Translated by Ben Travers
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…which all do bow willingly, or by constraint, that dwell above or beneath within the Earth, Philip. 2. 10;) nor can they act ought at that Time after hearing of that sacred name. The TABHAISVER, or Seer, that corresponds with this kind of Familiars, can bring them with a Spell to appear to himself or others when he pleases, as readily as Endor Witch to those of her king. He tells, they are ever ready to go on hurtful Errands, but seldom will be the Messengers of great Good to Men. He is not terrified with their Sight when he calls them, but seeing them in a surprise (as often he does) frightens him extremely. And he would be quite glad of such, for the hideous Spectacles seen among them; as the torturing of some Wight [Creature], earnest ghostly staring Looks, Skirmishes, and the like. They do not do all the Harm which apparently they have Power to do; nor are they perceived to be in great Pain, save that they are usually silent and sullen. They are said to have many pleasant toyish Books; but the operation of these Pieces only appears in some Paroxysms [fits] of antic [absurd] corybantic [frenzied] Jollity, as if
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ravished and prompted by a new Spirit entering into them at that instant, lighter, and merrier than their own. Other Books they have involved abstruse [obscure] Sense, much like the Rosurcian (Rosicrucian) style. They have nothing of the Bible, save collected Parcels for Charms and counter Charms; not to defend themselves withall [with], but to operate on other Animals, for they are a People invulnerable by our Weapons; and albeit Were-wolves and Witches true Bodies are (by the union of the spirit of Nature that runs through all, echoing and doubling the Blow towards another) wounded at Home, when the astral assumed Bodies are stricken elsewhere; as the strings of a Second Harp, tuned in unison, Sounds, though only one be struck; yet these People have not a second, or so gross a Body at all, to be so pierced; but as Air, which when divided unites again; or if they feel Pain by a Blow, they are better Physicians than we, and quickly cure it. They are not subject to dire sicknesses, but dwindle and decay at a certain Period, all about the same age. Some say their continual sadness is because of their
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pendulous State, (like those Men, Luc. 13. 2. 6.) as uncertain what at the last Revolution will become of them, when they aren;t locked up into an unchangeable Condition; and if they have any frolic Fits of Mirth, it is as the constrained grinning of a death’s head, or rather as acted on a stage, and moved by another ther [?]cordially coming of themselves. But other Men of the Second Sight, being illiterate, and unwary in their Observations, learn from those; one averring [asserting] those subterranean people to be departed Souls, attending awhile in this inferior State, and clothed with Bodies procured through their Almsdeeds [giving alms] in this life; fluid, activer, ethereal Vehicles to hold them, that they may not scatter, or wander, and be lost in the Totum, or their first Nothing; but if any were so impious as to have given no Alms, they say when the Souls of such do depart, they sleep in an inactive State until they resume the terrestrial Bodies again: others, that what the Low-Country Scots calls a Wreath [wraith], and the Irish TAIBSHE or Death’s Messenger, (appearing
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Sometimes as a little rough Dog, and if crossed and conjured in Time, will be pacified by the Death of any other Creature instead of the sick Man,) is only exuvious [shed] Fumes of the Man approaching Death, exhaled and congealed into a various Likeness, (as Ships and Armies are sometimes shaped in the Air,) and called astral Bodies, agitated as Wild-fire with Wind, and are neither Souls nor counterfeiting Spirits; yet not a few avouch [affirm] that surely these are a numerous People by themselves, having their own Polities. Which Diversities of Judgments may occasion several Inconsonancies [disagreements] in this Rehearsall [account], after the narrowest Scrutiny made about it.
- Their Weapons are most what solid earthly Bodies, nothing of Iron, but much of Stone, like to yellow soft Flint Spa, shaped like a barbed Arrow-head , but flung like a Dart, with great Force. These armes (cut by Art and Tools beyond humane) have something of the Nature of Thunderbolt subtilty, and mortally wounding the vital Parts without breaking the Skin; of which Wounds I have observed in Beasts,
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…and felt them with my Hands. They are not as infallible Benjamites, hitting at a Hair’s-breadth; nor are they wholly unvanquishable, at least in Appearance.
