women, daughters to Lady Edmonstone, were at present. She answered that she expected soon to see them in the garden. Ane of them," said he, "will be in peril: I wish to have her." On her answering that it should not be so with her consent, he "departed frae her," says the indictment, "yowling ;" and from that time till after supper he remained in the draw-well. After supper, the young ladies walked out into the garden to learn the result of Mrs Simpson's inquiries, on which the devil came out of the well, and seizing the skirts of one of them (probably a married one, as she is called Lady Torsonce), drew her violently towards the pit from which he had emerged; and, it is added, that if Simpson and the other ladies had not exerted themselves to hold her back, he would have succeeded in his wishes. Finding himself disappointed of his prey, he "passit away thairefter with ane yowle." The object of his ravenous passions fainted, and was carried home: she lay in a frenzy for three or four days, and continued sick and cripple for as many months. And it was remarked that, whenever the wise wife of Keith was with her, she was well; but on her going away, all the dangerous symptoms returned. In the meantime, it is to be supposed, the old lady died.'-Life of James VI. 2 vols. 1830.

Mrs Simpson's prayer, while immediately engaged in healing the sick, was as follows:

'All kynds of ill that ever may be,
In Christ's name I conjure ye.
I conjure ye, baith mair and less,
By all the vertues of the messe,
And rycht sa with the naillis sa,
That nailed Jesus and not ma,
And rycht sa by the samen bluid,
That reekit owre the ruthful rude,
Furth of the flesh and of the bane,
And in the eard and in the stane,
I conjure ye in God's name.'

In the trial of Bartie Paterson in 1607, we have the following charm for the cure of cattle :

I charge thee for arrowshot,
For doorshot, for wombshot,
For eyeshot, for tongueshot,
For livershot, for lungshot,

For heartshot, all the maist,

In the name of the Father, Son, and Haly Ghaist,
To wend out of flesh and bane

Into sack and stane;

In the name of the Father, Son, and Haly Ghaist. Amen.

In the Perth kirk-session register, under 1632, a husband and wife confess to occasionally using the following 'holy words' for healing:

Thir sairs are risen through God's wark,
And must be laid through God's help ;
The mother Mary and her dear Son,
Lay thir sairs that are begun.

'The herb vervain, revered by the Druids, was reckoned a powerful charm by the common people; and the author recollects a popular rhyme, supposed to be addressed to a young woman by the devil, who attempted to seduce her in the shape of a handsome young man—

Gin you wish to be leman mine,

Leave off the St John's wort and the vervine.

By his repugnance to these sacred plants, his mistress discovered the cloven foot.' *—Minst. Scot. Border.

Superstitious observances still flourish unaffected in Shetland. To quote from the minister of the parish of Sandsting and Aithsting, in the New Statistical Account of Scotland: — These are practised chiefly in attempting to cure diseases in man and beast, or in taking away the "profits" of their neighbours' cows; that is, in appropriating, by certain charms, to their own dairy, the milk and butter which should have replenished that of their neighbour. I shall subjoin a few specimens.

* The power of this herb is acknowledged in Sweden, where it is called Fuga Demonum. In Ireland, country doctors and old women pulled it for medicinal purposes, with an invocation in the name of the three persons of the Trinity. In England, the following rhyme was used on the same occa sion:

Hail be thou, holy herb,
Growing on the ground,
All in Mount Calvary
First wert thou found.

Thou art good for many a sore,
And healest many a wound;
In the name of sweet Jesus

I take thee from the ground.

'Wresting Thread.-When a person has received a sprain, it is customary to apply to an individual practised in casting the "wresting thread." This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine knots, and tied round a sprained leg or arm. During the time the operator is putting the thread round the affected limb, he says, but in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by the bystanders, nor even by person operated upon―

the

The Lord rade,

And the foal slade;

He lighted,

And he righted.

Set joint to joint,

Bone to bone,

And sinew to sinew.

Heal in the Holy Ghost's name!*

'Ringworm.—The person afflicted with ringworm takes a little ashes between the forefinger and thumb, three successive mornings, and before having taken any food, and holding the ashes to the part affected, says—

Ringworm ringworm red!

