A.D. 1807 TO PRESENT DAY
MARY BUTTERS, THE CARNMONEY WITCH--BALLAD ON HER--THE HAND OF GLORY--A
JOURNEY THROUGH THE AIR--A "WITCH" IN 1911--SOME MODERN ILLUSTRATIONS
OF CATTLE- AND MILK-MAGIC--TRANSFERENCE OF DISEASE BY A
_CAILLEACH_--BURYING THE SHEAF--J.P.'S COMMISSION--CONCLUSION
Old beliefs die hard, especially when their speedy demise is a
consummation devoutly to be wished; if the Island-Magee case was the last
instance of judicial condemnation of witchcraft as an offence against the
laws of the realm it was very far indeed from being the last occasion on
which a witch and her doings formed the centre of attraction in an Irish
law-court. Almost a century after the Island-Magee incident the town of
Carrigfergus again became the scene of action, when the celebrated
"Carnmoney witch," Mary Butters, was put forward for trial at the Spring
Assizes in March 1808. It is an instance of black magic versus white (if
we may dignify the affair with the title of _magic_!), though it should be
borne in mind that in the persecution of witches many women were put to
death on the latter charge, albeit they were really benefactors of the
human race; the more so as their skill in simples and knowledge of the
medicinal virtue of herbs must have added in no small degree to the
resources of our present pharmacopoeia. The following account of this is
taken from the _Belfast News-Letter_ for 21st August 1807, as well as from
some notes by M'Skimin in Young's _Historical Notices of Old Belfast_.
One Tuesday night (evidently in August 1807) an extraordinary affair took
place in the house of a tailor named Alexander Montgomery, who lived hard
by Carnmoney Meeting-House. The tailor had a cow which continued to give
milk as usual, but of late no butter could be produced from it. An opinion
was unfortunately instilled into the mind of Montgomery's wife, that
whenever such a thing occurred, it was occasioned by the cow having been
bewitched. Her belief in this was strengthened by the fact that every old
woman in the parish was able to relate some story illustrative of what
_she_ had seen or heard of in times gone by with respect to the same. At
length the family were informed of a woman named Mary Butters, who resided
at Carrigfergus. They went to her, and brought her to the house for the
purpose of curing the cow. About ten o'clock that night war was declared
against the unknown magicians. Mary Butters ordered old Montgomery and a
young man named Carnaghan to go out to the cow-house, turn their
waistcoats inside out, and in that dress to stand by the head of the cow
until she sent for them, while the wife, the son, and an old woman named
Margaret Lee remained in the house with her.
Montgomery and his ally kept their lonely vigil until daybreak, when,
becoming alarmed at receiving no summons, they left their post and knocked
at the door, but obtained no response. They then looked through the
kitchen window, and to their horror saw the four inmates stretched on the
floor as dead. They immediately burst in the door, and found that the
wife and son were actually dead, and the sorceress and Margaret Lee nearly
so. The latter soon afterwards expired; Mary Butters was thrown out on a
dung-heap, and a restorative administered to her in the shape of a few
hearty kicks, which had the desired effect. The house had a sulphureous
smell, and on the fire was a large pot in which were milk, needles, pins,
and crooked nails. At the inquest held at Carnmoney on the 19th of August,
the jurors stated that the three victims had come by their deaths from
suffocation, owing to Mary Butters having made use of some noxious
ingredients, after the manner of a charm, to recover a sick cow. She was
brought up at the Assizes, but was discharged by proclamation. Her version
of the story was, that a black man had appeared in the house armed with a
huge club, with which he killed the three persons and stunned herself.
Lamentable though the whole affair was, as well for the gross superstition
displayed by the participants as for its tragical ending, yet it seems to
have aroused no other feelings amongst the inhabitants of Carnmoney and
Carrigfergus than those of risibility and derision. A clever racy ballad
was made upon it by a resident in the district, which, as it is probably
the only poem on the subject of witchcraft in Ireland, we print here in
its entirety from the _Ulster Journal of Archæology_ for 1908, though we
have not had the courage to attempt a glossary to the "braid Scots." It
adds some picturesque details to the more prosaic account of the
_News-Letter_.
"In Carrick town a wife did dwell
Who does pretend to conjure witches.
Auld Barbara Goats, or Lucky Bell,
Ye'll no lang to come through her clutches.
A waeful trick this wife did play
On simple Sawney, our poor tailor.
She's mittimiss'd the other day
To lie in limbo with the jailor.
This simple Sawney had a cow,
Was aye as sleekit as an otter;
It happened for a month or two
Aye when they churn'd they got nae butter.
Rown-tree tied in the cow's tail,
And vervain glean'd about the ditches;
These freets and charms did not prevail,
They could not banish the auld witches.
The neighbour wives a' gathered in
In number near about a dozen;
Elspie Dough, and Mary Linn,
An' Kate M'Cart, the tailor's cousin.
