The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

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The Highland Monthly
Mr Macbain, published a valuable collection of them in the
High/and Monthly during last year. To-night I propose to
resume the subject commenced before this Society in 1879 ;
and although it may be necessar}' to recall here and there
portions of my former paper, and also to refer to and some-
times quote from the writings of Mr Macbain and others, I
will endeavour to place before you, in the main, charms and
incantations which, so far as I am aware, have not hitherto
been published.
From the earliest times we read of wizards and witches,
sorcerers and magicians. The State punished them as
persons dangerous to society, and the burning of witches
forms an interesting if not a very edifying feature of our
national history. In these proceedings the Churches have
taken an active part. A popular proverb has it— " Gheibli
Baobli a gtiidhe ged nach fhaigh a li-anam trocair'— " A
witch will get her wish though her soul may not get
mercy." To banish from the minds of the people such a
belief as this was a task which the Churches seemed to
have placed before themselves. Not only were our Gaelic-
speaking Highlanders taught to place no belief in witch-
craft and divination, but our cousins in Ireland were taught
the same lesson. In a Catholic Catechism I find the following
among the things forbidden by the First Commandment
:
Q.—A bheil a chiad aithne 'bacail ni sam bith eile ?
A.—Tha—buidseachd, eolasan, giseagan, innse-fortain,.
a' toirt brigh a bruadar, agus gach comunn do'n t-seorsa
sin ris an aibheistear.
Again in the Catechism by Andrew Donlevy, Director of
the Irish community at Paris, published in that city in
1742, and still in use in the sister isle, I find the following
among the things forbidden by that commandment :
Ceisd. — An bhfuil se an aghaidh na hAithene-si
Comhairle d' iarraidh air lucht faisdine, Draoidheachta, no
Pise6g, noch do ni cunnradh ris an Diabhal ?
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