Prices in the old days; Horseman's Word ceremonies and a tri...

Original Track ID

SA1952.22.B8 (B16)

Original Tape ID

SA1952.022

Summary

Prices in the old days; Horseman's Word ceremonies and a trick question.

The contributor's family had South Towie Turner Farm for three hundred years. He gives some prices of commodities when he was young.

Horseman's Word ceremonies were not held in the barn at South Towie Turner, but up near the road. The contributor has seen as many as twelve novices at a ceremony, and there had to be an odd number of 'made horsemen', usually about a dozen. The head horseman held out the foot of a calf for the novice to shake hands with the Devil. The novices were frightened out of their wits. Hamish Henderson tells of hearing about two lads from the Banff area who were put in the asylum because of the Horseman's Word. The contributor's father told him that to be a proper horseman the novice had to go to the crossroads and say his lessons until Auld Hornie [i.e. the Devil] put his head in the bridle he was holding. Hamish Henderson has heard of a young man who signed himself to the Devil and went to the kirk [church] but could not sit down and had to go out. The contributor poses a trick question about the right end of the whip.

Item Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Information Other

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good