Aye they churn'd and aye they swat,
Their aprons loos'd, and coost their mutches;
But yet nae butter they could get,
They blessed the cow but curst the witches.
Had Sawney summoned all his wits
And sent awa for Huie Mertin,
He could have gall'd the witches' guts,
An' cur't the kye to Nannie Barton.[56]
But he may shew the farmer's wab,
An' lang wade through Carnmoney gutters;
Alas! it was a sore mis-jab
When he employ'd auld Mary Butters.
The sorcerest open'd the scene
With magic words of her invention,
To make the foolish people keen
Who did not know her base intention,
She drew a circle round the churn,
And washed the staff in south-run water,[57]
And swore the witches she would burn,
But she would have the tailor's butter.
When sable Night her curtain spread
Then she got on a flaming fire;
The tailor stood at the cow's head
With his turn'd waistcoat[58] in the byre.
The chimney covered with a scraw
An' every crevice where it smoak'd,
But long before the cock did craw
The people in the house were choak'd.
The muckle pot hung on all night,
As Mary Butters had been brewing
In hopes to fetch some witch or wight,
Whas entrails by her art were stewing.
In this her magic a' did fail;
Nae witch nor wizard was detected.
Now Mary Butters lies in jail
For the base part that she has acted.
The tailor lost his son and wife,
For Mary Butters did them smother;
But as he hates a single life
In four weeks' time he got another.
He is a crouse auld canty chiel,
An' cares nae what the witches mutter;
He'll never mair employ the Deil,
Nor his auld agent Mary Butters.
At day the tailor left his post
Though he had seen no apparition,
Nae wizard grim, nae witch, nor ghost,
Though still he had a stray suspicion
That some auld wizard wrinkled wife
Had cast her cantrips o'er poor brawney
Cause she and he did live in strife,
An' whar's the man can blame poor Sawney.
Wae sucks for our young lasses now,
For who can read their mystic matters,
Or tell if their sweethearts be true,
The folks a' run to Mary Butters.
To tell what thief a horse did steal,
In this she was a mere pretender,
An' has nae art to raise the Deil
Like that auld wife, the Witch of Endor.
If Mary Butters be a witch
Why but the people all should know it,
An' if she can the muses touch
I'm sure she'll soon descry the poet.
Her ain familiar aff she'll sen'
Or paughlet wi' a tu' commission
To pour her vengeance on the man
That tantalizes her condition."
There also exists a shorter version of the ballad, which seems to be a
rather clumsy adaptation of what we have given above; in it the witch is
incorrectly termed _Butlers_. That the heroine did not evolve the
procedure she had adopted out of her own fervent imagination, but that she
followed a method generally recognised and practised in the country-side
is shown by a case that occurred at Newtownards in January 1871.[59] A
farm-hand had brought an action against his employer for wages alleged to
be due to him. It transpired in the course of the evidence that on one
occasion he had been set to banish witches that were troubling the cows.
His method of working illustrates the Carnmoney case. All left the house
except the plaintiff, who locked himself in, closed the windows, stopped
all keyholes and apertures, and put sods on top of the chimneys. He then
placed a large pot of sweet milk on the fire, into which he threw three
rows of pins that had never been used, and three packages of needles; all
were allowed to boil together for half an hour, and, as there was no
outlet for the smoke, the plaintiff narrowly escaped being suffocated.
It is strange to find use made in Ireland of that potent magical
instrument, the Hand of Glory, and that too in the nineteenth century. On
the night of the 3rd of January 1831, some Irish thieves attempted to
commit a robbery on the estate of Mr. Naper, of Loughcrew, co. Meath. They
entered the house, armed with a dead man's hand with a lighted candle in
it, believing in the superstitious notion that if such a hand be procured,
and a candle placed within its grasp, the latter cannot be seen by anyone
except him by whom it is used; also that if the candle and hand be
introduced into a house it will prevent those who may be asleep from
awaking. The inhabitants, however, were alarmed, and the robbers fled,
leaving the hand behind them.[60] No doubt the absolute failure of this
gruesome dark lantern on this occasion was due to the fact that neither
candle nor candlestick had been properly prepared! The orthodox recipe for
its preparation and consequent effectual working may be found in full in
Mr. Baring Gould's essay on Schamir in his _Curious Myths of the Middle
Ages_.
The following tale comes from an article in the _Dublin University
Magazine_, vol. lxiv.; it has rather a Cross-Channel appearance, but may
have been picked up locally in Ireland. A man named Shamus Rua (Red James)
was awakened one night by a noise in the kitchen. He stole down, and found
his old housekeeper, Madge, with half a dozen of her kidney, sitting by
the fire drinking his whisky. When the bottle was finished one of them
cried, "It's time to be off," and at the same moment she put on a peculiar
red cap, and added:--
"By yarrow and rue,
And my red cap, too,
Hie over to England!"
