Here I got a fresh direction for Pilrig, my destination; and a little beyond, on the wayside, came by a gibbet and two men hanged in chains.

They were dipped in tar, as the manner is; the wind span them, the chains clattered, and the birds hung about the uncanny jumping-jacks and cried.

The sight coming on me suddenly, like an illustration of my fears, I could scarce be done with examining it and drinking in discomfort.

And as I thus turned and turned about the gibbet, what should I strike on, but a weird old wife, that sat behind a leg of it, and nodded, and talked aloud to herself with becks and courtesies.
"Who are these two, mother ?" I asked, and pointed to the corpses.
"A blessing on your precious face!" she cried.

"Twa joes[7] o' mine: just twa o' my old joes, my hinny dear." "What did they suffer for ?" I asked.
"Ou, just for the guid cause," said she.