[Footnote A:  See the inimitable poem of Hallowe’en:—­

  “Upon that night, when Fairies light
    On Cassilis Downan dance;
  Or o’er the leas, in splendid blaze,
    On stately coursers prance,” &c. Burns.]

The catastrophe of Tamlane terminated more successfully than that of other attempts, which tradition still records.  The wife of a farmer in Lothian had been carried off by the Fairies, and, during the year of probation, repeatedly appeared on Sunday, in the midst of her children, combing their hair.  On one of these occasions she was accosted by her husband; when she related to him the unfortunate event which had separated them, instructed him by what means he might win her, and exhorted him to exert all his courage, since her temporal and eternal happiness depended on the success of his attempt.  The farmer, who ardently loved his wife, set out on Hallow-e’en and, in the midst of a plot of furze, waited impatiently for the procession of the Fairies.  At the ringing of the Fairy bridles, and the wild unearthly sound which accompanied the cavalcade, his heart failed him, and he suffered the ghostly train to pass by without interruption.  When the last had rode past, the whole troop vanished, with loud shouts of laughter and exultation; among which he plainly discovered the voice of his wife, lamenting that he had lost her for ever.

A similar, but real incident, took place at the town of North Berwick, within the memory of man.  The wife of a man, above the lowest class of society, being left alone in the house, a few days after delivery, was attacked and carried off by one of those convulsion fits, incident to her situation.  Upon the return of the family, who had been engaged in hay-making, or harvest, they found the corpse much disfigured.  This circumstance, the natural consequence of her disease, led some of the spectators to think that she had been carried off by the Fairies, and that the body before them was some elfin deception.  The husband, probably, paid little attention to this opinion at the time.  The body was interred, and, after a decent time had elapsed, finding his domestic affairs absolutely required female superintendence, the widower paid his addresses to a young woman in the neighbourhood.  The recollection, however, of his former wife, whom he had tenderly loved, haunted his slumbers; and, one morning, he came to the clergyman of the parish in the utmost dismay, declaring, that she had appeared to him the preceding night, informed him that she was a captive in Fairy Land, and conjured him to attempt her deliverance.  She directed him to bring the minister, and certain other persons, whom she named, to her grave at midnight.  Her body was then to be dug up, and certain prayers recited; after which the corpse was to become animated, and fly from them.  One of the assistants, the swiftest runner in the parish, was to pursue the body; and, if he was able to seize it, before it had thrice encircled