[NEW!] Myths and Legends, and Lore oh my!
Myths and Legends, and Lore oh my!
By: Natysha Rieger, Archival Technician
The settlers of Zorra brought with them a rich history of Scottish lore, myths, and legends from their homelands. While the rolling hills of the Ontario are not the same as those in Scotland, transfers their spiritual beliefs of the old highland moors to the swamps of Zorra Township.
With the strong connection to the notions of ghost, spirits, fairies, and other supernatural creatures, the sight such beings were not uncommon. Whether it was an evil spirit terrorizing villages or a lone ghost wondering around the dark county back roads, many of these tales stay in the zeitgeist of Zorra Township.
One such story revolves around the tale of 4 rowdy men known as the Gourlay Brother. They used to terrorize Embro townsfolk with their excessive drinking and violent, bizarre and drunken behaviour. Their outlandish antics would put the average drunkard to shame.
It said that the brothers felt that their drinking provided them a good reason to attend church on Sundays. They never drank during the sermon, but the brothers most certainly picked up the bottle before and after attending the very long and boring services.
The tale of the four bothers continues to reveal that on one summer night tragedy struck. After causing quiet a scene in town, three of the four brothers were making their way home, two sat in the front of the buggy while one sat on the back. The road they travelled on was rough and very bumpy. After hitting a particularly bad spot in the road, Robert, who was at the back, fell off.
Robert had been trying to take another swig from the bottle he had and in his inebriated state, was not holding on properly. He fell backwards out of the wagon and landed on a protruding root. His neck broke on impact and his died instantly. Robert’s brothers, in this drunken stupor did not feel him fall off and left his body behind. As a result, Robert was not found until the following day but a local, the bottle was still in his hands, only now it was broken.
(Two men and horses in front of barn. COA76 Louise Hill)
After the death of Robert, allegedly his spirit returned to the area. Witness reported seeing a noticeably short (4 feet tall) figure with little to no neck with a drooping head that nearly touched its chest. The features eye burned bright like 2 balls of fire. With mouth agape the apparition groaned and moaned incoherently as it swayed back and forth. Many could only make out one word from the figure, Deoch the Gaelic work for drink.
Years after Robert had died, an Elder of the local church was passing through the area when the ghost of Robert appeared before him. This frightened the man so much that he thrust his worn Bible in front of himself and started loudly praying for protection.
On this dark and stormy night, the spirit spoke in full sentences, gone was the Deoch and his moans for a drink, instead the ghost told them elder his tale. At the end of his story, the Robert said, “This Shall be the last time I ever appear on earth, for tonight I would have died had I not been killed twenty years ago on this spot, Deoch.” And with that, the spirit of Robert Gourlay was never seen again.
Another tale that comes from the annals of Zorra Township feature a supposed witch names Jean Gordon. She was the near perfect image of a traditional witch, with her ratty hair that had not seen a comb in decades and unkept clothes. She is also described as an “old beldam, wizened and toothless, nearly bent double.” She lived in an old log shanty o the banks of a great marsh. Gordon also spoke fast almost incoherent Gaelic, many believed that she was mingling some other primitive language into her sentences.
(Unknown Cox. COA123 Woodstock Sentinel-Review Negatives)
Considering her appearance, residence, and speech, the locals contributed a number of other witch-like attributes to Gordon. It was rumoured that she could turn into a black cat, dog, bat, owl, and even an ape or a frog. She was also rumoured to inflict various aliments on others, such as headaches, toothaches, rheumatism to other random acts, like turning a cow dry, or prevent butter from churning, and the death of two local calves. Gordan was blamed for anything and everything that was strange or unnerving in the local areas.
Gordan’s strange behaviour did not help to dispel the rumours of her being a witch of sorts. She did not leave her house during the day but could be seen flittering through the woods at sunset or on dark stormy nights. She supposedly terrorized the village during those night by cackling loudly and staring into windows.
The story Jean Gordon, the witch, comes to its end when she dies. Her death is contributed to the farmer, Tom Ferguson, who spotting Gordon in her bird form. He came across a black bird with a long neck and feel that looked like scrawny hands, it shrieked awful and strange cries that made the man shutter. He shot at the creature multiple times to no avail until he remembered that evil spirits could withstand anything but silver. With the bird mocking him and flying overhead, Ferguson, having no silver bullets, improvised with a silver six-penny that he rammed down the barrel of his gun. He uttered a pray and fired at the creature one more time and hit it on the right side, killing the bird.
As for Gordon, in for lonely shanty miles away at the banks of a great marsh, stood up from her spinning wheel then collapsed on to her right side and died.
For the Scottish residence of Zorra Township, the presences of witches, ghost, and other spiritual entities is commonplace but sometimes, their beliefs clouded their understanding and judgment of the natural world, as seen in the story of the infamous fox fire.
On the dark bark roads of Embro at certain time of the year a spirit would appear to travellers. IT just stood there gazing out at the roadway. At around 5 feet tall with a pale white light emanating from the top of its head. The light was so bright that I person could almost read a book with near perfect clarity when standing near the spirit, witness claim. Under that bright light, there two immovable eyes and a gaping mouth. Legend says that the spirit is on a person who was murdered but an Indigenous group. The light illuminating the top of the head is caused by the exposed skill of the victim, but there have been no confirmed records of any murders like this in the area.
This seasonal spirit terrified the locals and one night, Sandy Dunbar, a devout godly man took it upon himself to confront this troublesome ghost. Several heavily armed young Highlandmen accompanied Dunbar to the location where the spirit lived, but the young men stayed several hundred yards back leaving Dunbar to venture onward alone.
As the spirit appeared, Dunbar held his ground, he had never turned his back on a foe, devil or man! He said a quick prayer from himself and his family before stepping closer to the hideous creature. He shouted and demanded the ghost to tell him who or what it was and what it wanted. But he received no answer. Dunbar called three more times, and the silence continued. After summoning some courage, Dunbar moved closer and closer to the spirit until he was within arm’s reach. The whole time the ghost did not move or make a sound. With the last of his courage, Dunbar placed a hand of the creature’s shoulder. To his surprise and delight, the ghost was nothing more than a spruce tree stump! The supernatural light was a bioluminescent fungus growing on the decaying stump. The of the spirit’s appearance was caused by tree bark and exposed wood.
The Will o' the Wisp and the Snake by Hermann Hendrich (1854–1931)
The Foxfire or fairy fire can be contributed to the idea of will o’ wisps and other supernatural creatures. These fungi are also found to grow in caves and caverns along decaying roots, illuminating them with an ethereal glow. The other worldly nature of this fungus has led to a variety of different ghost stories over the centuries.