The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

The Highland Monthly.
your hous, and shawing It to you, thereafter the cow grew
weil, thairby shewing and proving your sd. deviHsh practyce
of the art of witchcraft.
" Item,—Ye, the said Marion, are indyttit and accusit
for that you having, a'no 1642 zeirs, hyrit ane cow from
Androw Smith, younger in Hildiswick, which ye keepit frae
the bull, when she wald have taken bull, and the sd. Andro
getting knowledge thereof, causit the same to be brought
to the bull and bullit against your will. The next year
when she calved, ye by your sd. devilish art of witchcraft,
took away her proffeit and milk, sa that she milked nothing
but water, quhilk stinked and tasted of sharn a long tyme,
till that you comming by the sd Andro his hous, he
suspecting you, caused you to milk her and look to her,
•after which doing, immediately the sd. cow's milk cam to
its own nature,—thairby indicating and shewing your sd.
devilish, and wicked, and abominable airt and practice of
witchcraft,^and quhilk ye cannot deny."
Poor Marion was found guilty, and sentenced to be
burned to death.
In the Highlands, similar beliefs as to the powers of
our Transactions contain an
witches prevailed ; and
interesting paper by our friend Mr William Macka}%
describing the burning of witches in Strathglass. I am
not aware that this mode of treatment existed in the
Western Islands. There the people, by means of herbs
and appeals to the Trinity and the Church, hoped to ward
off the powers of witchcraft. For this purpose a favourite
plant was
MOTHAN, OR MOAN.
I do not find the name of this herb in any of our Gaelic
dictionaries ; but in Lightfoot's " Flora Scotica," page 1 1 3
under the heading " Addition of Erse and Scotch names
and plants," he has the following :— " Pingiiiaila vulgaris.
Moan, Gaiilis. Steep-grass, Earning-grass, Scotis-aiistraH'
In Uist this plant was believed to be a sure protection
against the powers of witches. It should be pulled on a Sunday
in this manner :—On finding a place where it grew in
abundance, the person going to use it would mark out three
small tufts, and calling one by the name of the Father,
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