Chapter XV

St. Peter, and Simon the Magician--Clement's Miracles and Death--St. Agnes--A Miraculous Circumstance--St. Blase's Power--St. Agatha's Holy Life--St. Patrick's Missionary Labours, and Expulsion of Reptiles from Ireland--St. Germanus stilling the Raging of the Sea--St. David and the Welsh Leeks--Stirrup Cup and Origin of "Pledging"--Elfrida's Treachery and Remorse--St. Benedict's Power--St. Dunstan cured by an Angel--The AEolian Harp--St. Columba's Prophecy concerning Iona--Sacred Ducks of Ireland--St. Paul binding a Dragon--Saints and Frogs--Friars and Jesuits--Father Mark proof against Fire--Virtue of Holy Water--St. Noel's Imprecation--St. Boniface--Pope Silvester assisted by Satan--Necromancing Popes--St. Januarius's Blood--St. Anthony's Conflicts with the Devil--St. Anthony's Hog and Bees--A Tradition concerning Melrose--St. Cuthbert--A Princess swallowed up by the Earth--Monk Waldevus's inexhaustible Stores--Holy Relics--Rusticus and his Hog 130

* * * * *

POETS AND SUPERSTITION.

CHAPTER XVI.

Prophetic Verse--The Bardi--Bards maintained by Noblemen--Queen Elizabeth and the Bards--Effects of Prophetic Sayings and of Pipe Music--Messages to another World--Voices of Deceased Friends heard in the Gale--Human Forms in the Clouds--Evenings in the Highlands--Michael Scott--Constant Work for Evil Spirits--Stemming the Tweed--How the Eildon Hills were formed--Ropes of Sand--Scott and his Magic Books buried at Melrose--Ossianic Poems--Stories by Bards 150

CHAPTER XVII.

Shakspeare--An Outline of his Composition--"The Tempest"--Miranda beseeching Prospero to allay the Wild Waters--Ariel's Readiness to serve his Master--The Witch Sycorax--Caliban's Evil Wish--Neptune chased--"Midsummer Night's Dream"--Exploits of a Fairy--Doings of Puck--Titania and her Attendants--Ghosts and Spirits--Song--"Macbeth"--Weird Sisters--Macbeth's Doom--Witches' Caldron--Macbeth admonished by Spirits--"Antony and Cleopatra"--Dreadful Apparition--King's Death avenged 161

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Poet Gay--The "Spell"--Hobnelia--Lubberkin--Spells resorted to--Valentine Day--Ladybird sent on a Message of Love--Virtue of United Garters--Gipsies' Warnings--Knives sever Love--Story of Boccaccio--Apparition of a Deceased Lover--Poems by Burns--"Address to the Deil"--"Tam o' Shanter" 173

CHAPTER XIX.

Sir Walter Scott--His Belief in Superstition--How his Tales of Fiction are composed--A Town-Clerk frightened by an Apparition--A Ghost that did not understand Erse, but could communicate in Latin--Lovel and Edie Ochiltree--Discovery of Hidden Treasure--"Rob Roy"--Fairies' Caverns--Supposed Apparition in the Trossachs--Elfin People at the Firth of Forth--A Minister taken away by Fairies--Dame Glendinning's Tale--Lines from "Marmion"--A Fairy Knight--Mysterious Steed 187

CHAPTER XX.

Lord Byron taught Superstition--Byron and the Maid in Green--Bridge of Balgonie--Byron's Fear to ride over it--His Belief in Unlucky Days and Presentiments--Socrates's Demon--Monk Lewis's Monitor--Napoleon's Warnings--A Sorrowful Tale--Byron's Fortune told by a Sibyl--Hebrew Camyo--Abracadabra--Loch-na-Garr--Oscar of Alva--Byron's last Instructions 197

CHAPTER XXI.

