The Langs tell of a poor woman up the Teviot whose end was more merciless than most. A man's horse had died suddenly, thought to be elf struck or overlooked by a witch. To break any spell over his other animals, the owner cut out the horse's heart and burned it. While the heart sizzled in the fire a large black greyhound, flecked with foam and worn out, rushed up and tried again and again to snatch the heart from the fire. A bystander struck it hard across the back with a stick, and it fled with a yell.
At almost that moment a villager came running to say his wife had been taken suddenly ill. They found her, a dark haired, black eyed woman, lying gasping with what they took to be a broken back. The Langs suggest she had an acute attack of lumbago. The company concluded she was a witch who had taken the greyhound's shape. They made her say the Lord's Prayer, the usual test, and when her pain kept her from getting through it to their satisfaction they bound her and burned her alive in the same fire.
The source does not name the village or the woman. The pin is placed loosely at Hawick and marks only the valley of the Teviot.
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