THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

CHANGELING AND WITCH 175
" hangit to the death " because he confessed
judiciallie that on a night in the moneth of November 1676 he
travelling betwixt Ardturr and Glackiriska at ane hill he saw a
light not knowing quhair he was. And ther a great number of
men and women within the hill quhair he entered haveing many
candles lighted, and saw ane old man as seemed to have preference
above the rest and that sum of them desired to shutt him out and
others to have him drawine in And saw them all danceing about
the lights and that they wold have him promise and engadge to
come ther againe that night eight nights and for a considerable space
thereftir. . . . Interrogat with quhom he engadgeit and what he
judget them to be . . . Answers . . . that he cannot weill tell
quhat persons they wer bot he judges them not to have bein wordlie
men or men ordayned of god.82
The dittay against Katherene Roiss Lady Fowlis reveals
the power of the fairies over herls3 as do those
against Jonet M~risone,'~ Christian Lewing~toun,'~ Isobell
Stra~thaquhin,'~ and Elspeth Re~ch.'~ And the four
confessions of Issobell Gowdie, who owed her power to
the devil and the Queen of Elfame and her court, furnish
full details of the life of a mortal who was also an
inhabitant of fairyland."
The examples of witches, made witches by the fairies,
and of fairy changelings left in mortal cradles, could be
multiplied, but the evidence of the references already
cited seems sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the
fairies of the sixteenth century were real and powerful
beings, who, through the witch and the changeling,
gained possession of mortals and carried them away.
s2 Highland Papers, Vol. 111, p. 37.
s3 Pitcairn, Crirn. Trials, Vol. I, pt. 2, pp. 192-200.
84 Highland Papers, Vol. 111, p. 23.
S6 Pitcairn, Crirn. Trials, Vol. 11, pp. 25-29.
seSpald. Club Misc., Vol. I, pp. 177-179.
Maitland Club Misc., Vol. 11, pp. 187-191.
Pitcairn, Crirn. Trials, Gen. App., pp. 602-616.