And seizing a twig she soared up the chimney, whither she was followed by
all save Madge. As the latter was making her preparations Shamus rushed
into the kitchen, snatched the cap from her, and placing himself astride
of her twig uttered the magic formula. He speedily found himself high in
the air over the Irish Sea, and swooping through the empyrean at a rate
unequalled by the fastest aeroplane. They rapidly neared the Welsh coast,
and espied a castle afar off, towards the door of which they rushed with
frightful velocity; Shamus closed his eyes and awaited the shock, but
found to his delight that he had slipped through the keyhole without hurt.
The party made their way to the cellar, where they caroused heartily, but
the wine proved too heady, and somehow Shamus was captured and dragged
before the lord of the castle, who sentenced him to be hanged. On his way
to the gallows an old woman in the crowd called out in Irish "Ah, Shamus
_alanna_! Is it going to die you are in a strange place without your
little red cap?" He craved, and obtained, permission to put it on. On
reaching the place of execution he was allowed to address the spectators,
and did so in the usual ready-made speech, beginning,
"Good people all, a warning take by me."
But when he reached the last line,
"My parents reared me tenderly"
instead of stopping he unexpectedly added,
"By yarrow and rue," &c.,
with the result that he shot up through the air, to the great dismay of
all beholders. Our readers will at once recall Grandpapa's Tale of the
Witches' Frolic in the _Ingoldsby Legends_. Similar tales appear in
Scotland, for which see Sharpe, pp. 56, 207; the same writer (p. 212)
makes mention of a red cap being worn by a witch.
After the opening years of the eighteenth century, when once it had ceased
to attract the unwelcome attentions of judge, jury, and executioner,
witchcraft degenerated rapidly. It is said by some writers that a belief
in the old-fashioned witch of history may still be found in the remoter
parts of rural England; the same can hardly be said of Ireland, this
being due to the fact that witchcraft was never, at its best (or worst)
period, very prevalent in this country. But its place is taken by an
ineradicable belief in _pishogues_, or in the semi-magical powers of the
bone-setter, or the stopping of bleeding wounds by an incantation, or the
healing of diseases in human beings or animals by processes unknown to the
medical profession, or in many other quaint tenets which lie on the
borderland between folklore and witchcraft, and at best only represent the
complete degeneracy and decay of the latter. Yet these practices sometimes
come, for one reason or another, within the wide reach of the arm of the
law, though it is perhaps unnecessary to state that they are not treated
as infringements of the Elizabethan Statute. For example, some years ago a
case was tried at New Pallas in co. Limerick, where a woman believed that
another desired to steal her butter by _pishogues_, flew in a passion,
assaulted her and threw her down, breaking her arm in the fall.[61] That
appalling tragedy, the "witch-burning" case that occurred near Clonmel in
1895, is altogether misnamed. The woman was burnt, not because she was a
witch, but in the belief that the real wife had been taken away and a
fairy changeling substituted in her place; when the latter was subjected
to the fire it would disappear, and the wife would be restored. Thus the
underlying motive was kindness, but oh, how terribly mistaken! Lefanu in
his _Seventy Years of Irish Life_ relates a similar incident, but one
which fortunately ended humorously rather than tragically: while Crofton
Croker mentions instances of wives being taken by the fairies, and
restored to their husbands after the lapse of years.
Even as late as the summer of 1911 the word "witch" was heard in an Irish
law-court, when an unhappy poor woman was tried for killing another, an
old-age pensioner, in a fit of insanity.[62] One of the witnesses deposed
that he met the accused on the road on the morning of the murder. She had
a statue in her hand, and repeated three times: "I have the old witch
killed: I got power from the Blessed Virgin to kill her. She came to me
at 3 o'clock yesterday, and told me to kill her, or I would be plagued
with rats and mice." She made much the same statement to another witness,
and added: "We will be all happy now. I have the devils hunted away. They
went across the hill at 3 o'clock yesterday." The evidence having
concluded, the accused made a statement which was reduced to writing: "On
the day of the thunder and lightning and big rain there did a rat come
into my house, and since then I was annoyed and upset in my mind.... A
lady came to me when I was lying in bed at night, she was dressed in
white, with a wreath on her head, and said that I was in danger. I thought
that she was referring to the rat coming into the house.... The lady who
appeared to me said, If you receive this old woman's pension-book without
taking off her clothes and cleaning them, and putting out her bed and
cleaning up the house, you will receive dirt for ever, and rats and mice."
