t on his heid; hauing ane
black book in his hand'. Agnes Sampson's description in the official record
was very brief: 'he had on him ane gown, and ane hat, which were both
black';[66] but Melville, who probably heard her evidence, puts it more
dramatically: 'The deuell wes cled in ane blak gown with ane blak hat vpon
his head.... His faice was terrible, his noise lyk the bek of ane egle,
gret bournyng eyn; his handis and leggis wer herry, with clawes vpon his
handis, and feit lyk the griffon.'[67] John Fian merely mentions that the
first time the Devil came he was clothed in white raiment.[68] The evidence
from Aberdeen, 1596-7, points to there being two Chiefs, one old and one
young. Ellen Gray confessed that 'the Devill, thy maister, apperit to thee
in the scheap of ane agit man, beirdit, with a quhyt gown and a thrummit
[shaggy] hatt'. Andro Man 'confessis that Crystsunday cum to hym in liknes
of ane fair angell, and clad in quhyt claythis'. Christen Mitchell stated
that 'Sathan apperit to the in the lyknes of a littill crippill man'; and
Marion Grant gave evidence that 'the Deuill, quhom thow callis thy god,
apperit to thee in ane gryte man his licknes, in silkin abuilzeament
[habiliment], withe ane quhyt candill in his hand'.[69] Isobell Haldane of
Perth, 1607, was carried away into a fairy hill, 'thair scho stayit thrie
dayis, viz. fra Thurisday till Sonday at xii houris. Scho mett a man with
ane gray beird, quha brocht hir furth agane.' This man stood to her in the
same relation as Thom Reid to Bessie Dunlop, or as the Devil to the
witches.[70] Jonet Rendall of Orkney, 1629, saw him 'claid in quhyt
cloathis, with ane quhyt head and ane gray beard'.[71] In East Lothian,
1630, Alexander Hamilton met the Devil in the likeness of a black man.[72]
At Eymouth, 1634, Bessie Bathgate was seen by two young men 'at 12 hours of
even (when all people are in their beds) standing bare-legged and in her
sark valicot, at the back of hir yard, conferring with the devil who was in
green cloaths'.[73] Manie Haliburton of Dirlton, 1649, confessed that, when
her daughter was ill, 'came the Devill, in licknes of a man, to hir hous,
calling himselff a phisition'.[74] He came also as 'a Mediciner' to Sandie
Hunter in East Lothian in 1649.[75] In the same year he appeared as a black
man to Robert Grieve, 'an eminent Warlock' at Lauder.[76] In the same year
also 'Janet Brown was charged with having held a meeting with the Devil
appearing as