“Witchcraft” in East Lothian.
The good folks at the farm steading and in the vicinity of Southfield, Gladsmuir, are being very much exercised int their minds just now about a little girl named Annie Nisbet. Annie is daughter to a farm servant at Southfield, is a little over six years of age, and has been “bewitched.”
Various stories are afloat throughout the district concerning how the little bewitched girl is being operated upon by unseen hands, and there are not wanting those who assert that she is now capable of performing acts which no living mortal but herself can do. Hundreds of people have gone, and many still are going, to see the girl, and all agree that her ways surpass their comprehension.
Curious to learn a little more concerning this strange phenomenon, I yesterday proceeded to Southfield, and had an interview with the parents.
“Ye’ll hae come to see the bairn noo?” said the mother, who did not seem altogether at ease. “Yes,” was the reply. “I have heard so many strange stories about her, and I have come to see and hear for myself.”
“Is that the girl?” pointing towards one who had made her way to the window and turned her back upon us. “Yes,” said the mother. “She is very weak, and ever since that thing cam’ ower her she hasna had a day to dae weel.”
“How did it happen, Mrs Nisbet?” “Oh, it’s a fricht she got. Aboot six weeks ago a gaun-aboot beggar cam’ to the door playing a tin whistle; and because I wadna cross his loof wi a copper, he stood and cursed us ‘up hill, doon dell,’ and looked very wicked like at the lassie. She shook wi’ fricht a’ the day after, and went to her bed in a very nervous condition. Throughout the night we were awakened by what we supposed to be somebody knocking on the wa’ frae the outside.
“Her father got up and went round the hoose, but could see nobody. Coming in, we still heard the rapping, and followed it to where Annie lay. He spoke, but she was sleeping, and the noise continued at her head. We then got her up, turned the bedding out on to the floor, and searched in below the bed, but there was nothing.
“Laying her down to sleep, the rapping became more furious than ever, and it being midnight we became terrified, and brought in some of the neighbours to hear it, and sat up all the night.
“Thus it continued for about three weeks, many people coming to hear it. We shifted her to other beds in the house, but it continued all the same. We laid her on the hearthrug, and as soon as she fell asleep it began there too. A’body said she was ‘bewitched,’ and we sent for the minister to come doon and pray ower her, but he wadna come. Baith o’ the local doctors were called in, but they either couldna understand her case or didna want to tell what was the matter.”
It was further stated that the girl had been removed to her grandmother’s at Macmerry, and there the knocking went on as brisk as ever. Among those who heard it there, one threw out a hint that she was hoaxing them, and to test the case a Committee of four was appointed to go in after she was sleeping, and they heard the rapping too, and were convinced she had been bewitched.
Some of them wished to get up a subscription in order to offer a reward for the apprehension of the “whistling beggar” – “for he alone can break the spell with which he charmed the girl.”
They have also had Annie in at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, but the medical gentlemen who examined her there said little about the matter. “They spoke in French,” says the mother, and she “couldna understand them.”
Annie is now at home with her parents, and they say that the rapping still continues, but now only occasionally, and only while she sleeps. The excitement among outsiders is still great, but it is falling off at Southfield. But the manner in which the noise is caused remains as yet a mystery. Annie will upon no account answer a single question put to her, and seems rather to enjoy the fun- Edinburgh Evening Dispatch.
Dundee Courier, 21st September 1888.