MEG'S DEATH. 247 



" Why, then, when she persistit in her foul ways, 

 some o' thae freebooters, who feared neither witch, war- 

 lock, nor deil, made a raid into her country, and pit a 

 fire round each, of the towers,* and made the ane she 

 was in too het to haud her, and out she ran wi' awfu' 

 yells, skelping owre the muir, and so doun to the Elfin 

 glen, where ane o' these three reivers, who had a flaming 

 firebrand in his hand, wounded her ahint wi' it ; and 

 the deidly nightshade still grows in the place where 

 her blood was spilt. Then they drave her through the 

 glen, and so doun the brae above a deep pool in Tweed, 

 and pushed her in wi' a pole and a firebrand ; so she 

 cam' to her end by wood, fire, and water. 



" The pool was draggit in the mornin', but her body 

 was never found ; and many people watched all night 

 for a lang time, and the corpse-light never appeared ; 

 nor was her wraith ever seen, except by mysel' and 

 my faither at Trequair, and Walter of Darnwick, who 

 saw it howking a grave wi' many ither wicked spirits 

 round it on the tap of Eildon Hills. 



" So the pool goes by the name of ' Meg's Hole ' to 

 this day; and when ye hookit the muckle sawmont 

 that ran ye doun to the Cauld pool, ye ken that her 

 spirit tried to drive him through the farther arch of 

 Melrose Bridge, but ye were owre canny for it." 



The earliest method of taking fish, previous to the 

 invention of either hooks or nets, was that used by the 

 Egyptians, by means of a spear resembling a trident. 

 A sculptured stone, excavated at Chester in 1738, and 



* The three towers are still standing in the plaee indicated. 



