Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/377

 Co/lectanea. 345

had been at a meat market, and had returned home with a lusty porker of some six weeks" old in a poke (bag) slung over his shoulder. On entering his house he flung down the poke in a half-hearted way and said, "There'll be little thrift wi' that beast ! " "Oh, fat wye that?" asked his wife. " Weel, I met Mary D. on the road." Some six months after tliis, on returning from his day's darg, he was made acquainted with the painful fact that his pig had choked. " I tellt ye Mary wad dee't " (do it) was his comment.

Following close on this catastrophe a crofter from the " back end "" of the glen was one night wending his way home, "well primed,"' the priming, no doubt, being largely the illicit product of the glen. The night was dark and wild, and as the said Mary's Sheilin' was not far off the crofter's route, he thought it a suitable occasion for giving Mary "a line of his min"" regarding her can- trips and general behaviour. In due time he reached Mary's abode, and as no light was visible he had a difficulty in finding the door. He knocked without reply and knocked again. Then, finding the door "off the latch," he walked warily in. In the dim light of a dying peat fire he spied a female figure smoking a pipe by the fireside. Without turning her head to see who her visitor was she addressed him in the following words, " In the name o' God, fat brings ye here in sic a nicht, Jeems ? " Jeems explained in strong and uncomplimentary language the reason of his visit, and having exhausted his store of expletives he drew himself up to his full height, and as a parting shot declared, "Ye chokit Willie Tamson's pig last week; but jist try yersel wi' me, ye bitch ! " It is recorded that from this date, having cowed the witch, Jeems prospered in all his worldly affairs, while Mary held him in great respect to the end of her days. (From notes given me by Mr. J. R., Peterculter.)

The afore-mentioned Mary D. was looked on as a witch, and the usual tale of her turning herself at will into a hare was prevalent in the district.

In the parish of Strachan, Kincardineshire, within the last twenty years, a young servant girl declined to skin a hare which her mis- tress handed over to her. The girl's refusal was voiced thus : " Na, na, it micht be somebody's granny ! "