Imagine the above occurring in 1611 instead of 1911! The ravings of the
poor demented creature would be accepted as gospel-truth; the rat would
be the familiar sent by the witch to torment her, the witnesses would have
many more facts to add to their evidence, the credulous people would
rejoice that the country-side had been freed from such a malignant witch
(though they might regret that she had been given her _congé_ so easily),
while the annals of Irish witchcraft would be the richer by nearly as
extraordinary a case as that of Florence Newton, and one which would have
lost nothing in the telling or the printing. Shorn of their pomp and
circumstance, no doubt many witch-stories would be found to be very
similar in origin to the above.
As is only to be expected in a country where the majority of the
inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits, most of the tales of
strange doings are in connection with cattle. At Dungannon Quarter
Sessions in June 1890, before Sir Francis Brady, one farmer sued another
for breach of warranty in a cow.[63] It was suggested that the animal was
"blinked," or in other words was under the influence of the "evil eye," or
had a _pishogue_ put upon it. The defendant had agreed to send for the
curative charm to a wise woman in the mountains. The _modus operandi_ was
then proceeded with. Three locks of hair were pulled from the cow's
forehead, three from her back, three from her tail, and one from under her
nostrils. The directions continued as follows: The operators were to write
the names of eight persons in the neighbourhood whom they might suspect of
having done the harm (each name three times), and the one of these eight
who was considered to be the most likely to have "blinked" the cow was to
be pointed out. When this had been done there was to be a bundle of thatch
pulled from the roof of the suspected person. The owner of the cow was
then to cut a sod, and take a coal out of the fire on a shovel on which to
burn the hair, the thatch, and the paper on which the names had been
written. The sod was then to be put to the cow's mouth, and if she licked
it she would live.
His Honour to defendant: "And did she lick it?"
Defendant: "Aye, lick it; she would have ate it." (Roars of laughter.) It
then transpired that the burning of the thatch had been omitted, and this
necessitated another journey to the wise woman.
We may also expect to find traces of strange doings with respect to the
produce of cows, viz. milk and butter. Various tales are related to the
following effect. A herdsman having wounded a hare, which he has
discovered sucking one of the cows under his charge, tracks it to a
solitary cabin, where he finds an old woman, smeared with blood and
gasping for breath, extended almost lifeless on the floor. Similar stories
are to be found in England, and helped to make up the witch-element there,
though it may be noted that as early as the twelfth century we are
informed by Giraldus Cambrensis that certain old hags in Ireland had the
power of turning themselves into hares and in that shape sucking cows. The
preservation of hares for coursing, which is being taken up in parts of
this country, will probably deal the death-blow to this particular
superstition. With regard to the stealing of butter many tales are told,
of which the following may be taken as an illustration. A priest was
walking in his field early one summer's morning when he came upon an old
woman gathering the dew from the long grass, and saying, "Come all to me!"
The priest absent-mindedly muttered, "And half to me!" Next morning he
discovered in his dairy three times as much butter as he ought to have,
while his neighbours complained that they had none at all. On searching
the old beldame's house three large tubs of freshly-churned butter were
discovered, which, as her entire flocks and herds consisted of a solitary
he-goat, left little doubt of her evil-doing![64]
The witch of history is now a thing of the past. No longer does she career
on a broomstick to the nocturnal Sabbath, no longer does she sell her soul
to the Devil and receive from him in return many signal tokens of his
favour, amongst which was generally the gift of a familiar spirit to do
her behests. No longer does the judge sentence, no longer does the savage
rabble howl execrations at the old witch come to her doom. The witch of
history is gone, and can never be rehabilitated--would that superstition
had died with her. For in Ireland, as probably in every part of the
civilised world, many things are believed in and practised which seem
repugnant to religion and common-sense. Scattered throughout the length
and breadth of the land there are to be found persons whom the
country-folk credit with the power of performing various extraordinary
actions. _From what source_ they derive this power is not at all
clear--probably neither they themselves nor their devotees have ever set
themselves the task of unravelling that psychological problem. Such
persons would be extremely insulted if they were termed wizards or
witches, and indeed they only represent white witchcraft in a degenerate
and colourless stage. Their entire time is not occupied with such work,
nor, in the majority of cases, do they take payment for their services;
they are ready to practise their art when occasion arises, but apart from
such moments they pursue the ordinary avocations of rural life. The gift
has come to them either as an accident of birth, or else the especial
recipe or charm has descended from father to son, or has been bequeathed
to them by the former owner; as a rule such is used for the benefit of
their friends.
An acquaintance told the writer some marvellous tales of a man who had the
power of stopping bleeding, though the ailing person might be many miles
off at the time; he promised to leave the full _modus operandi_ to the
writer's informant, but the latter was unable to go and see him during his
last moments, and so lost the charm, and as well deprived the writer of
the pleasure of satisfying himself as to the efficacy of its working--for
in the interests of Science he was fully prepared to cut his finger
(slightly) and let the blood flow!
