Witchcraft and Superstitious Record
Witchcraft and Superstitious Record
IN THE
South-Western District of Scotland
Witchcraft Witch Trials
Fairy Lore Brownie Lore
Wraiths Warnings
Death Customs Funeral Ceremony
Ghost Lore Haunted Houses
BY J. MAXWELL WOOD, M.B.
_Author of "Smuggling in the Solway and
Around the Galloway Sea-board"_
_Editor of "The Gallovidian," 1900-1911_
_Illustrated from Special Drawings by John
Copland, Esq., Dundrenna_
DUMFRIES: J. MAXWELL & SON
1911
"For she's gathered witch dew in the Kells kirkyard,
In the mirk how of the moon,
And fed hersel' wi' th' wild witch milk
With a red-hot burning spoon."
--_M'Lehan._
[Illustration]
_To_ Alison Jean Maxwell Wood
_A "witch" of my most intimate acquaintance_
PREFACE.
Throughout Dumfriesshire and Galloway remnants of old-world customs still
linger, suggesting a remoter time, when superstitious practice and belief
held all-important sway in the daily round and task of the people.
In gathering together the available material bearing upon such matters,
more particularly in the direction of witchcraft, fairy-lore, death
warnings, funeral ceremony and ghost story, the author trusts that by
recording the results of his gleanings much as they have been received,
and without at all attempting to subject them to higher analysis or
criticism, a truer aspect and reflection of the influence of superstition
upon the social life of those older days, may be all the more adequately
presented.
112 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH,
August 9th, 1911.
CONTENTS.
_Page._
CHAPTER I.
Traditional Witchcraft Described 1