A HIGHLAND WITCH. 255 



pot was boiling, and bannocks and oat-cake were placed 

 upon the table, and also two plates, for the expected 

 guests. There was something so extraordinary about 

 this old woman, that it operated as a sort of fascination, 

 and the men's eyes were continually turned upon her. 

 She had large features, long lank hair, and small grey 

 eyes, deeply sunk, and conveying a striking expression of 

 vice and cunning ; she halted on one leg, and chaunted a 

 wild song, in an unknown language, while she was pouring 

 out the kail. 



Tired and exhausted as the men were, the whole thing 

 appeared to their superstitious imaginations so much like 

 witchcraft, that although half famished, they could scarcely 

 bring themselves to eat. Fear came upon them, when she 

 waved her long sinewy arms, and darkly hinted that she 

 had power over the winds and the storm, muttering at 

 intervals some unintelligible sentences ; then at once 

 holding up a rope, with three knots tied in it, "If," 

 quoth she, " I louse the first, there shall blaw a fair wind, 

 such as the deer-stalker may wish ; if I louse the second, a 

 stronger blast shall sweep o'er the hills ; and if I louse the 

 third, sic a storm will brack out as neither man nor beast 

 can thole ; and the blast shall youle down the corries and 

 the glens, and the pines shall fa' crashin' into the torrents, 

 and this bare arm shall guide the course o' the storm, as I 

 sit on my throne of Cairn-Gower, or the tap of Ben-y- 

 gloe. Weel did ye ken my po'er the day, when the wind 

 was cauld and deidly, and all was dimmed in snaw, 

 and ye see that ye was expectit here, and ye hae brought 

 nae venison ; but if ye mean to thrive, ye maun place a 

 fat hart, or a yeld hind in the braes of Atholl, by Fraser's 



