was January—Hector, wrapped in blankets,
was carried out of his sick bed and laid in
this grave; he, his foster-mother, and
Mclngareach all silent as death. The sods were
laid over him, and the witch sat down by
him. Then Cristian Dayzell, with a young
boy in her hand, ran the breadth of nine
rigs or furrows, and, coming back to the
grave, asked the witch, "who was her
choice?" Mclngareach, prompted by
the devil, answered, "that Mr. Hector was
her choice to live, and his brother George to
die for him!" This ceremony was repeated
thrice, and then they all returned silently to
the house; Hector Munro convinced that
everything necessary had now been done,
and that his half-brother must perforce be
his sacrifice. In his gratitude he made
Marion Mclngareach keeper of his sheep;
and so uplifted her that the country people
durst not oppose her for their lives. It was
the common talk that he favoured and
honoured her, said the dittay, "gif she had
been his wife;" and once he kept her out of
the way, when she was cited to appear before
the court, to answer to the charge of witchcraft.
But, Hector got clear, as his
step-mother had done half an hour before him;
and we hear no more of the Fowlis crimes
or the Fowlis follies.

On the twenty-sixth of May, fifteen
hundred and ninety, John Fian, alias Cuningham,
Master of the School at Saltpans, Lothian,
and contemptuously recorded as "Secretar
and Register to the Devil," was arraigned
for witchcraft and high-treason. There
were twenty counts against him; the least
of which was enough to have lighted a
witch-fire at that time on the fatal Castle
Hill. First, he was accused of entering into
a covenant with Satan, who appeared to him
all in white, as he lay in bed, thinking how
he could be revenged on Thomas Trumbill,
for not having whitewashed his room. After
promising his Satanic Majesty allegiance
and homage, he received his mark; which
was found, later, under his tongue, with
two pins stuck up to their heads. Dr.
Fian had once the misfortune to be
unwell, which was translated into a grievous
crime by the gracious "assisa" who tried
him. He was found guilty,—"fylit," is
the legal term,—of "feigning himself to be
sick in the said Thomas Trumbill's chamber,
where he was stricken in great ecstacies
and trances, lying by the space of two
or three hours dead, his spirit taken, and
suffered himself to be carried and
transported to many mountains, as he thought,
through all the world, according to his
depositions;" those depositions made after
fearful torture, and recanted the instant his
mind recovered its tone. He was also found
guilty of suffering himself to be carried to
North Berwick church, where, together with
many others, he did homage to Satan, as he
stood in the pulpit "making doubtful
speeches," and bidding them "not to fear,
though he was grim." But the pith of the
indictment was, that he, Fian, and sundry
others to be spoken of hereafter, entered into
a league with Satan to wreck the King (James
the Sixth) on his Denmark voyage, when, in
a fit of clumsy gallantry, he went to visit his
future queen. While sailing to Denmark,
Fian and a whole crew of witches and
wizards met Satan at sea, and the master,
giving an enchanted cat into Robert Grierson's
hand, bade him "cast the same into
the sea, holà!" Which was done, and a
strong gale was the consequence. Then,
when the King was returning from
Denmark, the Devil promised to raise a mist,
which should wreck him on English ground.
To perform which feat he took something
like a football, appearing like a wisp to
Dr. Fian, which, when he cast it into the
sea, caused the great mist to rise that nearly
drove the cumbrous pedant on to the English
shore.

Then he was convicted of again consorting
with Satan and his crew, still in North
Berwick church; where they paced round the
church "withershins," that is, contrary to the
way of the sun. Fian blew into the lock
to open the door—a favourite trick of his—
and blew in the lights which burned blue
and seemed black; and where Satan, as a
"mickle blak man," preached again to them,
and made them very angry by calling Robert
Grierson by his name. He ought to have
been called "Ro' the Comptroller, or Rob
the Rowar." This slip of Satan's
displeasing them, they ran "hirdie girdie"
in great excitement. At this séance, Fian
and others rifled the graves of the dead,
and dismembered their bodies for charms.
Once at the house of David Seaton's
mother, he breathed into a woman's hand,
sitting by the fire, and opened a lock at the
other end of the kitchen. Once he raised up
four candles on his horse's two ears, and a
fifth on the staff which a man, riding with
him, carried in his hand. These magic
candles gave as much light as the sun at noonday,
and the man was so terrified that he
fell dead on his own threshold. Then he
was seen to chase a cat; and to be carried
in the chace over a hedge so high that
he could not touch the cat's head. When
asked why he hunted her, he said that Satan
wanted all the cats he could lay his hands
on, to cast into the sea for the purpose of
raising storms for shipwreck. Which, with
divers smaller and somewhat monotonous
charges, formed the sum of the indictment
against him. He was put to the
torture. First, his head was "thrawed
with a rope," for about an hour. But, he
would confess nothing. Then they tried fair
means and coaxed him, with no better
success; and then they "put him to the most
severe and cruell paine in the worlde,"
namely the Boots. After the third stroke