The same informant told the writer of a most respectable woman who had the
power of healing sores. Her method is as follows. She thrusts two
sally-twigs in the fire until they become red-hot. She then takes one, and
makes circles round the sore (without touching the flesh), all the while
repeating a charm, of which the informant, who underwent the process,
could not catch the words. When the twig becomes cool, she thrusts it back
into the fire, takes out the other, and does as above. The whole process
is repeated about ten or twelve times, but not more than two twigs are
made use of. She also puts her patients on a certain diet, and this,
together with the general air of mystery, no doubt helps to produce the
desired results.
Instances also occur in Ireland of persons employing unhallowed means for
the purpose of bringing sickness and even death on some one who has fallen
foul of them, or else they act on behalf of those whose willingness is
circumscribed by their powerlessness. From the Aran Islands a story comes
of the power of an old woman to transfer disease from the afflicted
individual to another, with the result that the first recovered, while the
newly-stricken person died; the passage reads more like the doings of
savages in Polynesia or Central Africa than of Christians in Ireland. In
1892 a man stated that a friend of his was sick of an incurable disease,
and having been given over by the doctor, sought, after a struggle with
his conscience, the services of a _cailleach_ who had the power to
transfer mortal sickness from the patient to some healthy object who would
sicken and die as an unconscious substitute. When fully empowered by her
patient, whose honest intention to profit by the unholy remedy was
indispensable to its successful working, the _cailleach_ would go out into
some field close by a public road, and setting herself on her knees she
would pluck an herb from the ground, looking out on the road as she did
so. The first passer-by her baleful glance lighted upon would take the
sick man's disease and die of it in twenty-four hours, the patient mending
as the victim sickened and died.[65]
A most extraordinary account of the Black Art, as instanced in the custom
known as "burying the sheaf" comes from co. Louth. The narrator states
that details are difficult to obtain, at which we are not surprised, but
from what he has published the custom appears to be not only exceedingly
malignant, but horribly blasphemous. The person working the charm first
goes to the chapel, and says certain words with his (or her) back to the
altar; then he takes a sheaf of wheat, which he fashions like the human
body, sticking pins in the joints of the stems, and (according to one
account) shaping a heart of plaited straw. This sheaf he buries, in the
name of the Devil, near the house of his enemy, who he believes will
gradually pine away as the sheaf decays, dying when it finally decomposes.
If the operator of the charm wishes his enemy to die quickly he buries the
sheaf in wet ground where it will soon decay; but if on the other hand he
desires his victim to linger in pain he chooses a dry spot where
decomposition will be slow. Our informant states that a case in which one
woman tried to kill another by this means was brought to light in the
police court at Ardee a couple of years before he wrote the above account
(_i.e._ before 1895).[66]
Though the Statutes against witchcraft in England and Scotland were
repealed (the latter very much against the will of the clergy), it is said
that that passed by the Irish Parliament was not similarly treated, and
consequently is, theoretically, still in force. Be that as it may, it will
probably be news to our readers to learn that witchcraft is still
officially recognised in Ireland as an offence against the law. In the
Commission of the Peace the newly-appointed magistrate is empowered to
take cognisance of, amongst other crimes, "Witchcraft, Inchantment,
Sorcery, Magic Arts," a curious relic of bygone times to find in the
twentieth century, though it is more than unlikely that any Bench in
Ireland will ever have to adjudicate in such a case.
In the foregoing pages we have endeavoured to trace the progress of
witchcraft in Ireland from its first appearance to the present day, and as
well have introduced some subjects which bear indirectly on the question.
From the all too few examples to be obtained we have noted its gradual
rise to the zenith (which is represented by the period 1661-1690), and
from thence its downward progress to the strange beliefs of the day,
which in some respects are the degenerate descendants of the
witchcraft-conception, in others represent ideas older than civilisation.
We may pay the tribute of a tearful smile to the ashes of witchcraft, and
express our opinion of the present-day beliefs of the simple country-folk
by a pitying smile, feeling all the time how much more enlightened we are
than those who believed, or still believe, in such absurdities! But the
mind of man is built in water-tight compartments. What better embodies the
spirit of the young twentieth century than a powerful motor car, fully
equipped with the most up-to-date appliances for increasing speed or
lessening vibration; in its tuneful hum as it travels at forty-five miles
an hour without an effort, we hear the triumph-song of mind over matter.
The owner certainly does not believe in witchcraft or _pishogues_ (or
perhaps in anything save himself!), yet he fastens on the radiator a
"Teddy Bear" or some such thing by way of a mascot. Ask him why he does
it--he cannot tell, except that others do the same, while all the time at
the back of his mind there exists almost unconsciously the belief that
such a thing will help to keep him from the troubles and annoyances that
beset the path of the motorist. The connection between cause and effect is
unknown to him; he cannot tell you why a Teddy Bear will keep the engine
from overheating or prevent punctures--and in this respect he is for the
moment on exactly the same intellectual level as, let us say, his
brother-man of New Zealand, who carries a baked yam with him at night to
scare away ghosts.
