All the honest men of the isle knew Bessie Skebister. She was the
shrewdest witch in the whole country, and it was a usual thing with them
when they thought their boats in danger to send to her to know the truth;
and, "Giff Bessie say it is weill, it is weill" was a common proverb in
the Orkney Islands. She did other things besides foreknowing the fall of
storms, for she took James Sandieson when in a strange distemper and
tormented him greatly. "In his sleip, and oftymes waking," says the
dittay, "he was tormented with yow, Bessie, and vther two with yow, quhom
he knew not, cairying him to the sea, and to the fyre, to Norroway,
Yetland, and to the south--that ye had ridden all this wayes, with ane
brydle in his mouth." Moreover, Bessie was a "dreamer of dreams," as well
as a rider of sick men's souls; so she was strangled and burnt.