184 Leiand L. Duncan.
a witch, her apples were left in peace. One day, one lad said to the other that they'd see whether the woman was a witch or no. ' Do you go this night on a kalie, and talk with the old woman and her daughter, and, while you're talking, I'll take the apples, and you will soon see whether she knows what I'm doing.'
" That evening one lad set off for the house, and he sat there by the fire talking until it was late, and he thought his friend would have his work done. Then he said ' good night' to the old woman and her daughter, and went, thinking it was a good share of apples he'd be getting. When he got near home he met his companion, who bitterly reproached him for his breach of good faith. Said he,
- But the old woman talked with me the whole evening.'
Then he heard the other's tale : how that he had waited until he thought the party would be gathered round the fire, and he had then gone into the garden after the apples, but he hadn't more than two or three pulled, when the old woman came out and chased him round and round the trees, and hunted him from the place, and m.any was the thwack she gave him with her stick. ' I declare to goodness', says the other, ' she never left my sight this evening.'
" So that shows that witches are not gone from us quite yet."
STOLEN BUTTER.
Perhaps the most favourite tales of witchery are those relating to the taking of butter, and this because there is not a person who does not believe that butter can be, and is, taken from the milk by the aid of witchcraft. I heard from several that they had " lost their butter", as the phrase is, for a month at a time ; and no matter how they churned there was nothing but froth on the milk.
The tale of the absent-minded priest is the best of this class of story : —
Once there was a good priest who, as his wont was, walked out in the morning .'^aying his office ; and as he
