Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/274

266 once a quarter, in some markett towne in the Ridinge, upon some faire daie or market day, and after her release and year of good behaviour she to stand to such further order as the courte shall sett downe therein" (p. 181).

Witchcraft in Skye.—Last autumn I had the good fortune to employ as a guide at Sligachan, in Skye, a man who was a firm believer in witchcraft. He told me the following story. Whether he knew the man concerned or not, I am not sure, but my impression is that he did. As a young man was going home with his dog one night about two o'clock he saw a foal standing on a dyke. He thought nothing of it till the foal jumped on him and attacked him, knocking him down. He continued struggling with the animal for a long time till his dog bit the foal. Then the foal spoke to him in a human voice. It was a girl whom he had been courting, but had afterwards neglected, so she being a witch took this mode of revenging herself. It was the dog's bite that compelled the witch to reveal herself. For if you can scratch a witch on the forehead so as to draw her blood, you oblige her to speak to you.

About the same time last autumn the belief in witchcraft cropped up at a farm-house within a short distance of my own home at Garelochhead (Dumbartonshire). A woman-servant was found marching round the farm, and beating a kettle with a loud noise. Being asked what she was doing, she said—"Oh, the men are all away at the glen, and I'm just keeping off the witches."

Ghostly Hounds at Horton.—The following paragraph from Mr. Wm. Cudwirth's Rambles Round Horton is worth reproduction in the Folk-Lore Journal. It contains nothing that is new to the student, or indeed to any one who is familiar with village life, except the name of the ghostly hound. "Guytrash" is an unknown word to me, and as guessing at derivations is one of the most useless of human occupations I shall not indulge in mere speculation. I may remark, however, that, as far as I know, Guytrash is not a name that has been given to dogs in Yorkshire or elsewhere:—