A farmer in Marown had been losing animals one after another, and he was sure it was witchcraft. He could not charge anyone with witchcraft as such, so he did the next best thing: he took out a warrant for trespass and had a jury sworn. The witnesses were asked straight out about witchcraft and ill will.
Quine's sister-in-law admitted she had walked through his fields. Then, in the middle of the proceedings, a rabbit got loose among the crowd. People shouted "The witch!" and panicked, until someone killed the animal and declared it would trouble Quine no longer. The woman, badly frightened, paid the costs.
Moore gives this alongside other nineteenth-century cases: a deemster around 1838 who was asked to act against a witch accused of drying up a neighbour's cows and wisely sent for a vet instead, and the burnt calf sacrifices of the 1830s to 1850s.
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