XXXV.—Anent some Prayers, Charms, and Aves, used in the Highlands.
In the time of ignorance and superstition, when the darkness of Paganism was not dispelled by the gospel-light, spirits kept a more familiar converse with families; and even in the time of Popery, what was more frequent in houses than brownies, whom they employed in many services. It were unreasonable and ridiculous to rehearse all the stories which have been told of Brownies and Fairies, commonly called our good neighbours: how there was a king and queen of fairies, of such a court and train as they had; and how they had the tein and duty, as it were, of all corns, flesh and meal; how they rode, and went along the sides of hills, all in green apparel. I verily believe many have seen such spectres. But what were they? nothing but the delusion of the senses of sundry people, whom the devil made believe they did see and hear such things. Brownie was a spirit that haunted divers houses familiarly, without doing any evil, but doing necessary turns up and down the house, and frequently was found working in the barn, threshing the corn in the night-time, who appeared like a rough hairy man. Such then, was the ignorance of many, that they believed their house was all the sonsier that Brownie was about it, as King James says in his Demonology.—I will not speak of ridiculous friets, such as our meeting with a lucky or unlucky foot, when we are going about important business; these unquestionably are the devil’s lessons for the most part, and denying of God’s providence. The practice of the Heathen was to attribute good or evil luck to the slaying of birds, as Virgil says, “Sæpe sinister cava prædixit ab illice cornix.”—Whether there be any magic in the practice of some young women too curious, who, upon Hallowe’n, go to bed without speaking to any, having first eaten a cake made of soot, and dreaming they see in their sleep the man that shall be their husband, I shall not determine; but it looks like a very bad practice. I heard of a woman who dipped her smock in south-running water, on that night, and hanged it up before the fire to dry. One comes in the likeness of the man who was to be her husband, and turns it, and went immediately to the bed, where she was attending the event, and kissed her. It seems she did not believe it was the devil. To speak of the second sight I cannot, till fuller information be given. I am undoubtedly informed, that men and women in the Highlands can discern fatality approaching others, by seeing them in waters, or with winding sheets about them; and that others can lecture in a sheep’s shoulder-bone a death within the parish seven or eight days before it come. It is not improbable, but that such preternatural knowledge comes first by a compact with the devil, and is derived downward by succession to their posterity; many of which I suppose are innocent, and have this sight against their will and inclination.
Charms and spells have been first taught to men and women in confederacy with the devil, many of which are received by tradition, and used by witches, and ignorant persons too. The virtue of curing must be from the devil’s active invisible application of them to such or such a disease, as the curing of an universal gout by this unintelligible charm.
“Etter sheen etter sack, et ta leur etta pachk, wiper sicaan casemitter in shi, so leish en shi corne, orn heip twa till one eurcht mach a mainshore.”
There is in some part of Galloway a charm for curing a disease called the Ling, in these words, “Catheri, Dumi, Chini, Brini.” Another there is which some use for effectuating that which others do by casting three knots, “far si far, fa sar fay u, far four na forty kay u, mack straik it a pain four hung creig weil mack smeoran bun bagie.” This language cannot be interpreted.—Besides this, there are prayers and aves among the Highlanders, wherein they think there lies great virtue, as in repeating the Lord’s prayer in Latin thus:
“Paidder nuhter kish in sheali sanctishetter noman du, ta renada, ta langa tu, quidi bonum aicht in dearrich, an dingers, an dangis, a nipis a nopis, induraramis indaramis, indittimis indatamis, shechli sheclorum. Amen.”
Their AVE MARY runs thus:
“Ave Mari crashi plena du na takamis pendicata tus onte willie yeramis, penedicata rucara shendri Esum Christum. Amen.”
At night, in the time of Popery, when folks went to bed, they believed the repetition of the following prayer was effectual to preserve them from danger, and the house too.
Another prayer, used by the thieves and robbers on the Borders after meat, in order to stealing from their neighbours.
A country-man in East Lothian used this grace always before and after meat.
As the devil is originally the author of charms and spells, so is he the author of several bawdy songs which are sung. A reverend minister told me, that one who was the devil’s piper, a wizzard, confessed to him, that at a ball of dancing, the foul spirit taught him a bawdy song, to sing and play, as it were this night, and ere two days passed, all the lads and lasses of the town were lilting it through the street. It were an abomination to rehearse it.