Elspeth Cursetter was tried, May 29 (still in 1629), for all sorts of bad
actions. She bade one of her victims "get the bones of ane tequhyt
(linnet), and carry thame in your claithes"; and she gave herself out as
knowing evil, and able to do it too, when and to whomsoever she would; and
she sat down before the house of a man who refused her admittance--for she
was an ill-famed old witch, and every one dreaded her--saying, "Ill might
they all thrive, and ill may they speed," whereby in fourteen days' time
the man's horse fell just where she had sat, and was killed most
lamentably. But she cured a neighbour's cow by drawing a cog of water out
of the burn that ran before William Anderson's door, coming back and
taking three straws--one for William Anderson's wife, and one for William
Coitts' wife, and one for William Bichen's wife--which she threw into the
pail with the water, then put the same on the cow's back; by which charm
the three straws danced in the water, and the water bubbled as if it had
been boiling. Then Elspeth took a little quantity of this charmed water,
and thrust her arm up to the elbow into the cow's throat, and on the
instant the cow rose up as well as she had ever been; but William
Anderson's ox, which was on the hill, dropped down dead. Likewise she
worked unholy cantrips for a sick friend with a paddock (toad), in the
mouth of a pail of water, which toad was too large to get down the mouth,
and when it was cast forth another man sickened and died immediately: and
she spake dangerous words to a child, saying, "Wally fall that quhyt head
of thine, but the pox will tak the away frae thy mother." As it proved,
for the little white head was laid low a short time after, when the
small-pox raged through the land. "Thow can tell eneugh yf thow lyke,"
said the mother to her afterwards, "that could tell that my bairne wold
die so long befoir the tyme." "I can tell eneugh if I durst," replied
Elspeth, over proud for her safety. But in spite of all this testimony,
Elspeth got off with "arbitrary punishment," which did not include burning
or strangling, so was luckier than her neighbours. Luckier than poor Jonet
Rendall was, who, on the 11th of November (1629), was proved a witch by
the bleeding of the corpse of the poor wretch whom she had "enchanted" to
his death. For "as soon as she came in the corpse having lain a good
space, and not having bled any, immediately bled much blood, as a sure
token that she was the author of his death." And had she not said, too,
when a certain man refused her a Christmas lodging, "that it wald be weill
if the gude man of that hous sould make ane other yule banket" (Christmas
banquet); by which curse had he not died in fifteen days after? Wherefore
was she a proved murderess as well as witch, and received the doom
appointed to both alike. Alexander Drummond was a warlock who cured all
kinds of horrid diseases, the very names of which are enough to make one
ill; and he had a familiar, which had attended him for "neir this fifty
yeiris:" so he was convicted and burnt.
Then came Jonet Forsyth, great in her art. She could cast sickness on any
one at sea, and cure him again by a salt-water bath; she could transfer
any disease from man to beast, so that when the beast died and was opened,
nothing could be found where its heart should have been but "a blob of
water;" she knew how to charm and sain all kinds of cattle by taking
three drops of a beastie's blood on All Hallow E'en, and sprinkling the
same in the fire within the innermost chamber; she went at seed time and
bewitched a stack of barley belonging to Michael Reid, so that for many
years he could never make it into wholesome malt; and this she did for the
gain of Robert Reid, changing the "profit" of the grain backwards and
forwards between the two, according as they challenged or displeased her.
All this did Jonet Forsyth of Birsay, to the terror of her neighbours and
the ultimate ruin of herself, both in soul and body. Then came Catherine
Oswald,[30] spouse to Robert Aitcheson, in Niddrie, who was brought to
trial for being "habite and repute" a witch--defamed by Elizabeth Toppock
herself a witch and, as is so often the case, a dear friend of Katie's.
Elizabeth need not have been so eager to get rid of her dear friend and
gossip, for she was burnt afterwards for the same crimes as those for
which poor Catherine suffered the halter and the stake. It seems that
Katie was bad for her enemies. She was offended at Adam Fairbairn and his
wife, so she made their "twa kye run mad and rammish to died," and also
made a gentleman's bairn that they had a-fostering run wood (mad) and die.
And she fired William Heriot's kiln, full of grain; and burnt all his
goods before his eyes; and made his wife, in a "frantick humour," drown
herself; and she cursed John Clark's ground, so that for four years after
"by hir sorceries, naether kaill, lint, hempe, nor any other graine" would
grow thereon, though doubly "laboured and sowen." She bewitched Thomas
Scott by telling him that he looked as well as when Bessie Dobie was
living, whereby he immediately fell so deadly sick that he could not
proceed further, but was carried on a horse to Newbiggin, where he lay
until the morrow, when "a wife" came in and told him he was forespoken.
And other things as mischievous--and as true--did Catherine Oswald, as the
Record testifies. She was well defended, and might have got off, but that
a witness deposed to having seen Mr. John Aird the minister, and a most
zealous witch-finder, prick her in the shoulder with a prin, and that no
blood followed thereafter, nor did she shrink as with pain or feeling. And
as there was no gainsaying the evidence of the witch-mark, Satan and Mr.
John Aird claimed their own. Was Catherine's brand like a "blew spot, or a
little tate, or reid spots, like flea-biting?" or with "the flesh sunk in
and hallow?" according to the description of such places, published by Mr.
John Bell, minister of the gospel in Gladsmuir. We are seldom told of what
precise character the marks were, only that they were found, pricked, and
tested, and the witch hung or burnt on their testimony.