t 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.

"I was soon convinced that this was some mysterious rite performed
either to break or ward off the power of witchcraft; but, so intent were
they on the prosecution of their design, that I could obtain no
satisfactory information, until I met an old schoolmaster in