Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

Witchcraft. 305
or meal in the house, he put five or six eggs in a
pot and boiled them, one or two of which he ate him-
self, and I finished the rest. After another cup of
whiskey, the old man said I must go to bed, and
must sleep with him. Indeed, there was only one bed
in the house, — a large wooden box, with folding doors
on it. I slept pretty soundly until the old. man called
on me to get up quickly, as the sun was rising. He
made me stand inside the door, while he went out
with a wooden dish or pail, which he filled with
fresh water. The pail was then placed under the lintel,
or on the door-step, and I was enjoined to keep quiet.
Taking up an old rusty sword, he waved it three times
over the water-pail, and at each time repeated — ' In the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' He now
took a half-round piece of crystal or glass, and dropped
it in the water, and took what he called the water-
kelpie's bridle, and shook it over the pail, repeating the
same words. He then filled a wine-bottle with the
water, and gave it to me with instructions to sprinkle
the man's body-clothes with it. A black-haired woman,
I was told, had bewitched the man, but he would get
better. This did not turn out to be true, for
the man died a few days afterwards. I gave Wilcox
half a guinea, and five shillings for the bottle of
water."
To counteract the arts of witchcraft, charms were
employed. Mr. Thomas Coutts, the London banker, a
native of Scotland, entertained an apprehension of
sorcery ; he caused two horseshoes to be attached to
the marble staircase of his residence at Holly Lodge, to
avert " skaith." In the Hebrides, maluko beans, a
variety of white nuts, are used as amulets ; when the