r, being unable to walk, 'was by
force drawin out at the byre dure; and the said Johnne with Nikclerith
smelling the nois thereof said it wald not leive, caused are hoill to be
maid in Maw Greane, quhilk was put quick in the hole and maid all the
rest of the cattell theireftir to go over that place: and in that
devillische maner, be charmeing,' they were cured."[791] Again, during
the prevalence of a murrain about the year 1629, certain persons
proposed to stay the plague with the help of a celebrated "cureing
stane" of which the laird of Lee was the fortunate owner. But from this
they were dissuaded by one who "had sene bestiall curet be taking are
quik seik ox, and making are deip pitt, and bureing him therin, and be
calling the oxin and bestiall over that place." Indeed Issobell Young,
the mother of these persons, had herself endeavoured to check the
progress of the distemper by taking "ane quik ox with ane catt, and ane
grit quantitie of salt," and proceeding "to burie the ox and catt quik
with the salt, in ane deip hoill in the grund, as ane sacrifice to the
devill, that the rest of the guidis might be fred of the seiknes or
diseases."[792] Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, John
Ramsay of Ochtertyre tells us that "the violent death even of a brute is
in some cases held to be of great avail. There is a disease called the
_black spauld_, which sometimes rages like a pestilence among black
cattle, the symptoms of which are a mortification in the legs and a
corruption of the mass of blood. Among the other engines of superstition
that are directed against this fatal malady, the first cow seized with
it is commonly buried alive, and the other cattle are forced to pass
backwards and forwards over the pit. At other times the heart is taken
out of the beast alive, and then the carcass is buried. It is remarkable
that the leg affected is cut off, and hung up in some part of the house
or byre, where it remains suspended, notwithstanding the seeming danger
of infection. There is hardly a house in Mull where these may not be
seen. This practice seems to have taken its rise antecedent to
Christianity, as it reminds us of the pagan custom of hanging up
offerings in their temples. In Breadalbane, when a cow is observed to
have symptoms of madness, there is recourse had to a peculiar process.
They tie the legs of the mad creature, and throw her into a pit dug at
the door of the fold. After covering the hole with eart