Witch Stories

t was dead, and her husband and child who were lying "sick in the land-ill," she herself still weak after gissane, or child-birth, she met "ane honest, wele, elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had ane gray coitt with Lumbart slevis of the auld fassoun; ane pair of gray brekis and quhyte schankis gartanit abone the kne; ane blak bonet on his heid, cloise behind and plane befoir, with silkin laissis drawin throw the lippis thairof; and ane quhyte wand in his hand." This was Thom Reid, who had been killed at the battle of Pinkye (1547), but was now a dweller in Elfame, or Fairy Land. Thom stopped her, saying, "Gude day, Bessie." "God speid yow, gude man," says she. "Sancta Marie," says he, "Bessie, quhy makis thow sa grit dule and sair greting for ony wardlie thing?" Bessie told him her troubles, poor woman, and the little old gray-bearded man consoled her by assuring her that though her cow and her child should die, yet her husband would recover; and Bessie, after being "sumthing fleit" at seeing him pass through