FOLK-LORE FROM UN ST. 221 



it right, that the brother might have his own. She 

 did so, and the six men were seen no more. It was 

 remembered that upon the day of the accident Madge 

 Coutts was seen going in at her own chimney in the 

 form of a grey cat, and that immediately afterwards a 

 sulphur-tainted smoke was seen ascending." 



CHAPTER V. 



I "WAS told once of a witch who had taught her 

 daughter some "tricks of the trade," and the girl, 

 proud of her knowledge, changed herself into a raven, 

 according to the maternal directions. But in learning 

 how to become a bird, the girl had forgotten to receive 

 the instructions necessary for returning to mortal mould, 

 and would have remained a raven if her mother had 

 not guessed somehow the state of the case. With 

 great difficulty the witch contrived to restore her 

 daughter's personal appearance, but not all her art 

 could bring back the girl's natural voice. Croak she 

 would, and croak she did, and all her descendants after 

 her; and that was how the peculiar sound (called 

 corbieing * in Shetland) known as " a burr " came. 



Another witch, desirous of injuring a neighbour, 

 changed herself into a black dog, and made her way 

 into the neighbour's ben-end-o'-the-hoose, where she 

 would certainly have created serious disturbance if an 

 old man in the family had not recognised her by a 

 peculiar formation of the eyelids, which, it seems, she 



* A corbie is a raven. 



