Note 749 — Chapter XI · THE FAIR MAID

I have elsewhere reproduced examples of the double axe crossed into the form of an ex (X). Sir Walter Scott observes that in North Britain “it was no unusual thing to see females, from respect to their supposed views into futurity, and the degree of divine inspiration which was vouchsafed to them, arise to the degree of Haxa, or chief priestess, from which comes the word Hexe, now universally used for a witch”. He adds: “It may be worth while to notice that the word Haxa is still used in Scotland in its sense of a druidess, or chief priestess, to distinguish the places where such females exercised their ritual. There is a species of small intrenchment on the western descent of the Eildon hills, which Mr. Milne, in his account of the parish of Melrose, drawn up about eighty years ago, says, was denominated Bourjo, a word of unknown derivation, by which the place is still known. Here a universal and subsisting tradition bore that human sacrifices were of yore offered, while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from the elevation of the glacis which slopes inward. With this place of sacrifice communicated a path, still discernible, called the Haxellgate, leading to a small glen or narrow valley called the Haxellcleuch—both which words are probably derived from the Haxa or chief priestess of the pagans” (Letters on Demonology). It may be suggested that the mysterious bourjo was an abri of pere Jo or Jupiter. The Scotch jo as in “John Anderson my Jo,” now signifying sweetheart, presumably meant joy.