the loft was thrown upon the man’s +stomach, and he turning it down upon the floor, +it was once more thrown upon him.” On January +23, 1680, “his ink-horn was taken away +from him while he was writing” (he was keeping +a diary of these events), “and when by all his +seeking he could not find it, at last he saw it +drop out of the air, down by the fire.... +February 2, while he and his boy were eating of +cheese, the pieces which he cut were wrested from +them.... But as for the boy, he was a great +sufferer in these afflictions, for on the 18th of +December he, sitting by his grandfather, was +hurried into great motions. The man made him +stand between his legs, but the chair danced +up and down, and was like to have cast both +man and boy into the fire, and the child was +tossed about in such a manner as that they +feared his brains would have been beaten out.”</p> + +<p>All these contortions of the boy were apparently +what M. Charcot calls <em>clownisms</em>.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> When<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlv">[xlv]</span> +taken to a doctor’s house the boy “was free of +disturbances,” which returned with his return +home. He barked like a dog, clucked like a hen, +talked nonsense about “Powel,” who pinched +and bullied him. While he was in bed with +the old people, “a pot with its contents was +thrown upon them.” They were clutched by +hands, like Mr. and Mrs. C. Once a voice was +heard singing, “Revenge, revenge is sweet.” +Finally a mate of a ship came, declared that the +grandmother was not rightly suspected as a +witch, and offered, if he were left alone with +the boy, to cure him. “The mate came next +day betimes, and the boy was with him till +night; since which time his house, Morse saith, +has not been molested with evil spirits.” Probably +the mate used a rope’s end: the boy was +more speedily cured than Mr. H.</p> + +<p>The phenomena are those of droll or buffooning +wights, as Mr. Kirk says, and no man can +doubt that the boy was at the bottom of the +whole affair. But whether he was capable, when +well and conscious, of such diversions, is another +question. Children like him produced the famous +witch-mania in New England.</p> + +<p>We have here, undeniably, a well-recorded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlvi">[xlvi]</span> +case, analogous to that of Mr. H. In a modern +case of bell-ringing, heavy thumps, and movement +of objects, the agent was “a young girl +who had never been out to service before,” +and who passed the night in a state of wildly +agitated somnambulism, repeating the whole of +the Service for the day.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Mather gives several +other examples, in which motives for trickery +are manifest, while we hear nothing of an epileptic +or hysterical patient.</p> + +<p>In the majority of instances, ancient or modern, +children are the agents. Thus we have “Physical +Phenomena obtained in a Family Circle,” +that of Mr. and Mrs. Davis, with their children, +at Rio Janeiro.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> The time was 1888. Curiosity +had been caused by “the notorious Henry Slade.” +There were “touches and grasps of hands.” A +table “ran after me” (Professor Alexander) “and +attempted to hem me in,” when only C., a little +girl, was in the room. “As far as I could see, +she did not even touch the table.” The chair +of Amy (aged thirteen months) was moved about, +like that of Master Morse two hundred years +earlier. A table jumped into the laps of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlvii">[xlvii]</span> +public. There were raps and thumps, which +“seemed to shake the whole building.” Lights +floated about. A slate, covered with flour, was +placed on C.’s lap; her hands lay on the table. +Marks of fingers came on the flour, and, in +answer to request, the mark of “a naked baby +foot.” The children present were wearing laced +boots, and we are not told that little Amy was +under the table. Bluish lights and the phantasm +of a dog were seen.</p> + +<p>All this answers to an ancient example—the +disturbances in Mr. Wesley’s house at Epworth, +December 1715 to January 1716.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The house +was a new one, rebuilt in 1709. We have Mr. +Samuel Wesley’s Journal, with many contemporary +letters from members of the family, and +later reminiscences. There were many lively +girls in the house, and two servants—a maid +and a man, recently engaged. The disturbances +began with groanings; then came knockings, +which flitted about the house. Mr. Wesley +heard nothing till December 21. The knocks +replied to those made by the family, but they +never could imitate the sounds. Mrs. Wesley<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlviii">[xlviii]</span> +and Emily saw an object “like a badger” run +from under a bed and vanish. The mastiff was +much alarmed by the sounds. Mr. Wesley was +“thrice pushed by invisible power.” The bogie +was a Jacobite, as was Mrs. Wesley: Mr. Wesley +was for King George. The knocks were violent +when that usurper was prayed for. They did +not try praying for King James. Robin, the servant, +saw a hand-mill work violently. “Naught +vexed me but that it was empty. I thought, +had it but been full of malt, he might have +ground his heart out for me.” But this was a +jocose, not an industrious devil. Robin called +it “old Jeffries,” after a gentleman lately dead; +the family called it “Jeffrey,” unless one name +is a mere misspelling. It “seemed to sweep +after” Nancy Wesley, when she swept the +chambers. “She thought he might have done +it for her, and saved her the trouble.” Mrs. +Wesley concealed the matter from her husband, +“lest he should fancy it was against his own +death” (Letter of January 12, 1716-17). This +belief in noises foretelling death is very common; +compare Scott’s nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford +when Bullock, his agent in building it, was +dying in London. The racket occurred on April<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xlix">[xlix]</span> +28 and 29, 1818, and Scott examined the scene +“with Beardie’s broadsword under my arm.”<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +Bullock died in Tenterden Street, in London, +whether on April 28 or 29 is not easily to be +ascertained. “The noise resembled half a dozen +men putting up boards and furniture, and nothing +can be more certain than that there was nobody +on the premises at the time.”<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The noises used +to follow Hetty Wesley, and thump under her +feet, as under those of C. in Professor Alexander’s +narrative. Mr. Wesley’s plate “danced +before him on the table a pretty while, without +anybody’s stirring the table.”<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> The disturbances +quieted down in January, but recurred on March +31. Similar phenomena had occurred “long +before” in the family.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> “The sound very often +seemed in the air, in the middle of a room, +nor could they ever make any such themselves +by any contrivance.”<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> On February 16, 1740, +twenty-three years later, Emily writes to Jack +about “that <em>wonderful thing</em> called by us <em>Jeffrey</em>.... That<span class="pagenum" id="Page_l">[l]</span> +something calls on me against any +extraordinary new affliction.”</p> + +<p>Priestley styles this affair “the best-authenticated +that is anywhere extant.” He supposes it +to have been “a trick of the servants, for mere +amusement.” The <i lang="la">modus operandi</i> is difficult to +explain. We hear nothing of bad health or +hysterics in the household.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> For our purpose it +is enough that a few incidents of this kind, however +produced, might originate and keep alive +the belief in Brownies, and</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent8">“That shrewd and knavish sprite</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Called Robin Goodfellow,”</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">who</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Frights the maidens of the villagery,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Skims milk, and sometimes labours in the quern.”</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>By a curious coincidence, we can show a case +in which phenomena of the kind usually reported +as occurring at <i lang="fr">séances</i>, and in examples like that +of William Morse, were actually accepted as +manifestations of the <em>Sleagh Maith</em>, or Fairies. +In his account of the disturbances in the Wesley +family, Dr. Clarke, the author, averred that he +had himself witnessed similar events. It thus +became necessary to consult his <cite>Life</cite> (London,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_li">[li]</span> +1833). “In the history of my own life,” says +Dr. Clarke, “I have related this matter in sufficient +detail.”<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Unluckily, in his <cite>Life</cite> (pp. 76, +77) he gives scarce any details. Previous to +sudden deaths in a family called Church, the +phenomena of falling plates, heavy tread, and +other noises occurred. Mr. Clarke “sat up one +whole night in the kitchen, and most distinctly +heard the above noises.” He was a born mystic, +and even in childhood a reader of Cornelius +Agrippa, and, later, of the alchemists. But he +records the instance of a woman, who solemnly +declared to Mrs. Clarke that a number of the +<em>gentle people</em> (<em>Sleagh Maith</em>) “occasionally frequented +her house; that they often conversed +with her, one of them putting its hands on her +eyes during the time, which hands she represented, +from the sensation she had, to be about +the size of those of a child of four or five years +of age.” The family were “worn down” with +these visits, and from the mention of touches of +hands it is pretty plain that we have to do with +the kind of sprite who paws people at <i lang="fr">séances</i>. +But these sprites are recognised (the scene is the +North of Ireland) as “gentle people,” Folk of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lii">[lii]</span> +Peace. The amusing thing is, that Mr. Clarke, +while he believes in Mr. Wesley’s Jeffrey, and +in the supernatural origin of a noise in a kitchen, +laughs at similar phenomena when assigned to +Fairies. It is a mere difference of terminology.</p> + +<p>Another old example may be given. It is +Alexander Telfair’s “True Relation” of disturbances +at Ringcroft, in the parish of Rerrick.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +The story is attested by the signatures of Ewart, +minister of Kells, in Galloway; Monteith, minister +of Borg; Murdoch, minister of Crosmichael, +on Loch Ken; Spalding, minister at Parton, +also by Loch Ken; Falconer, minister at Keltown; +Mr. M‘Lellan of Colline, Lennox of Milhouse, +and a number of farmers. These were +all neighbours, and all attested what they saw +and heard. Robert Chambers says, “There +never, perhaps, was any mystic history better +attested. Few narrations of the kind have included +occurrences and appearances which it was +more difficult to reconcile with the theory of trick +or imposture.” Mr. Telfair himself had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_liii">[liii]</span> +chaplain, in 1687, to Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick +of Closeburn. He was then an Episcopalian.</p> + +<p>Andrew Mackie was a stone-mason at Rerrick. +On March 7 (1695?), and for long after, stones +began to fly about in his house by night and +day. “The stones which hit any person had +not half their natural weight.” Mackie complained +to Telfair, his minister, who entered the +house and prayed: nothing odd occurred. As +he stood outside, he “saw two little stones drop +down on the croft;” then he was asked to return, +and was pelted inside the cottage. This was +March 11. For a week there was no more +trouble, then the disturbances began again. Mr. +Telfair was sent for, and was pelted, beaten with +a staff, and heard loud knockings. “That night, +as I was at prayer, leaning on a bedside, I felt +something lifting up my arm. I, casting my +eyes thither, perceived a little white hand and +arm from the elbow down, but presently it +evanished.” “There was never anything seen +except that hand I saw,” and an apparition of +a boy in grey clothes. Sometimes the stoning +went on in the open air.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> There were plenty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_liv">[liv]</span> +of touchings, grippings, and scratchings. “The +door-bar” (a long, heavy piece of squared wood) +“would go thorow the house as if a person were +carrying it in their hand, yet nothing seen doing +it.” Here we compare, in <cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, February +1892, the story of a carpenter’s shop at +Swanland, in Yorkshire, where pieces of wood +were “levitated” into abnormal flight. No imposture +was discovered, nor was the presence of +any one person necessary.</p> + +<p>The ministers of Kells and Crosmichael were +pelted with stones of eight pounds weight. On +April 6, fire-balls floated through the cottage. +When five ministers were present, “it made all +the house shake, brake a hole through the +thatch, and poured in great stones.” “It handled +the legs of some as with a man’s hand;” it +hoisted Mr. Telfair, Lennox of Millhouse, and +others off the ground! A sieve flew through +the house; Mackie caught it; a force gripped +it, and pulled the interior part out of the rim. +A day of humiliation was solemnly kept in the +parish, which only excited the emulation of the +disturbing agent; “it continued in a most fearful +manner without intermission.” Voices were +heard, which talked nonsense of a semi-scriptural<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lv">[lv]</span> +kind; finally the thing died out early in May. +By the way, on April 28, “it pulled down the +end of the house, all the stone-work thereof.”</p> + +<p>This is a very odd case, as no suspicion is +thrown on the children. The attestations of +several witnesses are given, not only at the close, +but for almost every separate incident. The +vision of the white hand is agreeable.</p> + +<p><cite>The Devil of Glen Luce</cite>, in Galloway, was +published by Sinclair in his <cite>Hydrostaticks</cite>, of all +places, in 1672, and again in <cite>Satan’s Invisible +World</cite>, and by Glanvil in <cite lang="la">Sadducismus Triumphatus</cite>. +In this affair a boy called Thomas, a +son of the unlucky householder, was clearly the +agent. The phenomena were stone-throwing, +beating with sticks, levitation of a plate, and a +great deal of voices, probably uttered by the +aforesaid Thomas. The Synod ordered a day of +humiliation (1655-56).</p> + +<p>The affair of the Drummer of Tedworth (1661) +is, or ought to be, too well known for quotation. +The troubles began after Mr. Mompesson seized +the drum of a vagrant musician. In the presence +of a clergyman, chairs walked about the +room of themselves, “a bed-staff was thrown at +the minister, but so favourably that a lock of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lvi">[lvi]</span> +wool could not have fallen more softly.” The +children, as usual, were especially haunted. A +jingling of money was common, as it also was at +Epworth. Lights wandered about the house, +“blue and glimmering.” The noise was persistent +in the woodwork of the children’s beds, +while their hands were outside. The knocks +answered knocks made by visitors. There were +divers other marvels. The Drummer was suspected, +but, consciously or not, the children +were probably the agents. They seem to have +been in their usual health.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> In Galashiels (date +not given), loud knocks on the floor accompanied +a hystero-epileptic girl wherever she sat. In +bed, “her body was so lifted up that many +strong men were not able to keep it down.” +The minister, who could make nothing of her, +was Mr. Wilkie; the girl was Margaret Wilson +(Sinclair, p. 200).</p> + +<p>This little parcel of strange stories may suffice +to show that part of the Fairy belief is based on +such incidents as still occur, or are reported to +occur, just in the old fashion. It is for psychologists +and physicians to ascertain how far, if at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lvii">[lvii]</span> +all, the incidents are produced by hysterical, or +epileptic, or somnambulistic patients. Common +forthright trickery is usually detected in paid +mediums. But the trickery simulates real +events, or continues an old traditional form of +imposture. The moral that parents should not +allow their children to be present at <i lang="fr">séances</i> +hardly needs enforcing. Some of them may +escape unharmed, but frightful injuries may be +inflicted on health and on character.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + + +<h3>VI. <span class="smcap">Second Sight and “Telepathy.”</span></h3> + +<p>We have already hinted that events of an +ordinary kind—illusions, cases of mistaken identity, +or hallucination—are probably the ground-work +in part of the Highland belief in second +sight. Of course, if a certain proportion of +hallucinations were or could be taken for “veridical,” +attention would be given to these alone: +the others would be neglected. The Psychical +Society has collected and examined hundreds of +these cases in modern life.</p> + +<p>The Society may find out, experimentally, +whether second sight can be acquired in the +manner described by Mr. Kirk—whether by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lviii">[lviii]</span> +the hair tether, or by merely putting the foot +under that of a seer. Thus contact is used +in thought reading, as, in second sight, the +seer by contact communicates his hallucination. +Second sight itself is now called telepathy, +which, however, does not essentially advance +our knowledge of the subject. It is either very +common, or people who choose to claim the +possession of it are very common. In our +society it is mere matter for idle tales; in +the Highlands the second sight was a belief +and a system. Mr. Pepys and Dr. Johnson +investigated the matter, and Dr. Johnson came +away open to conviction, but unconvinced. The +Psychical Society is now examining second +sight in the Highlands. It is interesting to +learn that the Presbyterian seers justified their +visions out of the Bible, which also justified +the burning of these gifted men on occasion. +Mr. Kirk is tolerant enough to ascribe their +visions to a “bounty of Providence.” This +may have passed, north of the Highland +line, but in Fife and the south the seers would +speedily have been accommodated with a stake +and tar-barrel. The writings of Wodrow and +Mr. Robert Blair of St. Andrews (1650-60)<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lix">[lix]</span> +prove that if a savoury preacher wrought marvels, +he was inspired, but if an amateur did +the very same things,—prophesied, healed +diseases, and so forth,—he, or she, was likely +to be haled before the Presbytery, and possibly +dragged to the stake. In the Highlands these +invidious distinctions were less forcibly drawn. +Mr. Kirk treats the whole question in his +curiously cold scientific way. If these things +occur, they are in the realm of Nature, and are +results of causes which may be variously conjectured. +They may be providential, or a sport +of evolution, derived from “a complexionall +Quality of the first acquirer,” which often +becomes hereditary in his lineage.</p> + +<p>Lord Tarbott’s letter to an inquirer, Robert +Boyle, is added by Mr. Kirk to his little +treatise, with his own annotations. His belief +that the Fairy sights could only be seen while +the eyes are kept steady without twinkling, is +attested by a well-known anecdote. On the +afternoon of Culloden, a little girl, staying +with Lord Lovat at Gortuleg, was reading in +a window-seat. Chancing to look out, she saw +a company of headlong riders hastening to the +castle. Believing them to be the <em>Sleagh Maith</em>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lx">[lx]</span> +she tried hard to keep her eyes from twinkling, +that she might not lose the vision. But these, +alas! were no Fairies, they were Prince Charles +and his men flying from the victorious English. +The tale proves that the belief long survived +the day of the minister of Aberfoyle. Lord +Tarbott mentions, also, the vision of the shroud +on the breast of a man about to die, which +seems to be alluded to in the prophecy of +Theoclymenus in the <cite>Odyssey</cite>. Lord Tarbott’s +tales are of the familiar kind, there are dozens +of such in <cite lang="la">Theophilus Insulanus</cite>. Mr. Kirk’s +notes are chiefly remarkable for his citation of +Walter Grahame’s “evil eye,” which killed +what he praised,—a world-wide superstition, too +common to need supporting by foreign and +classical examples.</p> + +<p>Unluckily, at this point Mr. Kirk abandons +what we may call his scientific attitude. He +has accounted for his “supernatural” affairs +as not supernatural at all, but phenomena in +Nature, and subject, like other phenomena, to +laws. But now it occurs to him to explain the +conduct of his <em>Sleagh Maith</em> as the result of +missionary zeal on their part: “they endeavour +to convince us of a Deity;” though, on the face<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lxi">[lxi]</span> +of his argument, a Co-walker no more proves a +Deity than does an ordinary “walker.” He may +have been reading “the learned Dr. Mor” (More +the Platonist), and may have altered his ideas. +His account of a girl who learned, or rather +composed, a long poem by aid of “our nimble +and courteous spirits,” affords an early example +of what is called “an inspirational medium.” +It is unlucky that Mr. Kirk did not publish +this work, of which he had a copy. The ordinary +“spiritual” poetry may be written, as Dr. +Johnson said of <cite>Ossian</cite>, “by any one who would +abandon his mind to it.” When Mr. Kirk +maintains that Neolithic arrow-heads could not +have been executed “by all the Airt of man,” +he relapses from his usual odd common-sense. +He also believes in men who are magically shot-proof, +like Claverhouse, who had to be shot by a +silver bullet; like Archbishop Sharp, on whom +his pious assassins erroneously held that their +bullets took no effect; and like certain soldiers +mentioned by Dugald Dalgetty of Drumthwacket. +This absurd belief was very generally held by +the Covenanters. Where his local superstitions +and those of his generation are not concerned, +Mr. Kirk recovers his clearness of intellect. In<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lxii">[lxii]</span> +Purgatory he finds only the pre-Christian Hades, +“our Secret Republick,” with an ecclesiastical +colouring—“additional Fictions of Monks’ doting +and crazied Heads.” Mr. Kirk did not perceive +the danger involved in his own argument. If +a Highland second-sighted man answers to a +Hebrew prophet in his visions and trances, a +Hebrew prophet is in danger of being no more +considered than a Highland second-sighted man. +However, it is to Mr. Kirk’s praise that he shows +no persecuting disposition as far as witches are +concerned (though he has seen them pricked), +and that he argues very fairly from his premisses, +and within his limits.<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> He recognises the unity +of spiritual phenomena and of popular beliefs, +whether it springs from a common well-head of +delusion in our nature, or whether it really has +a source in the observation of peculiar and rather +rare phenomena.</p> + +<p>To the Edinburgh edition of 1815 (probably +the only one) the editor added the work of +Theophilus Insulanus on Second Sight. This is +not rare nor expensive, and we do not reproduce +it. One case of “telepathy” may be quoted +from Theophilus.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_lxiii">[lxiii]</span></p> + +<p>“Donald Beaton, residenter in Hammir, related +that, in his passage from Glasgow to the +Isle of Sky, he stopped at Tippermory, a known +harbour in the Isle of Mull.” Here some one +gave him a loin of venison. Donald, whose +wife’s mother was a seer, to try her powers, +wished that piece of venison in her hands. +“The same night the seer, who lived with her +daughter, his wife, apprehended she saw him +enter the house with a shapeless lump in his +hands—she knew not what, but it resembled +flesh, which gave herself and her daughter great +joy, as they had despaired of him by his long +absence.” This is “telepathy,” if telepathy +there be.</p> + +<p>Another picturesque tale shows how, on the +night before the Rout of Moy, Patrick M‘Caskill +met the famed M‘Rimmon (<em>sic</em>), M‘Leod’s piper, +in the town of Inverness, and saw him contract +into the size of a boy of five or six, and expand +again into his athletic proportions. M‘Rimmon +was killed in the Rout of Moy—an attempt to +surprise and seize Prince Charles. Before leaving +Skye he had prophesied—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indentq">“M‘Leod shall come back,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But M‘Rimmon shall never.”</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_lxiv">[lxiv]</span></p> + +<p>The editor is acquainted with a splendid case +of second sight in Kensington. The seer was +an accomplished English gentleman, and mentioned +his vision at the moment to a witness +who remembers and corroborates the statement. +Thus the Hebrides and Highlands have no +monopoly of second sight.</p> + +<p>The researches of M. Charcot, M. Richet, and +other psychologists do not at present help us +much in the matter of veridical second sight. +It is not a hallucination “suggested” to a hypnotised +subject, but an impression produced by +a remote person or event on a subject who has +not been hypnotised at all. For example, Dr. +Adam Clarke, in his <cite>Life</cite> (vol. ii. p. 16) tells us +of Mr. Tracy Clarke, who, being in the Isle of +Man with his son, dreamed that he had visited +his wife in Liverpool. He told his son that +Mrs. Clarke was looking very well, but, contrary +to her habit, was sleeping in the best bedroom. +On the day when Mr. Clarke said this, Mrs. +Clarke, who had been sleeping in her best bedroom, +told the little son who lay in her room +that she had heard his father ride up to the +house, stable his horse, open the door, come +upstairs, and walk round her bed, but that she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_lxv">[lxv]</span> +could not see him. This is a case at least of +second hearing, and has no hypnotic explanation.</p> + +<p>We end in the candid spirit of Dr. Johnson, +as far as the Polter-Geist and second sight are +concerned—willing to be convinced, but far indeed +from conviction. As to the Fairy belief, we +conceive it to be a complex matter, from which +tradition, with its memory of earth-dwellers, is +not wholly absent, while more is due to a survival +of the pre-Christian Hades, and to the belief +in local spirits—the Vuis of Melanesia, the +Nereids of ancient and modern Greece, the Lares +of Rome, the fateful Mœræ and Hathors—old +imaginings of a world not yet “dispeopled of its +dreams.”<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="i_a067" style="max-width: 12em;"> + <img class="p4 w100" src="images/i_a067.jpg" alt="A black cat wearing boots walks along closely observing the path"> + <figcaption class="p6b caption">Puss-in-Boots smells a rat.</figcaption> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<p class="p4 pfs180" id="AN_ESSAY">AN ESSAY</p> +<p class="p2 pfs90">OF</p> + +<p class="p1 negin2 fs120">The Nature and Actions of the Subterranean (and, +for the most Part,) Invisible People, <ins id="tn-1" title="Transcriber’s Note—Original text: 'heretofioir going'"> +heretofoir going</ins> under the name of <span class="smcap">Elves</span>, <span class="smcap">Faunes</span>, +and <span class="smcap">Fairies</span>, or the lyke, among the Low-Country +Scots, as they are described by those +who have the <span class="smcap">Second Sight</span>; and now, to +occasion further Inquiry, collected and compared, +by a Circumspect Inquirer residing +among the Scottish-Irish in Scotland.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> + +<p class="p1 pfs180 antiqua">Secret Commonwealth,</p> + +<p class="p1 pfs80">OR,</p> + +<p class="center fs120"> +A Treatise displayeing the Chiefe Curiosities<br> +as they are in Use among diverse of the<br> +People of Scotland to this Day;<br> +<span class="smcap">Singularities</span> for the<br> +most Part peculiar to<br> +that Nation.<br> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +A Subject not heretofore discoursed of by any of our<br> +Writters; and yet ventured on in an Essay<br> +to suppress the impudent and growing<br> +Atheisme of this Age, and to<br> +satisfie the desire of some<br> +choice Freinds.<br> +</p> + +<hr class="full"> + +<p class="negin2 lht"><em>Then a Spirit passed before my Face, the Hair of my +Flesh stood up; it stood still, but I could not discerne +the Forme thereof; ane Image was before mine Eyes.</em>—Job, +4. 15, 16.</p> + +<p class="negin2 lht"><em>This is a</em> <span class="smcap">Rebellious People</span>, <em>which say to the Siers, sie +not; and to the Prophets, prophesie not unto us right +Things, bot speak unto us smoothe Things.</em>—Isaiah, +30. 9, 10.</p> + +<p class="negin2 lht"><em>And the Man whose Eyes were open hath said.</em>—Numbers, +24. 15.</p> + +<p class="negin2 lht"><em>For now we sie thorough a Glass darkly, but then Face to +Face.</em>—1 Corinth. 13. 12.</p> + +<p class="negin2 lht"><em>It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we shall be +lyke God, and sie him as he is.</em>—1 John, 3. 2.</p> + +<p class="negin2 lht">Μη γιγαντες μαιωδησονται ὑποκατωδεν ὑδατος και των +γειτονων αυτον;—Job, 26. 5 (Septuag.).</p> + +<hr class="full"> + +<p class="pfs120">By <span class="smcap">Mr Robert Kirk</span>, Minister at Aberfoill.</p> +<p class="pfs120">1691.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span></p> + +<h2 class="p4 nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br> +<span class="fs70">OF THE SUBTERRANEAN INHABITANTS.</span></h2> + +<figure> +<img class="drop-cap illowe5" src="images/drop_t.jpg" alt="drop-cap T"> +</figure> + +<p class="drop-cap">These <em>Siths</em>, or <span class="smcap">Fairies</span>, they call +<em>Sleagh Maith</em>, or the Good +People, it would seem, to prevent +the Dint of their ill Attempts, +(for the Irish use to bless all they fear Harme +of;) and are said to be of a midle Nature +betuixt Man and Angel, as were Dæmons +thought to be of old; of intelligent studious +Spirits, and light changable Bodies, (lyke those +called Astral,) somewhat of the Nature of a condensed +Cloud, and best seen in Twilight. Thes +Bodies be so plyable thorough the Subtilty of the +Spirits that agitate them, that they can make +them appear or disappear att Pleasure. Some +have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and +defecat, that they are fed by only sucking into +some fine spirituous Liquors, that peirce lyke<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> +pure Air and Oyl: others feid more gross on +the Foyson or substance of Corns and Liquors, +or Corne it selfe that grows on the Surface of +the Earth, which these Fairies steall 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 lyke Services within the +little Hillocks they most haunt: some whereof +of old, before the Gospell 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 +goe under the name of Brownies. When we +have plenty, they have Scarcity at their Homes; +and on the contrarie (for they are empowred to +catch as much Prey everywhere as they please,) +there Robberies notwithstanding oft tymes occassion +great Rickes of Corne not to bleed so +weill, (as they call it,) or prove so copious by +verie farr as wes expected by the Owner.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> Bodies of congealled Air are some +tymes caried aloft, other whiles grovell in different +Schapes, and enter into any Cranie or Clift<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> +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.</p> + +<p>2. <span class="smcap">We</span> then (the more terrestriall kind have +now so numerously planted all Countreys,) do +labour for that abstruse People, as weill as for +ourselves. Albeit, when severall Countreys were +unhabitated <ins id="tn-7" title="Transcriber’s Note—Original text: 'by ws'"> +by us</ins>, these had their easy Tillage +above Ground, as we now. The Print of those +Furrous do yet remaine to be seen on the Shoulders +of very high Hills, which was done when +the champayn Ground was Wood and Forrest.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">They</span> remove to other Lodgings at the Beginning +of each Quarter of the Year, so traversing +till Doomsday, being imputent and [impotent +of?] staying in one Place, and finding some Ease +by so purning [Journeying] and changing Habitations. +Their chamælion-lyke Bodies swim in +the Air near the Earth with Bag and Bagadge; +and at such revolution of Time, <span class="smcap">Seers</span>, or Men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> +of the <span class="smcap">Second Sight</span>, (Fæmales being seldome +so qualified) have very terrifying Encounters +with them, even on High Ways; who therefoir +uswally shune to travell abroad at these four +Seasons of the Year, and thereby have made it +a Custome to this Day among the Scottish-Irish +to keep Church duely evry first Sunday of the +Quarter to sene or hallow themselves, their +Corns and Cattell, from the Shots and Stealth +of these wandring Tribes; and many of these +superstitious People will not be seen in Church +againe till the nixt 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.<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">They</span> are distributed in Tribes and Orders, +and have Children, Nurses, Mariages, Deaths, +and Burialls, in appearance, even as we, (unless +they so do for a Mock-show, or to prognosticate +some such Things among us.)</p> + +<p>3. <span class="smcap">They</span> are clearly seen by these Men of the +<span class="smcap">Second Sight</span> to eat at Funeralls [and] Banquets; +hence many of the Scottish-Irish will not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> +teast Meat at these Meittings, lest they have +Communion with, or be poysoned by, them. +So are they seen to carrie the Beer or Coffin +with the Corps among the midle-earth Men to +the Grave. Some Men of that exalted Sight +(whither by Art or Nature) have told me they +have seen at these Meittings a Doubleman, 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 Tockens and +Operations, and so go speak to the Man his +Neighbour and Familiar, passing by the Apparition +or Resemblance of him. They avouch 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 Angells particularly +assigned, is called by them an ignorant Mistake, +sprung only from this Originall. They call this +Reflex-man a Co-walker, every way like the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span> +Man, as a Twin-brother and Companion, haunting +him as his shadow, as is oft seen and known +among Men (resembling the Originall,) both +before and after the Originall is dead; and wes +also often seen of old to enter a Hous, by which +the People knew that the Person of that Liknes +wes to Visite them within a few days. This +Copy, Echo, or living Picture, goes att last to his +own Herd. It accompanied that Person so long +and frequently for Ends best known to it selfe, +whither to guard him from the secret Assaults of +some of its own Folks, or only as ane sportfull +Ape to counterfeit all his Actions. However, +the Stories of old <span class="smcap">Witches</span> prove beyond contradiction, +that all Sorts of People, Spirits which +assume light aery Bodies, or crazed Bodies co-acted +by forrein Spirits, seem to have some +Pleasure, (at least to asswage from Pain or +Melancholy,) by frisking and capering like +Satyrs, or whistling and screeching (like unlukie +Birds) in their unhallowed Synagogues +and Sabboths. If invited and earnestly required, +these Companions make themselves +knowne and familiar to Men; other wise, being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> +in a different State and Element, they nather +can nor will easily converse with them. They +avouch that a Heluo, or Great-eater, hath a +voracious Elve to be his attender, called a +Joint-eater or Just-halver, feeding on the Pith +or Quintessence of what the Man eats; and that +therefoir he continues Lean like a Hawke or +Heron, notwith 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, +lyke inchanted Puppets. What Food they +extract from us is conveyed to their Homes by +secret Paths, as sume skilfull Women do the Pith +and Milk from their Neighbours Cows into their +own Chiese-hold thorow a Hair-tedder, at a great +Distance, by Airt Magic, or by drawing a spickot +fastened to a Post, which will bring milk as farr +of as a Bull will be heard to roar.<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> The Chiese +made of the remaineing Milk of a Cow thus +strain’d will swim in Water like a Cork. The +Method they take to recover their Milk is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> +bitter chyding of the suspected Inchanters, +charging them by a counter Charme to give +them back their own, in God, or their Master’s +Name. But a little of the Mother’s Dung +stroakit on the Calves Mouth before it suck +any, does prevent this theft.</p> + +<p>4. <span class="smcap">Their</span> Houses are called large and fair, +and (unless att some odd occasions) unperceaveable +by vulgar eyes, like Rachland, and other +inchanted 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 Mirrour,) which (as if +it were some insatiable Spirit in ane assumed +Bodie) 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 naturall and common Death. The +Child, and Fire, with Food and other Necessaries, +are set before the Nurse how soon she +enters; but she nather perceaves any Passage<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> +out, nor sees what those People doe in other +Rooms of the Lodging. When the Child is +wained, the Nurse dies, or is conveyed back, +or gets it to her choice to stay there. But if +any Superterraneans be so subtile, as to practice +Slights for procuring a Privacy to any of their +Misteries, (such as making use of their Oyntments, +which as Gyges’s Ring makes them invisible, +or nimble, or casts 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 naturall and acquired Sights in the +twinkling of ane Eye, (both these Sights, where +once they come, being in the same Organ and +inseparable,) or they strick them Dumb. The +Tramontains to this Day put Bread, the Bible, +or a piece of Iron, in Womens Beds when +travelling, to save them from being thus stollen; +and they commonly report, that all uncouth, unknown +Wights are terrifyed by nothing earthly +so much as by cold Iron. They delyver the +Reason to be that Hell lying betwixt the chill +Tempests, and the Fire Brands of scalding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> +Metals, and Iron of the North, (hence the +Loadstone causes a tendency to that Point,) +by ane 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 eather begun, or +feared to come hereafter.</p> + +<p>5. <span class="smcap">Their</span> Apparell and Speech is like that +of the People and Countrey 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 litle, and that by way of whistling, clear, +not rough. The verie Divels conjured in any +Countrey, do answer in the Language of the +Place; yet sometimes the Subterraneans speak +more distinctly than at other times. Ther +Women are said to Spine very fine, to Dy, +to Tossue, and Embroyder: but whither it is +as manuall Operation of substantiall refined +Stuffs, with apt and solid Instruments, or only +curious Cob-webs, impalpable Rainbows, and +a fantastic Imitation of the Actions of more +terrestricall Mortalls, since it transcended all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> +the Senses of the Seere to discerne whither, I +leave to conjecture as I found it.</p> + +<p>6. <span class="smcap">There</span> Men travell much abroad, either +presaging or aping the dismall and tragicall +Actions of some amongst us; and have also many +disastorous Doings of their own, as Convocations, +Fighting, Gashes, Wounds, and Burialls, +both in the Earth and Air. They live much +longer than wee; yet die at last, or [at] least +vanish from that State. ’Tis ane of their Tenets, +that nothing perisheth, 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 Bodie +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.</p> + +<p>7. <span class="smcap">They</span> are said to have aristocraticall Rulers +and Laws, but no discernible Religion, Love, +or Devotion towards God, the blessed Maker +of all: they disappear whenever they hear his +Name invocked, or the Name of <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>, (at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> +which all do bow willinglie, 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 +<span class="smcap">Tabhaisver</span>, or Seer, that corresponds with +this kind of Familiars, can bring them with a +Spel to appear to himselfe or others when he +pleases, as readily as Endor Witch to those of +her Kind. He tells, they are ever readiest to +go on hurtfull Errands, but seldome 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 surpryze (as often he does) +frights him extreamly. And glaid would he be +quite of such, for the hideous Spectacles seen +among them; as the torturing of some Wight, +earnest ghostly stairing Looks, Skirmishes, and +the like. They do not all the Harme which +appearingly they have Power to do; nor are +they perceaved to be in great Pain, save that +they are usewally silent and sullen. They are +said to have many pleasant toyish Books; but +the operation of these Peices only appears in +some Paroxisms of antic corybantic Jolity, as if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> +ravisht and prompted by a new Spirit entering +into them at that Instant, lighter and mirrier +than their own. Other Books they have of +involved abstruse Sense, much like the Rosurcian +[Rosycrucian] Style. They have nothing of the +Bible, save collected Parcells for Charms and +counter Charms; not to defend themselves +withall, but to operate on other Animals, for +they are a People invulnerable by our Weapons; +and albeit Were-wolves and Witches true Bodies +are (by the union of the Spirit of Nature that +runs thorow all, echoing and doubling the Blow +towards another) wounded at Home, when the +astrial assumed Bodies are stricken elsewhere; +as the Strings of a Second Harp, tune to ane +unison, Sounds, though only ane be struck; +yet these People have not a second, or so gross +a Bodie at all, to be so pierced; but as Air, +which when divyded units againe; or if they +feel Pain by a Blow, they are better Physicians +than wee, and quickly cure it. They are not +subject to sore Sicknesses, but dwindle and +decay at a certain Period, all about ane Age. +Some say their continual Sadness is because of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> +their pendulous State, (like those Men, Luc. 13. +2. 6.) as uncertain what at the last Revolution +will become of them, when they are lock’t up +into ane unchangeable Condition; and if they +have any frolic Fitts of Mirth, ’tis as the constrained +grinning of a Mort-head, or rather as +acted on a Stage, and moved by another, ther +[than?] cordially comeing 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 +throwgh their Almsdeeds in this Lyfe; fluid, +active, ætheriall Vehicles to hold them, that +they may not scatter, or wander, and be lost in +the Totum, or their first Nothing; but if any +were so impious as to have given no Alms, they +say when the Souls of such do depairt, they +sleep in an <ins id="tn-18" title="Transcriber’s Note—Original text: 'unaictve State'"> +unactive State</ins> till they resume the +terrestriall Bodies again: others, that what the +Low-countrey Scotts calls a Wreath, and the +Irish <span class="smcap">Taibhshe</span><a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> or Death’s Messenger, (appearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> +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, exhal’d and congeal’d +into a various Likness,<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> (as Ships and Armies are +sometimes shapt in the Air,) and called astral +Bodies, agitated as Wild-fire with Wind, and are +neather Souls or counterfeiting Spirits; yet not +a few avouch (as is said,) that surelie these are a +numerous People by them selves, having their +own Polities. Which Diversities of Judgments +may occasion severall Inconsonancies in this Rehearsall, +after the narrowest Scrutiny made about it.</p> + +<p>8. <span class="smcap">Their</span> 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 Dairt, with +great Force. These Armes (cut by Airt and +Tools it seems beyond humane) have something +of the Nature of Thunderbolt subtilty, and mortally +wounding the vital Parts without breaking +the Skin; of which Wounds I have observed in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> +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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Men</span> of that <span class="smcap">Second Sight</span> do not discover +strange Things when asked, but at Fits +and Raptures, as if inspyred 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 Bodie 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 +divyded; at other Times he out wrested +[wrestled?] some of them. His Neibours often +perceaved this Man to disappear at a certane +Place, and about one Hour after to become +visible, and discover him selfe near a Bow-shot +from the first Place. It was in that Place where +he became invisible, said he, that the Subterraneans +did encounter and combate with him. +Those who are unseened or unsanctified (called +Fey) are said to be pierced or wounded with +those People’s Weapons, which makes them do<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> +somewhat verie unlike their former Practice, +causing a sudden Alteration, yet the Cause +thereof unperceavable at present; nor have +they Power (either they cannot make use of +their natural Powers, or ask’t not the heavenly +Aid,) to escape the Blow impendent. A Man +of the Second Sight perceaved a Person standing +by him (sound to others view) wholly gored +in Blood, and he (amazed-like) bid him instantly +flee. The whole Man laught at his Airt 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 stab’d him with their +Weapons. They also pierce Cows or other +Animals, usewally said to be Elf-shot, whose +purest Substance (if they die) these Subterraneans +take to live on, viz. the aereal and +ætherial Parts, the most spirituous Matter for +prolonging of Life, such as Aquavitæ (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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> +warme Hand were Antidote sufficient against +their poyson’d Dairts.</p> + +<p>9. <span class="smcap">As</span> Birds and Beasts, whose Bodies are +much used to the Change of the frie and open +Air, forsee Storms; so those invisible People +are more sagacious to understand by the Books +of Nature Things to come, than wee, who are +pestered with the grosser Dregs of all elementary +Mixtures, and have our purer Spirits choaked +by them. The Deer scents out a Man and +Powder (tho a late Invention) at a great Distance; +a hungry Hunter, Bread; and the Raven, +a Carrion: Ther Brains, being long clarified by +the high and subtil Air, will observe a very small +Change in a Trice. Thus a Man of the Second +Sight, perceaving the Operations of these forecasting +invisible People among us, (indulged +thorow a stupendious 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 Midle, then to the Shoulders, +and at last over the Head, which was visible to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> +no other Persone. And by observing the Spaces +of Time betwixt the severall 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.</p> + +<p>10. <span class="smcap">There</span> 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 beleiving +the Souls of their Predicessors to dwell +there.<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> 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 useing +Bodies of Air when called Abroad. They +also affirme 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 revealling +a Murther or notable Injurie done or receaved,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> +or a Treasure that was forgot in their Liftyme +on Earth, which when disclos’d to a Conjurer +alone, the Ghost quite removes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the nixt Country to that of my former +Residence, about the Year 1676, when there +was some Scarcity of Graine, a marvelous Illapse +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 <span class="smcap">Sithbhruaich</span>, or Fayrie-hill. +The Appearance of a Treasure was first +represented to the Fancy, and then an audible +Voyce named the Place where it was to their +awaking Senses. Whereupon both arose, and +meitting accidentallie at the Place, discovered +their Designe; and joyntly digging, found a +Vessell as large as a Scottish Peck, full of small +Pieces of good Money, of ancient Coyn; which +halving betuixt them, they sold in Dish-fulls for +Dish-fulls of Meall to the Countrey People. +Very many of undoubted Credit saw, and had +of the Coyn 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,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> +that discovered it, and to what End it was done, +I leave to the Examination of others.</p> + +<p>11. <span class="smcap">These</span> Subterraneans have Controversies, +Doubts, Disputs, 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 reveal’d, they +transgress and commit Acts of Injustice, and +Sin, by what is above said, as to their stealling +of Nurses to their Children, and that other sort +of Plaginism in catching our Children away, +(may seem to heir some Estate in those invisible +Dominions,) which never returne. 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, Hypocracie, +Lieing, and Dissimulation.</p> + +<p>12. <span class="smcap">As</span> our Religion oblidges 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> +Occurrances as make a modest Inquiry not contemptable. +How much is written of Pigme’s, +Fairies, Nymphs, Syrens, Apparitions, which tho +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, stricking of Hammers, clashing of +Armour, fyling of Iron, will be heard distinctly +ever since Merlin inchaunted those subterranean +Wights to a solid manuall forging of Arm’s to +Aurelius Ambrosius and his Brittans, till he +returned; which Merlin being killed in a Battell, +and not coming to loose the Knot, these active +Vulcans are there ty’d to a perpetuall Labour. +But to dip no deeper into this Well, I will nixt +give some Account how the Seer my Informer +comes to have this secret Way of Correspondence +beyond other Mortalls.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> be odd Solemnities at investing a +Man with the Priviledges of the whole Mistery +of this Second Sight. He must run a Tedder +of Hair (which bound a Corps to the Bier) in a +Helix [?] about his Midle, from End to End;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> +then bow his Head downwards, as did Elijah, +1 Kings, 18, 42. and look back thorough his +Legs untill he sie a Funerall advance till the +People cross two Marches; or look thus back +thorough a Hole where was a Knot of Fir. +But if the Wind change Points while the Hair +Tedder is ty’d about him, he is in Peril of his +Lyfe. The usewall Method for a curious Person +to get a transient Sight of this otherwise invisible +Crew of Subterraneans, (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 hes +ane ill Appearance, as if by this Ceremony ane +implicit Surrender were made of all betwixt +the Wizard’s Foot and his Hand, ere the Person +can be admitted a privado to the Airt;) then +will he see a Multitude of Wight’s, like furious +hardie Men, flocking to him haistily from all +Quarters, as thick as Atoms in the Air; which +are no Nonentities or Phantasms, Creatures +proceiding from ane affrighted Apprehensione, +confused or crazed Sense, but Realities, appearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> +to a stable Man in his awaking Sense, and +enduring a rationall Tryall of their Being. Thes +thorow Fear strick him breathless and speechless. +The Wizard, defending the Lawfullness 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 Airt, by vouching +Elisha to have had the same, and disclos’d it +thus unto his Servant in 2 Kings, 6. 