Never mayest thou either spread or speed;

But aye grow less and less,

And die away among the ase [ashes].

At the same time throwing the little ashes held between the forefinger and thumb into the fire.

'Burn.—To cure a burn, the following words are used :— Here come I to cure a burnt sore;

If the dead knew what the living endure,
The burnt sore would burn no more.

[*This incantation seems founded on some legend of Christ's life; it occurs in witch trials of the early part of the seventeenth century, and the following is perhaps a comparatively correct version of it :

Our Lord rade,

His foal's foot slade;
Down he lighted,

His foal's foot righted.

Bone to bone,

Sinew to sinew,

Blood to blood,

Flesh to flesh.

Heal in name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

It is worthy of remark, that by means of the former version of the rhyme, as presented in a former edition of this work, Jacob Grimm has been enabled to explain a German charm of the tenth century.]

The operator, after having repeated the above, blows his breath three times upon the burnt place. The above is recorded to have been communicated to a daughter who had been burned by the spirit of her deceased mother.'

In Galloway, the district of Scotland most remote from Shetland, and mainly occupied by people of different origin, the rhyme for the ringworm is nearly the same as the

above:

Ringwood, ringwood roun',

I wish ye may neither spread nor spring,
But aye grow less and less,
Till ye fa' i' 'e ase and burn.

SLOGAN S.

SLOGAN was the name given in Scotland to the warcry common throughout Europe in the middle ages. The French called it cri de guerre; and an old Italian writer, Sylvester Petra Sancta, quaintly terms it clamor militaris. The object was to animate the troops by some common and endeared subject of reference at the moment of attack. Hence war-cries were generally one of three things-the name of the leader, the place of the rendezvous, or the figure on the standard. For an example of the first class, the cry of the family of Bourbon was simply the name Bourbon. Sometimes an encomium was added, as in the case of the cry of the Counts of Hainault--Hainault the Noble; or that of the Duke of Milan-Milan the Valiant. In 1335, the English, led by Thomas of Rosslyne and William Moubray, assaulted Aberdeen. The former was mortally wounded in the onset; and as his followers were pressing forward, shouting Rosslyne! Rosslyne! Cry Moubray,' said the expiring chieftain; 'Rosslyne is gone!' -Border Minstrelsy, 174. Examples of the kind which consisted in a reference to the place of rendezvous were abundant in Scotland, in consequence of the localisation of clans in particular districts, and the practice which prevailed, of collecting them at a particular place in times of danger by means of a messenger or the fiery cross.

War-cries were also taken from the names of patron saints. That of the king of England was St George.

'Advance our standards, set upon our foes;
Our ancient word of courage, fair St George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them!'

Richard III.*

The king of France cried Montjoye St Denis, the former word being in allusion, it is supposed, to certain little mounts on which crosses were erected on the way from Paris to St Denis, for the direction of travellers. Edward III. of England, at a skirmish near Paris in 1349, cried, 'Ha, St Edward! (meaning the Confessor); ha, St George!' There were a few war-cries of kinds different from the above. An old French herald speaks of cries of resolution, of which that of the Crusaders, Dieu le veut (God wills it), was a notable example; cries of invocation, an instance of which he cites in the Lords of Montmorency, Dieu aide au premier Chrétien (God assist the first Christian), this being said to have been the first family converted to Christianity in France; and cries of exhortation, as that of the emperor, A dextre et a sinistre (To the right and left), a sufficiently emphatic direction to the soldiers of the chivalrous times.† When modes of fighting changed, war-cries were laid

* In an old art of war quoted in Nares's Glossary, there occurs this injunction to the English: 'Item, That all soldiers entering into battail, assault, skirmish, or other faction of armes, shall have for their common cry and word, St George forward, or Upon them St George, whereby the soldier is much comforted.' The favourite battle-cry of the Irish was Aboo! Henry VIL passed an act prohibiting its use, and enjoining St George instead, or else the name of the king for the time being.

The following are French slogans of the middle ages, communicated by a correspondent: