Page:Ancient and modern history of Buck-haven in Fife-shire (2).pdf/8

8 catuh’d in a net a‘your pith will neather hang nor drown him, and the country he comes free is a bet coals he'll never burp, we‘ll go to him in a civil manner and fee what he wants; Get out Eppie the ale wife, and lingle tail’d Nancy, wi the Bible and the Saum book, so ass they came in a crowd, either to kill the devil or catch him alive, and as they came near the place the ass fell a crying, which caused many of them to faint and run back: Na, na, co Willy that's no the devils words ava, it's my Lord's trumpeter, touting on his brass whistle, will ventured till he saw the ass‘s twa lugs, now, cried Will back to the rest. Come foreword and had him fall, I see his twa horns a bech firs, he has a bite beard like an auld beggar man, so they inclosed the poor ass on all hides, thinking it was the de'd, but a hen Wife Willy saw he had nae cloven feet, he cried out, fear na haes, this is no the de'il, it’s feme living bead, ‘tis neither a cow nor a horse, and what is it then Willy? indeed co‘ silly ‘tis the father o‘ a‘ the maukens I ken by it‘s lugs.

Now some says, this is two satrical a history, lat it's according to the knowledge of those times, not to say in any place by another, old wives wid yet tell us of many such stories as the devil appearing to their grandfathers and grand mothers, and dead wives coming again to visit their families long after their being buried: but this Buckhaven which was once noted for droll exploits is now become more knowing, and as a place said to produce the best and hardiest watermen of sailors of any town on the Scots coast; many of the old people in it still retain the old tincture of their o’d and uncultivated speech, ae be go laddie, also of a feiry nature if you ask any of the wives where their college stands, they'll tell you if your nose were in their arse, your mouth world be at the door of it.

Now it happened, when Wife Willy turned old,