17. when +he blinded the Syrians; and Peter in Act, 5. 9. +forseing the Death of Saphira, by perceaving 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 +<span class="smcap">Seers</span>, or Men of a 2d or more exhalted 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, tho in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> +their naturall Situations and Stations at a vast +Distance from other. And ’tis said expresly he +did let sie them; not in a Map it seems, nor +by a phantastick magicall jugling 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, (compairing +this Relation of Math. 4. 8. with the former,) +that the extraordinary or Second Sight can be +given by the Ministery of bad as weill 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 Scholler, by telling of the Gradations +of Nature, ordered by a wise Provydence; +that as the Sight of Bats and Owls transcend +that of Shrews and Moles, so the visive Faculties +of Men are clearer than those of Owls; as +Eagles, Lynxs, and Cats are brighter than Mens. +And again, that Men of the Second Sight +(being designed to give warnings against secret +Engyns) surpass the ordinary Vision of other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> +Men, which is a native Habit in some, descended +from their Ancestors, and acquired as ane artificiall +Improvement of their natural Sight in +others; resembling in their own Kynd the +usuall artificiall Helps of optic Glasses, (as Prospectives, +Telescopes, and Microscopes,) without +which ascititious Aids those Men here treated +of do perceive Things that, for their Smallness, +or Subtility, and Secrecy, are invisible to others, +tho dayly conversant with them; they having +such a Beam continuallie about them as that +of the Sun, which when it shines clear only, +lets common Eyes see the Atomes, in the Air, +that without those Rayes they could not discern; +for some have this Second Sight transmitted +from Father to Sone thorow 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 complexionall +Quality of the first Acquirer. As it may seem +alike strange (yet nothing vicious) in such as +Master Great-rake,<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> the Irish Stroaker, Seventh-sons, +and others that cure the King’s Evill,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> +and chase away Deseases and Pains, with only +stroaking of the affected Pairt; which (if it be +not the Reliques of miraculous Operations, or +some secret Virtue in the Womb, of the Parent, +which increaseth until Seventh-sons be borne, +and decreaseth by the same Degrees afterwards,) +proceids only from the sanitive Balsome +of their healthfull Constitutions; Virtue +going out from them by spirituous Effluxes unto +the Patient, and their vigorous healthy Spirits +affecting the sick as usewally the unhealthy +Fumes of the sick infect the sound and whole.</p> + +<p>13. <span class="smcap">The</span> Minor Sort of Seers prognosticat +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 Opperations of those that travell +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 Moneth; +and if any Cattell there will take a Trake, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> +if Planet-struck. Then will they prescribe a +Preservative and Prevention.</p> + +<p>14. <span class="smcap">A Woman</span> (it seems ane Exception from +the generall Rule,) singularlie wise in these +Matters of Foirsight, living in Colasnach, ane +Isle of the Hebrides, (in the Time of the Marquess +of Montrose his Wars with the States in +Scotland,) being notorious among many; and +so examined by some that violently seazed 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 Enemyes, +sometime for Friends; and morover they look’t +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 Enemie sailed, was +a little befoir taken from the Inhabitants of +that same 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 +deceave. Being asked who gave her such Sights<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> +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 neer 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 succeid, the +Beast would furiously thrust her and the Crosses +over on the Ground, and so vanish to his +Place.</p> + +<p>15. <span class="smcap">Among</span> 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 lingring +Image of her substituted Bodie in her Roome, +which Resemblance decay’d, dy’d, and was +bur’d. But the Person stollen returning to her +Husband after two Years Space, he being convinced +by many undenyable Tokens that she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> +was his former Wyfe, admitted her Home, and +had diverse Children by her. Among other +Reports she gave her Husband, this was one: +That she perceived litle what they did in the +spacious House she lodg’d in, untill she anointed +one of her Eyes with a certain Unction that +was by her; which they perceaving to have +acqainted 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 Countrey +nixt to that of my last Residence, and +might furnish Matter of Dispute amongst Casuists, +whither if her Husband had been mary’d in the +Interim of her two Years Absence, he was +oblidged to divorse from the second Spouse at +the Return of the first. There is ane Airt, +appearingly without Superstition, for recovering +of such as are stolen, but think it superfluous +to insert it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">I saw</span> a Woman of fourtie Years of Age, +and examined her (having another Clergie Man +in my Companie) about a Report that past of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> +her long fasting [<em>her Name is not intyre</em>.]<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> It +was told by them of the House, as well as her +selfe, that she tooke verie little or no Food +for severall 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 sleep’t upon a Hillock, +and finding her self transported to another Place +before Day. The Woman had a Child since +that Time, and is still prettie melanchollyous +and silent, hardly ever seen to laugh. Her +natural Heat and radical Moisture seem to be +equally balanced, lyke ane unextinguished Lamp, +and going in a Circle, not unlike to the faint +Lyfe of Bees, and some Sort of Birds, that sleep +all the Winter over, and revive in the Spring.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is usuall in all magicall Airts to have the +Candidates prepossessit with a Believe of their +Tutor’s Skill, and Ability to perform their Feats, +and act their jugling Pranks and Legerdemain; +but a Person called Stewart, possessed with a +prejudice at that was spoken of the 2d Sight,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> +and living near to my House, was soe put to it +by a Seer, before many Witnesses, that he lost +his Speech and Power of his Legs, and breathing +excessively, as if expyring, because of the +many fearfull Wights that appeared to him. +The Companie were forced to carrie him into +the House.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is notoriously known what in Killin, within +Perthshire, fell tragically out with a Yeoman +that liv’d hard by, who coming into a Companie +within ane 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 Hous; and +being asked the Reason of his hast, told that +the intrant Man should die within two Days; +at which News the named Intrant stabb’d the +Seer, and was himself executed two Days after +for the Fact.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A Minister</span>, verie intelligent, but misbelieving +all such Sights as were not ordinar, chanceing +to be in a narrow Lane with a Seer, who +perceaving a Wight of a known Visage furioslie +to encounter them, the Seer desired the Minister +to turn out of the Way; who scorning his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> +Reason, and holding him selfe 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 Lyfe. A little after the Minister +was carried Home, one came to tol the Bell +for the Death of the Man whose Representation +met them in the narrow Path some Halfe ane +Hour before.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Another</span> Example is: A Seer in Kintyre, in +Scotland, sitting at Table with diverse others, +suddenly did cast his Head aside. The Companie +asking him why he did it, he answered, +that such a Friend of his, by Name, then in +Ireland, threatened immediately to cast a Dish-full +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 verie +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 Opticks perceive no other +Object so readily as this, at such a Distance.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span></p> + +<h2 class="p4 nobreak fs135">A SUCCINT ACCOMPT</h2> + +<p class="pfs80">OF</p> +<p class="smcap pfs120">My LORD TARBOTT’S RELATIONS,</p> +<p class="pfs80">IN A LETTER TO THE</p> +<p class="smcap pfs100">Honourable ROBERT BOYLE, Esquire,</p> +<p class="pfs80">OF THE</p> +<p class="smcap pfs100">PREDICTIONS made by SEERS,</p> +<p class="center">Whereof himself was Ear and Eye-witness.</p> + + +<p class="p1 negin2">[I thought fit to adjoyne [it] hereunto, that I +might not be thought singular in this Disquisition; +that the Mater of Fact might +be undenyably made out; and that I +might, with all Submission, give Annotations, +with Animadversions, on his supposed +Causes of that Phenomenon, with my +Reasons of Dissent from his Judgement.]</p> + + +<p class="p1 smcap pad2">Sir,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">I heard</span> very much, but beleived very little, +of the Second Sight; yet its being assumed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> +by severall of great Veracity, I was induced +to make Inquirie after it in the Year 1652, +being then confin’d to abide in the North of +Scotland by the English Usurpers. The more +generall Accounts of it were, that many Highlanders, +yet far more Islanders, were qualified +with this Second Sight; that Men, Women, +and Children, indistinctly, were subject to it, +and Children, where Parents were not. Some +times People came to age, who had it not +when young, nor could any tell by what +Means produced. It is a Trouble to most of +them who are subject to it, and they would +be rid of it any Rate if they could. The +Sight is of no long Duration, only continuing +so long as they can keep their Eyes steady +without twinkling. The hardy therefore fix +their look, that they may see the longer; but +the timorous see only Glances, their Eyes always +twinkles at the first Sight of the Object. +That which generally is seen by them, are the +Species of living Creatures, and of inanimate +Things, which was in Motion, such as Ships, +and Habits upon Persons. They, never sie<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> +the Species of any Person who is already +dead. What they foirsie fails not to exist in +the Mode, and in that Place where it appears +to them. They cannot well know what Space +of Time shall interveen between the Apparition +and the real Existance: But some of the +hardiest and longest Experience have some +Rules for Conjectures; as, if they sie a Man +with a shrowding Sheet in the Apparition, they +will conjecture at the Nearness or Remoteness +of his Death by the more or less of his Bodie +that is covered by it. They will ordinarily sie +their absent Friends, tho at a great Distance, +some tymes no less than from America to +Scotland, sitting, standing, or walking in some +certain Place; and then they conclude with a +Assurance that they will sie them so and there. +If a Man be in love with a Woman, they will +ordinarily sie the Species of that Man standing +by her, and so likewise if a Woman be in love; +and they conjecture at their Enjoyments (of +each other) by the Species touching (of) the +Person, or appearing at a Distance from her +(if they enjoy not one another.) If they sie<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> +the Species of any Person who is sick to die, +they sie them covered over with the shrowding +Sheet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">These</span> Generalls I had verified to me by +such of them as did sie, and were esteemed +honest and sober by all the Neighbourhood; +for I inquired after such for my Information. +And because there were more of these Seers +in the Isles of Lewis, Harris, and Uist, than +in any other Place, I did entreat Sir James +M‘Donald (who is now dead) Sir Normand +M‘Loud, and Mr. Daniel Morison, a verie +honest Person, (who are still alive,) to make +Inquirie in this uncouth Sight, and to acquaint +me therewith; which they did, and all found +ane Agriement in these Generalls, and informed +me of many Instances confirming what they +said. But though Men of Discretion and +Honour, being but at 2d Hand, I will choose +rather to put myself than my Friends on the +Hazard of being laughed at for incredible +Relations.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">I was</span> once travelling in the Highlands, and +a good Number of Servants with me, as is usuall<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> +there; and one of them going a little before +me, entering into a House where I was to stay +all Night, and going haistily to the Door, he +suddenly stept back with a Screech, and did +fall by a Stone, which hit his Foot. I asked +what the Matter was, for he seemed to be very +much frighted. He told me very seriously +that I should not lodge in that House, because +shortly a dead Coffin would be carried out of it, +for many were carrying of it when he was heard +cry. I neglecting his Words, and staying +there, he said to other of his Servants, he was +sorry for it, and that surely what he saw would +shortly come to pass. Tho no sick Person was +then there, yet the Landlord, a healthy Highlander, +died of ane appoplectick Fit before I +left the House.</p> + +<p>In the year 1653, Alexander Monro (afterward +Lieut. Coll. to the Earl of Dunbarton’s +Regiment,) and I were walking in a Place +called Ullabill, in Lochbroom, on a little Plain, +at the Foot of a rugged Hill. There was a +Servant working with a Spade in the Walk +before us; his Back was to us, and his Face to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> +the Hill. Before we came to him, he let the +Spade fall, and looked toward the Hill. He +took Notice of us as wee passed neer by him, +which made me look at him; and perceiving +him to stair a little strangely, I conjectured him +to be a Seer. I called at him, at which he +started and smiled. What are you doing? said +I. He answered, I have seen a very strange +Thing; ane Army of Englishmen, leeding of +Horses, coming doun that Hill; and a Number +of them are come down to the Plain, and eating +the Barley, which is growing in the Field +neer to the Hill. This was on the 4th May, +(for I notted the Day,) and it was four or fyve +Days before the Barley was sown in the Field +he spoke of. Alexander Monro asked him how +he knew they were Englishmen? He said, +because they were leeding of Horses, and had +on Hats and Bootts, which he knew no Scot +Man would have there. We took little Notice +of the whole Storie, as other than a foolish +Vision; but wished that ane English Partie +were there, we being then at Warr with them, +and the Place almost unaccessable for Horsemen.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> +But in the Beginning of August therafter, +the Earle of Midleton (then Lieut. for +the King in the Highlands) having occasion to +march a Party of his toward the South Highlands, +he sent his Foot thorow a Place called +Inverlawell; and the Fore-partie which was +first down the Hill, did fall off eating the +Barley which was on the litle Plain under it. +And Monro calling to mynd what the Seer told +us, in May preceiding, he wrote of it, and sent +ane Express to me to Lochslin, in Ross, (where +I then was) with it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">I had</span> Occasion once to be in Companie +where a Young Lady was, (excuse my not +naming of Persons,) and I was told there was +a notable Seer in the Companie. I called him +to speak with me, as I did ordinarly when I +found any of them; and after he had answered +me to several Questions, I asked if he knew any +Person to be in love with that Lady. He said +he did, but he knew not the Person; for during +the two Dayes he had been in her Company, +he perceaved one standing neer her, and his +Head leaning on her Shoulder; which he said<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> +did fore-tell that the Man should marrie her, +and die before her, according to his Observation. +This was in the Year 1655. I desired +him to describe the Person, which he did; so +that I could conjecture, by the Description, of +such a one, who was of that Ladyes Acquaintance, +tho there were no thought of their Marriage +till two Years thereafter. And having +Occasion, in the Year 1657, to find this Seer, +who was ane Islander, in Company with the +other Person whom I conjectured to have been +described by him, I called him aside, and asked +if that was the Person he saw beside the Lady +near two Years then past. He said it was he +indeed, for he had seen that Lady just then +standing by him Hand in Hand. This was +some few Months before their Marriage, and +that Man is since dead, and the Lady still alive.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">I shall</span> trouble you but with one more, +which I thought most remarkable of any that +occurred to me. In January 1652, the above +mentioned Lieut. Coll. Alex. Monro and I +happened to be in the House of one Wm. +M‘Cleud of Ferrinlea, in the County of Ross.