by Jury--Court of King's Bench deciding the Legality of
Trial by Battle--Sir Walter Scott's Illustrations of Superstition and Trial
by Battle in Olden Times 445
* * * * *
CURSES AND EVIL WISHES.
CHAPTER LII.
Curses, Excommunication, and Anathemas--Diræ, the Executioners of
Vengeance--Interment of Excommunicated Persons--Excommunication
among the Hebrews--Last Degree of Excommunication sometimes
followed by Banishment or Death--Form of Excommunication used by
Ezra and Nehemiah--The Greek Church annually excommunicates
Roman Catholics--The Druids resorted to Excommunication--Bishops
excommunicating Rats, Mice, Caterpillars, and other Insects and
Vermin--The Pope's Claim--Napoleon I. excommunicated--Victor
Emmanuel excommunicated--The Inquisition and its terrible
Doings--The Pope's Fearful Curse--Mr. Donald Cargill
excommunicating the King and Nobles--Indulgences, Pardons, and
Penance 453
CHAPTER LIII.
St. Adelbert's Curse--Complexion of Blackamoors attributed to a Curse
of Noah--False Accusation, and its Results--Ancestors of the Whelphs
and Guelphs of Germany--An Interesting Legend--A Gipsy's Curse--A
Cruel Father and Husband--Morrar-na-Shean--Restoration of Three
Daughters--A Grateful Father--Ancestors of the Sinclairs of Caithness,
and of the noble family of Keith--The Curse of Moy--A Cruel Chieftain
of Clan Chattan--Swearing by the Hand of a Bride--Grant of
Glenmorriston waiting his Doom--Death of a Father and
Lover--Maledictions and Prediction--Lady leaping from a Lofty
Tower--The Monroes of Foulis--End of a Relentless Tyrant 462
* * * * *
DREAMS AND VISIONS OF THE NIGHT.
CHAPTER LIV.
The Gift or Art of interpreting Dreams--Official Interpreters of
Dreams--Sleep, how portrayed--Goddess of Dreams--Greeks soliciting
the Inspiration of Dreams--Xenophon on Sleep--Prophetic Power of the
Dying--Æsculapius's Discoveries in Dreams--Code of Menu--The
Soma-drink--Josephus as a Seer--Dreadful Proposal by Josephus--His
Fortunate Escape--An Eastern Conjuror--Reading a Sealed Letter--A
Sultan warned of his Death in a Dream--Alexander's Death foretold in a
Dream--Records of Dreams in Westminster Abbey--Lord Falkland's
Dream--Rev. John Brown's Opinions--Early Christian Faith in Visions
and Dreams--Death of a Friend foretold--The Devil's Sonata--Marriage
of Queen Mary--Fatality of the Stuart Family--Death of Henry IV. of
France 469
CHAPTER LV.
Dreaming Dictionaries--Dreaming of an Anchor--Sick
Persons--Raiment--Fruit--Funerals--Dreams sometimes to be read
contrariwise--Dreaming of Darkness--Jewellery--Losing and finding
Property--Fowls and Eggs--Flying--Bagpipes, Dancing, and
Banquets--Dreaming of Animals, Cakes, Corn, and Milk--Dreaming of
Carrying and of being Carried--Angels, Spirits, and
Children--Clergymen and Churches--A Broken Watch or
Clock--Clouds--Falling--Flowers and Fruit--Sailors' Dreams--Running
Streams and Still Water--Ploughed Ground and Green
Fields--Presents--Glass, Hair, Fire, Cold, Tooth, Kisses, and
Knives--Leaping, Climbing, and Writing--Linen--The Sun, Moon, and
Stars, Rainbow, Snow, Thunder, and Lightning 475
* * * * *
LAWS AGAINST AND TRIALS OF WITCHES.
CHAPTER LVI.
