WAS A WITCH AND A ROBBER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18062, 24 January 1927, Page 12

WAS A WITCH AND A ROBBER.

DESPERATE WOMAN LED WILD GANG. PARSON OF KINGUSSIE TRACKED THEM DOWN. Fqr centuries before thq new road (General Wades road) passed through Badenoch, a mountainous district of Inverness, there was a district on the borders of the parishes of Kingussie and Alvie which the nature of the country and an evil reputation which it had acquired as the haunts of witches and robbers made very formidable to travellers. The River Spe3 r , noted at all times for its “spates,” dammed back as it was in those days by Loch Inch, rendered the -whole of the flat country a xvateo* wilderness. The play of the water when in flood, eating out new river beds and jamming up old ones, feeling for soft, anscA” parts and leaving the harder gravelly niourtds, caused a number of peculiar rounded hillocks to remain as a feature of the country to the present day. These were called “toms.” each of which had its appropriate name. They were practically islands in. those days, as, when the “spates” subsided, they were still surrounded with marshes up to the foothills, where the inhabitants had their villages. Difficult of approach at all times, and thickly wooded as far as the water would allow, thex* were the haunts and fastnesses of the wild boar and wolf in the earl3 r days, and of equally wild men. On one of these “toms,” that whereon Ruthven Castle’s ruins now stand, the wolf of Badenoch, prince of robbers and plunderers, had his seat. Another, to the east of Kingussie, is “Tom Ceireag,” where the famous witch of that name was cremated alive, and opposite to .it is the Robber's Cave, originally a large underground dwelling hollowed out of the hard earth just above the high-water mark of floods. It was so well concealed that it formed a last hiding-place to a formidable band of robbers, who, in the end, found it their death-trap. A REIGN OF TERROR. It was supposed to be in the fifteenth century, when law and religion, were alike at a low ebb in Scotland, that Ceireag and her associates terrorised over the district and made the country extremely dangerous from constant piracv, but it was considered safer, as a rule, to" convey goods and passengers bx* water from the south 1o Inverness than to risk the passes of Badenoch, even xvfith a strong and well-armed convoy. The robbers .of these daxus were desperate men, some of them of high descent, who flinched at no crime. Believing absolutely in the devil, they made nc> bones about serving him for power and plunder, and had made a willing £ool of Ceireag, frequently, employing her in their business. She, on her pact, obtaindd extraordinary influence ox'er them and bargained for a good share of the plunder for herself. Her keen eyes, or her uncanny foresight, often put them upon the scent of prey, or warned them of coming danger. She knew intimatel\* every hiding-place in the country, and, when an old. cme became too hot for the rob bers, she would find a new and unsuspected cme. She xvas at this time the onlx' living being who knew the whereabouts erf an underground stronghold, the entrance to which she contrived to hide very that she might have it in reserve for a case of extreme danger. Like same famous witches of those clays, Ceireag acted a double part. She had a deep and scheming mind, and was a past mistress in the arts of imitation and the wiles of flatten’. She found that a profession of religion would serve her purpose very xvell among the simple

natives around. She would visit the sick and bring them medicines (for she was skilled in herbs). She would sorrow with the bereaved, pray for the souls of the departed, and be found at times as in rapt adoration, counting her beads. So it was that she won such a reputation for piety throughout the countryside as to be known as the good wife of the Raitts, which was the name given to that district on account of its fords or shallows. Pretending that she greatly desired a little house , built for herself, where she might have her oratory and dispense her physics to the sick, and provide a night's shelter for the wanderer, she actually prevailed upon some men of the district to build her a cosy hut in a certain spot, on the exact site which she had chosen, prepared after the exact plan which she laid down. “For,” she said, “X must have in it my little seomar (or oratory), which no one must enter but myself.’ Here she dwelt when she wished to be known as the “ good wife, but there were prolonged absences which the people could not account for, but C-eireag knew all about. Robbery and Bloodshed. One of these times there took place a robberv with great violence and much bloodshed. It appears that a valuable , consignment of goods, including gold and silver for the “ change houses,” had to be conveyed from Perth to Inverness. And the country, and especially the Badenoch route, having been reported quiet for some time, it was believed the robbers had decamped to some other fastness. Depend upon it, Ceirag had spread this news in her own way. “ The report of your depredations is such,” she would say to the robbers, “ that there had not been a spoil bean taken for some time, and we are starving. You must keep very quiet for some time, while I spread a report that you have gone to the low country.” Thus it was considered safe to make the journey by the shortest route, that is, through the Badenoch passes, with a fairly strong convoy. It was an “ error of judgment.” The convoy was not nearly strong enough, but even a much stronger one would have had little chance in such a place, and against such foes. The robbers watched them until they were entangled in the difficult fords, and, at a given signal, set upon them and cut them off to a man, securing all the rich booty which they had so desperately desired. The news of this dreadful disaster and loss made the authorities in the south very angry, and no doubt there was much recrimination as well as vexation of spirit, over the failure of the expensive expedition. But in the end thev were compelled to do what they should have done at first—that is, to send an armed force sufficiently strong and well equipped to rid the country of these miscreants. The arrival of the King's troops in the district was the signal for the. robbers to betake themselves 1 o their most secret hidingplace, for they knew that all the passes would be strongly guarded, that the country would be thoroughly scoured, and that every visible or possible shelter would be burnt or destroyed. The inhabitants were filled with alarm, for they knew that they would be questioned, anrl probably tortured, until they should reveal the hiding-place of the robbers, of which they knew nothing. A Suspicious Parson. The parson of Kingussie of those davs was a good man and a shrewd, and sQrely felt the evil reputation which the robbers and their ally, Ceireag, had brought upon the country. He hated witchcraft and lawlessness, and was anxious to rid his parish and its borders of all such evils. He had been watching the good wile of Raitts for some time, and had begun to be suspicious of her ways, and especially of the show of religion she was making, in which she was very active ■ at this, time, professing great zeal against the robbers, and urging that, they should be discovered and brought to justice. Ho whispered his suspicions to some of his brethren in holy office, but they would not hear of anything against i the “ good-wife.” in whom they seemed to have complete confidence. It was doubtless the witch feireag who had hid them, or perhaps smuggled them away, but how were they to get at