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> +He, the Landlord, and I were sitting in three +Chairs neir the Fire, and in the Corner of the +great Chimney there were two Islanders, who +were that verie Night come to the Hous, and +were related to the Landlord. While the one +of them was talking with Monro, I perceaved +the other to look oddly toward me. From this +Look, and his being ane Islander, I conjectured +him a Seer, and asked him, at what he stair’d? +He answered, by desiring me to rise from that +Chair, for it was ane unluckie one. I asked +him why. He answered, because there was a +dead Man in the Chair nixt to me. Well, said +I, if it be in the nixt Chair, I may keep mine +own. But what is the Likness of the Man? +He said he was a tall Man, with a long Grey +Coat, booted, and one of his Legs hanging over +the Arme of the Chair, and his head hanging +dead to the other Side, and his Arme backward, +as if it were brocken. There were some +English Troops then quartered near that Place, +and there being at that Time a great Frost after +a Thaw, the Country was covered all over with +Yce. Four or Fyve of the English ryding by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> +this House some two Hours after the Vision, +while we were sitting by the Fire, we heard a +great Noise, which prov’d to be those Troopers, +with the Help of other Servants, carrying in +one of their Number, who had got a very mischeivous +Fall, and had his Arme broke; and +falling frequently in swooning Fits, they brought +him into the Hall, and set him in the verie +Chair, and in the verie Posture that the Seer +had prophesied. But the Man did not die, +though he recovered with great Difficulty.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Among</span> the Accounts given me by Sir Normand +M‘clud, there was one worth of special +Notice, which was thus. There [was] a Gentleman +in the Isle of Harris, who was always seen +by the Seers with ane Arrow in his Thigh. +Such in the Isle who thought those prognostications +infalliable, did not doubt but he would be +shot in the Thigh before he died. Sir Normand +told me that he heard it the Subject of +their Discourse for many Years. At last he +died without any such Accident. Sir Normand +was at his Buriall, at St Clement’s Church in +the Harris. At the same Time, the Corps of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> +another Gentleman was brought to be buried +in the same verie Church. The Friends on +either Side came to debate who should first +enter the Church, and in a Trice from Words +they came to Blows. One of the Number (who +was arm’d with Bow and Arrows) let one fly +among them. (Now everie Familie in that Isle +have their Buriall-place in the Church in Stone +Chests, and the Bodies are carried in open +Biers to the Buriall-place.) Sir Normand +having appeased the Tumult, one of the Arrows +was found shot in the dead Man’s Thigh. To +this Sir Normand was a Witness.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the Account which Mr Daniel Morison, +Parson in the Lewis, gave me, there was one, +tho it be hetergeneous from the subject, yet it +may [be] worth your Notice. It was of a +young Woman in his Parish, who was mightily +frightned by seeing her own Image still before +her, alwayes when she came to the open Air; +the Back of the Image being alwayes to her, +so that it was not a reflection as in a Mirrour, +but the Species of such a Body as her own, and +in a very like Habit, which appeared to herself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> +continually before her. The Parson keept her +a long whyle with him, but had no Remedy of +her Evill, which troubled her exceidingly. I +was told afterwards, that when she was four or +fyve Years elder she saw it not.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">These</span> are Matters of Fact, which I assure +yow they are truely related. But these, and all +others that occurred to me, by Information or +otherwise, could never lead me into a remote +Conjecture of the Cause of so extraordinary a +Phænomenon. Whither it be a Quality in the +Eyes of some People into these Pairts, concurring +with a Quality in the Air also; whither +such Species be every where, tho not seen by +the Want of Eyes so qualified, or from whatever +other Cause, I must leave to the Inquiry of +clearer Judgements than mine. But a Hint +may be taken from this image which appeared +still to this Woman abovementioned, and from +another mentioned by Aristotle, in the 4th of +his Metaphysicks (if I remember right, for it is +long since I read it;) as also from the common +Opinion that young Infants (unsullied with +many Objects) do sie Appearitions, which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> +not seen by those of elder Years; as like wise +from this, that severalls did sie the Second +Sight when in the Highlands or Isles, yet when +transported to live in other Countreys, especially +in America, they quite lose this Qualitie, as +was told me by a Gentleman who knew some +of them in Barbadoes, who did see no Vision +there, altho he knew them to be Seers when +they lived in the Isles of Scotland.</p> + +<p class="center">Thus far my Lord Tarbett.</p> + +<hr class="r30a"> +<hr class="r30b"> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord</span>, after narrow Inquisition, hath delivered +many true and remarkable observes +on this Subject; yet to encourage a further +Scrutiny, I crave leave to say,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">That</span> 1. But a few Women are endued with +this Sight in respect of Men, and their Predictions +not so certane.</p> + +<p>2. This Sight is not criminal, since a Man +can come by it unawares, and without his +Consent; but it is certaine he sie more fatall +and fearfull Things than he do gladsome.</p> + +<p>3. <span class="smcap">The</span> Seers avouch, that severalls who go<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> +to the <em>Siths</em>, (or People at Rest, and, in respect +of us, in Peace,) before the natural Period of +their Lyfe expyre, do frequently appear to +them.</p> + +<p>4. <span class="smcap">A Vehement</span> Desyre to attain this Airt is +very helpfull to the Inquyrer; and the Species +of ane Absent Friend, which appears to the +Seers, as clearly as if he had sent his lively +Picture to present it selfe before him, is no +phantastick Shaddow of a sick Apprehension, +but a reality, and a Messinger, coming for unknown +Reasons, not from the originall Similitude +of it selfe, but from a more swift and +pragmantick People, which recreat them selves +in offering secret Intelligence to Men, tho +generally they are unacquainted with that Kind +of Correspondence, as if they had lived in a +different element from them.</p> + +<p>5. <span class="smcap">Tho</span> my Collections were written long +before I saw My Lord of Tarbett’s, yet I am +glad that his descriptions and mine correspond +so nearly. The Maid my Lord mentions, who +saw her Image still before her, suteth with the +<span class="smcap">Co-Walker</span> named in my Account; which tho<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> +some, at first Thought, might conjecture to be +by the Refraction of a Cloud or Mist, as in the +Parelij, (the whole Air and every Drop of +Water being a Mirrour to returne the Species +of Things, were our visive Faculty sharpe +enough to apprehend them,) or a naturall Reflexion, +from the same Reasons that an Echo +can be redoubled by Airt; yet it were more +fasable to impute this Second Sight to a +Quality infused into the Eye by ane Unction: +for Witchies have a sleepie Oyntment, that, when +applyed, troubles their Fantasies, advancing it +to have unusuall Figures and Shapes represented +to it, as if it were a Fit of Fanaticism, +Hypocondriack Melancholly, or Possession of +some insinuating Spirit, raising the Soul beyond +its common Strain, if the palpable Instances +and Realities seen, and innocently objected to +the Senses did not disprove it, make the Matter +a palpable Verity, and no Deception; yet since +this Sight can be bestowed without Oyntment, +or dangerous Compact, the Qualification is not +of so bad an Originall. Therefore,</p> + +<p>6. <span class="smcap">By</span> my Lord’s good Leave, I presume to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> +say, that this Sight can be no Quality of the +Air nor of the Eyes; becaus, 1. such as live +in the same Air, and sie all other Things as +farr off and as clearly, yet have not the <span class="smcap">Second +Sight</span>. 2. <span class="smcap">A Seer</span> can give another Person +this Sight transiently, by putting his Hand +and Foot in the Posture he requires of him. +3. The unsullied Eyes of Infants can naturally +perceave no new unaccustomed Objects, but +what appear to other Men, unless exalted +and clarified some Way, as Ballaam’s Ass for a +Time; tho in a Witches Eye the Beholder +cannot sie his own Image reflected, as in the +Eyes of other People; so that Defect of Objects, +as well as Diversities of the Subject, +may appear differently on severall Tempers +and Ages. 4. Tho also some are of so venemous +a Constitution, by being radicated in +Envy and Malice, that they pierce and kill +(like a Cockatrice) whatever Creature they first +set their Eye on in the Morning; so was it +with Walter Grahame, some Time living in +the Paroch wherein now I am, who killed his +own Cow after commending its Fatness, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> +shot a Hair with his Eyes, having praised its +swiftness, (such was the Infection of ane evill +Eye;) albeit this was unusuall, yet he saw no +Object but what was obvious to other Men as +well as to himselfe. 5. If the being transported +to live in another Countrey did obscure +the Second Sight, nather the Parson nor the +Maid needed be much troubled for her Reflex-selfe; +a little Peregrination, and going from +her wonted Home, would have salved her +Fear. Wherefore,</p> + +<p>7. <span class="smcap">Since</span> the Things seen by the Seers are +real Entities, the Presages and Predictions +found true, but a few endued with this Sight, +and those not of bad Lyves, or addicted to +Malifices, the true Solution of the Phænomenon +seems rather to be, the courteous Endeavours +of our fellow Creatures in the Invisible +World to convince us, (in Opposition to Sadduce’s, +Socinians, and Atheists,) of a Deity; of +Spirits; of a possible and harmless Method of +Correspondence betwixt Men and them, even +in this Lyfe; of their Operation for our Caution +and Warning; of the Orders and Degrees<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> +of Angells, whereof one Order, with Bodies of +Air condensed and curiously shap’t, may be nixt +to Man, superior to him in Understanding, yet +unconfirmed; and of their Region, Habitation, +and Influences on Man, greater than that of +Starrs on inanimat Bodies; a Knowledge (be-like) +reserved for these last atheistick Ages, +wherein the Profanity of Mens Lives hath debauched +and blinded their Understanding, as +to <span class="smcap">Moses</span>, <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>, and the Prophets, (unless +they get Convictions from Things formerly +known,) as from the Regions of the Dead: +nor doth the ceasing of the Visions, upon the +Seers Transmigration into forrein Kingdoms, +make his Lordship’s Conjecture of the Quality +of the Air and Eye a white the more probable; +but, on the Contrary, it confirms greatly +my Account of ane Invisible People, guardian +over and care-full of Men, who have their +different Offices and Abilities in distinct Counterey’s, +as appears in Dan. 10. 13. viz. about +Israels, Grecia’s, and Persia’s assistant Princes, +whereof who so prevaileth giveth Dominion +and Ascendant to his Pupills and Vassalls over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> +the opposite Armies and Countreys; so that +every Countrey and Kingdom having their +topical Spirits, or Powers assisting and governing +them, the <span class="smcap">Scottish Seer</span> banished to +America, being a Stranger there, as well to +the invisible as to the visible Inhabitants, and +wanting a Fimiliarity of his former Correspondents, +he could not have the Favour and +Warnings, by the severall Visions and Predictions +which were wont to be granted him by +these Acquantances and Fayourites in his own +Countrey. For if what he wont to sie were +Realities, (as I have made appear,) ’twere too +great ane Honour for Scotland to have such +seldom-seen Watchers and predominant Powers +over it alone, acting in it so expressly, and all +other Nations wholly destitute of the lyke; +tho, without all peradventure, all other People +wanted the right Key of their Cabinet, and +the exact Method of Correspondence with them, +except the sagacious active Scots, as many of +them have retained it of a long Time, and by +Surpryses and Raptures do often foirtell what +in Kyndness is really represented to them at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> +severall Occasions. To which Purpose the +learned lynx-ey’d Mr. Baxter, on Rev. 12. 7. +writting of the Fight betwixt Michaell and the +Dragon, gives a verie pertinent Note, viz. That +he knows not but ere any great Action (especiall +tragicall) is don on Earth, that first the Battell +and Victory is acted and atchieved in the Air +betwixt the good and evill Spirits: Thus he. +It seems these were the mens Guardians; and +the lyke Battells are oft tymes perceav’d in a +Loaft in the Nycht-time; the Event of which +myght easily be represented by some one of +the Number to a Correspondent on Earth, as +frequently the Report of great Actions have +been more swiftly caried to other Countreys +than all the Airt of us Mortals could possibly +dispatch it. St. Austine, on Mark, 9. 4. giveth +no small Intimation of this Truth, averring +that Elias appeared with Jesus on the Mount +in his proper Bodie, but Moses in ane aereall +Bodie, assumed like the Angels who appeared, +and had Ability to eat with Abraham, tho no +Necessity on the Account of their Bodies. As +lyke wise the late Doctrine of the Pre-existence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> +of Souls, living into aereall Vehicles, gives a +singular Hint of the Possibility of the Thing, +if not a direct Prooff of the whole Assertion; +which yet moreover may be illuminated by +diverse other Instances of the lyke Nature, +and as wonderfull, besides what is above said. +As,</p> + +<p>8. <span class="smcap">The</span> invisible Wights which haunt Houses +seem rather to be some of our subterranean +Inhabitants, (which appear often to Men of +the Second Sight,) than evill Spirits or Devills; +because, tho they throw great Stones, Pieces +of Earth and Wood, at the Inhabitants, they +hurt them not at all, as if they acted not +malitiously, like Devills at all, but in Sport, +lyke Buffoons and Drolls. All Ages have +affoorded some obscure Testimonies of it, as +Pythagoras his Doctrine of Transmigration; +Socrates’s Dæmon that gave him [Warning] of +future Dangers; Platoe’s classing them into +various vehiculated Specieses of Spirits; Dionisius +Areopagita’s marshalling nyne Orders of +Spirits, superiour and subordinate; the Poets +their borrowing of the Philosophers, and adding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> +their own Fancies of Fountain, River, and +Sea Nymphs, Wood, Hill, and Montain Inhabitants, +and that every Place and Thing, +in Cities and Countreys, had speciall invisible +regular Gods and Governours. Cardan speaks +of his Father his seeing the Species of his +Friend, in a moon-shyn Night, riding fiercely +by his Window on a white Horse, the verie +Night his Friend dy’d at a Vast Distance from +him; by which he understood that some Alteration +would suddenly ensue. Cornelius Aggrippa, +and the learned Dr. Mor, have severall Passages +tending that Way. The Noctambulo’s +themselves would appear to have some forrein +joquing Spirit possessing and supporting them, +when they walk on deep Waters and Topes +of Houses without Danger, when asleep and +in the dark; for it was no way probable that +their Apprehension, and strong Imagination +setting the Animal Spirits a work to move the +Body, could preserve it from sinking in the +Deepth, or falling down head-long, when asleep, +any more than when awake, the Body being +then as ponderous as before; and it is hard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> +to attribute it to a Spirit flatelie evill and +Enemy to Man, because the Noctambulo returns +to his own Place safe. And the most +furious Tribe of the Dæmons are not permitted +by Providence to attacke Men so frequently +either by Night or by Day: For in +our Highlands, as there may be many fair +Ladies of this aereal Order, which do often +tryst with lascivious young Men, in the quality +of Succubi, or lightsome Paramours and Strumpets, +called <em>Leannain Sith</em>, or familiar Spirits +(in Dewter. 18. 11.); so do many of our +Hyghlanders, as if a strangling by the Night +<span class="smcap">Mare</span>, pressed with a fearfull Dream, or rather +possessed by one of our aereall Neighbours, rise +up fierce in the Night, and apprehending the +neerest Weapons, do push and thrust at all +Persons in the same Room with them, sometymes +wounding their own Comerades to dead. +The lyke whereof fell sadly out within a few +Miles of me at the writting hereof. I add +but one Instance more, of a very young Maid, +who lived neir to my last Residence, that in +one Night learned a large Peice of Poesy, by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> +the frequent Repetition of it, from one of our +nimble and courteous Spirits, whereof a Part +was pious, the rest superstitious, (for I have a +Copy of it,) and no other Person was ever +heard to repeat it before, nor was the Maid +capable to compose it of herself.