incisioune, wpon
flesh, or cheis--and ther wes no blood at all in the
wownd--nor did it at all blead, altho' that many persones
befor had tuitched it, whill[85] shoe did tuitche it! And
the howse being searched all over, for the shirt of the dead
man, yitt it cowld not be found; and altho' the howse was
full of people all that night, ever vatching the corpes;[86]
neither did any of them tuitch him that night--which is
probable[87]--yitt, in the morneing, his shirt was fownd
tyed fast abowt his neck, as a brechame,[88] non knowing how
this come to pass! And this Cristian did immediatlie
transport all her owne goods owt of her own howse into her
dowghter's, purposing to flie away--bot was therwpon
apprehendit and imprisoned.'--_Pitcairn's Criminal Trials_,
vol. iii. p. 194.

[Footnote 79: See Dr. Hibbert's "History of Orkney," &c., to which
this remarkable Trial is appended.]

[Footnote 80: The name left blank.]

[Footnote 81: Rede; advice.]

[Footnote 82: Malicious.]

[Footnote 83: The name given at her baptism by the Devil. From
"Collection of Original Documents," belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, MS. As a specimen of the other charges, take
the following: "Williame Richardsone, in Dalkeith, haiving felled ane
hen of the said Cristianes with ane stone, and wpone her sight thereof
did imediatly threatne him, and with ane frowneing countenance told
him, that he 'should newer cast ane vther stone!' And imediatly the
said Williame fell into ane franicie and madnes, and tooke his bed,
and newer rose agane, but died within a few dayes: And in the tyme of
his sicknes, he always cryed owt, that the said Cristiane was present
befor him, in the likeness of ane grey catt! And some tyme eftir his
death, James Richardsone, nephew to the said Williame, being a boy
playing in the said Cristiane her yaird, and be calling her Lantherne,
shoe threatned, that, if he held not his peace, shoe sowld cause him
to die the death his nephew (uncle) died of!' Whairby it would appeare
that shoe tooke wpon hir his nepheas (uncle's) death."]

[Footnote 84: Wonder; amazement.]

[Footnote 85: Until. That is, many previous trials had been made of
other persons suspected, or of those who were near neighbours, perhaps
living at enmity with the deceased, who had voluntarily offered
themselves to this solemn ordeal, or had been called upon thus
publicly to a