Alison Pearson in Byre-hills, Fifeshire +, was convicted of practising sorcery, and of invoking the Devil.  She confessed that she had associated with the Queen of the Fairies for many years ++, and that she had friends in the Court of Elf-land, who were of her own blood.  She said that William Simpson, late the King's smith, was, in the eighth year of his age, carried off by an Egyptian to Egypt, where he remained twelve years; and that this Egyptian was a giant;  That the Devil appeared to her in the form of this William Simpson, who was a great scholar, and a doctor of medicine, who cured her diseases:  That he has appeared to her, accompanied with many men and women, who made merry with bag-pipes, good cheer, and wine:  That the good neighbours * attended, and prepared their charms in pans over the fire; that the herbs of which they composed their charms, were gathered before sunrise; and that with these they cured the Bishop of St. Andrews of a fever and flux.  She underwent all the legal forms customary in cases of witchcraft, i.e., she was convicted and condemned, strangled and burned.

++   In the original it is Queen of Elfland.

*   Good Neighbours was a term for Witches.  People were afraid to speak of them opprobriously, lest they should provoke their resentment.