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acquaintance with Mr Mayne’s friends will procure adequate funds for 
the proposed object.—With much respect and many kind remembrances, 
I am, my dear sir, yours faithfully, Rost. CARRUTHERS. 
To Wm. Grie son, Esq., Noblehill Cottage. 
Ill. Folk Lore of Glencairn (continued). By 
Mr Joun Corrie. 
When we remember that so lately as the year 1709 a woman 
was tried and condemned as a witch in our own good town of 
Dumfries, while only some fifty years earlier no fewer than nine 
suffered death by burning on the same indictment, it need 
occasion no surprise that some still living are unable wholly to 
disabuse their minds of a certain measure of credence in the 
existence of witches, warlocks, and others of that ilk, who are 
supposed to possess the power of interference in our human 
affairs. The Glencairn Church Session Records contain several 
references to cases of reputed witchcraft. One of these occurs 
under date “ Apryl nynth,” 1694. Another, noticed by Mr 
Monteith in his little “‘ History of Glencairn,” on November 14th, 
1707. It is only when we come into contact with the oral 
traditions of the people, however, that we realise the extent to 
which a belief in witchcraft must have prevailed. Whole families 
-were credited with a knowledge of the art, and as the faculty was 
supposed to be transmitted unimpaired from father to son, and 
from mother to daughter, the credulous were never at a loss for 
subjects upon which to exercise the superstitious fancy. Among 
local proficients an old man named Tammas K seems to have 
enjoyed special notoriety. It is said he could get almost anything 
he wanted, for to refuse him a favour was to court instant and con- 
dign punishment. He would knot a wisp of straw, throw it down 
beside a cow, and next day the cow would either be dead or 
dying. One day the warlock, as he was generally called, applied 
toa villager who grew a remarkably fine strain of potato onions 
for a bulb or two as seed. The mais managed to put him off, 
however, and was rather proud of the achievement, until he dis- 
covered a few days afterwards that his entire stock of onions had 
mysteriously rotted away. On another occasion a villager, in ill 
odour with the warlock, was engaged leading “‘rice” (tree 
loppings) past the line of houses where the warlock lived. As he 
neared the place, he noticed some of the neighbours laughing and 
