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RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



ed at this application to her aid, but soon perceived its necessity. 

 This beautiful inhabitant of a palace, which she supposed beneath 

 the lake, had not long been a mother, and the ravages of mortal 

 agony were evident. " Secrecy, speed and obedience, are the price 

 of your life !" said her strange guide, and the injunction was 

 scarcely needful to enforce the terrors which superstition and 

 amazement had created. She had been brought there, as it seem- 

 ed, by means more than human ; and the power of these beings 

 might be unbounded in some points, though in others they de- 

 pended on human aid. But that aid was vain, though Mause had 

 more than ordinary science. The unknown lady cast looks of an- 

 guish on her new attendant, and her mysterious companion ; raised 

 herself often as if to speak, and as often sunk again without pow- 

 er, till a sudden and quick shiver ended her existe*nce. 



The Carline looked at the ghastly remains with stupid surprise, 

 as if she still questioned the mortal nature of her patient ; and 

 when the seeming master of the mansion commanded her in a 

 stern and hollow voice to prepare the body for its grave-clothes, 

 her terror became unspeakable. She was now left alone with it ; 

 and though she well knew all the ceremonies of a lyke-wake, 

 Mause could not guess how far they were appropriate to one 

 whose Christianity she doubted deeply. And a woman thus cir- 

 cumstanced, even in a bolder age, might have been pardoned, if, 

 like Mause, she had paused to guard herself first from evil by 

 tasting the full bowl of wine on the table. Then approaching 

 the dead lady, she carefully untied the knots in her hair, suppo- 

 sing them, as usual, a token of witchcraft, and had it been in her 

 power, would have opened the door to give the departed spirit a 

 free passage h jme. Finding it firmly closed, she seated herself 

 in increased terror at the foot of the couch ; and, as she sang the 

 simple rhyme taught by Scotch custom, her fascinated eyes dwelt 

 on the corpse till it seemed to frown. Twice or thrice a deadly 

 moan, from some unseen person, mingled with her own chant; 

 and once a human voice, not far distant, repeated, in a melancholy 

 accent, " Binnorie — O Binnorie These words are connected in 

 a northern peasant's ear with very doleful ideas ; and Mause had 

 not courage to move again, except to reach the goblet of wine, 

 near which she had wisely taken her seat. The voices in her ears, 



* The burden of a song sung in tradition by a deceived fair one. 



