increasing
magnitude of the waters, for sea and land were visible from Saint Bees to
Barnhourie. The sails of two vessels were soon seen bent for the
Scottish coast; and, with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, they
approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint. On the
deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or shape, unless
something in darkness and form, resembling a human shadow could be called
a shape, which flitted from extremity to extremity of the ship, with the
appearance of trimming the sails, and directing the vessel's course. But
the decks of its companion were crowded with human shapes; the captain
and mate, and sailor and cabin-boy, all seemed there; and from them the
sound of mirth and minstrelsy echoed over land and water. The coast
which they skirted along was one of extreme danger, and the reapers
shouted to warn them to beware of sandbank and rock; but of this friendly
counsel no notice was taken, except that a large and famished dog, which
sat on the prow, answered every shout with a long, loud, and melancholy
howl. The deep sandbank of Carsethorn was expected to arrest the career
of these desperate navigators; but they passed, with the celerity of
water-fowl, over an obstruction which had wrecked many pretty ships.

"Old men shook their heads and departed, saying, 'We have seen the fiend
sailing in a bottomless ship; let us go home and pray;' but one young and
wilful man said, 'Fiend! I'll warrant it's nae fiend, but douce Janet
Withershins the witch, holding a carouse with some of her Cumberland
cummers, and mickle red wine will be spilt atween them. Dod I would
gladly have a toothfu'! I'll warrant it's nane o' your cauld sour slae-
water like a bottle of Bailie Skrinkie's port, but right
drap-o'-my-heart's-blood stuff, that would waken a body out of their last
linen. I wonder where the cummers will anchor their craft?' 'And I'll
vow,' said another rustic, 'the wine they quaff is none of your visionary
drink, such as a drouthie body has dished out to his lips in a dream; nor
is it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels they sail in, which are
made out of a cockel-shell or a cast-off slipper, or the paring of a
seaman's right thumb-nail. I once got a hansel out of a witch's quaigh
myself--auld Marion Mathers, of Dustiefoot, whom they tried to bury in
the old kirkyard of Dunscore; but the cummer raise as fast as they laid
her down, and naewhere else wo