WITCHCRAFT AND SECOND-SIGHT.*
Tins book is the exception which proves the law in regard to, "sequels," especially, it may be added, of Scottish "sequels." It might have been anticipated that Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland had, excellent though it was, and, indeed, in virtue of its excellence, exhausted the genuine treasures in the shape of folk-lore stored away in the note- books of the late John Gregorson Campbell, parish minister of Tires between 1861 and 1891. This expectation, however, proves to be quite a mistake. Here is a second volume drawn from the same notebooks, collected like its predecessor entirely from oral sources, as compact of fairyland and quaint Celtic "realism," as direct and simple in style, as devoid of the tricks of the compiler .of books. Notwithstanding the well-merited and invincible popularity of Campbell of Islay, and of his Popular Tales of the West Highlands, his namesake, the minister of Time, is practically bound to take his place, at least in the opinion of scientific students of Celticism, as the authority par excellence on those invincible, probably because mainly pagan, supersti- tions which still live and move and have an eerie being in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Here in less than three hundred pages and in six chapters we have an informal but absolutely authoritative manual of the more sinister of these superstitions, of witchcraft both black and white, of death-warnings, of second-sight, of hobgoblins, and of the Celtic year. And we should add that it is a genuine pleasure to come across a book which, although dealing with matters that seem almost to incite to rhetoric and sentimentality, closes with this cautious and matter-of-fact statement :—" It was said there was no north wind at the exact period of the appearance of new moon (gob gealateh)."
In dealing with witchcraft generally Mr. Campbell adopts for convenience' sake what is really the English distinction between black and white witches. A black witch can hurt but not help ; his or her power is one for mischief only.
• Witchcraft and Second Sight Us the Highland sand Islands of Scotland. By the late John tilregoreon Campbell. Glasgow; James NaeLehose and Sons. [68,1 White witches are merely harmless practitioners of sorcery, f‘ whom," according to Cotta, "our custom and country doth call wise men and wise women." Mr. Campbell is, however, careful to point out that even the black Highland witches are not so repulsive as their sisters of the South. "Tales regard- ing them make no mention of incubus and succubus, mid- night meetings and dances with the devil, dead men's fingers, and the ravings of poor women driven crazy by persecution and torture. Neither is there mention of their riding through the air on broomsticks, or, like the witch of Endor, raising the dead." But the Highland witches so far resembled the priestesses of Delphi that they were quite amenable to
bribery :—
"The power of witches was always at the disposal of those who were willing to pay for it, and the fact that the rewards of witch- craft did not sometimes exceed a pound of tobacco alone shows bow much the urgencies of want had to do with the pretence of supernatural powers. Unless payment was given, the witch maid give nothing; her spells were then of no avail. To explain the anomaly that witches possessed such tremendous powers and yet always remained in indigent circumstances it was said that the poor wretches could not benefit themselves ; their power, as might be expected, considering the source from which it was derived, was only one of mischief and doing harm to others. Much of the superstition is at variance with this popular ex- planation, as, for instance, the taking of milk from the neighbours' cows and the substance from their butter and cheese, but con- tradictions and absurdities never stand in the way of credulity and superstitions fears."
Witches were in the habit of assuming the appearance of different animals. Their favourite disguise would seem to have been that of a cat. A cat scraping was a sign that some beast—horse, cow, pig, or dog—would be found dead on the farm before long. A cat washing its face portended rain next day, and turning its back to the fire, storm and rain. Witches were also in the habit of appearing in the guise of rats, galls, and even hares :-
"A. young man in the island of Lismore was out shooting. When near Balnagown Loch, he started a hare and fired at it. 'The animal gave an unearthly scream, and it then for the first time occurred to the young man that there were no hares in LiSmore. He threw away his gun in terror and fled home. Next day he came back for his gun, and heard that a reputed witch of the neighbourhood was laid up with a broken leg. Ever after the figure of this woman encountered him and gave him severe thrashings. This preyed on his mind, and he never came to any good. He proved brooding, idle, and useless."
