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of demons over which he rules. It must not be supposed, indeed, that the malignant features of witchcraft were first stamped upon it by being dragged into the service of a Christian dogma, or-to speak perhaps more truly —by dragging a Christian dogma into its service;1 but the result of this alliance was to obliterate all the mitigating features of the primitive superstition, reducing it to a scheme of pure diabolism. This fact is worth referring to as illustrating one of the effects upon heathen superstitions resulting from their contact with Christian ideas; but for our more immediate purpose witchcraft might almost have been passed without mention. For it cannot but strike one as remarkable, that a superstition which was so universally prevalent, which, by its fascinating horror, must have seized such a hold on the popular imagination and entered so extensively into popular thought and language, should yet have influenced so slightly the songs and ballads, even of a people over whom it appears to have exercised a more unrestricted tyranny than over any other.2 I shall not attempt to account for this circumstance, except by suggesting the unpoetical nature of the materials furnished by such a superstition; for the essential object of poetry

1 There is abundant evidence, from the laws of Rome, both under the Republic and under the pagan Empire, that the magic of ancient paganism was believed to be employed for malicious purposes (Lecky's "History of Rationalism," vol. i. pp. 42-4, Amer. edit.); while Simrock has pointed out beliefs in Teutonic heathenism which have probably given to witchcraft the malignant aspect exclusively developed in Christendom ("Deutsche Mythologie," § 129).

2 "In other lands the superstition was at least mixed with much of imposture; in Scotland it appears to have been entirely undiluted."—Lecky's History of Rationalism, vol. i. p. 144, Amer. edit.

-the production of an intellectual pleasure—could hardly be attained by any treatment of a faith so grossly unspiritual, and suggestive of no ideas which can be imagined without unmitigated pain.

In the very few ballads into which witchcraft enters as an essential motive in the development of the plot, the superstition appears in its more ancient form, and rises to that aspect of sublimer horror which has been noticed as a prominent characteristic imparted to it by the sterner features of Scottish scenery acting on the Scottish mind.1 The ballad of Willie's Ladye may be taken in illustration. Its theme is a common property of the Aryan nations. Sir Walter Scott refers to its occurrence in ancient Greek mythology, in the Golden Ass of Apuleius, and in a medieval legend; while Professor Child notices Danish and Swedish ballads founded on the same story.3 In the Scottish ballad, the witchmother of Willie, fired into malicious resolution by his marrying against her will, tortures his wife by working a spell, similar to that by which, in the Greek myth,

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1 Buckle, referring to the influence which the physical features of Scotland have exerted on its superstitions, says: "Even the belief in witchcraft has been affected by these peculiarities; and it has been well observed, that while, according to the old English creed, the witch was a miserable and decrepit hag, the slave rather than the mistress of the demons which haunted her, she, in Scotland, rose to the dignity of a potent sorcerer, who mastered the evil spirit, and, forcing it to do her will, spread among the people a far deeper and more lasting terror."—History of Civilization, vol. ii. p. 148, Amer. edit. See also the numerous authorities he adduces in a note to this passage; and I may add one authority more recent, Burton's "History of Scotland," vol. vii. p. 382.

2 Scott's "Border Minstrelsy," vol. iii. pp. 168–9.

3 Child's "English and Scottish Ballads," vol. i. p. 162.

Hera took revenge on Alcmena, when the latter had. won the erratic affections of Zeus.

"Of her young bairn she's ne'er be lighter,
Nor in her bower to shine the brighter;
But she shall die and turn to clay,

And you shall wed another may."

But the good office which was performed for Alcmena by a stratagem of her maid Galanthis, is here accomplished, in a similar manner, by the ingenuity of a good spirit named Billy Blind, who, in his kindly services to men, resembles the homely Brownie, for

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'He spak aye in good time."

Instructed by this propitious familiar, Willie pretends that his child is born, and invites his mother to the christening. Surprised by the trick, the hag demands. to know who has revealed the secret of her spell?

"O wha has loosed the nine witch knots,

That were amang that ladye's locks?
And wha's ta'en out the kames o' care,
That were amang that ladye's hair?

And wha's ta'en down that bush o' woodbine,
That hung between her bour and mine?

And wha has killed the master kid,

That ran beneath that ladye's bed?

And wha has loosed her left foot shee,
And let that ladye lighter be?"

The elaborate charm, the explanation of which has been thus elicited from the witch herself, is soon dissolved by Willie :

"And now he has gotten a bonny son,
And meikle grace be him upon!"

The ballad of Alison Gross1 ought also to be mentioned in this connection. Though the theme of this ballad does not recall, so definitely as that of Willie's Ladye, similar stories current in different countries, yet the germ of it is contained in the fancy, which we meet under different forms in all literatures, of supernatural beings seeking and winning the love of mortals. Here, indeed, it is not the more common story of a male of higher race coming down to one of the daughters of men; but the legend is one which would not startle a Greek familiar with the mythical amours of Aphrodite. The ballad is a monologue, the speaker of which is wooed by one who, in the outline of her features and in her manner of action, resembles one of the Valkyrs of the old mythology more than the vulgar witch of later times.

"O Alison Gross, that lives in yon tower,

The ugliest witch in the North Countrie,
Has trysted me ae day up till her bower,
And mony fair speeches she made to me.

"She straiked my head, and she kembed my hair,
And she set me down saftly on her knee,
Says, 'Gin ye will be my lemman sae true,

Sae mony braw things as I would you gie.'"

1 Obtained by Jamieson from the recitation of Mrs. Brown of Falkland. (See his "Popular Ballads and Songs," vol. ii. p. 187.) Willie's Laaye was taken by Scott from Mrs. Brown's MS. To the excellent memory of this lady we owe apparently the preservation of much popular poetry. (See Jamieson's Advertisement prefixed to his collection.) It would be unfair, however, to Mr. Chambers not to acknowledge that there is a certain mystery about Mrs. Brown's memory and MS., which is not easily explained. (See Chambers' "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," Note prefixed to edit. 1870.)

But, whether it was owing to an eery shudder at her uncanny nature, or to her want of personal attractions, the fair speeches and caresses of Alison Gross failed. to produce any impression, even though strengthened by successive offers of "mony braw things." Still the language in which her solicitations were repelled, was certainly unwise when addressed to one whose malice it was so undesirable to provoke.

'Awa, awa, ye ugly witch,

Haud far awa, and lat me be;
For I wadna kiss your ugly mouth
For a' the gifts that ye could gie."

Stimulated by these words to the exercise of her supernatural powers,

"She's turned her richt and round about,

And thrice she blew on a grass-green horn; And she sware by the moon and the stars aboon, That she'd gar me rue the day I was born.

"Then out she has ta’en a silver wand,

And she's turned her three times round and round; She's muttered sic words, that my strength it failed, And I fell down senseless on the ground.

"She's turned me into an ugly worm,1

1

And gar'd me toddle about the tree."

It chanced, however, that the night was near, on which all the supernatural beings of the old heathendom were believed to ride forth for festive celebrations,2 and which

1 Worm is here used, in its old general sense, for a reptile.

2

"The night it is good Hallowe'en,

When fairy folk will ride."

The Young Tamlane.

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