Tale by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd--Aikwood Castle--The Witch Henbane--Imps demanding Work--Michael Scott--Curious Sport--Dreadful Threat--Rats transformed into the form of Men--Inventor of Gunpowder--Summoning Evil Spirits--Latin the Language best understood by Satin and his Emissaries--Holy Signs and Charms--Effects of a Friar's Blessing--Magic Lantern--Michael Scott's Subscribed Conditions--Imps' Song--Dreadful Storm--Warlocks' Hymn--Eildon Hill 210

CHAPTER XXII.

Allan Ramsay--"The Gentle Shepherd"--Bauldy the Clown--Mause the reputed Witch--Praying Backwards--Sad Misfortunes--Supposed Power of the Devil to raise the Wind and send Rain and Thunder--Sir William disturbed--Symon's Announcement--Promise to gain a Lassie's Heart--Witches' Tricks--Longfellow's "Golden Legend"--"Song of Hiawatha" 218

* * * * *

MONARCHS, PRIESTS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND SUPERSTITION.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Superstition--Commencement of Monarchy in Scotland--King Fergus I. crowned on the Fatal Stone of Destiny--Signs, Assistance of Spirits, Magicians, and Fortune-tellers--Natholocus sends a Friend to consult a Cunning Woman--Her Prediction--Constantine and Maxentius--A Heavenly Cross--A Famous Standard--Queen Guanora's Grave--Fear of St. Martin--The Church's Belief in Departed Saints--Relics venerated--King bewitched by Witches of Forres--Evil Signs--Sea Monster in the Don--Kenneth III. killed by an Infernal Machine--Virtue of Precious Stones--Weird Sisters--Consulting a Pythoness--Predictions by Druids--Domitian's Death foretold by Astrologers--Simon Magus--A Platonic Philosopher--The Emperor Julian instructed in Magic 234

CHAPTER XXIV.

Louis XI. and the Astrologer--A King's Enchanted Cap--David I. and the Mysterious Stag--Merlin the Magician--Prophecies concerning Queen Elizabeth and Mary--Dragon Caverns--Predictions of Evil--Changing a King's Love--The Holy Maid of Kent--Nobles put to Death for keeping company with Sorcerers--James I. of England and the Witches--Tranent Witches and Warlocks--Wise Wife of Keith--Two Hundred Witches sailing in Sieves--Raising Storms--Witch and Warlock Convention at Newhaven--Meeting of Witches at North Berwick--Witches tortured in Holyrood--The Devil's Mark--Bothwell's Fortune told--Witches and their Associates burned 242

CHAPTER XXV.

Cromwell in league with the Devil--Cromwell consulting Astrologers--Memorable Days in the Life of Cromwell--Duke of Hamilton warned of his Fate--Peden's Predictions--Traditions concerning Peden--John Brown the Martyr--Linlithgow Loch Swans--Hereford Children--Great Comet--Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter at Eventful Periods--Solomon's Power 254

* * * * *

THE DRUIDS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Druids laid claim to Supernatural Power--Representations of the Sun and Moon--Belief of Druids--Beltane Feasts--Arkite and Sabian Superstition--Dancing to the Song of the Cuckoo--Initiation into the Druidical Mysteries--The Goodmane's Land and the Guidman's Fauld--Offerings to Demi-gods--Propitiating Beasts of Prey--Sacred Cairns--Trees dedicated to Demons--Law forbidding Worship of the Sun, Moon, Fire, Rivers, Wells, Stones, or Forest Trees--Extracts from Kirk-Session Records--Land dedicated to Satan--Midsummer and Hallow Fires forbidden--Yule-day--Order of the General Assembly as to Druidical Customs--Old Customs ordered to be discontinued 262

CHAPTER XXVII.

