Sutherland and the Reay country

FOLK LORE. 135
witches. To show the absurdity of the man's story, he was
asked to say in what part the woman would have been
wounded if the cat's tail had been cut off. The form they are
now believed oftenest to assume is that of a hare, and their
chief avocation seems to be to interfere with cows and their
produce, and many are the means used to guard against
their malign influence. They were supposed to have a
special aversion to the rowan tree, and in many a part of
Sutherlandshire, where a green spot and a ruined house
show that once a family lived there, may still be seen stand-
ing a solitary old rowan, which had doubtless been planted
for the purpose of keeping witches at a safe distance. They
also hated iron, and the horse shoe — now an emblem of luck
— was nailed behind many a byre door to keep them outside.
But if the owners were shy to show their superstition so
openly, it was deemed quite as efficacious to keep in the
house a hare's stomach, as none of them that assumed the
form of that animal would then come near. If these precautions
have been taken, and the cows are still found to be without
milk in the morning, the next most effectual plan is to put a
crooked silver coin — for other shot is of no avail — into a gun
and try to shoot the hare. If it is not seen while the gun is
thus loaded, the bewitched cow should be bled, and in less
than three months the cow belonging to the witch who milked
the bled cow will die. Modern dairy teachers explain scien-
tifically how it happens that ' butter will not come,' but in
Sutherlandshire they sometimes placed a silver coin in the
bottom of the churn to make it come quickly, as well as to
prevent the substance being taken away from the cream by
any sinister influence. Others prefer to let no reputed witch
have a taste of their milk, as it seems to be necessary that ere