These bodies of condensed air are sometimes carried high aloft, and at other times they crawl into various cavities, entering any crack or crevice of the Earth where air can penetrate to reach their ordinary dwellings. The Earth is full of hollows and cells; there is no place or creature that is not supposed to have other animals (larger or smaller) living in or upon it as inhabitants. There is no such thing as a pure wilderness in the entire Universe.

CHAPTER 2

Because we—those of the more earthly species—have now settled all countries in such great numbers, we inadvertently provide for these hidden people as much as we do for ourselves.

In earlier times, when various lands were uninhabited and covered by woods, these beings cultivated the ground easily, just as we do now. The traces of those ancient forests can still be seen on the slopes of very high hills; these marks were made when the soil of the fields was still forest and jungle.

They move to different locations at the start of each quarter of the year. They travel in this way until Judgment Day, being restless original: "impotent," likely meaning lacking the power to remain still and unable to stay in one place, finding a certain comfort in traveling and changing their residence. Their chameleon-like bodies float in the air near the ground along with their bags and baggage. During these seasonal transitions, the Seers, or men of the SECOND SIGHT (women are rarely so gifted), have very terrifying encounters with them, even on the public highways.

Because of this, people generally avoid traveling abroad during these four seasons. This has created a custom, lasting to this day among the Scottish-Irish referring to the Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, of attending church faithfully every first Sunday of the quarter. They do this to protect themselves, their grain, and their cattle from the "shots" and thefts of these wandering tribes. Many of these superstitious people will not be seen in church again until the next quarter begins, as if they had no other duties to learn or perform, and as if the entire purpose of worship and sermons was merely to save them from these "arrows that fly in the darkness." 1

1 "These arrows that fly in the darkness." These arrows are ancient flint arrowheads Neolithic "elf-shot", which Mr. Kirk later claims are too delicate to be made by human craftsmen. Regarding this matter, Isabel Gowdie, the confessed witch, stated: "As for the elf-arrows, the Devil sharpens them with his own hand and gives them to the elf-boys, who chip and shape them with a sharp tool like a carving needle; I saw them sharpening and chipping them when I was in the elf-country." Isabel described how witches use this weaponry: "We flick them with our thumbnails," and with those, she and her companions shoot and kill many men and women.

Isabel Gowdie’s confessions are found in the third volume of Pitcairn’s Scottish Criminal Trials. they contain little to nothing of the "psychic"; it is all pure folklore, fairy tales, and spells derived from the old Catholic liturgy. The poor woman, having begun to tell these fables, did so with obvious pleasure and considerable descriptive power. According to her account, every Covin coven or assembly of witches included a "Maiden," and she claimed, "without our Maiden, we could do nothing of importance."

On the other hand, in Chambers’s Domestic Annals of Scotland (Volume 3, page 449), one can read an extraordinary case of an epileptic boy who was thrown about and who witnessed distant events while in a trance. Candles would often go out when this boy—the third son of Lord Torphichen—was in the room. The date (1720) and the location (Mid-Lothian) prevented anyone from being burned for bewitching him. The news spread quickly. The boy eventually recovered and served with distinction in the Navy. It was frequently reported that he was seen to "levitate."