Next
morning, the servant-men told what had taken place, and refused to
remain at the farm any longer with the lad; and the farmer had thus to
part with him, but he and the servants gave him little gifts that they
might part good friends. My informant believed himself above
superstition, yet he related this as evidence of the truth of the _black
airt_.
It is a very old belief that those who had made compacts with the devil
could afflict those they disliked with certain diseases, and even cause
their death, by making images in clay or wax of the persons they wished
to injure, and then, by baptizing these images with mock ceremony, the
persons represented were brought under their influence, so that whatever
was then done to the image was felt by the living original. This
superstition is referred to by Allan Ramsay in his _Gentle Shepherd_:--
"Pictures oft she makes
Of folk she hates, and gaur expire
Wi' slow and racking pain before the fire.
Stuck fu' o' preens, the devilish picture melt,
The pain by folk they represent is felt.
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