tanic Majesty caused the mortals who sought
his service and favour to place one hand under their thigh and the other
over their head, and wish that the devil would take all that lay between
their hands if they were unfaithful to their vow. The form of oath by
expression of a wish was common to both Jews and Gentiles.

There was another kind of wish which was believed to obtain fulfilment
during life, that was the expressed wish of the innocent against those
who had wronged them. The belief in the fulfilment of such wishes was
grounded on the theological supposition that God in his justice would in
time punish the wrong-doer. I remember a rather pertinent example of
this: a proof they would have said in former days--a coincidence we
would say in these days. A simple-minded--_half-witted_--young woman was
taken advantage of by a young man resident in the neighbourhood, to the
public scandal of the village. He denied the paternity of the baby, and
made oath to that effect before the kirk-session. As he did so, the
girl, looking at him, wished that the hand he held up might lose its
cunning, as evidence of God's judgment upon the false swearer. In less
than a year from that time a disease came into his right hand, and he
was never afterwards able to use it. Not many years ago, I saw the same
man going through the village selling tea, and, as he passed along the
street, many of the older inhabitants remarked how wonderfully _Poor
Meg's_ wish had been fulfilled.

Employment of certain charms to influence for good or evil prevailed in
this century to a great extent. Some of these it is difficult to trace
to their origin. About forty years ago, a certain married couple lived
unhappily together. The wife did all she could to make her husband
comfortable, but still he abused her without cause. At length, after
suffering much, she applied to a woman who professed to have power over
the affections, and for this purpose prepared love philters. The woman
gave her a charm, which was to be sewn between the lining and cloth of
her husband's vest without his knowledge. She carried these instructions
out, and with extraordinarily successful results, for, while the husband
wore this vest, he never gave her so much as an angry word.

One Walter Donaldson was in the habit of beating his wife, and making
her life bitter. She made application to Isabell Straguhan, who
possesses magic influences, who took pieces of paper and sewed them
thick