on of Scots Poems,_
1709, Part III. p. 12.

In the hinder end of harvest, on All-hallowe'en,
When our _good neighbours_ dois ride, if I read right.
Some buckled on a bunewand, and some on a been,
Ay trottand in tronps from the twilight;
Some saidled a she-ape, all grathed into green,
Some hobland on a hemp-stalk, hovand to the hight;
The king of Pharie and his court, with the Elf queen,
With many elfish incubus was ridand that night.
There an elf on an ape, an unsel begat.
Into a pot by Pomathorne;
That bratchart in a busse was born;
They fand a monster on the morn,
War faced nor a cat.

[Footnote A: See the inimitable poem of Hallowe'en:--

"Upon that night, when Fairies light
On Cassilis Downan dance;
Or o'er the leas, in splendid blaze,
On stately coursers prance," &c. _Burns._]

The catastrophe of _Tamlane_ terminated more successfully than that of
other attempts, which tradition still records. The wife of a farmer in
Lothian had been carried off by the Fairies, and, during the year of
probation, repeatedly appeared on Sunday, in the midst of her children,
combing their hair. On one of these occasions she was accosted by
her husband; when she related to him the unfortunate event which had
separated them, instructed him by what means he might win her, and
exhorted him to exert all his courage, since her temporal and eternal
happiness depended on the success of his attempt. The farmer, who
ardently loved his wife, set out on Hallow-e'en and, in the midst of a
plot of furze, waited impatiently for the procession of the Fairies. At
the ringing of the Fairy bridles, and the wild unearthly sound which
accompanied the cavalcade, his heart failed him, and he suffered the
ghostly train to pass by without interruption. When the last had rode
past, the whole troop vanished, with loud shouts of laughter and
exultation; among which he plainly discovered the voice of his wife,
lamenting that he had lost her for ever.

A similar, but real incident, took place at the town of North Berwick,
within the memory of man. The wife of a man, above the lowest class of
society, being left alone in the house, a few days after delivery, was
attacked and carried off by one of those convulsion fits, incident to
her situation. Upon the return of the family, who had been engaged in
hay-making, or harvest, they found the corpse much disfigured. This
circumstance, the natural conseque