Kirk-SEssIoN ReEcorpDs oF IRONGRAY, 1691-1700. 129 
being called before the session for bringing his child to a smith 
to be charmed with ane forge hammer, confessed his sin, and 
received a rebuke before the session.”’ 
At the next meeting William Anderson’s wife appeared on 
the same charge, and stated that she had done so “ at the instiga- 
tion of a travelling woman, whose name she knew not.’’. The 
smith, too, “ being called, acknowledged that his threatening the 
child with an hammer to be a charm, received a rebuke before the 
session, and promised never to do the like again.’’ 
A smith has always been a suspicious character since the 
days of Wayland Smith, but some folk-lorist might explain what 
peculiar virtue lies in a hammer. 
Next year, 1692, Janet Kirk appears as a suspect. 
“November 13—John Charters in Barncleugh, being called 
before the session as witness nominat by James Wright to prove 
witchcraft against Janet Kirk, denied that he knew anything of 
witchcraft in her. Margaret Smyth, wife of John Jonston, 
being called before the session, declared in her hearing that 
Janet Kirk, being brought in to Elizabeth Jonston, being 
grievously tormented with sickness like to distraction, pronounced 
these words, that ‘if God had taken the health from her let Him 
given it again, and if the devil had taken it from her to give it her 
again.’ On which she was rebuked.”’ 
At the next meeting (November 24) John Charters acknow- 
ledged that he had heard Janet Kirk use the words quoted, but 
gave no opinion as to the witchcraft in them. 
An entry on April 16, 1693, promises an even deeper glimpse 
into Satan’s invisible kingdom. “ Jean Stot (Ingleston) confessed 
before the session that she blessed God if Jean Grier’s prayings 
had any pith that they lighted on a kow and not on a person, and 
did say that Jean Kirkpatrick did gather root grown briers on a 
Saboth day, and nominat Agnes Patton for a witness.’’ 
Here promises to be a witches’ Sabbath! Jean Grier’s 
unchancy prayers, Jean Kirkpatrick’s root-grown briers gathered 
on the Sabbath. Surely we have at last a pair of Gallovidian 
Canidiae. But the sequel proves that the people of Ingleston 
had been having a neighbourly quarrel. Jean Grier had used 
rather offensive language about Jean Stot’s father David’s 
personal appearance. She had said “he had the face of a 
devil.” The session found “wrath and malice among the 
