Folklore and Witchcraft: The Blacksmith's Wife of
Yarrowfoot
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Traditional Tale from
Scotland
Some years back, the blacksmith of Yarrowfoot had for apprentices
two brothers, both steady lads, and, when bound to him, fine
healthy fellows.
After a few months, however, the younger of the two began to grow
pale and lean, lose his appetite, and show other marks of declining
health. His brother, much concerned, often questioned him as to
what ailed him, but to no purpose.
At last, however, the poor lad burst into an agony of tears, and
confessed that he was quite worn out, and should soon be brought to
the grave through the ill-usage of his mistress, who was in truth a
witch, though none suspected it. "Every night," he sobbed out, "she
comes to my bedside, puts a magic bridle on me, and changes me into
a horse. Then, seated on my back, she urges me on for many a mile
to the wild moors, where she and I know not what other vile
creatures hold their hideous feasts. There she keeps me all night,
and at early morning I carry her home. She takes off my bridle, and
there I am, but so weary I can ill stand. And thus I pass my nights
while you are soundly sleeping."
The elder brother at once declared he would take his chance of a
night among the witches, so he put the younger one in his own place
next to the wall, and lay awake himself till the usual time of the
witch-woman's arrival. She came, bridle in hand, and flinging it
over the elder brother's head, up sprang a fine hunting horse. The
lady leaped on his back, and started for the trysting-place, which
on this occasion, as it chanced, was the cellar of a neighboring
laird.
While she and the rest of the vile crew were regaling themselves
with claret and sack, the hunter, who was left in a spare stall of
the stable, rubbed and rubbed his head against the wall till he
loosened the bridle, and finally got it off, on which he recovered
his human form. Holding the bridle firmly in his hand, he concealed
himself at the back of the stall till his mistress came within
reach, when in an instant he flung the magic bridle over her head,
and, behold, a fine gray mare!
He mounted her and dashed off, riding through hedge and ditch,
till, looking down, he perceived she had lost a shoe from one of
her forefeet. He took her to the first smithy that was open, had
the shoe replaced, and a new one put on the other forefoot, and
then rode her up and down a plowed field till she was nearly worn
out. At last he took her home, and pulled the bridle off just in
time for her to creep into bed before her husband awoke, and got up
for his day's work.
The honest blacksmith arose, little thinking what had been going on
all night; but his wife complained of being very ill, almost dying,
and begged him to send for a doctor. He accordingly aroused his
apprentices; the elder one went out, and soon returned with one
whom he had chanced to meet already abroad.
The doctor wished to feel his patient's pulse, but she resolutely
hid her hands, and refused to show them. The village Esculapius was
perplexed; but the husband, impatient at her obstinacy, pulled off
the bedclothes, and found, to his horror, that horseshoes were
tightly nailed to both hands! On further examination, her sides
appeared galled with kicks, the same that the apprentice had given
her during his ride up and down the plowed field.
The brothers now came forward, and related all that had passed. On
the following day the witch was tried by the magistrates of
Selkirk, and condemned to be burned to death on a stone at the
Bullsheugh, a sentence which was promptly carried into effect. It
is added that the younger apprentice was at last restored to health
by eating butter made from the milk of cows fed in kirkyards, a
sovereign remedy for consumption brought on through being
witch-ridden.
* The above
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