the witch? She had not been seen nor heard of since the robbery. “ I have noticed” said the parson to them, “that whenever the goodwife was about Ceireag was never to be seen which is, perhaps, not surprising; but what has struck me as very is that when Ceireag was engaged in some mischief the goodwife was never at home.” home day and night just now. they replied, “ and passes much time in her oratory, as we have heard ; therefore, Ceirag must be far away." The Unwelcome Visitor. And so it was that the parson himself resolved to put his idea to the test. He conceived the plan of visiting the good wife's bothan, disguised as a poor wanderer, for he knew that as she valued her reputation for charity, she would not be likely to turn away a beggar who sought shelter for a night. He chose a wild and stormy night, and when he appeared at the good wife’s hospitable little door he was aware of some bustle within. The goodwife was busy, the fire was bright on the hearth, and the black grid over it was covered with a warm fleece of barley bannocks. It was a welcome sight to the cold and hungry traveller. But he had surprised a look in her eye which did not altogether speak of hospitality that night. On a less stormy night she would have been on the watch. But this was such a night only her own intimate friends might lie expected to choose for an outing She very quickly, however, assumed the “goodwife’s” manner, gave the beggar a cosy seat by the fire, and soon he had a warm bannock oft* the grid in his hands. As she had a pile of such bannocks by the fire (which she had not had time to put away), she explained that on such a night'as this she baked the bread which she gave away on other nights. “What a blessing it is,” said the beggar, “when such charity and forethought go together! | No wonder your hospitable cell is known far and wide. But let me no longer hinder you in your good work, and grant me permission to recline in that corner where I may still enjoy the warmth of the fire and I shall soon be fast asleep.” The “goodwife” was not quite at her ease about this arrangement, for this was one of “her busy nights,” and she had always taken care not to entertain a lodger on such occasions. But. the weary appearance and, by and by, the sound snoring of the “beggar” restored her confidence and she went on with her baking . The Chamber of Horrors. Needless to say, the “beggar slept with one eye open,” and he, being naturally, and by practice, observant, was able to note a few things which interested him exceedingly. The little room had an unusual supply of provisions, even for a charitably disposed person. Rolls and flitches of bacon (that had never been cured in Badenoch) were being cut into slices, cheeses were in evidence, and although the black grid had cast many a warm white fleece that night, the barrel of meal did not seem to fail. But what was most remarkable was that after the bannocks had been well sandwiched with ham and cheese, they were all put away in the goodwife’s seoraar, or oratory. This mysterious chamber had apparently no floor, for each “bale” of bannocks was let down in a basket with a rope attached to its handle and the empty basket drawn up again. The “beggar” noted these things, and, careful to give no sign, resumed his journey at da\ _ break, concluding in his own mind that the “goodwife” was no other than Ceireag, the reputed witch, that her preparations that busy night were not for the poor of the parish, that the provisions he had seen had been the spoils of some robbery, probably the latest, and that the robbers were hiding somewhere very near, and that there was an entrance to their hiding place underneath the “goodwife’s” own scomar. and that, in fact, one of them had been that night receiving the basketfuls, as they were let down, and carrying them off to his companions. Next night, while the storm continued, Ceireag was visited by two sturdy beggars, who quietly seized her. bound her, and tied her up in a sack. She

did not receive these attentions in the spirit of meekness, as may well be imagined, and the wild cat outcry she made had the desired effect of bringing up some of her subterranean friends to see what was the matter. These xvere immediately overpowered bv an armed force, who had surrounded the bothan As soon as they were recognised as belonging to tire much-wanted band of robbers, they xvere driven down again through the “goodxvife’s” oratory* and securely sealed up. . j n morning, xvhen the lire and smoke had clone their work the charred bodies of 20 wild men were found in that large underground double-chamber, oxer the entrance to which the witch had contrived so cunningly to have her house built, She herself, as already* indicated, was reserved for a more spectacular cremation on the prominent “tom ” xvhich still goes by her name, Tom Ceireag. On this “tom,” curiously enough, the local war memorial has now been erected.