The case comes from the minutes of the district court held at Sumburgh, Dunrossness, quoted by Goudie and cited by Black and Thomas. On 6 August 1602 Jonat Archbald was ordered to clear herself by the saxter oath of the turning of a sieve and riddle for a pair of shears taken from her husband, and failing that to pay six merks and answer to the law for it as witchcraft. The next day Nicole in Culyeselter was ordered to do the same.
Turning the sieve, with shears stuck in the rim, was a form of divination used to name a thief. The court treated it as witchcraft. The record shows the practice in daily use and shows that the penalty here was a fine and an oath, not death.
The pin is at Sumburgh Head, since the court sat at Sumburgh and no building is named.
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