PREVALENT BELIEF IN DEMONOLOGY. 



171 



Hector, who entertained them for five days. It 

 is said in the indictment, that they &quot; poillit the 

 hair of Robert Monro, his brotheris head, and 

 plait the naillis of his fingeris and tais,&quot; and 

 &quot; socht be thair develisch meanes to have cureit 

 him of his sickness ;&quot; but it would appear, that 

 the weird sisters were by no means successful, 

 and were compelled to decamp, for &quot; they wald 

 haif vsitfurth the rest of thair develisch craft was 

 Tiocht they ferit to tarie with him (Hector Mon 

 ro) be ressone of his fader, quha wald haif ap- 

 prehendit thame ; and they declarit to him that 

 he was owre lang in sending for thame, s\va 

 that they cald do na guid to the said Robert 

 Monro.&quot; Mr. Hector, however, fell sick him 

 self, and had recourse to the hags for a cure ; 

 and as he had an eye to the patrimony of his 

 father, to which he could not succeed as he was 

 a younger son, he began some incantations, in 

 concert with ihe hags, to deprive his elder bro 

 ther, George Monro, of life, and for this he was 

 &quot; delatit,&quot; also of &quot; slaughter.&quot; The indict- 

 i.ient, which is a most remarkable document, is 

 too long for insertion. Jonett Grant, Jonett 

 Clark, and Bessie Roy, nurse to the &quot; Laird of 

 Boquhave,&quot; are the three next ladies who were 

 called to account for being &quot;fylit&quot; of witchcraft. 

 The two Jonetta seem to have been in partner 

 ship ; and if the indictments are to be credited, 

 they were guilty of no fewer than six &quot; crewal 

 murthers,&quot; by witchcraft, of the &quot; slavchter and 

 destructionne of saxtene heid of nolt, of raising 

 the devil, of making men eunuchsby witchcraft,&quot; 

 &c. For such hardened sinners as the two 

 Jonetts, no mercy was to be expected, and ac 

 cordingly they were condemned to be &quot; tane to 

 the Castle hill of Edinburg, and there werriet 

 at ane staik, and their body to be burnt to assis.&quot; 

 Bessie Roy, however, came off with flying co 

 lours, although she was also indicted as &quot; ane 

 commoune thief,&quot; by means of the &quot; enchant 

 ment and slicht of the diuill.&quot; The following is 

 the title of a pamphlet republished by Mr. Pit- 

 cairn, containing a most extraordinary narrative. 

 &quot;Newes from Scotland, declaring the damnable 

 life of Doctor Fean, a notable sorcerer, who was 

 burned at Edinburg in Janurie iast, 1591, which 

 doctor was register to the deuill, that sundrie 

 times preached at North Barricke kirk, to a num 

 ber of notorious witches,&quot; &c. The poor wo 

 man who was most cruelly treated was Euphane 

 Mackalsann, a notable witch, who appears to 

 have been so notorious as to be &quot; bound to ane 

 staik, and brunt to assis, quick to the death.&quot; 

 &quot; This,&quot; says Mr. Pitcairn, &quot; was he severest 

 sentence ever pronounced by the court, even in 

 the most atrocious cases,&quot; but poor Euphane 

 died, nevertheless, with all the heroism and 

 devotedness of a martyr. See Edin. Lit, Gaz. 

 July 1829. 



To attempt a serious refutation of the doc 

 trines of witchcraft, would be altogether superflu 



ous and even ridiculous. That there ever were 

 witches, that is, persons endowed with such 

 powers as are usually ascribed to witches, is 

 what no rational and enlightened mind can for a 

 moment admit. The actions imputed to them 

 are either absurd or impossible. To suppose 

 an ignorant old woman, or indeed any human 

 being, capable of transforming herself into a cat 

 or a hare, is to suppose her capable of counter 

 acting the laws of nature, which is competent to 

 none but the Supreme Ruler of the world. We 

 might almost as soon believe that such a being 

 is capable of creating the universe. It presents 

 a most humiliating picture of the imbecility of 

 the human mind, that such absurdities should 

 ever have been believed ; and certainly conveys 

 no very favourable idea of the humanity of our 

 ancestors, when they inflicted, without remorse, 

 so many shocking cruelties, especially on the 

 tender sex, for such fancied crimes. Yet, absurd 

 as the doctrine of witchcraft certainly is, it is a 

 lamentable fact, that vast multitudes of our fellow- 

 men, both in our own country and in other lands, 

 are still believers in sorcery and witchcraft, of 

 which an instance or two is stated in the follow- 

 ing note. 



No. VI. Proofs that the belief in witchcraft is 

 still prevalent among certain classes of society. 



Notwithstanding the degree of information 

 which prevails in the nineteenth century, it is a 

 melancholy consideration that superstition, and 

 a belief in the efficacy of certain incantations, 

 still prevail to a considerable extent, even in the 

 most enlightened countries. The following re 

 cent occurrences will tend to corroborate this 

 position, and at the same time show the perni 

 cious consequences which frequently result from 

 such a belief. 



On the 2d September 1829, Laurent Raim- 

 boult, a farmer in the hamlet of Redoire, Com 

 mune of Champtre, in France, spent the day in 

 measuring wheat at the house of Poirier, his 

 brother-in-law. About eight o clock in the even 

 ing, he left to go to his own house, which was 

 about half a league from Poirier s house. He 

 carried a bag containing the measure he had 

 been using, and a box holding his dinner, which 

 he had not opened ; for he had stated his inten 

 tion not to eat till he returned home. The 

 next morning his corpse was found in a meadow, 

 bordered by a wood, and not very far from his 

 own house. His body was horribly mutilated, 

 his clothes stained with blood, and there was a 

 large wound on the back part of his head. All 

 the wounds showed that he had been struck by 

 several persons armed with contusive weapons. 

 Near him the ground had not been trod upon ; his 

 bag and the things it contained were carefully 

 laid by his side : all proved that he had not been 

 robbed. Poirier, who has always had a good 



&amp;lt; 