</p> + +<p>9. He demonstrated and made evident to +Sense this extraordinary Vision of our Tramontain +Seers, and what is seen by them, by +what is said above, many haveing seen this +same Spectres and Apparitions at once, haveing +their visive Faculties entire; for <i lang="la">non est +disputandum de gustu</i>. Itt now remaines to +shew that it is not unsutable to Reason nor +the Holy Scriptures.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">First</span>, That it is not repugnant to Reason, +doeth appear from this, that it is no less strange +for Immortal Sparks and Souls to come and +be immersed into gross terrestrial elementary +Bodies, and be so propagated, so nourished, +so fed, soe cloathed as they are, and breathe +in such ane Air and World prepared for them, +then for Hollanders or Hollow-cavern Inhabitants +to live and traffick among us, in another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> +State of Being, without our Knowledge. For +Raymond de Subinde, in his 3d Booke, Chap. +12. argues quaintly, that all Sorts of Living +Creatures have a happie rational Politie of +there own, with great Contentment; which +Government and mutual Converse of theirs +they all pride and pluim themselves, because +it is as unknown to Man, as Man is to them. +Much more, that the Sone of the <span class="smcap">Highest +Spirit</span> should assume a Bodie like ours, convinces +all the World that no other Thing that +is possible needs be much wondered at.</p> + +<p>2. The Manucodiata, or Bird of Paradise, +living in the highest Region of the Air; common +Birds in the second Region; Flies and +Insects in the lowest; Men and Beasts on the +Earth’s Surface; Worms, Otters, Badgers, in +Waters; lyke wise Hell is inhabited at the +Centre, and Heaven in the Circumference: +can we then think the middle Cavities of the +Earth emptie? I have seen in Weems, (a +Place in the Countie of Fyfe, in Scotland,) +divers Caves cut out as vast Temples under +Ground; the lyke is a Countie of England;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> +in Malta is a Cave, wherein Stons of a curious +Cut are thrown in great Numbers every Day; +so I have had barbed Arrow-heads of yellow +Flint, that could not be cut so small and +neat, of so brittle a Substance, by all the Airt +of Man. It would seem therefoir that these +mention’d Works were done by certaine Spirits +of pure Organs, and not by Devills, whose +continual Torments could not allow them so +much Leasure. Besides these, I have found +fyve Curiosities in Scotland, not much observ’d +to be elsewhere. 1. The Brounies, who in +some Families are Drudges, clean the Houses +and Dishes after all go to Bed, taking with +him his Portion of Food and removing befor +Day-break. 2. The Mason Word, which tho +some make a Misterie of it, I will not conceal +a little of what I know. It is lyke a Rabbinical +Tradition, in way of Comment on Jachin +and Boaz, the two Pillars erected in Solomon’s +Temple, (1 Kings, 7. 21.) with ane Addition +of some secret Signe delyvered from Hand +to Hand, by which they know and become +familiar one with another. 3. This Second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> +Sight, so largely treated of before. 4. Charmes, +and curing by them very many Diseases, sometimes +by transferring the Sicknes to another. +5. A being Proof of Lead, Iron, and Silver, +or a Brieve making Men invulnerable. Divers +of our Scottish Commanders and Souldiers have +been seen with blue Markes only, after they +were shot with leaden Balls; which seems to +be an Italian Trick, for they seem to be a +People too currious and magically inclyned, +Finally Iris-men, our Northern-Scotish, and our +Athole Men are so much addicted to and +delighted with Harps and Musick, as if, like +King Saul, they were possessed with a forrein +Spirit, only with this Difference, that Musick +did put Saul’s Pley-fellow a sleep, but roused +and awaked our Men, vanquishing their own +Spirits at Pleasure, as if they were impotent +of its Powers, and unable to command it; for +wee have seen some poor Beggers of them, +chattering their Teeth for Cold, that how soon +they saw the Fire, and heard the Harp, leapt +thorow the House like Goats and Satyrs. As +there paralell Stories in all Countries and Ages<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> +reported of these our obscure People, (which +are no Dotages,) so is it no more of Necessitie +to us fully to know their Beings and Manner +of Life, then to understand distinctly the Politie +of the nyne Orders of Angels; or with what +Oyl the Lamp of the Sun is maintained so +long and regularlie; or why the Moon is called +a great Luminary in Scripture, while it only +appears to be so; or if the Moon be truly +inhabited, because Telescopes discover Seas +and Mountains in it, as well as flaming Furnishes +in the Sun; or why the Discovery of +America was look’t on as a Fairie Tale, and +the Reporters hooted at as Inventors of ridiculous +Utopias, or the first probable Asserters +punished as Inventures of new Gods and +Worlds; or why in England the King cures +the Struma by stroaking, and the Seventh Son +in Scotland; whither his temperat Complexion +conveys a Balsome, and sucks out the corrupting +Principles by a frequent warme sanative +Contact, or whither the Parents of the Seventh +Child put furth a more eminent Virtue to his +Production than to all the Rest, as being the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> +certain Meridian and hight to which their +Vigour ascends, and from that furth have a +graduall declyning into a feebleness of the +Bodie and its Production. And then, 1. Why +is not the 7th Son infected himselfe by that +Contagion he extracts from another? 2. How +can continual stroaking with a cold Hand have +foe strong a natural Operation, as to exhale +all the Infections warming corroding Vapours. +3. Why may not a 7th Daughter have the +same Vertue? So that it appears, albeit, a +happie natural Constitution concurre, yet something +in it above Nature. Therefore every +Age hath left some secret for its Discoverie; +who knows but this Entercourse <ins id="tn-67" title="Transcriber’s Note—Original text: 'bewixt the two'"> +betwixt the two</ins> Kinds of rationall Inhabitants of the same +Earth may be not only beleived shortly, but +as friely entertain’d, and as well known, as +now the Airt of Navigation, Printing, Limning, +riding on Saddles with Stirrups, and the Discoveries +of Microscopes, which were sometimes +a great a Wonder, and as hard to be beleived.</p> + +<p>10. <span class="smcap">Tho</span> I will not be so curious nor so +peremptorie as he who will prove the Posibility<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> +of the Philosopher’s Stone from Scripture, +Job, 28. 1. 2. Job, 22. 24. 25.; or the +Pluralitie of Worlds, from John, 14. 2. and +Hebrews ij. 3.; nor the Circulation of Blood +from Eccles. 12. and 6.; nor the Tanismanical +Airt, from the Blind and Lame mentioned +in 2d of Samuel, 5. 6. yet I humblie propose +these Passages which may give some Light to +our Subject at least, and show that this Polity +and Rank of People is not a Thing impossible, +nor the modest and innocent Scrutiny of them +impertinent or unsafe. The Legion or Brigad +of Spirits (mentioned Mark, 5. 10.) besought +our Saviour not to send them away out of the +Countrey; which shows they were <span class="smcap">Dæmones +Loci</span>, Topical Spirits, and peculiar Superintendents +and Supervisors assign’d to that Province. +And the Power over the Nations +granted (Rev. 2. 26.) to the Conquerors of +Vice and Infidelitie, Sound somewhat to that +Purpose. Tobit had a Dæmon attending +Marriage, Chap. 6. Verse, 15; and in Matth. +4. and 5. ane evill Spirit came in a Visible +Shape to tempt our Saviour, who himselfe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> +denyed not the sensible appearing of Ghosts +to our Sight, but said, their Bodies were not +composed of Flesh and Bones, as ours, Luke, +24. 39. And in Philip. 2. 10. our verie Subterraneans +are expressly said to bow to the +Name of <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>. Elisha, not intellectually only, +but sensibly, saw Gehazi when out of the Reach +of ane ordinary View. It wants not good +Evidents that there are more managed by +God’s Spirits, good, evill, and intermediate +Spirits, among Men in this World, then we +are aware of; the good Spirits ingesting fair +and heroick Apprehensions and Images of +Vertue and the divyne Life, thereby animating +us to act for a higher Happines, according +to our Improvement; and relinquishing us as +strangely upon our Neglect, or our embraceing +the deceatfull syrene-like Pictures and Representations +of Pleasures and Gain, presented +to our Imaginations by evill and sportfull +Angells, to allure to ane unthinking, ungenerous, +and sensual Lyfe; non of them having +power to compell us to any Misdemeanour +without our flat Consent. Moreover, this Life<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> +of ours being called a Warfair, and God’s saying +that at last there will be no Peace to the +Wicked, our bussie and silent Companions also +being called <em>Siths</em>, or <em>People at Rest and Quiet</em>, +in respect of us; and withall many Ghosts +appearing to Men that want this <em>Second Sight</em>, +in the very Shapes, and speaking the same +Language, they did when incorporate and alive +with us; a Matter that is of ane old imprescriptible +Tradition, (<em>our Highlanders</em> making +still a Distinction betwixt <em>Sluagh Saoghalta</em> +and <em>Sluagh Sith</em>, averring that the Souls goe +to the <em>Sith</em> when dislodged;) many real Treasures +and Murders being discovered by Souls +that pass from among our selves, or by the +Kindness of these our airie Neighbours, non +of which Spirits can be altogither inorganical. +No less than the Conseits about Purgatory, or +a State of Rescue; the <i lang="la">Limbus Patrum et Infantum</i>, +Inventions, [which] tho misapplyed, yet +are not Chimæras, and altogither groundless. +For <i lang="la">ab origine</i>, it is nothing but blansh and +faint Discoveries of this <span class="smcap">Secret Republick</span> of +ours here treated on, and additional Fictions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> +of Monks doting and crazied Heads, our Creed +saying that our Saviour descended εἰς ᾅδου, to the +invisible Place and People. And many Divines +supposing that the Deity appear’d in a visible +Shape seen by Adam in the Cooll of the Day, +and speaking to him with ane audible voice. +And Jesus, probably by the Ministery of invisible +Attendants, conveying more meat of the +same Kind to the fyve Thowsand that wes fed +by him with a very few Loaves and Fishes, +(for a new Creation it was not.) The Zijmjiim +and Ochim, in Isa. 13. 21. 22. Thes +Satyres, and doolfull unknown Creatures of +Islands and Deserts, seem to have a plain Prospect +that Way. Finally, the eternal Happiness +enjoyed in the 3d Heavens, being more +mysterious than most of Men take it to be. +It is not a sense whollie adduced to Scripture +to say, that this <span class="smcap">Sight</span>, and the due Objects +of it, hath some Vestige in holy Write, but +rather ’tis modestly deduced from it.</p> + +<p>11. It only now remains to ansear the obvious +Objections against the Reality and Lawfullness +of this Speculation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Question</span> 1. How do you salve the Second +Sight from Compact and Witchcraft?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Answer.</span> Tho this Correspondence with the +Intermediate Unconfirm’d People (betwixt Man +and Angell) be not ordinary to all of us who +are Superterraneans, yet this <span class="smcap">Sight</span> falling some +Persons by Accident, and its being connatural +to others from their Birth, the Derivation of it +cannot always be wicked. A too great Curiositie, +indeed, to acquyre any unnecessary Airt, +may be blameworthy; but diverse of the +<span class="smcap">Secret Commonwealth</span> may, by Permission, +discover themselves as innocently to us, who are +in another State, as some of us Men do to +Fishes, which are in another Element, when we +plunge and dive into the Bottom of the Seas, +their native Region; and in Process of Time we +may come to converse as familiarly with these +nimble and agile Clans (but with greater Pleasure +and Profit,) as we do now with the Chino’s +Antipodes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Question</span> 2. Are they subject to Vice, +Lusts? Passion, and Injustice, as we who live +on the Surface of the Earth?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Answer.</span> The Seers tell us that these wandering +Aereal People have not such an Impetus +and fatall Tendency to any Vice as Men, as +not being drenched into so gross and dregy +Bodies as we, but yet are in ane imperfect +State, and some of them making better Essays +for heroick Actions than others; having the +same Measures of Vertue and Vice as wee, and +still expecting advancement to a higher and +more splendid State of Lyfe. One of them is +stronger than many Men, yet do not incline to +hurt Mankind, except by Commission for a gross +Misdemeanour, as the destroying Angell of +Ægypt, and the Assyrians, Exod. 12. 29. 2 +Kings, 10. 35. They haunt most where is most +Barbaritie; and therefoir our ignorant Ancestors, +to prevent the Insults of that strange +People, used as rude and course a Remedie; +such as Exorcisms, Donations, and Vows: But +how soon ever the true Piety prevailed in any +Place, it did not put the Inhabitants beyond +the Reach and Awthoritie of these subtile inferiour +Co-inhabitants and Colleagues of ours: +The <span class="smcap">Father of all Spirits</span>, and the Person<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> +himselfe, having the only Command of his Soul +and Actions, a concurrance they may have to +what is virtuously done; for upon committing +of a foul Deed, one will find a Demure upon +his Soul, as if his cheerfull Collegue had deserted +him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Question</span> 3. Do these airie Tribes procreate? +If so, how are they nourished, and at +what period of Time do they die?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Answer.</span> Supposing all Spirits to be created +at once in the Beginning, Souls to pre-exist and +to circle about into several States of Probationship; +to make them either totally unexcusable, +or perfectly happie against the last Day, solves +all the Difficulties. But in very Deed, and +speaking suteable to the Nature of Things, there +is no more Absurditie for a Spirit to inform ane +Infant in Bodie of Airs, than a Bodie composed +of dull and drusie Earth; the best of Spirits +have alwayes delyghted more to appear into +aereal, than into terrestrial Bodyes. They feed +most what on Quintessences, and aetheriall +Essences. The Pith and Spirits only of +Women’s Milk feed their Children, being artificially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> +conveyed, (as Air and Oyl sink into our +Bodies,) to make them vigorous and fresh. +And this shorter Way of conveying a pure Aliment, +(without the usuall Digestions,) by transfusing +it, and transpyring thorow the Pores into +the Veins, Arteries, and Vessells that supplie the +Bodie, is nothing more absurd, than ane Infant’s +being fed by the Navel before it is borne, or +than a Plant, which groweth by attracting a +livelie Juice from the Earth thorow many small +Roots and Tendons, whose courser Pairts be +adapted and made connatural to the Whole, +doth quickly coalesce by the ambient Cold; +and so are condens’d and bak’d up into a confirm’d +Wood in the one, and solid Bodie of the +Flesh and Bone in the other. A Notion which, +if intertained and approv’d, may shew that the +late Invention of soaking and transfusing (not +Blood, but) athereal virtuall Spirits, may be usefull +both for Nourishment and Health, whereof +is a Vestige in the damnable Practise of evill +Angells, their sucking of Blood and Spirits out +of Witches Bodys (till they drew them into a +deform’d and dry Leanness,) to feid their own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> +Vehicles withall, leaving what we call the +Witches Mark behind; a Spot that I have +seen, as a small Mole, horny, and brown-coloured; +throw which Mark, when a large +Brass Pin was thrust (both in Buttock, Nose, +and Rooff of the Mouth,) till it bowed and +become crooked, the Witches, both Men and +Women, nather felt a Pain, nor did bleed, nor +knew the precise Time when this was adoing to +them, (there Eyes only being covered.) Now +the Air being a Body as well as Earth, no +Reason can be given why there may not be +Particles of more vivific Spirit form’d of it for +Procreation, then is possible to be of Earth, +which takes more Time and Pains to rarify and +ripen it, ere it can come to have a prolific +Virtue. And if our Aping Darlings did not +thus procreate, there whole Number would be +exhausted after a considerable Space of Time. +For tho they are of more refyned Bodies and +Intellectualls than wee, and of far less heavy +and corruptive Humours, (which cause a Dissolution,) +yet many of their Lives being dissonant +to right Reason and their own Laws,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> +and their Vehicles not being wholly frie of Lust +and Passion, especially of the more spirituall +and hautie Sins they pass (after a long healthy +Lyfe) into one Orb and Receptacle fitted for +their Degree, till they come under the general +Cognizance of the last Day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Question</span> 4. Doth the acquiring of this +Second Sight make any Change on the Acquirers +Body, Mind, or Actions?