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Page 24
The same author, writing in 1814, says:--"I am acquainted myself with an
Anti-Burgher clergyman who actually procured from a person who pretended
to such skill in these charms two small pieces of carved wood, to be
kept in his father's cow-house as a security for the health of his
cows." The belief in the potency of the rowan tree to ward off evil is
no doubt a survival of ancient tree worship. Of this worship, the Rev.
F.W. Farrar says:--"It may be traced from the interior of Africa, not
only in Egypt and Arabia, but also onwards uninterruptedly into
Palestine and Syria, Assyria, Persia, India, Thibet, Siam, the
Philippine Islands, China, Japan, and Siberia; also westward into Asia
Minor, Greece, Italy, and other countries; and in most of the countries
here named it obtains at the present day, combined, as it has been, in
other parts with various forms of idolatry." Were it our object, it
could also be shown that tree worship has been combined with
Christianity. The rowan tree was held sacred by the Druids, and is often
found among their stone monuments. There is a northern legend that the
god of thunder (Thor), when wading the river Vimar, was in danger of
being swept away by its current, but that, grasping a tree which grew on
the bank, he got safely across. This tree was the mountain ash, which
was ever after held sacred; and when these nations were converted to
Christianity, they did not fall away from their belief in the sanctity
of the rowan tree.
Not many years ago, I was told of a miraculous make of butter which was
reported to have occurred in the west of Lanarkshire a short time
before. One morning, a farmer's wife in that district and her
maid-servant wrought at the kirn, but, do as they would, no butter would
appear. In this dilemma, they sat down to consider about the cause, and
then they recollected that a neighbouring woman had come into the
kitchen, where the kirn was standing the previous evening, to borrow
something, but was refused. The servant was at once despatched with the
article in question, and half-a-dozen eggs as a gift, to the old woman,
and instructed to make an apology for not having given the loan the
evening before. The woman received the gift, and gratefully expressed
her wish that the farmer and his wife would be blest both in their
basket and their store. The effect, said my informant, was miraculous.
Before the servant returned, the butter began to flow, and in such
quantity as had never before been experienced.
Apropos of this superstition with reference to milk, the following
incident occurred not many years back in the West Highlands. An old
woman, who kept a few cows, was in sore distress of mind because some
of her ill-disposed neighbours had cast an evil eye upon them, in
consequence of which their milk in a very short time _blinked_ (turned
sour), and churn as she might, she could never obtain any butter. She
had tried every remedy she knew of, or that had been recommended to her,
but without any good effect. At length, in her extremity, she applied to
the parish minister, and laid her case before him. He patiently listened
to her complaint, and expressed great sympathy for her, and then very
wisely said, "I'll tell you how I think you will succeed in driving away
the evil eye. It seems to me that it has not been cast on your cows, but
on your dishes. Gang hame and tak' a' your dishes down to the burn, and
let them lie awhile in the running stream; then rub them well and dry
with a clean clout. Tak' them hame and fill each with boiling water.
Pour it out and lay them aside to dry. The evil eye cannot withstand
boiling water. Sca'd it out and ye'll get butter." The prescription was
followed, and a few weeks after the woman called upon the minister and
thanked him for the cure, remarking that she had never seen anything so
wonderful.
Mr. Joseph Train, from whose notes we have already quoted, mentions a
ceremony, not of a private but of a public nature, and embracing a large
district of country, at the performance of which he was present. The
object to be obtained was the prevention of a threatened outbreak of
disease among the cattle. "In the summer of 1810," says Mr. Train,
"while remaining at Balnaguard, a village of Perthshire, as I was
walking along the banks of the Tay, I observed a crowd of people
convened on the hill above Pitna Cree; and as I recollected having seen
a multitude in the same place the preceding day, my curiosity was
roused, so that I resolved to learn the reason of this meeting in such
an unfrequented place. I was close beside them before any of the company
had observed me ascending the hill, their attention being fixed upon two
men in the centre. One was turning a small stock, which was supported by
two stakes standing perpendicularly, with a cleft at the top, in which
the crown piece went round in the form a carpenter holds a chisel on a
grinding stone; the other was holding a small branch of fir on that
which was turning. Directly below it was a quantity of tow spread on the
ground. I observed that this work was taken alternately by men and
women. As I was turning about in order to leave them, a man whom I had
seen before, laid his hand on my shoulder, and solicited me to put my
finger to the stick; but I refused, merely to see if my obstinacy would
be resented; and suddenly a sigh arose from every breast, and anger
kindled in every eye. I saw, therefore, that immediate compliance with
the request was necessary to my safety.
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