The truth of the matter is that we all have a vein of superstition in us,
which makes its appearance at some period in our lives under one form or
another. A. will laugh to scorn B.'s belief in witches or ghosts, while he
himself would not undertake a piece of business on a Friday for all the
wealth of Croesus; while C., who laughs at both, will offer his hand to
the palmist in full assurance of faith. Each of us dwells in his own
particular glass house, and so cannot afford to hurl missiles at his
neighbours; milk-magic or motor-mascots, pishogues or palmistry, the
method of manifestation is of little account in comparison with the
underlying superstition. The latter is an unfortunate trait that has been
handed down to us from the infancy of the race; we have managed to get rid
of such physical features as tails or third eyes, whose day of usefulness
has passed; we no longer masticate our meat raw, or chip the rugged flint
into the semblance of a knife, but we still acknowledge our descent by
giving expression to the strange beliefs that lie in some remote
lumber-room at the back of the brain.
But it may be objected that belief in witches, ghosts, fairies, charms,
evil-eye, &c. &c., need not be put down as unreasoning superstition, pure
and simple, that in fact the trend of modern thought is to show us that
there are more things in heaven and earth than were formerly dreamt of.
We grant that man is a very complex machine, a microcosm peopled with
possibilities of which we can understand but little. We know that mind
acts on mind to an extraordinary degree, and that the imagination can
affect the body to an extent not yet fully realised, and indeed has often
carried men far beyond the bounds of common-sense; and so we consider
that many of the elements of the above beliefs can in a general way
be explained along these lines. Nevertheless that does not do away
with the element of superstition and, we may add, oftentimes of
deliberately-planned evil that underlies. There is no need to resurrect
the old dilemma, whether God or the Devil was the principal agent
concerned; we have no desire to preach to our readers, but we feel that
every thinking man will be fully prepared to admit that such beliefs
and practices are inimical to the development of true spiritual life,
in that they tend to obscure the ever-present Deity and bring into
prominence primitive feelings and emotions which are better left to fall
into a state of atrophy. In addition they cripple the growth of national
life, as they make the individual the fearful slave of the unknown, and
consequently prevent the development of an independent spirit in him
without which a nation is only such in name. The dead past utters
warnings to the heirs of all the ages. It tells us already we have
partially entered into a glorious heritage, which may perhaps be as
nothing in respect of what will ultimately fall to the lot of the human
race, and it bids us give our upward-soaring spirits freedom, and not
fetter them with the gross beliefs of yore that should long ere this
have been relegated to limbo.
INDEX
Acts of Parliament, 57, 61, 66, 67
Antrim man bewitched in England, 101
Apparitions, at Castleconnell, 94;
at Loughill, 95;
at Portadown, 95;
in co. Tipperary, 150;
to insurgents, 101
Bed-clothes pulled off, 201, 205-6;
made up like a corpse, 205-6
Blackamoor executed, 60
Blair, Rev. Robert, 88 ff.
Burning alive, 39, 40, 48, 50
"Burying the sheaf," 246
Butter stolen, 236, 242
Butters, Mary, 224 ff.
Carnmoney, 156, 159, 160, 225, 227
Carrigfergus, 143, 174, 213, 224
Cattle bewitched, 68, 225, 240;
cured by charms, 227, 232, 240
Charmed lives, 97
Charms, ingredients used in making of, 28, 29, 37, 227, 232
Chest opens mysteriously, 104
Child bewitched in co. Antrim, 195;
in co. Cork, 171
Clergy incriminated, 35, 78
Colville, Rev. Alex., 82 ff.
De Ledrede, Bishop, 26 ff., 47, 48
Demons, sacrifice to, 27, 29, 48
Desmond, fourth Earl of, 53;
sixteenth Earl of, 69 ff., 95;
rides round Lough Gur, 72;
appears as a black horse, 75
Devil, the, method of raising, 81;
cheated in bargains, 84, 133;
incites to homicide, 90;
appears as a huntsman, 135;
as a raven, 173;
in various shapes, 156
Dunbar, Miss Mary, 207 ff.
Evil spirit appears as a boy, 202 ff.
Exorcism practised in Ulster, 93
Eye-biters, 68
Fairies, 3, 237;
annoy a butler, 163 ff;
king of, 86
Familiar spirit, a: Huthart, 55-6;
Robin, son of Art, 27, 29, 38, 40;
appears to a witch, 183;
appears as an old man, 108;
appears as a greyhound, 118, 120
Fits, people seized with strange, 161, 179, 187 ff., 195, 208, 209,
214 ff.
