Ill SHOOTING A WITCH '3t 



yai-d ahead of him as he came towards me, and down he fell, 

 fifty yards behind me, with a force that seemed enough, to 

 'break every bone in his body. Another and another blacl^cock 

 fell to my gun before we had left the burn, and also a hare, 

 who got up in the broken ground near the water. .Our next 

 cast took us up a slope of hill, where we found a wild covey of 

 grouse. Right and left at them the rnoment they rose, and 

 killed a brace ; the rest went over the hill. Another covey 

 on the same ground gave me three shots. From the top of 

 the hill we saw a dreary expanse of flat ground, with Loch 

 A-na-caillach in the centre of it, a bleak cold-looking piece of 

 water, with several small grey pools near it. Donald told me 

 a long story of the origin of its name, pointing out a large 

 cairn of stones at one end of it. The story was, that some few 

 years ago — " Not so long either, Sir (said Donald) ; for Rory 

 Beg, the auld smuggler, that died last year, has often told me 

 that he minded the whole thing weel " — there lived, down below 

 the woods an old woman, by habit and repute a witch, and one 

 possessed of more than mortal power, which she used in a most 

 malicious manner, spreading sickness and death ampng man 

 and beast. The minister of the place, who came, however, but 

 once a month to do duty in a building called a chapel, was the 

 only person who, by dint of prayer and Bible, could annoy or 

 resist her. He at last made her so uncomfortable by attacking 

 her with holy water and other spiritual weapions, , that she 

 suddenly left the place, and no one knew whei^e she went to. It 

 soon became evident, however, that her abode was not' far off, 

 as cattle and people were still taken ill in the same unaccount- 

 able manner as before. At last, an idle fellow, who was out 

 poaching deer near • Loch A-na-caillach late one evening, saw 

 her start through the air from the cairn of stones towards the 

 inhabited part of the country. This put people on the look- 

 out, and she was constantly seen passing to and fro on her 

 unholy errands during the fine moonlight nights. Many a time 

 was she shot at as she flew past, but without success. At last 

 a pot-valiant and unbelieving old fellow, who had Iqng been a 

 sergeant in some Highland regiment, determined to free his 

 neighbours from the witch ; and having loaded his .gun w.ith ^a 

 double charge of gunpowder, put in, instead of shot, a crooked 

 sixpence and some silver buttons, which he had.rpade booty ot 



