_Bells and Storms_ (Vol. iv., p. 508.).--Wynkin de Worde, one of the
earliest of the English printers, in _The Golden Legend_, observes:
"It is said, the evil spirytes that ben in the region of th' ayre,
doubte moche when they here the belles ringen whan it thondreth, and
when grete tempeste and rages of wether happen, to the ende that the
feinds and wycked spirytes should ben abashed and flee, and cease of
the movynge of tempeste."
We have, in Sir John Sinclair's statistical account of Scotland, an account
given of a bell belonging to the old chapel of St. Fillan, in the parish of
Killin, Perthshire, which usually lay on a gravestone in the churchyard.
Mad people were brought hither to be dipped in the saint's pool; the maniac
was then confined all night in the chapel, bound with ropes, and in the
morning the bell was set on his head with great solemnity. This was the
Highland cure for mania. It was the popular superstition of the district,
that this bell would, if stolen, extricate itself out of the thief's hands,
and return to its original place, ringing all the way.