J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 2

THE SCOTTISH BORDER, 171
upon his white palfrey, pressed through the crowd, with
the rapidity of Hghtning. Sir Godfrey, at his command,
sprung on behind him ; the " good neighbour" spurred
his horse down the steep bank, and neither he nor the
criminal were ever again seen.
The most formidable attribute of the elves, was their
practice of carrying away and exchanging childi-en, and
that of stealing human souls from their bodies. " A per-
" suasion prevails among the ignorant," says the author
of a MS. history of Moray, that *' in a consumptive dis-
'* ease, the Fairies steal away the soul, and put the soul
" of a Fairy in the room of it." This belief prevails chief-
ly along the eastern coast of Scotland, where a practice,
apparently of druidical origin, is used to avert the dan-
ger. In the increase of the March moon, withies of oak
and ivy are cut, and twisted into wreaths or circles,
which they preserve till next March. After that period,
when persons are consumptive, or children hectic, they
cause them to pass thrice through these circles. In
other cases the cure was more rough, and at least as dan-
gerous as the disease, as will appear from the following
extract :
" There is one thing remarkable in this parish of Sud-
" die (in Inverness-shire,) which I think proper to men-
*' tion. There is a small hill N. VV. from the church,
" commonly called Therdy Hill, or Hill of Therdie, as
'« some term it ; on the top of which there is a well,
»* which I had the curiosity to view, because of the se-
" veral reports concerning it. When children happen to
' • be sick, and languish long in their malady, so that they