Greatrakes, Valentine, 118, 122, 127, 165, 167
Ghost, a, 136 ff., 144 ff., 164, 168;
hand of in a law-court, 143;
vanishes to sound of music, 141, 147;
brings medicine, 165;
appears as a goat, 198
Girdle, devil's, 39
Glover, Mrs., 179 ff.
Haltridge family, 201 ff.
Hand of Glory, 232
Haunted house in Dublin, 148
Healing powers, 244
Heresy, 47, 48, 50
Hutchinson, Francis, 11, 222
Images of rags, 182
Irish language spoken in Boston, 182, 186
Irish prophetess in Scotland, 54
Island Magee, 201 ff.
J.P.'s Commission, clause in, 248
Judges: Sir Wm. Aston, 112, 130;
Sir F. Brady, 239;
John Lindon, 170;
Jas. Macartney, 170, 213, 220;
Anthony Upton, 213, 220
Kiss, bewitched by a, 108, 111, 117, 123, 126
Knots mysteriously tied, 208, 215, 216
Kyteler, Dame Alice, 25 ff.;
her husbands, 26;
her confederates, 35
Literature, absence of, in Ireland, 10, 11
Longdon, Mary, 107 ff.
Lord's Prayer, used as a test, 115, 125, 184;
said by supposed witches, 220
Mather, Rev. Cotton, 178 ff.;
Rev. Increase, 129, 177
Midwife bewitches people, 160
Money turns to leaves, 75
Newton, Florence, 105 ff.
Nobleman accused of sorcery, 57
Orrery, Lord, 163
Over-looking, 117, 120
Petronilla of Meath, 18, 35, 38, 39
Pillory, the, 64, 221
Pins stuck in a girl's arm, 110;
in a straw body, 247
Pishogues, 236, 240
Pope John XXII, 44
Portents at Limerick, 100;
on entry of James II, 194
Presbyterian clergyman bewitched, 156
Prophecies of Mr. Peden, 174
Quakers, the, 155, 172
Red cap worn, 233
Red pigs, their sale forbidden, 67
Relic cures spells, 80
Riding on a staff, 39, 234
Scot, Michael, 52
Scotch girl delated, 199
Scotland, 19, 54, 81, 85, 90, 147
Sorcery and witchcraft, difference, 21
Sorrel-leaf causes witchcraft, 195
Stones thrown, 109, 157, 158, 201, 204
Storm attributed to witches, 99
Strange knowledge of deaf and dumb man, 87
Stroking of images, 182;
of a stone, 186
Swimming a witch suggested, 122;
the process, 107
Tate, Rev. Dr., 98
Taverner, Francis, 136 ff.
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 140, 144
Torture, not judicially used, 18;
rough-and-ready application of, 38;
employed on Continent, 20
Transference of disease, 245
Treasure-seeking at Cashel and Mellifont, 78;
made penal, 64
Ulster colonists, their influence, 14
Usher, Archbishop, 93, 102
Vomiting of strange substances, 80, 109, 113, 195, 218
Wafer with devil's name, 39
Williams, Rev. Daniel, 148
Witch examined, 59;
curious tests of guilt of, 118, 119, 121;
tries to disembowel a boy, 185;
rescued by the Devil, 148;
murdered by a mob, 198;
supposed, murdered by a lunatic, 237
Witch-burning (so called) near Clonmel, 237
Witchcraft still a legal offence, 248
Witches executed, 60, 68, 69, 148, 186, 196;
placed in pillory, 221;
appear as cats, 156;
suck cows under form of hares, 241
Youghal, suspected witches at, 117, 122
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
at Paul's Work, Edinburgh
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In his _History of Witchcraft in England_.
[2] Notestein, _op. cit._
[3] Français, _L'église et la Sorcellerie_.
[4] Français, _op. cit._
[5] Elsewhere given as Basilia.
[6] Magical girdles were used for various purposes. Bosc in his
_Glossaire_ will have them to be the origin of the magnetic belts, &c.
that are so freely advertised at the present day.
[7] Français, _op. cit._
[8] Carrigan, _History of the Diocese of Ossory_, i. p. 48.
[9] Stokes, _Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church_, p. 374.
[10] Theiner, _Vet. Mon._, p. 269.
[11] Westropp, _Wars of Turlough_ (Proc. R.I.A.), p. 161; Seymour,
_Pre-Ref. Archbishops of Cashel_, 47.
[12] _Dict. Nat. Biog._, Seymour, _op. cit._, p. 18.
[13] O'Daly, _History of the Geraldines_.
[14] Sharpe, _History of Witchcraft in Scotland_, p. 30.
[15] Ed. H. F. Berry, D.Litt.
[16] Carrigan, _op. cit._, iii. p. 18.
[17] Quoted in _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries_, 3rd series, vol.
i. Français mentions a Swiss sorcerer, somewhat of a wag, who used to play
the same trick on people.
[18] _Ulster Journal of Archæology_, vol. iv. (for 1858).