Mr. Campbell's illustrations of white witchcraft, which was -chiefly occupied in warding off danger and damage due to such agencies as that of the "evil eye," are tamer than those -of black witchcraft. One at least of them is at once amusing and antique. When a man is brought into Court for using abusive language, all he has to do is, when entering the Court- house, to spit in his fist, grasp his staff, and say :— " I will close my fist.
Faithful to me is the wood; It is to protect my abusive words I enter in.
The three sons of Clooney will save me And Manaman MacLeth And St. Columba, gentle cleric, And Alexander in heaven."
'There is then no danger of being found guilty. The names Of the saints, according to Mr. Campbell, show the charm to be very ancient. Thus " ‘Manaman MacLeth ' is probably a corruption of Manannan MacLeirr,' the Manx magician who is said to have covered the Isle of Man with a mist which was -dispelled by St. Patrick." The legend of the serpent stone comes under the heading of "White Witchdraft." Mr. Campbell gives his own views and experience :— "The tales told in modern times of the Serpent Stone, its manufacture and wonderful properties, leave no doubt that in certain beads and the use made of them we have the remains of an imposture, if not instituted at least practised by the Druids. The ordinary Maine Nathair (Serpent Glass) is of smaller size than is indicated by Pliny. The one which the writer saw was about the size of a gun bullet and about 1+ in. long. There was a hole through from end to end and depressions on its sides, as if it had once been soft and had been taken up gently between the finger and thumb. It is of trapsparent glass, but glass unlike that of the present day. There are extremely brilliant and curious streaks of colour in it. It is now merely a family heir- loom, but in olden times was in great demand for dipping in water to be given to bewitched persons or beasts. The sloughed skin (coehuil) of the serpent itself was used for the same purpose. Water in which it was dipped was given to sick beasts. The tale as to tibe manner in which it was originally got is the Same as is taa of other beads of the same kind. The serpents are assembled in a coiling mass, with their heads in the air hissing horribly, slavering, and out of their slaver making the serpent stone. The spittle, in the course of becoming solid, was known as meal dead. That the story was not implicitly believed is shown by the addition that, when the bead is finished, one of the serpents puts its tail through it. Thus the hole by which it is perforated is made."
Mr. Campbell has a great deal to say that is very interest- ing, in virtue of its details, of the second sight, though but little that can be claimed as absolutely original. He inclines to the belief that it is the remains of the magic of the Druids. He points out that the Gaelic equivalent, da-shealladh, does not literally mean "the second sight," but "the two sights." The vision of the world of sense is one sight ordinarily possessed by all ; but the world of spirits is visible only to certain persons, and the possession of this additional vision gives them "the two sights. Through this faculty they see the ghosts of the dead revisiting the earth," and the fetches, doubles, or apparitions of the living. Mr. Campbell's treatment of second-sight, hobgoblins, haunted houses, and the various customs and legends associated with the Celtic year leaves practically nothing to be desired on the score of completeness. We leave one of the most fascinating works of the kind which have ever appeared with a final quotation, though we confess without much hope that any rational explanation will be forthcoming of the "phenomena recorded" in it :— " A few years ago a medical student in the west of Inverness- shire sat up late on a summer night 'grinding' for his examina- tion. A joiner's workshop adjoined the house in which he was. About two o'clock in the morning he beard the sound of hammers, planes, &c., as though some one were at work in the shop. The sounds continued till about three. The evening was calm. Next day when he told what he had heard his friends laughed at him. Next 'night again, however, the noises were resumed, and con- tinued till he fell asleep. They were this night heard also by the other inmates ; and as they were repeated every night for a week, every person in the house, including the joiner himself, who was brought in for the purpose, heard them. Shortly after a woman in the neighbourhood died in childbed, and the joiner, in whose workshop the noises were heard, made her coffin. The mysterious hammering only discontinued when the coffin was finished A Thee man assured the writer that he and a brother of his heard most distinctly (ga forumach) the sound of a hammer all night till morning on a chest in an empty room near which they slept. A woman next door died suddenly on the following day, and it was on that chest another brother of his made her coffin. The truthfulness of the persons who told this can be assured, whatever be the explanation given of the noise."
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