THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

140 EARTHLY LIFE OF FAIRIES
give no other Account of it, but that when any Person was sick,
and she had a Mind to know the Issue, a Jury of Fairies came to
her in the Night time, who consider'd of the Matter; and if after-
wards they look'd cheerful, the Party would recover; if they look'd
sad, he would die.l13
Sometimes, if the proper procedure was followed,
mortals were invested by the fairies with second sight,l14
as was the case with William Lilly, who stated that
" Those glorious creatures, if well commanded, and well
observed, do teach the master anything he desires ";
or Christian Lewingstoun, I 597, who possessed fore-
knowledge of events, and " affermit that hir dochter was
tane away with the Farie-folk . . . and that all the
knawlege scho had was be hir dochter, wha met with the
. 116 or Bessie Dunlop, 1576, who " culd tell
~ ~ ll , i ~ i ~
diuerse persounes of thingis thai tynt, or wer stollin
away, or help seik persounes," because of her acquaintance
with the " gude wychtis that wynnit in the Court of
lla Pages 104-105.
114 See J. G. Dalyell, The Darker Superstitions of Scotland, 1834,
p. 470: ". . . for this faculty, [second sight] . . . came also from
supernatural beings, -not so often indeed, in so far as may be col-
lected, because those investigating its later subsistence, seldom advert
to such a mode of reception. They are engaged chiefly in describing
its extent and consequences. On a question involving life and death,
it was alleged against Isobel Sinclair, that during seven years, 'sex
times at the reathes of the year, shoe hath bein controlled with the
Phairie; and that be thame, shoe hath the second sight: quhairby
shoe will know giff thair be any fey bodie in the hous.' (Trial of
Issobell Sinclair, ult. Feb. 1633.) The same delinquent's skill in the
' secund sicht ' is referred to after her execution, in the trial of Bessie
Skebister, whose conviction followed in three weeks. Rec. Ork. f.
86."
116 Life and Times, p. 98.
116 Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, Vol. 11, pp. 25-26.