But the boy had also discovered that no native-born farmer or shepherd about had ever heard of the name, or would have a word to say to it.

And for the first time he had stumbled full into the deep deposit of witch-lore and belief still surviving in the Kinder Scout district, as in all the remoter moorland of the North.

Especially had he won the confidence of a certain 'owd Matt,' a shepherd from a farm high on Mardale Moor; and the tales 'owd Matt' had told him--of mysterious hares coursed at night by angry farmers enraged by the 'bedivilment' of their stock, shot at with silver slugs, and identified next morning with some dreaded hag or other lying groaning and wounded in her bed--of calves' hearts burnt at midnight with awful ceremonies, while the baffled witch outside flung herself in rage and agony against the close-barred doors and windows--of spells and wise men--these things had sent chills of pleasing horror through the boy's frame.
They were altogether new to him, in this vivid personal guise at least, and mixed up with all the familiar names and places of the district; for his childish life had been singularly solitary, giving to books the part which half a century ago would have been taken by tradition; and, moreover, the witch-belief in general had now little foothold among the younger generation of the Scout, and was only spoken of with reserve and discretion among the older men.
But the stories once heard had struck deep into the lad's quick and pondering mind.

Jenny Crum seemed to have been the latest of all the great witches of Kinder Scout.

The memory of her as a real and awful personage was still fresh in the mind of many a grey-haired farmer; the history of her death was well known; and most of the local inhabitants, even the boys and girls, turned out, when you came to inquire, to be familiar with the later legends of the Pool, and, as David presently discovered, with one or more tales--for the stories were discrepant--of 'Lias Dawson's meeting with the witch, now fifteen years ago.
'_What_ had 'Lias seen?
What would they see ?' His flesh crept deliciously.
'Wal, owd Mermaid!' shouted Louie, defiantly, as soon as she had got her breath again.