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Answer.</span> All uncouth <span class="smcap">Sights</span> enfeebles the +<span class="smcap">Seer</span>. Daniel, tho familiar with divyne Visions, +yet fell frequently doun without Strength, when +dazzled with a Power which had the Ascendant +of, and passed on him beyond his Comprehension, +Chap. 10. 8. 17. So our <span class="smcap">Seer</span> is put in +a Rapture, Transport, and sort of Death, as +divested of his Body and all its Senses, when +he is first made participant of this curious +Peice of Knowledge: But it maketh no Wramp +or Strain in the Understanding of any; only to +the Fancy’s of clownish or illiterate Men, it +creates some Affrightments and Disturbances, +because of the Strongness of the Showes, and +their Unacquaintedness with them. And as for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> +their Lyfe, the Persons endued with this Rarity +are, for the most Part, candid, honest, and +sociable People. If any of them be subject to +Immoralities, this obstruse Skill is not to be +blamed for it; for unless themselves be the +Tempters, the Colonies of the Invisible Plantations, +with which they intercommune, do provoke +them by no Villainy or Malifice, nather +at their first Acquaintance nor after a long +Familiarity.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Question</span> 5. Doth not Sathan interpose in +such Cases by many subtile unthought Insinuations, +as to him who let the Fly, or Familiar, +go out of the Box, and yet found the Fly of his +own putting in, as serviceable as the other +would have been?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Answer.</span> The Goodness of the Lyfe, and +Designs of the ancient Prophets and Seers, was +one of the best Prooffs of their Mission.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + + +<hr class="fulla x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<h2 class="p4 nobreak fs150 lsp2" id="NOTE">NOTE.</h2> + +<p class="noindent">In trying to collect evidence as to the Rerrick +“evil spirit” from Kirk-Session Records, I +have been most kindly assisted by the Rev. +Mr. M‘Conachie, Minister of Rerrick. Mr. +M‘Conachie finds that only two parishes in the +Stewartry, Kells and Girthon, have records containing +the years 1695, 1696. The records of +Rerrick do not go so far back. We are therefore +left to the pamphlet of 1696, by Telfair, +which is an unusually business-like statement, +the names of attesting witnesses being added in +the marginal notes. For phenomena singularly +similar to those of Rerrick, <cite>Obeah</cite>, by Mr. H. +J. Bell, may be consulted. (<cite>Obeah</cite>, Sampson +Low & Co., London, 1889, p. 93.)</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span></p> + +<h2 class="p4 nobreak fs150 lsp2" id="NOTES">NOTES.</h2> + +<p class="pfs120">INTRODUCTION.</p> + + <div class="notes"> + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>a</i>), <a href="#Page_xvi">p. xvi.</a>—“The Psychical Society.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The Psychical Society, as far as the writer is aware +has not examined officially the old accounts of the phenomena +which it investigates at present. The Catalogue +of the Society’s Library, however, proves that it does +not lack the materials.</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>b</i>), <a href="#Page_xxx">p. xxx.</a>—“Their speech is a kind of whistling.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>That the voice of spirits is a kind of whistling, twittering, +or chirping, is a very widely diffused and ancient +belief. The ghosts in Homer twitter like bats; in New +Caledonia an English settler found that he could scare +the natives from a piece of ground by whistling there at +night. Mr. Samuel Wesley says, “I followed the noise +into almost every room in the house, both by day and +by night, with lights and without, and have sat alone +for some time, and, when I heard the noise, spoke to it +to tell me what it was, but never heard any articulate +voice, and only once or twice two or three feeble squeaks, +a little louder than the chirping of a bird, and not like +the noise of rats, which I have often heard” (<cite>Memoirs of +the Wesley Family</cite>, p. 164). Professor Alexander mentions +the “pecular whistling sound” at some manifestations +in Rio Janeiro as “rather frequent” (<cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> +xix. 180). Here children were the mediums; how did +they get the idea of the traditional whistle? See also +the following note.</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>c</i>), <a href="#Page_xl">p. xl.</a>—“Not long after the Spanish conquest +of Peru.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The phenomena alluded to here are said to have +occurred in 1549. The evidence is a mere report by +Cieza de Leon, who does not pretend to have been an +eye-witness. But, as Mr. Clements Markham, Cieza’s +editor, remarks, the phenomena are analogous to those +of spiritualism. At the very least, we find a belief in +this kind of manifestation at a remote date, and in an +outlandish place. Cieza says:<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>“When the Adelantado Belalcazar was governor of +the province of Popyan, and when Gomez Hernandez +was his lieutenant in the town of Auzerma, there was a +chief in a village called Pirsa, almost four leagues from +the town, whose brother, a good-looking youth named +Tamaraqunga, inspired by God, wished to go to the +town of the Christians to receive baptism. But the +devils did not wish that he should attain his desire, +fearing to lose what seemed secure, so they frightened +this Tamaraqunga in such sort that he was unable to do +anything. God permitting it, the devils stationed themselves +in a place where the chief alone could see them, +in the shape of birds called <em>auras</em>. Finding himself so +persecuted by the devils, he sent in great haste to a +Christian living near, who came at once, and hearing +what he wanted, signed him with the sign of the cross. +But the devils then frightened him more than ever, +appearing in hideous forms, which only were visible to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> +him. <em>The Christian only saw stones falling from the air +and heard whistling.</em> A brother of one Juan Pacheco, +citizen of the same town, then holding office in the +place of Gomez Hernandez, who had gone to Caramanta, +came from Auzerma with another man to visit +the Indian chief. They say that Tamaraqunga was +much frightened and ill-treated by the devils, who +carried him through the air from one place to another +in presence of the Christians, he complaining and the +devils whistling and shouting. Sometimes when the +chief was sitting with a glass of liquor before him, the +Christians saw the glass raised up in the air and put +down empty, and a short time afterwards the wine was +again poured into the cup from the air.” Compare what +Ibn Batuta, the old Arab traveller, saw at the court of +the King of Delhi. The matter is discussed in Colonel +Yule’s <cite>Marco Polo</cite>.</p> + +<p>This may suffice as a specimen of the manifestations. +They continued while the chief was on his way to +church; he was lifted into the air, and the Christians +had to hold him down. In church the ghostly whistling +was heard, and stones fell around, while the chief said +that he saw devils standing upside down, and himself +was thrown into that unusual posture. The combination +of convulsive movements with the other phenomena is +that which we have already remarked in the cases of +“Mr. H.” and the grandson of William Morse. Cieza de +Leon says that the chief was not troubled after his baptism. +The illusions of the newly-converted, so like those of the +early Christian hermits, are described by Callaway in his +<cite>Zulu Tales</cite>.</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>d</i>), <a href="#Page_l">p. l.</a></h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Priestley’s explanation of the Epworth disturbances is +imposture by the servants, by way of a practical joke.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> +Coleridge, on the other hand, says that “all these stories, +and I could produce fifty cases at least equally well +authenticated, and, as far as the veracity of the narrators, +and the single fact of their having seen and heard +such and such sights or sounds, above all rational scepticism, +are as much like one another as the symptoms of +the same disease in different patients.”</p> + +<p>It is a pity that Coleridge did not produce his fifty well-authenticated +examples. The similarity of the narratives +everywhere, all the world over, is exactly what makes them +interesting. Coleridge goes on: “This indeed I take to be +the true and only solution—a contagious nervous disease, +the acme, or intensest form of which is catalepsy” +(Southey’s <cite>Wesley</cite>, vol. i. p. 14, Coleridge’s note). If +there be such a contagious nervous disease, it is a very +remarkable malady, and well worth examining. The +Wesleys were not alarmed; they bantered the spirit; +they wished they could set him to work; and beyond +the trembling of the children when Jeffrey was knocking +during their sleep, there is no sign of morbid conditions. +A neighbouring clergyman, who was asked to pass a +night in the house, saw and heard just what the others +heard and saw.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The hypothesis of a contagious nervous +disease, in which every witness exhibits the same symptoms +of illusion in all parts of the world, is a theory +which needs a good deal of verification. Where material +traces of the disturbances remain, it is absurd to +speak of contagious hallucinations. We must fall back +on the hypothesis of trickery, or must say with Southey, +“Such things may be preternatural, yet not miraculous; +they may not be in the ordinary course of nature, yet +imply no alteration of its laws.” Any theory is more +plausible than the idea that Mr. Wesley and Mr. Hoole<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> +were in a state bordering on catalepsy. Believers in +hypnotism may think it possible that this, that, and the +other persons, if they submitted themselves to hypnotic +influences, might have the same hallucinations suggested +to them. But there is no evidence, in the Epworth +case nor in the Rerrick case, of any such matter. “So +far as we yet know, sensory hallucination of several +persons together, <em>who are not in a hypnotic state</em>, is a +rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable explanation” +(<cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, iv. 62). There is some evidence +that epileptic patients suffer from the same illusions—for +example, the presence of a woman in a red cloak; +and in <i lang="la">delirium tremens</i> the “horrors” are usually +similar. But that all the persons who enter a given +house should be impressed by the same material illusions, +as of chairs and tables, and even beds (like Nancy +Wesley’s) flying about, is a theory more incredible than +the hypothesis either of trickery or of abnormal occurrences. +When the disturbances always cease on the +arrival of a competent witness, then it is not hard to say +which theory we ought to choose. For imposture see +next note.</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>e</i>), <a href="#Page_lvii">p. lvii.</a>—“Children at <i lang="fr">séances</i>.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The phenomena discussed are most frequently connected +with children, who may be regarded either as +mediums or impostors, conscious or unconscious. In +<cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, iv. 25-42, Professor Barrett gives the +case of a little girl whom he knew. She had raps wherever +she went, even when alone with the Professor, who +made her stand with her hands against the wall, at the +greatest stretch of her arms, “with the muscles of the +legs and arms all in tension.” “A brisk pattering of +raps” followed Professor Barrett’s request. But he +also mentions a boy “of juvenile piety,” who “for twelve<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> +months deceived his father, a <ins id="tn-86" title="Transcriber’s Note—Original text: 'distingnished surgeon'"> +distinguished surgeon</ins>, and +all his family, by pretended spiritualistic manifestations, +which appeared at first sight inexplicable, until the +cunning trickery of the lad was discovered.” The only +difference between these cases is that an “outsider” +discovered trickery in one instance and not in the other. +This is a very ticklish kind of certainty, and it is plain +that children can do a great deal in the way of mere +imposture. The state of any young Wesley who might +have been caught out is unenviable. Verily Mr. Wesley +would not have spared for his crying.</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>f</i>), <a href="#Page_lxii">p. lxii.</a>—“The pricking of witches.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>It is pretty certain that some of there unlucky old +women were pricked “in anæsthetic areas.”</p> +</div> + +<hr class="tb"> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>a</i>), <a href="#Page_8">p. 8.</a>—“These Arrows that fly in the Dark.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>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 <cite>Scottish Criminal Trials</cite>. 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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> +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 <cite>Domestic Annals of Scotland</cite>, 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.</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>b</i>), <a href="#Page_11">p. 11.</a>—“Milk thorow a hair-tedder.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>c</i>), <a href="#Page_19">p. 19.</a>—“The Wreath (wraith) ... is only +exuvious fumes of the Man, ... exhaled and congealed +into a various likeness.”</h3> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>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 <cite lang="de">Der +Geisterhypothese des Spiritismus</cite>, <cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, xix. 293.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> +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.”</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>d</i>), <a href="#Page_23">p. 23.</a>—“Fairy hills.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The hypothesis that the Fairy belief may be a tradition +of an ancient race dwelling in subterranean homes, +is older than Mr. McRitchie or Sir Walter Scott. In +his <cite>Scottish Scenery</cite> (1803), Dr. Cririe suggests that the +germ of the Fairy myth is the existence of dispossessed +aboriginals dwelling in subterranean 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 <cite>Quarterly Review</cite> calls it (vol. lix., p. 280).</p> +</div> + + +<h3><em>Note</em> (<i>e</i>), <a href="#Page_30">p. 30.</a>—“Master Great-rake, the Irish Stroaker.”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Glanvill, in <cite>Essays on Several Important Subjects</cite> (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 +<cite>Account of Strange Cures: in a Letter to Robert Boyle</cite>. +London, 1666.</p> +</div> + + </div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span></p> + +<h2 class="p4 nobreak" id="POSTSCRIPT">POSTSCRIPT.</h2> + + +<p class="noindent">It has been said that no trace can be found of +a printed <cite>Secret Commonwealth</cite> before 1815. +The present editor is inclined to believe that in +1699 the work was still in manuscript. In a +letter of Lord Reay’s to Mr. Samuel Pepys (Oct. +24, 1699), he says, “I have got a manuscript +since I last came to Scotland, whose author, +though a parson, after giving a very full account +of the Second Sight, defends there being no sin +in it.... With the first opportunity I shall +send you a copy of his books.” This description +answers very well to Mr. Kirk’s treatise, +and to no other contemporary work with which +I am acquainted, unless it be <cite>A Discourse of the +Second Sight</cite>, by the Rev. Mr. John Frazer, +minister of Tiree and Coll. There were, doubtless, +other parsons busy with these topics; and +the minister of Rerrick informs me that several +MSS. by Mr. Telfair, author of the tract already<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> +quoted, were only dispersed about 1877. Examples +of these clerical psychical researchers +may be found in C. K. Sharpe’s prefatory notice +to Law’s <cite>Memorials</cite> (Edinburgh, 1818). Such +an one is the Rev. Robert Knox, who writes +from Cavers to the Rev. Mr. Wyllie on the case +of Sir George Maxwell of Pollock. He dare +not attribute the mediumship of Janet Douglas +“positively to an evil cause.... <em>It is our +ignorance of any natural agent</em> that makes us +impute the effects to evil spirits” (<cite>Memorials</cite>, +p. lxxv). Moreover, Lord Reay writes as if his +“parson” were still alive in 1699, whereas Mr. +Kirk “went to his own herd” in 1692. “I am +promised the acquaintance of this man, of which +I am very covetous.” Lord Reay was at Durness, +and may not have heard of the mishap +which carried the minister of Aberfoyle into +Fairyland. It may be added that Dr. Hickes +writes to Mr. Pepys about neolithic arrow heads +as “a subject of near alliance to that of the +Second Sight, and of witchcraft, which is akin +to them both.” He also speaks of “a very +tragical, but authentic story told me by the +Duke of Lauderdale, which happened in the +family of Sir John Dalrymple, Laird of Stair,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> +and then Lord President. His Grace had no +sooner told it me, but my Lord President coming +into the room, he desired my Lord to tell it +himself, which, altering his countenance, he did +with a very melancholick air; but it is so long +since that I dare not trust my memory with +relating the particulars of it” (June 19, 1700).