playing beside her with all the pretty toys scattered over the carpet: "The
cat's disposition was grave: her face indicated much wisdom, and a heart
devoid of fickleness. She evidently was thinking--' the condition of human
creatures is frightful; their minds are ever given to sewing of canvas,
playing with dolls, or some such silly employment; their thoughts are not
turned to good works, such as providing suitable food for cats. What will
become of them hereafter!' Then, seeing no means by which the disposition
of mankind could be improved, the cat, heaving a sigh, slowly departs."
THE DEAD HAND
WITCHCRAFT is sometimes practised by the people to produce butter
in the churn, the most efficacious being to stir the milk round with the hand
of a dead man, newly taken from the churchyard; but whoever is suspected
of this practice is looked upon with great horror and dread by the
neighbours.
A woman of the mainland got married to a fine young fellow of one of
the islands. She was a tall, dark woman who seldom spoke, and kept herself
very close and reserved from every one. But she minded her business; for
she had always more butter to bring to market than any one else, and could
therefore undersell the other farmers' wives. Then strange rumours got
about concerning her, and the people began to whisper among themselves
that something was wrong, and that there was witchcraft in it, especially as
it was known that whenever she churned she went into an inner room off
the kitchen, shut the door close, and would allow no one to enter. So they
determined to watch and find out the secret, and one day a girl from the
neighbourhood, when the woman was out, got in through a window and
hid herself under the bed, waiting there patiently till the churning began.
At last in came the woman, and having carefully closed the door began
her work with the milk, churning in the usual way without any strange
doings that might seem to have magic in them. But presently she stopped,
and going over to a box unlocked it, and from this receptacle, to the girl's
horror, she drew forth the hand of a dead man, with which she stirred the
milk round and round several times, going down on her knees and
muttering an incantation all the while.
Seven times she stirred the milk with the dead hand, and seven times she
went round the churn on her knees muttering some strange charm. After
this she rose up and began to gather the butter from the churn with the dead
hand, filling a pail with as much butter as the milk of ten cows. When the
pail was quite full she dipped the dead hand three times in the milk, then
dried it and put it back again in the box.