Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
- Walter Scott
- Date:
- 1831
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![from which comes the word Hexe, now universally used for a A\-itch; a circumstance which plainly shows, that the mytholog-ical system of the ancient natives of the North had given to the modern lang’uage an appropriate word for distinguishing those females who had intercom’se with the spfritual world. * It is undeniable that these Pythonesses were held in high resjiect while the pagan rehgion lasted; but for tiiat veiy reason they became odious so soon as the tribe was converted to Christianity. ddiey were, of course, if thev pretended to retain their influence, either despised as impostors, or feared as sorceresses; and the more that, in particidar instances, they became dreaded for their jjower, the more they were detested, under the conviction that they derived it from the Enemy of man. The deities of the northern heathens underwent a similar metamorphosis, resembling that proposed * It may be worth while to notice, that the word Haxa is still used in Scotland in its sense of a druidess, or chief priestess, to distinguish the places where such Ivmales exercised their ritual. There is a species of small intrench. ment on the western descent of the Eildon hills, which ]\Ir IMilne, in his account of the parish of Melrose, drawn up about eighty years ago, says was denominated Bourjo, a word of unknown derivation, by which the place is still known. Here an universal and subsisting tradition bore, that human sacrifices were of yore offered, while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from the elevation of the glacis, which slopes inward. 'With this place of sacrifice communicated a path, still discernible, called the Haxellgate, leading to a small glen, or narrow valleys, called the HaxelU clench—both which words are probably derived from the Haxa, or chief priestess of the pagans.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029667_0127.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
