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Transactions. 77 
labours of the churners. Spitting, again, would seem to have 
been regarded with favour as a means of averting witchcraft, and 
the practice of spitting in the hand is still followed by rustics, 
both when they bargain and when they vow eternal friendship, 
an interesting example of custom surviving long after its original 
significance has been forgotten. Coming to speak of elves or 
fairies, we realise that we have to deal with a class of beings very 
different from the witches and the warlocks. The latter, as the 
accredited emissaries of Satan, were looked upon with mingled 
feelings of hatred and fear. The fairies, on the other hand, 
would almost seem to have enjoyed positive favour. They were 
admittedly capricious and resentful, however, and as their wrath 
once aroused was terrible to behold, it became the constant study 
of the gudewife of the house to propitiate them by every means 
in her power. Thus, some simple refreshment, such as bread and 
cheese, was frequently laid out for them in places they were sup-_ 
posed to frequent, and it was an article in the popular creed that 
those who thus befriended them were liberally rewarded in some 
way or other for their kindness. We append a narrative com- 
municated by a Moniaive lady, in which gratitude for a favour 
and resentment at an insult are curiqusly blended :—Two men 
were ploughing down in Closeburn parish, when they both felt a 
strong smell of burning cake; one of them said in an off-hand 
kind o’ way, “ Yere cake’s burnin’.” “ Make us a spurtle tae 
turn it wi’, then,” said a voice apparently close at hand. The 
man good naturedly did as directed, and laid the article down on 
the ground. On returning to the spot he found the spurtle taken 
away, and bread and cheese left in its place. He partook of 
both, and likewise gave some to his horses, but his companion 
would neither taste himself nor allow his horses to taste. An 
affront of this kind could not be overlooked, and he had not gone 
many steps until he dropped down dead in the furrow. All- 
Hallow’s Eve was universally recognised as the fairies festival, 
and on moonlight nights bands of the “little folk” were to be 
seen dancing in circles on the sward, and the merry tinkle-tinkle 
of fairy bridles heard as the little equestrians journeyed on their 
gaily caparisoned steeds to the place of rendezvous. Local recog- 
nition seems to have been given to at least four kinds of appari- 
tions, viz., the water kelpy, the goblin, the wraith, and the ghost. 
In Glencairn we find people who still avow not only that these 
