Transactions. 79 
suffering more or less from the effects of their 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 slipped 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 Marwhirn, Auchentrown, Auchencheyne, Blackstone; 
and Kirkland bridges have all at one time or another harboured 
their respective spectres. Several of these 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 cireumspection on the part of 
the exorcised, rash interference having not infrequently resulted 
in the would-be “layer” of the ghost finding himself ignominiously 
“aid.” 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. Thus it isa popular 
belief with us that the direction from which the 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- 