Dr. Stuart on the Druids--Their Deities, etc.--Gauls descendants of Dis--Funeral Rites--Slaves and Clients burned--What Pliny says--Tallies used in making known the Will of Heaven--Walking through the Fire--Wonder-working Eggs--Easter Eggs represent Druidical Eggs--Origin of Druids--Wise Men of the East were probably Druids--Island of Iona--Druidical Cairns--Stones of Judgment--Misletoe regarded as a Charm--Rings worn as Preventatives against Witchcraft--Stonehenge--Merlin the Magician--Stones brought from Africa by Giants--Graves of British Lords 267

* * * * *

DEMONOLOGY.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

First Ideas of Demonology--Rabbinical Tradition--Adam's Marriage--The Wicked Lilith--Egyptian Tradition--Arabian Worship of Genii--Christians' Opinions of Demons--Forms assumed by Evil Spirits--Demoniacal King--Duty of Inferior Demons--Task of Benign Spirits--Schools of Magic--Circassian Opinions--Belief of Indians--Situation of Hell--Men's Actions recorded--Rewards and Punishments--How to frighten Demons--Treatment of the Sick--Attendant Angels--Worship of Gods--Foretelling Future Events--Small-pox propagated by an Evil Genius--Souls of Deceased Persons--Effect of Charms 273

CHAPTER XXIX.

Heathen Devotion in Ceylon--Superstitious Customs among the Schismatic Greeks--Negro Belief in Fetishes--Charms--Magic taught by the Priests--Dead Persons metamorphosed into Serpents--How the Gaures disposed of their Dead--Souls Blessed or Damned--Orders of Genii in Madagascar--Belief of the Caribbees--Brazilian Superstition--Peruvian Tradition--American Indians--Demons in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries--Satan in France--Manes, Anima, and Umbra among the Greeks and Romans 279

CHAPTER XXX.

Visible Ghosts--Superstition on the Baltic Shores--A German Legend--Demons in the West of Europe--Love, how plighted in Orkney--The Monster Ymir--Origin of Fairies--The Duergar or Dwarfs--Brownies in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland--Nine Classes of Evil Spirits--Vampires--Man's Double or Fetch--Churchyard Ghosts--Souls of Suicides--Burial of Suicides and Murderers at Cross Roads--Luther on Evil Spirits and Witches 284

CHAPTER XXXI.

Belief and Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church--Swedenborg's Intercourse with Spirits--Marcus Brutus and his Evil Genius--Cassius and Julius Caesar's Ghost at Philippi--Plutarch on Spectres--Socrates on the same subject--Archbishop Bruno and the Spectre--A Haunted House--Spectre at Sea--Ghost of a Murdered Man in New South Wales 291

CHAPTER XXXII.

Spiritualism Past and Present--Magic taught in Leipsic--Spirit of Marshal Saxe--How Spirits were Invoked--Voices of Spirits--Mysterious Death of a Magician--Unearthly Huntsman--Prediction and its Fulfilment--An Estate lost at the Gaming Table--A Baron Shot--A Marriage prevented by an Apparition--Consulting a Witch--Raising the Spirit of a Murdered Man--A Murderer's Fate 297

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Antonio the Rich--Dreadful Announcement from a Volcano's Mouth--Three Ghosts--Mozart apprehensive of Death--Mozart writing a Requiem for himself--Messenger from another World--Mozart's Death--Ghost of a Lady--A Haunted House--Iron Cage--Youth starved to Death--Frightful Dreams and Dreadful Sights--Dog frightened by a Spirit--Disturbed House--Duchess of Mazarin--Madame de Beauclair--Compact between the Living and the Dead--A Lady's Death foretold by a Spirit 304

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Sir George Villiers' Ghost--Duke of Buckingham Murdered--Lord Lyttelton and others profaning Christmas--A Troubled Mind--Apparition of a Suicide--Neglected Warning--Ominous Hour--Lord Lyttelton found Dead at the dreaded time--Death of an old Roman King--Alarming Prodigies--Tales from the _Eddas_--A Scandinavian Warrior's Ghost--An Icelandic Lady's Ghost--Fear of approaching Calamities--Association of Ghosts--Apparitions of Drowned Men--Christians not disturbed by Spectres--A Band of Demons--Priest exorcising Evil Spirits 312

CHAPTER XXXV.

A Mysterious Hunter--Man and Horse supposed to be Devils--Flagellation--Tales of the Scotch Highlands--Croaking Raven--Death of a suspected Witch--Resort of Witches and Evil Spirits--Spirits hastening to a Church--Black Man with Eyes like Fire--Horse breathing Smoke and Flame 318