</p> + +<p>Dr. Hickes calls the first Lord Stair “John,” +Scott calls him “James.” There can be no +doubt that Dr. Hickes refers to the woful tale +of the bride of Lammermoor, who died on September +12, 1669. Law, in his <cite>Memorials</cite>, says +she “was harled through the house”—by spirits, +he means. This “harling” or tossing about of +a patient, probably epileptic, we have noticed +in many of the old stories, as in the modern +instance of “Mr. H.” Now, in his Introduction +to the <cite>Bride of Lammermoor</cite>, Scott gives all +the authorities at his command: Law, Symson’s +<cite>Elegie</cite>, and Hamilton of Whitelaw’s <cite>Satire</cite>, which +avers that Satan seized the bride and “threw +the bridegroom from the nuptial bed.” Sir +Walter was unacquainted with Dr. Hickes’ hint, +which actually produces the bride’s own father as +evidence for a story which was plainly regarded +as supernatural. It is most unlucky that Dr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> +Hickes distrusted his memory. However, it is +something to feel assured that “a memorable +story” was accepted at the time by the family +of the bride, and was known to Lauderdale.<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +Lauderdale himself, by the way, was a psychical +researcher, and accommodated Richard Baxter +with some accounts of haunted houses, published +in his <cite>World of Spirits</cite>. One story of a haunted +house, where a spectral hand appeared, he gives +on the authority of “the Rev. James Sharp,” +afterwards the famous Archbishop. Lauderdale +inspected the famed Loudun nuns, and saw +only “wanton wenches singing baudy songs in +French.” His letter to Mr. Baxter is dated +March 12, 1659. His best haunted house is of +the Epworth type.</p> + + +<hr class="r30c"> + +<p class="pfs80"> +<i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.</span><br> +<i>Edinburgh and London</i><br> +</p> + + +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES:</h2> + + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Note (<i>a</i>), <a href="#Page_81">p. 81.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> <cite>The Testimony of Tradition</cite>, p. 75.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> In Father Macdonald’s book on Moidart.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> A much odder case is reported. Two young men +photographed a reach of a river. In the photograph, +when printed, was visible the dead body of a woman +floating on the stream. The water was dragged. Nothing +was found; but two or three days later a girl drowned +herself in the pool! As the Reports of the Psychical +Society sometimes say, “no confirmation has been obtained;” +but this is a pleasing instance of the Reflex, +and of second sight in a photographic camera.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> It is also published in Mrs. Graham Tomson’s <cite>Border +Ballads</cite> (Walter Scott).</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> Note (<i>b</i>), <a href="#Page_81">p. 81.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Many instances may be read of in a little anonymous +work, <cite>Obeah</cite>. The scene is Hayti.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Note (<i>c</i>), <a href="#Page_82">p. 82.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> <cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, July 1891, February 1892.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> As far as the author has watched <i lang="fr">séances</i> personally, +they have ended in nothing but “giggling and making +giggle.”</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Some <i lang="fr">séances</i> were held at —— College, Oxford, +about 1875. The performers were all athletic undergraduates. +The breath of chill air was always felt +“before anything happened,” and, when the out-college +men had gone, the owner of the rooms, in his bed-chamber, +was disturbed by the racket which continued +in the sitting-room. But I know not if he had sported +his oak!</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> <cite>An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences</cite>, +by Increase Mather. Boston, 1684; London, +Reeves & Turner, 1890, pp. 101-111.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> <cite>Diseases of the Nervous System</cite>, iii. 249. London, 1890.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> <cite>Proc. S. P. R.</cite>, xix. 160-173.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, pp. 173-189.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> <cite>Memoirs of the Wesley Family</cite>, by Adam Clarke, +LL.D., F.A.S. London, 1823, pp. 161-200.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> Letter to Terry, April 30. Lockhart, v. 309.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Scott to Terry, May 16.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Susannah Wesley to Samuel Wesley, March 27, +1717.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 193.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 194.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Note (<i>d</i>), <a href="#Page_83">p. 83.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> <cite>Memoirs of the Wesley Family</cite>, p. 198.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Edinburgh: Mossman, 1696. There is a London +reprint, of which I have a copy. The pamphlet is republished +in Mr. Stevenson’s edition of Sinclair’s <cite>Satan’s +Invisible World Discovered</cite>, 1685-1871, Appendix, p. +xix.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Compare similar phenomena in <cite>Obeah</cite>, and in Peruvian +example, note (<i>c</i>), p. 82.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Glanvil’s version is given in Sinclair’s <cite>Satan’s Invisible +World</cite>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> Note (<i>e</i>), <a href="#Page_85">p. 85.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> Note (<i>f</i>), <a href="#Page_86">p. 86.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> The “earth-houses” in Scotland and the isles, which +seem to have been inhabited at an early period, can seldom +be called hills or mounds; being built for purposes +of concealment, they are usually almost on a level with +the surrounding land. The <cite>Fairy hills</cite>, on the other hand, +are higher and much more notable, and were probably +sepulchral. This, at least, is the impression left on +me by Mr. MacRitchie’s book, <cite>The Underground Life</cite>. +(Privately printed. Edinburgh, 1892.)</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Note (<i>a</i>), <a href="#Page_86">p. 86.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Note (<i>b</i>), <a href="#Page_87">p. 87.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> The <em>Death-candle</em> is called <span class="smcap">Druig</span>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> Note (<i>c</i>), <a href="#Page_87">p. 87.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> Note (<i>d</i>), <a href="#Page_88">p. 88.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> Note (<i>e</i>), <a href="#Page_88">p. 88.</a></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> Thus in the Manuscript, which is only a Transcript of +Mr. Kirk’s Original. Perhaps M‘Intyre?</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> The original Transcriber has added: +“See the Rest in a little Manuscript belonging to Coline +Kirk,” probably the author’s son of that name.—A.L.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> <cite>The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon</cite>, ch. cxviii.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> Mr. Hoole’s account, <cite>Memoirs of the Wesleys</cite>, p. 91.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> The letters to Pepys are quoted from his Correspondence, +published as Vol. X. of his <cite>Diary</cite> (New York, +1885).</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="fulla x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> +<p class="pfs150 antiqua">Bibliothèque de Carabas.</p> + + +<p class="center"> +<i>Crown 8vo Volumes, Printed on Hand-made Paper, with<br> +Wide Margins and Uncut Edges, done up<br> +in Japanese Vellum Wrappers.</i></p> + +<p class="p1 pfs90 bold">The Prices are net for cash.</p> + +<p class="p2 pfs80"><em>THESE VOLUMES WILL NEVER BE REPRINTED.</em></p> + +<hr class="r30"> + +<div class="blockquotcat"> + +<p><b>I. CUPID AND PSYCHE</b>: The Most Pleasant and Delectable +Tale of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche. Done into English +by <span class="smcap">William Adlington</span>, of University College in Oxford. +With a Discourse on the Fable by <span class="smcap">Andrew Lang</span>, late of +Merton College, in Oxford. Frontispiece by <span class="smcap">W. B. Richmond</span>, +and Verses by the <span class="smcap">Editor</span>, <span class="smcap">May Kendall</span>, <span class="smcap">J. W. Mackail</span>, +<span class="smcap">F. Locker-Lampson</span>, and <span class="smcap">W. H. Pollock</span>. (lxxxvi. 66 pp.) +1887. <em>Out of print.</em></p> + +<p><b>II. EUTERPE</b>: The Second Book of the Famous History of Herodotus. +Englished by B. R. 1584. Edited by <span class="smcap">Andrew Lang</span>, +with Introductory Essays on the Religion and the good Faith of +Herodotus. Frontispiece by <span class="smcap">A. W. Tomson</span>; and Verses by +the <span class="smcap">Editor</span> and <span class="smcap">Graham R. Tomson</span>. (xlviii. 174 pp.) +1888. <em>Out of print.</em></p> + +<p><b>III. THE FABLES OF BIDPAI; or, The Morall Philosophie +of Doni</b>: Drawne out of the auncient writers, a work first +compiled in the Indian tongue. Englished out of Italian by +<span class="smcap">Thomas North</span>, Brother to the Right Honourable Sir <span class="smcap">Roger +North</span>, Knight, Lord <span class="smcap">North</span> of Kyrtheling, 1570. Now again +edited and induced by <span class="smcap">Joseph Jacobs</span>, together with a Chronologico-Biographical +Chart of the translations and adaptations of +the Sanskrit Original, and an Analytical Concordance of the +Stories. With a full-page Illustration by <span class="smcap">Edward Burne +Jones</span>, A.R.A., Frontispiece from a 16th century MS. of the +Anvari Suhaili, and facsimiles of Woodcuts in the Italian Doni +of 1532. (lxxxii. 264 pp.) 1888. <em>Nearly out of print.</em> The +few remaining copies, 12<i>s.</i></p> + +<p><b>IV.-V. THE FABLES OF ÆSOP</b>, as first printed by <span class="smcap">W. Caxton</span> +in 1484. Now again edited and induced by <span class="smcap">J. Jacobs</span>. With +Introductory Verses by Mr. <span class="smcap">Andrew Lang</span>. 2 Vols. (280 pp., +320 pp.) 1890. £1, 1<i>s.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquotx"> + +<p lang="fr">“Ces deux volumes de la ‘Bibliothèque de Carabas’ (Bidpai et Æsop) constituent +l’examen le plus complet et le plus savant qui ait été fait depuis Benfey de cette +grande question de l’origine et de la migration des fables, et la critique de l’auteur s’y +montre partout aussi sage que bien informée.”—<span class="smcap">M. A. Barth</span>, in <cite lang="fr">Mélusine</cite>.</p> + +<p>“The degree and quality of the editor’s learning are not to be doubted; it is +varied, profound, and without a spice of pedantry.”—<cite>Scots Observer.</cite></p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquotcat"> + +<p><b>VI. THE ATTIS OF CAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS.</b> Translated +into English Verse, with Dissertations on the Myth of +Attis, on the Origin of Tree-Worship, and on the Galliambic +Metre. By <span class="smcap">Grant Allen</span>, B.A., formerly Postmaster of +Merton College, Oxford. (xvi. 154 pp.) 1892. 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquotx"> + +<p>“The paramount interest of this book lies in its two disquisitions upon the +meaning of the Attis myth and upon the meaning of tree-worship.”—<cite>Speaker.</cite></p> + +<p>“As a contribution to folk-lore it is of real value and interest, and to a considerable +extent new in the line it takes.”—<cite>Literary World.</cite></p> + +<p>“This theory, in which ‘the ghost plays ... the same part that guano and +phosphates play to-day,’ when stated thus baldly sounds strange, but when read in +the author’s own vivacious narrative, along with the excellent illustrations which he +brings forward, it is singularly attractive.”—<cite>Bookman.</cite></p> + +<p>“Highly interesting, and at this time will probably fall in with prevailing +opinions.”—<span class="smcap">Robinson Ellis</span> in <cite>The Academy</cite>.</p> + +<p>“Whether readers adopt Mr. Allen’s conclusions or net, all must agree that he +has propounded a most interesting theory, and stated it in a manner forcible and +stimulating to thought.”—<cite>Nation.</cite></p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquotcat"> + +<p><b>VII. PLUTARCH’S ROMANE QUESTIONS.</b> Translated, +<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1603, by <span class="smcap">Philemon Holland</span>. Now again Edited by +<span class="smcap">Frank Byron Jevons</span>, M. A., Classical Tutor to the University +of Durham. With Dissertations on Italian Cults, Myths, +Taboos, Man Worship, Aryan Marriage, Sympathetic Magic, +and the Eating of Beans. (cxxviii. 170 pp.) 1892. 10<i>s.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquotx"> + +<p>“Mr. Jevons’s essay is learned and interesting, and in some cases he has probably +found out the reason of behaviour which the Romans could not account for themselves.”—<cite>Daily +News</cite>, Jan. 10, 1893.</p> + +<p>“All antiquaries and folk-lorists will thank him for enabling them to peruse in a +convenient form that part of Plutarch’s ‘Moralia’ which bears upon their science.”—<cite>Daily +Chronicle</cite>, Jan. 6, 1893.</p> + +<p>“An admirable essay on Roman religion and on the characteristics of Aryan +religion.”—<cite>Glasgow Herald</cite>, Jan. 5, 1893.</p> + +<p>“Holland’s quaintness and homely vigour make his translations delightful reading. +A most valuable and interesting introduction is supplied by a sound scholar +and shrewd thinker, Mr. F. B. Jevons.”—<cite>Athenæum</cite>, Jan. 7, 1893.</p> + +<p>“Holland’s translation, a delightful piece of Elizabethan English, as Mr. Jevons +says, provides a seemly garb for Plutarch’s ancient reasonings. Mr. Jevons’s own +contribution to the volume is, as a help towards a true interpretation, of scarcely +less value than the translation itself.”—<cite>Scotsman</cite>, Dec. 26, 1892.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Jevons’s introduction is at once learned and readable.”—<cite>Times</cite>, Dec. 22, +1892.</p> + +<p>“The editor has supplied an excellent commentary upon some of the most striking +parts in a series of dissertations on Italian cults, myths, taboos, man-worship, Aryan +marriage, sympathetic magic, and the eating of beans. The mere titles of these +essays show the curiosity and interest of the problems dealt with in the text.”—<cite>Manchester +Guardian</cite>, Jan. 10, 1893.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"></div> + +<div class="p4 transnote"> +<a id="TN"></a> +<p><strong>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</strong></p> + +<p>Except for the changes below, all spelling in the text has been left unchanged.</p> + +<p> +Main text (probable printer’s errors):<br> +<a href="#tn-1">Pg 1</a>: ‘heretofioir going’ replaced by ‘heretofoir going’.<br> + (befoir, therefoir and foirtell all appear in the text)<br> +<a href="#tn-7">Pg 7</a>: ‘by ws’ replaced by ‘by us’.<br> +<a href="#tn-18">Pg 18</a>: ‘unaictve State’ replaced by ‘unactive State’.<br> +<a href="#tn-67">Pg 67</a>: ‘bewixt the two’ replaced by ‘betwixt the two’.<br> +<br> +Lang’s Notes and Footnotes:<br> +<a href="#tn-86">Pg 86</a>: ‘distingnished surgeon’ replaced by ‘distinguished surgeon’.<br> +<br> +Publisher’s Catalog:<br> +“de l’ateur” replaced by “de l’auteur”.<br> +“Plutarch’s ‘Moralio’” replaced by “Plutarch’s ‘Moralia’”. +</p> +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75485 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75485-h/images/a0001.jpg b/75485-h/images/a0001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..173b1ae --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/images/a0001.jpg diff --git a/75485-h/images/cover.jpg b/75485-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..51132e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75485-h/images/drop_t.jpg b/75485-h/images/drop_t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b4edcf --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/images/drop_t.jpg diff --git a/75485-h/images/i_a002.jpg b/75485-h/images/i_a002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0495ffd --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/images/i_a002.jpg diff --git a/75485-h/images/i_a003.jpg b/75485-h/images/i_a003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f14a3d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/images/i_a003.jpg diff --git a/75485-h/images/i_a067.jpg b/75485-h/images/i_a067.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..00a5cde --- /dev/null +++ b/75485-h/images/i_a067.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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