" Indeed Issobell Young,
the mother of these persons, had herself endeavoured to check the
progress of the distemper by taking "ane quik ox with ane catt, and ane
grit quantitie of salt," and proceeding "to burie the ox and catt quik
with the salt, in ane deip hoill in the grund, as ane sacrifice to the
devill, that the rest of the guidis might be fred of the seiknes or
diseases."[792] Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, John
Ramsay of Ochtertyre tells us that "the violent death even of a brute is
in some cases held to be of great avail. There is a disease called the
_black spauld_, which sometimes rages like a pestilence among black
cattle, the symptoms of which are a mortification in the legs and a
corruption of the mass of blood. Among the other engines of superstition
that are directed against this fatal malady, the first cow seized with
it is commonly buried alive, and the other cattle are forced to pass
backwards and forwards over the pit. At other times the heart is taken
out of the beast alive, and then the carcass is buried. It is remarkable
that the leg affected is cut off, and hung up in some part of the house
or byre, where it remains suspended, notwithstanding the seeming danger
of infection. There is hardly a house in Mull where these may not be
seen. This practice seems to have taken its rise antecedent to
Christianity, as it reminds us of the pagan custom of hanging up
offerings in their temples.
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