mon to open all the locks in the house, as if by some magic spell the departing spirit of the sufferer were confined by some lock or knot near his person. I have often known it done, but could never procure any other account of the ceremony, than that they did it because folks used to do so.-Jamieson's Pop. Ballads, vol. ii. p. 184.

Note VII.

Which in the Yule light's spreading beam
Makes even death more dismal seen.-P. 28.

Yule lights, are candles of a particular kind that are made for this season. For the candle that is lighted on Yule must be so large as to burn from the time of its being lighted till the day be done. If it did not, the circumstance would be an omen of ill fortune to the family during the subsequent year. Hence large candles are by the vulgar called Yule candles. Even where lamps are commonly used, the poorest people will use candles at this season. By many who superstitiously observe the customs of this season, the Yule candle is allowed to burn out of itself. The influence of superstition appears equally in others, although in a different way. When the day is at a close, the portentous candle is extinguished, and carefully locked up in a chest. There it is kept, in order to be burnt out at the owner's Wake.Jamieson, Etym. Dict. of the Scot. Lang. vide YULE.

Note VIII.

Or piles, before the day is o'er,

The kelp in cairns along the shore.-P. 32. On most parts of the Hebrides, great quantities of bladder fucus, or sea oak, under the name of wreck, are annually burned to obtain an alkaline salt. The plants are cut from the rocks on which they grow, or gathered from the beach on which they are thrown by the tide; and being sufficiently dried by the heat of the sun, they are set on fire. The fire-place is a hole in the ground. The ashes to which the plants are reduced, are melted by the violence of the fire, into a mass kept in a state of fusion for three or four hours; it is then suffered to cool; and when it is set, they take it out of the hole in which the plants were burned. It is an article of great use in making of glass and soap.-Universal Mag. vol. lxxx. p. 76.

And

Note IX.

yon old hind, who taught him how

The run-rig of his sire to plow.-P. 40.

The manner of letting farms in the Highlands is very curious. Each is commonly possessed by a number of small tenants: Thus, a farm of L.40 a year is occupied by eighteen different people, who, by their leases, are bound conjunctly and severally for the payment of the rent to the proprietor. These

live on the farm in houses clustered together, so that each farm appears like a little village. The tenants annually divide the land by lot; each has his ridge, to which he puts his mark, such as he would do to any writing, and this species of farm is called Runrig-Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides, p. 176.

Note X.

With platter, glaiks, and quern mill.-P. 40. The quern, a machine for grinding corn, is very tedious; for it employs two pair of hands four hours to grind a single bushel. This work is commonly performed by women. Thus it is prophesied, "Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left." Many centuries ago, the legislature attempted to discourage these awkward mills. In 1284, in the time of Alexander the Third, it was provided, that " Na man sall presume to grin yuheit, maishloch, or rye, with hand-mylne, except he be compelled by storm, or be in lacke of mylnes quilk sould grind the samen, an in this case, giff a man grins at hand-mylnes, he sall giff the threettein measure as multer; an giff onie man contravenes this our law, he sall tine his hand-mylne perpetuallie."

Note XI.

As we are by many told

Druids wont to act of old.-P. 43.

Tacitus says, that the Druids were first in Britain, and that their order afterwards extended to France, where they became one of the two estates, to whom was committed the care of providing sacrifices, and of prescribing laws for their worship. They are re'ported to have been very cruel, and ordinarily murdered men upon their altars, and in their schools. They held oaks in great estimation, and all that grew on them, especially misletoe, which they worshipped as a thing sent from heaven. Their ceremonies are as follows: They caused meat to be prepared under an oak where misletoe grew, and two white bulls to be brought out with their horns bound; then the priest, arrayed in white, climbed up a tree, and having a bill of gold in his hand, threshed off the misletoe, then offered the sacrifice, praying that the gift might be prosperous to the receivers. Where oaks were not to be found, they performed these rites amid circles of large stones, many of which are still to be seen in various parts of the Highlands. They are thus described in Macpherson's Ossian. "Night came down on the sea. Roathas bay received the ship. A rock bends along the coast, with all its

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echoing wood. On the top is the Circle of Loda, the mossy stone of power." Vide Carric-Thura.

Note XII.

Fear not the weird woman.-P. 44.

Witchcraft first made its appearance in our criminal code about the year 1588; and shortly before the Reformation, an act was passed, annexing a capital punishment to the practising of sorcery, or consulting of witches. From the universal and excessive abhorrence entertained at such a suspicion, independently of judicial severities, it was sufficient to render the unhappy object anxious for death; nay, death itself did not screen the remains of those unhappy persons from the malice of their prosecutors; for if an unfortunate woman, trembling at a citation for witchcraft, ended her days by her own hands, she was dragged from her house at a horse's tail, and buried under the gallows.-Arnot's Criminal Trials.

Note XIII.

-Take milk from your browzing herds.—P. 45. There was nothing of which supposed witches were so generally accused as of taking away the milk of their neighbour's cows. The people, who were suspicious that their cattle laboured under this baneful influence of witchcraft, commonly assembled in a