Witchcraft treated with Severity--Cutting out the Tongue--Laws of
Æthelstane--Witchcraft in England--Royal Writers--Sir Edward Cole's
Opinion--Statute of Elizabeth against Sorcerers--Law of Mary Queen
of Scotland against Witches--Law against Witches abolished--Sir
George Mackenzie on Witchcraft--Extracts from Forbes's Institute of
the Law of Scotland--Sir Matthew Hale a Believer in Witchcraft--Trial
of Rose Cullender and Ann Duny--Punishment of Witches, by whom
first countenanced--Pope John's Bull--Bishop Jewell--Lord Bacon and
the Law against Witches--Fearful Slaughter of supposed
Witches--Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer for Witches--The last
Persons executed in Scotland and England for Witchcraft--First
German Printers condemned to be burned as Sorcerers--Reginald Scot
on the Fables of Witchcraft--Mr. E. Chambers's Views of Witchcraft
482
CHAPTER LVII.
Witch-finders--Disasters ascribed to Witches--Witches' Familiars--John
Kinnaird--Patrick Watson and his Wife pricked--The Devil's
Sabbaths--Grandeur at Satan's Feasts--When Feasts
ended--Transformation--A Witch-finder sent from Scotland to
Newcastle--Complaints against Witches--Deception discovered--Trying
Witches in Northumberland--Escape of a Witch-finder from
Justice--Zeal of the Clergy in Scotland in condemning Witches--Witch
burned within the Sea-mark--Extracts from Kirk-session Records of
Perth relative to Witchcraft--Witches at Kirkcaldy--A Clerical
Witch-finder 493
CHAPTER LVIII.
Hiring a Witch to detect a Witch--Clerical Witch-finders--Agnew, the
Sturdy Beggar--A Distressed Family--Minister's Remonstrance and
Advice--Fresh Afflictions--Prayer and Fasting--Spirits
Speaking--Minister's Reply--Application to the Synod for
Advice--Solemn Humiliation ordained by the Synod--Beggar suspected
and hanged for Blasphemy--Bargarran Witches--An Esquire's Daughter
bewitched--Physicians puzzled--Ministers' Visits to
Bargarran--Presbytery ordering Days of Humiliation--Recourse to the
Law--Catherine Campbell imprisoned--Girl's continued
Affliction--Representation to His Majesty's Privy
Council--Commission appointed to inquire into the case--Trial of
Witches--Condemnation and Execution 500
CHAPTER LIX.
Victims of Superstition--Lady Glammis--Her Trial for causing the
Death of her Husband and attempting to poison the King--Found Guilty,
and Burned--Lady Fowlis an intended Victim--Image of the young
Lady of Balnagowan--Elf Arrows--Consulting Egyptians--Hector
Munro's connection with Witches--Charge against Sir John Colquhoun
and Thomas Carlips for consulting Necromancers--Love Philters and
Enchanted Tokens--Bewitching Sir George Maxwell--Witch-marks
discovered before the Sheriff of Renfrewshire--Commission appointed
by the Privy Council to try Witches--Witches Burned--Intercourse with
Fairies--Another Witch Story 511
CHAPTER LX.
Edinburgh and Leith Witches--Black Catalogue--James VI. and the
Witches--Complaint to the Scottish Privy Council of Barbarous
Conduct--Relics of Superstition--Witch-finders in Edinburgh and
Leith--Royal Commission to Magistrates and Ministers to search for
and put Witches to Death--Wife of a Judge in Edinburgh meeting a
Witch's Fate--Repeal of the Laws against Witchcraft--Opposition to
Acts being Repealed--Judge of the Supreme Courts against a Change of
the Law--James Reid--Potter-row Witch--Alexander Hamilton, the
Warlock--The Devil and Hamilton burning a Provost's Mill--Bewitched
Man--A habit-and-repute Witch--Young Laird of Duddingston--Major
Weir and his Magical Staff--A Magical Distaff--Agnes Williamson, a
Haddingtonshire Witch--Elizabeth Bathgate
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