[19] _All the Year Round_ (for April 1870).
[20] Lenihan, _History of Limerick_, p. 147.
[21] Enrolment of Pleas, 6 James I, memb. 2 (Queen's Bench).
[22] Scott, _Demonology and Witchcraft_, Letter V.
[23] Ed. C. K. Sharpe (Edinburgh, 1818).
[24] Witherow, _Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland_.
[25] Quot. in Law's _Memorialls_.
[26] Witherow, _op. cit._, pp. 15-16.
[27] Lenihan, _History of Limerick_, p. 147.
[28] Hickson, _Ireland in the Seventeenth Century_, vol. i.; Fitzpatrick,
_Bloody Bridge_, p. 125; Temple's _History of the Rebellion_.
[29] Baxter, _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691); Clark, _A
Mirrour or Looking-Glass for Saints and Sinners_ (London, 1657-71).
[30] Fitzpatrick, _op. cit._, p. 127.
[31] Hist. MSS. Comm. Report 13 (Duke of Portland MSS.).
[32] No. 25 in _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1726).
[33] _Dict. Nat. Biog._
[34] _Cork Hist. and Arch. Journal_, vol. x. (2nd series).
[35] _Ibid._, vol. vii. (2nd series).
[36] Furnished to the writer by T. J. Westropp, Esq., M.A.
[37] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Rel. 26.
[38] _Ulster Journal of Archæology_, vol. iii. (for 1855).
[39] Glanvill, _op. cit._, Rel. 27.
[40] Law's _Memorialls_.
[41] Baxter, _Certainty of the World of Spirits_.
[42] William Turner, _Compleat History of Most Remarkable Providences_
(London, 1697).
[43] Seymour, _Succession of Clergy in Cashel and Emly_.
[44] O'Donoghue, _Brendaniana_, p. 301. See Joyce, _Wonders of Ireland_,
p. 30, for an apparition of a ship in the air in Celtic times. See also
Westropp, _Brasil_ (Proc. R.I.A.); that writer actually sketched an
illusionary island in 1872.
[45] _Memorialls._
[46] Glanvill, _op. cit._, Rel. 18; Baxter, _op. cit._
[47] _Op. cit._; W.P., _History of Witches and Wizards_ (London, 1700?).
[48] John Lindon (or Lyndon) became junior puisne Judge of the Chief Place
in 1682, was knighted in 1692, and died in 1697 (_Cork Hist. and Arch.
Journal_, vol. vii., 2nd series).
[49] Egmont MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), ii. 181.
[50] "An experiment was made, whether she could recite the Lord's Prayer:
and it was found that though clause after clause was most carefully
repeated unto her, yet when she said it after them that prompted her, she
could not possibly avoid making nonsense of it, with some ridiculous
depravations. This experiment I had the curiosity to see made upon two
more, and it had the same effect."
[51] _The Devil in Britain and America_, chap. xxiv.
[52] C. K. Sharpe, _op. cit._
[53] A man in the Orkneys was ruined by nine knots tied in a blue thread
(Dalyell's _Darker Superstitions of Scotland_).
[54] The Rev. Dr. Tisdall, who has given such a full account of the trial,
was Vicar of Belfast. For his attitude towards the Presbyterians, see
Witherow's _Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland_, pp. 118, 159. Yet
his narrative of the trial is not biassed, for all his statements can be
borne out by other evidence.
[55] James Macartney became second puisne Justice of the King's Bench in
1701, puisne Justice of Common Pleas (vice A. Upton) in 1714, and retired
in 1726. Anthony Upton became puisne Justice of Common Pleas, was
succeeded as above, and committed suicide in 1718. Both were natives of
co. Antrim.
[56] In the shorter version of the poem this line runs--
"He cured the kye for Nanny Barton,"
which makes better sense. Huie Mertin was evidently a rival of Mary
Butters.
[57] South-running water possessed great healing qualities. See Dalyell,
_Darker Superstitions of Scotland_, and C. K. Sharpe, _op. cit._, p. 94.
[58] When a child the writer often heard that if a man were led astray at
night by Jacky-the-Lantern (or John Barleycorn, or any other potent
sprite!), the best way to get home safely was to turn one's coat inside
out and wear it in that condition.
[59] _Notes and Queries_, 4th series, vol. vii.
[60] Henderson, _Folklore of Northern Counties of England_, (Folklore
Society).
[61] _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, xxii. (consec.
ser.), p. 291.
[62] _Irish Times_ for 14th June; _Independent_ for 1st July.
[63] _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, xxi. (consec.
ser.), pp. 406-7.
[64] _Folklore._
[65] _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, xxv. (consec.
ser.), p. 84.
[66] _Folklore_, vi. 302.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Footnote 40 appears on page 156 of the text, but there is no corresponding
marker on the page.