The men of that second state do not discover strange Things when asked, but at Fits and Raptures, as if inspired with some Genius at that Instant, which before did lurk in or about them. Thus I have frequently spoke to one of them, who in his Transport told he cut the Body of one of those People in two with his Iron Weapon, and so escaped this Onset, yet he saw nothing left behind that appearing divided; at other Times he out wrestled some of them. His Neighbors often perceived this man to disappear at a certain Place, and about one Hour after to become visible, and discover himself near a Bow-shot from the first Place. It was in that Place where he became invisible, said he, that the Subteraneans did encounter and combat with him. Those who are unseen or unsanctified (called Fey) are said to be pierced or wounded with those People’s Weapons,which makes them do somewhat
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…very unlike their former practice, causing a sudden Alteration, yet the Cause thereof unperceivable at present; nor have they power (either they cannot make use of their natural Powers, or asked not the heavenly Aid,) to escape the Blow impendant [approaching]. A Man of the Second Sight perceived a Person standing by him (sound to others’ view) wholly gored in Blood, and he (amazed-like) bid him instantly flee. The whole Man laughed at his art and Warning, since there was no appearance of Danger. He had scarce contracted his Lips from Laughter, when unexpectedly his enemy leapt in at his Side, and Stabbed him with their Weapons. They also pierce Cows or other Animals, usually said to be Elf-shot, whose purest substance (if they die) these Subterraneans take to live on, viz. [namely] the aerial and ethereal Parts, the most spirituous Matter for prolonging of Life, such as Aqua Vitae [brandy] (moderately taken) is among Liquors, leaving the terrestrial behind. The Cure of such Hurts is, only for a Man to find out the Hole with his Finger; as if the Spirits flowing from a Man’s warm Hand were Antidote sufficient against their poisoned Darts.
- As Birds and Beasts, whose Bodies are much used to the Change of the free and open Air, foresee storms; so those invisible People are more sagacious [shrewd] to understand by the Books of Nature Things to come, than we, who are pestered with the grosser Dregs of all elementary mixtures, and have our purer spirits choked by them. The Deer scents out a Man and Powder (though a late Invention) at a great Distance; a hungry Hunter, Bread; and the Raven, a Carrion: Their Brains, being long clarified by the high and subtle Air, will observe a very small Change in a Trice [moment]. Thus a Man of the Second Sight, perceiving the Operations of these forecasting invisible People among us, (indulged through a stupendous Providence to give Warnings of some remarkable Events, either in the Air, Earth, or Waters,)
Told he saw a Winding-shroud creeping on a walking healthful persons Legs until it come to the knee; and afterwards it came up to the Middle, then to the Shoulders, and at last over the Head, which was visible to
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no other person. And by observing the Spaces of Time between the several Stages, he easily guessed how long the Man was to live who wore the Shroud; for when it approached his Head, he told that such a Person was ripe for the Grave.
10.There be many places called Fairy-hills, which the Mountain People think impious and dangerous to peel or discover, by taking Earth of Wood from them; superstitiously believing the Souls of their Predecessors to dwell there. And for that End (say they) a Mote or Mount was dedicate beside every Church-yard, to receive the Souls until their adjacent Bodies arise, and so become as a Fairy-hill; they using Bodies of Air when called Abroad. They also affirm those Creatures that move invisibly in a House, and cast huge great Stones, but do no much Hurt, because counterwrought [counteracted] by some more courteous and charitable Spirits that are everywhere ready to defend Men, (Dan. 10. 13.) to be Souls that have not attained their Rest, through a vehement Desire of revealing a Murder or notable Injury done or received,
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…or a Treasure that was forgot in their Lifetime on Earth, which when disclosed to a Conjurer alone, the Ghost quite Removes.
In the next Country to that of my former Residence, about the Year 1676, when there was some Scarcity of Grain, a marvelous Illapse [influx] and Vision strongly struck the Imagination of two Women in one Night, living at a good Distance from one another, about a Treasure hid in a Hill, called SITHBHRUAICH, or Fairy-hill. The Appearance of a Treasure was first represented to the imagination, and than an audible Voice named the PLace where it was to their awakening Senses. Whereupon both arose, and meeting accidentally at the Place, discovered their Design; and jointly digging, found a Vessel as large as a Scottish Peck, full of small Pieces of good Money, of ancient Coin; which halving between them, they fold in Dish-fulls for Dish-fulls of Meal to the Country People. Very many of undoubted Credit saw, and had of the Coin to this Day. But whether it was a good of bad Angel, one of the subterranean People, or the restless Soul of him who hid it,
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…that discovered it, and to what End it was done, I leave to the Examination of others.
- These subterraneans have Controversies, Doubts, Disputes, Feuds, and Siding of Parties; there being some Ignorance in all Creatures, and that vastest created Intelligences not compassing (contriving) all Things. As to Vice and Sin, whatever their own Laws be, sure, according to ours, and Equity, natural, civil and revealed, they transgress and commit Acts of Injustice, and Sin, by what is above said, as to their stealing of Nurses to their Children, and that other sort of Plaginism [Pelagianism] in cathcing our Children away, (may seem to heir some Estate in those invisible Dominions,) which never return. For the Inconvenience of their Succubi, who trist with Men, it is abominable; but for Swearing and Intemperance, they are not observed so subject to those Irregularities, as to Envy, Spite, Hypocrisy, Lying, and Dissimulation.
- As our Religion obliges us not to make a preemptive and curious Search into these Obstrusenesses [abstruse acts], so that the Histories of all Ages give as many plain Examples of extraordinary occurrences…
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