The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

——The Highland MonthlyMr Macbain, published a valuable collection of them in theHigh/and Monthly during last year. To-night I propose toresume the subject commenced before this Society in 1879 ;and although it may be necessar}' to recall here and thereportions of my former paper, and also to refer to and sometimesquote from the writings of Mr Macbain and others, Iwill endeavour to place before you, in the main, charms andincantations which, so far as I am aware, have not hithertobeen published.From the earliest times we read of wizards and witches,sorcerers and magicians. The State punished them aspersons dangerous to society, and the burning of witchesforms an interesting if not a very edifying feature of ournational history. In these proceedings the Churches havetaken an active part. A popular proverb has it— " GheibliBaobli a gtiidhe ged nach fhaigh a li-anam trocair'— " Awitch will get her wish though her soul may not getmercy." To banish from the minds of the people such abelief as this was a task which the Churches seemed tohave placed before themselves. Not only were our GaelicspeakingHighlanders taught to place no belief in witchcraftand divination, but our cousins in Ireland were taughtthe same lesson. In a Catholic Catechism I find the followingamong 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-seorsasin ris an aibheistear.Again in the Catechism by Andrew Donlevy, Director ofthe Irish community at Paris, published in that city in1742, and still in use in the sister isle, I find the followingamong the things forbidden by that commandment:Ceisd. — An bhfuil se an aghaidh na hAithene-siComhairle d' iarraidh air lucht faisdine, Draoidheachta, noPise6g, noch do ni cunnradh ris an Diabhal ?