IN ASSYNT. 157 



Scotch peasants, well-read in the Scriptures) ; and on our re- 

 joining that ventriloquism might account for the words of 

 Samuel, and reminding him that after all Saul is not said to 

 have seen the prophet, he answered earnestly, " The men of 

 those days were very big and wild fellows j but there is witches 

 about still in many places." 



Finding him now inclined to be communicative, we turned 

 the conversation to the Mhor Venn (or Big Witch), one of the 

 curiosities of modern Sutherlandshire witchcraft. One Sarah 

 Benn (alias Big Benn or Witch Benn) seems to have lived near 

 Cape Wrath about the beginning of this century, and to have 

 been renowned for her many "cantrips." The commonest of 

 these was to sail in an empty eggshell to Stornoway opposite. 

 At length, four young men seized her, and as they could not 

 hang her in the ordinary way (which is said to be impossible in 

 the case of a witch), they, with much cruelty, passed a rope 

 under her own door, and putting it round her neck on the out- 

 side, pulled it from within, thus strangling her on her own 

 doorstep. " I did know one of them myself," added Roderick; 

 " he was called Rory McLeod, an old white-headed man, and 

 he lived long after her murder ; but what was very remarkable, 

 none of the rest came to a quiet end some were drowned, 

 some killed other ways whateffer." 



We ventured to interrupt, and ask whether they were ever 

 tried for the murder. Roderick's recital was so singular, was 

 told with such earnestness of belief, and is so amusingly repug- 

 nant to the boasted critical accuracy of the present day, that it 

 is worth while (at the risk of appearing to steal Mr. Black's 

 style) to set it forth as closely as may be in his own words. 

 Still it lacks the intensity of his utterance ; and the impressive 

 scenery in which it was told, of course, greatly enhanced its 

 effect. 



" Old McLeod of Girvan, in Ross-shire, you must know, was 

 very intimate with the witches of his time, and especially with 



