78 Transactioios. 



beings exist, but tliat they have botii seen ami spoken tu them. 

 We let illustrative examples take the place of description : — Mrs 



Gr on going out one afternoon to call upon a neighbour, 



who resided about half a mile distant across the moor, saw her 

 friend evidently coming on the same errand. She therefore 

 retraced her steps, and entering the house, awaited her friend's 

 arrival. Her expected visitor not making her appearance, Mrs 



G went to the door to see what had detained her, but 



although she gazed in every direction there was no one to be seen. 

 As the afternoon was now far advanced, she decided it would be 

 better to defer her visit until the following day. "Walking across 

 on the morrow, she remarked, in the course of conversation, " I 

 saw you on the way to see me yesterday ; what made you turn 

 half-road ? " " Me coming to see you ! " exclaimed her friend. 

 " I can assure you I wasna that, for I was scarce frae ray ain 

 fireside the hale day." Both were positive, however, and it was 

 agreed for the time being to avoid all further reference to the 



matter. A week later Mrs G 's neighbour died, and her 



corpse was carried to the churchyard over the very track upon 

 which her wraith had been seen by Mrs G on the after- 

 noon of her intended call. My grandfather, while returning one 

 night between eleven and twelve o'clock from a visit he had been 

 paying his son, was startled to see a figure in white come out of 

 the Gap's Mill loaning, and mount the dyke by the roadside. 

 Noiselessly gliding along the top of the fence, it continued to 

 keep pace with him until the Pentoot well was reached, when it 

 mysteriously disappeared. My grandfather was not superstitions, 

 yet this particular encounter he never could altogether explain 

 away. It may be mentioned that the Gap's Mill and Pentoot 

 pens referred to in the narrative were both of evil reputation as 

 having been the scenes of child murder, and I can remember how 

 as a boy "each particular hair stood o' end " as occasion took me 

 near the haunted spots. There is often a ludicrous side to these 

 ghost stories. Take the following example : — A successful pedlar 

 nained Mungo Clerk having departed this life, his neighbours 

 agreed that as he appeared to have no near relatives the best 

 thing to do with his money was "to ware 't on himsel'." Mungo 

 accordingly had " a gran' funeral," that is to say, " plenty tae eat 

 and mair tae drink," and so freely was tlie whisky partaken of 

 that by the time the rite of burial had been performed all were 



