Witchcraft and Superstitious Record

Witchcraft and
Superstitious Record

IN THE

South-Western District of Scotland

BY
J. MAXWELL WOOD, M.B.
Author of “Smuggling in the Solway and
Around the Galloway Sea-board”
Editor of “The Gallovidian,” 1900-1911

Illustrated from Special Drawings by
John Copland, Esq., Dundrenna

Dumfries: J. Maxwell & Son
1911

To

Alison Jean Maxwell Wood

A “witch” of my most intimate acquaintance

PREFACE.

Throughout Dumfriesshire and Galloway remnants of old-world customs still linger, suggesting a remoter time, when superstitious practice and belief held all-important sway in the daily round and task of the people.

In gathering together the available material bearing upon such matters, more particularly in the direction of witchcraft, fairy-lore, death warnings, funeral ceremony and ghost story, the author trusts that by recording the results of his gleanings much as they have been received, and without at all attempting to subject them to higher analysis or criticism, a truer aspect and reflection of the influence of superstition upon the social life of those older days, may be all the more adequately presented.

112 George Street, Edinburgh,
August 9th, 1911.

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.