Bessie Roy, nurse in the family of Lesly of Balquhain, was tried for
sundry points of witchcraft, leading to the death of several persons.
One minor offence, particularly insisted on in this woman’s case,
was her being ‘a common away-taker of women’s milk.’ It was alleged
that, while living in the family of William King at Barra, she had
bewitched away the milk of a poor woman named Bessie Steel, who came
seeking alms. ‘Sitting down by the fire,’ says the dittay, ‘to give her
bairn souk [suck], thou being ane nourice thyself, and perceiving the
poor woman to have mair abundance of milk than thou had; and seeing
that the goodwife, thy hussie [housewife], should have deteinit the
poor woman and given her the bairn to foster; thou, by thy devilish
incantations and witchcraft, abstracted and took away her milk. And
immediately after the poor woman was past out of the house, she
perceived her milk to be taken away, came again to the said house, and
compleinit to the goodwife, that the nurse had taken away her milk,
and said: “Gif she were not restorit to her milk, she should divulgate
the same through the country, and shaw how ye had used her.” And thou,
fearing thy devilish craft to be revealed, said to the poor woman:
“Gif I have thy milk, come sic a night to me to this house, and ask it
for God’s sake, and thou sall have it.” Likeas the poor woman, being
glad to receive her milk again, came that same night as thou appointed
her, and lay in the house beside ye all night; and about the mids of
the night, thou cried upon her and wakened her, and bade her receive
her milk; and incontinent she wakened, and her paps sprang out full of
milk, and remained with her thereafter.’