Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/284

 262 hills, and all the flax grown on his land was sent to old Habetrot to be converted into yarn. Such are the tales of Border sprites which Mr. Wilkie has collected. He adds that the villages of Bowden and Gateside had a strange belief that on a certain night in the year (thence called “Cowlug e’en”) a number of sprites were abroad with ears resembling those of cows; but he could not discover the origin of the belief, nor which night was thus distinguished.

He mentions also that in the South of Scotland every person was supposed to be attended by a sprite, who had the power of taking away his life a strange perversion of the doctrine of Guardian Angels. This is called by the old name of “Thrumpin,” and is mentioned in these obscure verses:—