182 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED, 



first lieat of the poet's fancy, and for its ground-work chose the following 

 popular tradition, as recorded by his biographer : — One stormy night, amid 

 squalls of wind and blasts of hail — on such a night, in short, as the devil 

 would choose to take the air in — a farmer was plasliing homewards from the 

 forge -with plough-irons on his shoulder. As he approached AUoway kirk 

 he was startled by a light glimmering in the haunted edifice, and walking up 

 to the door, he sav/ a caldron suspended over the fire, in which the heads and 

 hmbs of unchristened children were beginning to simmer. As there was 

 neither fiend nor witch to protect it at the moment, lie unhooked the caldron, 

 poured out the contents, and carried his trophy home, where it long remained 

 in evidence of the truth of his story. — We may observe in the poem the fine 

 use made by Burns of this Kyle legend. Another story supplied him with two 

 of his chief characters: — A farmer having been detained by business in Ayr, 

 found himself crossing the " old bridge of Doon" about the middle of the 

 night. When he reached the gate of Alloway kirk-yard, a light came streaming 

 from a Gothic window in the gable, and he saw vnth surprise a batch of witches 

 dancing merrily round their master, the devil, who was keeping them in motion 

 by the sound of liis bagpipe. The farmer stopped his horse, and gazed at 

 their gambols ; he saw several old dames of his acquaintance among them ; 

 they were footing it nimbly in their smocks. Unfortunately for him, one of 

 them wore a smock too short by a span or so, which so tickled the yeoman, 

 that he burst out with, " Weel luppen, Maggie wie the short sark !" but suddenly 

 recollecting himself, he turned round his horse's head, and spurred and switched 

 with all his might towards the Brig o'Doon, well knowing that " witches dare 

 not cross a running stream." When he reached the middle of the arch, one of 

 the hags sprang forward to seize him, but nothing was on her side of the 

 stream but the horse's tail, which gave way to her grasp, as if touched by 

 lightning.* We now proceed to the coast scenery. 



The serrated outline here presented by the hills of Arran, in the back-ground, 

 the bold coast on which wc stand, the broad sea stretched below, and the 



* " In a Galloway version of the tradition," says Mr. Cunningliam, " it is recorded tliat the witch, 

 seizing the horse by the tail, stopped it in full career in the centre of the bridge, upon which the farmer 

 struck a back- handed blow with his sword, that set him free, and enabled him to pass the stream without 

 further molestation. On reaching his own house, he found, to his horror, a woman's hand hanging in his 

 horse's tail ; and next morning was informed that the handsome wife of one of his neighbours was 

 dangerously ill, and not expected to live. He went to see her: she turned away her face from him, and 

 .ib.solutcly refused to say what ailed her : upon which he forcibly bared her wounded arm, and displaying 

 the bloody hand, accused her of ' witchcraft and dealings with the devil.' Thereupon, it is added, she 

 made a confession, and, according to the laws of the time, was condemned and burnt as a witch." — See 

 "Life of Burns, "p. 218. 



