IN SCOTLAND
67
"A thorn or a burr
She takes for a spur,
"With a lash of the bramble she rides now.
Through brake and through briers,
O'er ditches and mires,
Herrick : The Hag.
The meeting-place was arranged by the Devil, who sometimes rode there on a goat. At their supper no bread or salt was eaten; they drank out of horses' skulls, and danced, sometimes back to back, sometimes from west to east, for the dances at the ancient Baal festivals were from east to west, and it was evil and ill-omened to move the other way. For this dance the Devil played a bag-pipe made of a hen's skull and cats' tails.
"There sat Auld Nick, in shape o' beast;
A tousie tyke, black, grim, and large.
To gie them music was his charge :
He screwed the pipes and gart them skirl.
Burns : Tam o' Shanter.
- ↑ Ring.
