Town to officially pardon executed witches - CNN

[Wat_Tyler]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/10/29/britain.witches.ap/index.html

PRESTONPANS, Scotland (AP) -- Accused witches -- and their cats -- executed during a wave of hysteria and religious ferment centuries ago will be pardoned on Halloween in this Scottish township.

"There'll be no witches' hats, dress-ups or that sort of thing -- it will be a fairly solemn occasion," Adele Conn, spokeswoman for the baronial court that granted the pardons, said by telephone interview Friday.

Sunday's ceremony will publicly declare pardons for 81 local people executed in the 16th and 17th centuries for being witches. The pardons have been granted under ancient feudal powers due to be abolished within weeks.

More than 3,500 Scots, mainly woman and children, and their cats were killed in witch hunts at a time of political intrigue and religious ferment. Many were condemned on flimsy evidence, such as owning a black cat or brewing homemade remedies.

[Fenris]

1. Er, thanks a lot, guys.

Christ, 3,500?

[Wat_Tyler]

6. Out of a population that at the time was equivalent to Vermont's.

Less than one million.

[Fenris]

7. Those dead bodies start to add up after awhile.

[Wat_Tyler]

8. Ever hear of Sawney Bean?

http://www.seanachaidh.org/sawney.htm

Sawney Bean was born in the county of East Lothian, about eight or nine miles eastward of the city of Edinburgh, in the reign of James I of Scotland. His father was a hedger and ditcher and brought up his son to the same laborious employment.

He got his daily bread in his youth by these means, but being prone to idleness, and not caring to be confined to any honest employment, he left his father and mother, and ran away into the desert part of the country, taking with him a woman as viciously inclined as himself.

These two took up their habitation in a cave, by the seaside on the shore of the county of Galloway; where they lived upwards of twenty-five years, without going into any city, town or village.

In this time they had a great number of children and grandchildren, whom they brought up after their own manner, without any notions of humanity or civil society. They never kept any company, but among themselves, and supported themselves wholly by robbing: being, moreover so very cruel, that they never robbed any one, whom they did not murder.

By this bloody method, and their being so retired from the world, they continued for a long time undiscovered; there being no person able to guess how the people were lost that went by the place where they lived. As soon as they had robbed any man, woman or child, they used to carry off the carcase to the den, cutting it into quarters, they would pickle the mangled limbs, and afterwards eat it; this being their only sustenance: and not withstanding they were at last so numerous, they commonly had superfluity of this their abominable food, so that in the nigh-time they frequently threw legs and arms of the unhappy wretches they had murdered into the sea, at a great distance from their bloody habitation; the limbs were often cast up by the tide in several parts of the country, to the astonishment and terror of all beholders, and others who heard of it.

Persons who have gone about their lawful occasions fell so often into their hands, that it caused a general outcry in the country round about; no person knowing what was become of their friends or relations, if they were once seen by these merciless cannibals.

[Fenris]

10. Wow. That's a lot of limbs.

:scared:

[Chiyo-chichi]

2. Finally Katherine Harris' soul can be put to rest. eom

[LisaLynne]

3. Better late than never?

Well, actually ... No, seriously. It's the thought that counts. I mean, not to get serious, but we do have to acknowledge the mistakes of the past, even if there's not much that can be done to fix it, in order to stop it from happening again.

Oh, okay, so I have a soft spot for Scots and don't want to make fun of them. Their accents do it for me. :)

[TlalocW]

4. This sends the wrong message

That Scotland is going to go easy on witches and will encourage the teenaged Goth community to talk more about (without understanding) anarchy, to wear even more black eye makeup, and to recite more badly-written poetry in coffeeshops.

Don't even get me started on Wiccans saying "Blessed Be!" :)

Just kidding.

TlalocW

[Mojambo]

5. Just in the nick of time. n/t

[Ivan Sputnik]

9. What are they really saying?

A "pardon" does not necessarily mean that the accused was innocent, just "excused" for the crime.