[Sidenote: 1682.]
Alexander Cockburn, the hangman of Edinburgh, was tried before the
magistrates as sheriffs, for the murder, in his own house, of one
Adamson or Mackenzie, a blue-gown beggar. The proof was slender, and
chiefly of the nature of presumption--as, that he had denied Adamson’s
being in his house on the alleged day, the contrary being proved,
groans having been heard, and bloody clothes found in the house; and
this evidence, too, was chiefly from women. Yet he was condemned to be
hanged within three suns. One Mackenzie, whom Cockburn had caused to
lose his place of hangman at Stirling, performed the office.--_Foun._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB. 11.]
Three men were drowned this day, by falling through the ice on the
North Loch. ‘We have a proverb that the fox will not set his foot on
the ice after Candlemas, especially in the heat of the sun, as this was
at two o’clock; and at any time the fox is so sagacious as to lay his
ear to the ice, to see if it be frozen to the bottom, or if he hear the
murmuring and current of the water.’--_Foun._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB.]
[Sidenote: 1682.]
A strange story was circulated regarding a servant lass in the burgh
of Irvine. Her mistress, the wife of the Honourable Major Montgomery,
having had some silver articles stolen, blamed the lass, who, taking
the accusation much amiss, and protesting her innocence, said she would
learn who took those things, though she should raise the devil for it.
The master and mistress let this pass as a rash speech; but the girl,
being resolute, on a certain day ‘goes down to a laigh cellar, takes
a Bible with her, and draws a circle about her, and turns a riddle on
end twice from south to north, or from the right hand to the left hand,
having in her hand nine feathers, which she pulled out of the tail
of a black cock, and having read the 21st [psalm] forward, she reads
backward chap. ix., verse 19, of the book of Revelation; _he_ appears
in a seaman’s clothing, with a blue cap, and asks what she would. She
puts one question to him, and he answers it; and she casts three of the
feathers at him, charging him to his place again; then he disappears.
He seemed to her to rise out of the earth to the middle of his body.
She reads the same verse backward the second time, and he appears the
second time, rising out of the ground, with one leg above the ground;
she asks him a second question, and she casts other three feathers at
him, charging him to his place; he again disappears. She reads again
the third time the verse backward, and he appears the third time with
his body above ground (the last two times in the shape of a black grim
man in black clothing, and the last time with a long tail); she asks
a third question at him, and casts the three last feathers at him,
charging him to his place; and he disappears. The major-general and
his lady, being above stairs, though not knowing what was a-working,
were sore afraid, and could give no reason of it; the dogs in the city
making a hideous barking round about. This done, the woman, aghast, and
pale as death, comes and tells her lady who had stolen the things she
missed, and they were in such a chest in her house, belonging to some
of the servants; which being searched, was found accordingly. Some of
the servants, suspecting her to be about this work, tells the major of
it, and tells him they saw her go down to the cellar; he lays her up
in prison, and she confesses as is before related, telling them that
she learned it in Dr Colvin’s house in Ireland, who used to practise
this.’--_Law._
Fountainhall relates this story more briefly as ‘a strange accident,’
and remarks that the divination _per cribrum_ (by the sieve) is very
ancient, having been practised among the Greeks. He is puzzled about
her confession, as it may be from frenzy and hatred of life; but if
the fact of the consultation can be proved, he is clear that it infers
death.
Divination by a sieve was performed in this manner: ‘The sieve being
suspended, after repeating a certain form of words, it is taken between
the two fingers only, and the names of the parties suspected, repeated:
he at whose name the sieve turns, trembles, or shakes, is reputed
guilty of the evil in question.... It was sometimes practised by
suspending the sieve by a thread, or fixing it to the points of a pair
of scissors, giving it room to turn, and naming as before the parties
suspected: in this manner Coscinomancy is still practised in some parts
of England.’--_Demonologia._ _By J. S. F._ _London_, 1827; p. 146.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB.]
‘Strange apparitions were seen in and about Glasgow, and strange voices
and wild cries [were heard], particularly one night about the Deanside
well, was heard a cry, _Help, help!_‘--_Law._ Many such occurrences
are noted about this time and for four or five years before. In March
1679, for instance, a voice was heard at Paisley Abbey, crying: ‘Wo,
wo, wo--pray, pray, pray!’ Such reports reveal the excited state of
the public mind and a general sense of anxiety under the religious
variances of the time.
[Sidenote: 1682.