tch-finding, or witch-pricking became a trade, and a set of mercenary
vagabonds roamed about the country, provided with long pins to run into
the flesh of supposed criminals. It was no unusual thing then, nor is
it now, that in aged persons there should be some spot on the body
totally devoid of feeling. It was the object of the witchpricker to
discover this spot, and the unhappy wight who did not bleed when
pricked upon it, was doomed to the death. If not immediately cast into
prison, her life was rendered miserable by the persecution of her
neighbours. It is recorded of many poor women, that the annoyances they
endured in this way were so excessive, that they preferred death. Sir
George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate, at the time when witch-trials were
so frequent, and himself a devout believer in the crime, relates, in
his "Criminal Law," first published in 1678, some remarkable instances
of it. He says, "I went, when I was a justice-depute, to examine some
women who had confessed judicially: and one of them, who was a silly
creature, told me, under secrecy, that she had not confessed because
she was guilty, but being a poor creature who wrought for her meat, and
being defamed for a witch, she knew she should starve; for no person
thereafter would either give her meat or lodging, and that all men
would beat her and set dogs at her; and that, therefore, she desired to
be out of the world; whereupon she wept most bitterly, and upon her
knees called God to witness to what she said." Sir George, though not
wholly elevated above the prejudices of his age upon this subject, was
clearsighted enough to see the danger to society of the undue
encouragement given to the witch-prosecutions. He was convinced that
three-fourths of them were unjust and unfounded. He says, in the work
already quoted, that the persons who were in general accused of this
crime, were poor ignorant men and women, who did not understand the
nature of the accusation, and who mistook their own superstitious fears
for witchcraft. One poor wretch, a weaver, confessed that he was a
warlock, and, being asked why, he replied, because "he had seen the
devil dancing, like a fly, about the candle!" A simple woman, who,
because she was called a witch, believed that she was, asked the judge
upon the bench, whether a person might be a witch and not know it? Sir
George adds, that all the supposed criminals were subjected to severe
torture in prison from their gaolers, who