And there would be a fiddler diddling his elbock in the chimney-side; and this thing had nae music but the skirling of the solans.

And the lassies were bits o' young things wi' the reid life dinnling and stending in their members; and this was a muckle, fat, crieshy man, and him fa'n in the vale o' years.

Say what ye like, I maun say what I believe.

It was joy was in the creature's heart; the joy o' hell, I daursay: joy whatever.

Mony a time I have askit mysel', why witches and warlocks should sell their sauls (whilk are their maist dear possessions) and be auld, duddy, wrunkl't wives or auld, feckless, doddered men; and then I mind upon Tod Lapraik dancing a' they hours by his lane in the black glory of his heart.