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suffering more or less from the effects of tlieir potations, while 

 one had lost the use of his legs altogether. Someone suggested 

 that the incapable should be sent home in the hearse, and with- 

 out more ado he was slipi>ed inside. When about half way home 

 the driver, who by drunken inadvertence had been told nothing 

 about his passenger, was startled by first a groan and then a yell. 

 Mungo's ghost sure enough, thought the driver, and leaving 

 horse and hearse to their fate he took to his heels, and never 

 stopped until he reached his native clachan. Our Glencairn 

 ghosts appear to have had some special liking for pens and 

 bridges, for Marwbirn, Auchentrown, Auchencheyne, Blackstone. 

 and Kirkland bridges have all at one time or another harboured 

 their respective spectres. Several of tliese have now been " laid,' 

 however, by the cudgel of the wayfarer, and the others have 

 quietly disappeared before the onward march of mind. With 

 our forefathers prayers, spells, and exorcisms seem to have been 

 the accepted weapons of defence against hostile spirits, and 

 recourse was usually had to these when their obstinacy rendered 

 interference necessary. The ordeal was always a trying one, 

 however, and called for the utmost circumspection on the part of 

 the exorcised, rash interference having not infrequently resulted 

 in the would-be "layer" of the ghost finding himself ignominiously 

 " laid." In the ceremony of ghost-laying the Bible seems to have 

 been considered an indispensable adjunct. Birds somehow 

 occupy a much more important place in popular superstitions 

 than quadrupeds, and it is curious to find that most of our bird 

 visitors are subjects of superstitious favour. Tims it is a popular 

 belief with us that the direction from which tlie cuckoo's note is 

 first heard is that in which the hearer will go on an important 

 and successful journey before the year is out, while it is looked 

 upon as an omen of good luck when a swallow comes to build its 

 nest beneath the cottage eaves. We have a curious notion in 

 Glencairn that the barley awn chokes the cuckoo, and hence it is 

 that the cuckoo's note is never heard after the barley becomes 

 shot. Superstition has not wholly despised our resident birds, 

 however, and there are few, we are disposed to think, who will 

 regret that her protecting mantle has been thrown around the 

 friendly robin. It is commonly believed with us that when a 

 robin comes fluttering to the window earlier in the autumn than 

 usual it is a sign that the approaching winter will be an excep- 



