s, between
Ayrshire and Galloway, about three hundred years ago, a moor of
apparently boundless extent stretched several miles along the road, and
wearied the eye of the traveller by the sameness and desolation of its
appearance; not a tree varied the prospect--not a shrub enlivened the
eye by its freshness--nor a native flower bloomed to adorn this
ungenial soil. One "lonesome desert" reached the horizon on every side,
with nothing to mark that any mortal had ever visited the scene before,
except a few rude huts that were scattered near its centre; and a road,
or rather pathway, for those whom business or necessity obliged to pass
in that direction. At length, deserted as this wild region had always
been, it became still more gloomy. Strange rumours arose, that the path
of unwary travellers had been beset on this "blasted heath," and that
treachery and murder had intercepted the solitary stranger as he
traversed its dreary extent. When several persons, who were known to
have passed that way, mysteriously disappeared, the inquiries of their
relatives led to a strict and anxious investigation; but though the
officers of justice were sent to scour the country, and examine the
inhabitants, not a trace could be obtained of the persons in question,
nor of any place of concealment which could be a refuge for the lawless
or desperate to horde in. Yet, as inquiry became stricter, and the
disappearance of individuals more frequent, the simple inhabitants of
the neighbouring hamlet were agitated by the most fearful
apprehensions. Some declared that the deathlike stillness of the night
was often interrupted by sudden and preternatural cries of more than
mortal anguish, which seemed to arise in the distance; and a shepherd
one evening, who had lost his way on the moor, declared he had
approached three mysterious figures, who seemed struggling against each
other with supernatural energy, till at length one of them, with a
frightful scream, suddenly sunk into the earth.

Gradually the inhabitants deserted their dwellings on the heath, and
settled in distant quarters, till at length but one of the cottages
continued to be inhabited by an old woman and her two sons, who loudly
lamented that poverty chained them to this solitary and mysterious
spot. Travellers who frequented this road now generally did so in
groups to protect each other; and if night overtook them, they usually
stopped at the humble cottage of the old woman and her sons