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The Palgrave Handbook
of Humour Research
Edited by
Elisabeth Vanderheiden
Claude-Hélène Mayer
The Palgrave Handbook of Humour Research
 Elisabeth Vanderheiden
Claude-Hélène Mayer
Editors

The Palgrave
Handbook of Humour
Research
Editors
Elisabeth Vanderheiden Claude-Hélène Mayer
Global Institute for Transcultural Research Department of Industrial Psychology and
Römerberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany People Management
University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa

Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Europa Universität Viadrina
Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

ISBN 978-3-030-78279-5    ISBN 978-3-030-78280-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78280-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the
whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or informa-
tion storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does
not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective
laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors
give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions
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Cover illustration: Roman Nazarenko / Alamy Stock Vector

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Contents

1 Editorial: The Handbook of Humour Research—

Psychological, Cultural and Social Perspectives  1
Elisabeth Vanderheiden and Claude-Hélène Mayer

Part I Humour in Cultural Contexts  13

2 Predicting Self-Esteem Using Humor Styles: A Cross-Cultural

Study 15
Julie Aitken Schermer, Eva Boyanova Papazova,
Maria Magdalena Kwiatkowska, Radosław Rogoza, Joonha Park,
Christopher Marcin Kowalski, Marija Branković, Marta Doroszuk,
Truong Thi Khanh Ha, Dzintra Iliško, Sadia Malik, Samuel Lins,
Ginés Navarro-­Carrillo, Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios,
Jorge Torres-Marín, Anna Włodarczyk, Sibele Dias de Aquino,
Tatiana Volkodav, and Georg Krammer

3 The Use of Humour to Deal with Uncomfortable Moments in

Interaction: A Cross-Cultural Approach 41
Kerry Mullan and Christine Béal

4 Humour as a Strategy to Talk About and Challenge Dominant

Discourses of Social Integration: A Case Study of Adolescent
German Turkish Descendants in Germany 67
Yesim Kakalic and Stephanie Schnurr

v
vi Contents

5 The Position of Humour in Social Crises: When and What

Does Turkish Society Laugh at? 89
Ayşe Aslı Sezgin and Tuğba Yolcu

6 Humour as Cultural Capital in Transitions113

Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar

7 Nigerian Cultural Concept of Humour and its Use as a

Coping Strategy131
Felix-Kingsley Obialo

8 Interrogating the Phenomenon of Suffering and Smiling by

Nigerians: A Mixed Methods Study149
Onwu Inya and Blessing Inya

Part II Humour in History and Politics 171

9 Humor as a Defense Mechanism: Dismantling Holocaust

Symbols and Icons in Israeli Culture173
Liat Steir-Livny

10 Geopolitics of Humour and Development in Nepal and

Afghanistan189
Rupak Shrestha and Jennifer Fluri

11 Humour and Politics: A Discursive Approach to Humour205

Maria Aldina Marques

12 White Laughter, Black Pain? On the Comic and Parodic

Enactment of Racial-Colonial Stereotypes227
Matthias Pauwels

Part III Humour in the Workplace 243

13 Risky Business: Humour, Hierarchy, and Harmony in New

Zealand and South Korean Workplaces245
Barbara Plester and Heesun Kim
 Contents vii

14 Resilience as Moderator Between Workplace Humour and

Well-Being, a Positive Psychology Perspective263
Rudolf M. Oosthuizen

15 Humour as a Coping Strategy for Employees in Remote

Workspaces During Covid-19289
Claude-Hélène Mayer and Lolo Jacques Mayer

Part IV Humour over the Lifespan 309

16 Humour as a Resource for Children311

Doris Bergen

17 Humour in Romantic Relationships325

Maria Nicoleta Turliuc, Octav Sorin Candel, and Lorena Antonovici

18 Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Humor Appreciation and

Function Across the Lifespan341
Jennifer Tehan Stanley and Jennifer R. Turner

19 ‘West of Hollywood’: Humor as Reparation in the Life and

Work of Walter Becker363
James L. Kelley

Part V Humour in Pedagogical Contexts 381

20 Humour in Adult Education383

Elisabeth Vanderheiden

21 Humour in Mathematics Teaching: A Study in Portugal

and Spain419
Luís Menezes, Pablo Flores, Floriano Viseu, Susana Amante, and
Ana Maria Costa
viii Contents

Part VI Humour in the Context of Medicine, Therapy and

Counselling 439

22 The Positive Effect of Humour and Amateur Dubbing on

Hospitalised Adolescents441
Margherita Dore, Laura Vagnoli, Francesca Addarii, Elena Amore,
and Rosanna Martin

23 The Covid-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity for Positive

Psychology to Promote a Wider-Ranging Definition of
Humour and Laughter459
Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky and Gülcan Garip

24 On the Relationships Between Humour, Stress and Flow

Experience—Introducing the Humour-Flow Model479
Marek Bartzik and Corinna Peifer

25 Working with Humour in Psychotherapy497

Aakriti Malik

Index511
 Notes on Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Elisabeth Vanderheiden is a pedagogue, theologian and intercultural medi-

ator. She is the CEO of the Global Institute for Transcultural Research and
the President of the Catholic Adult Education of Germany. Her latest publi-
cations focused on shame as resource as well as mistakes, errors and failure and
their hidden potentials in the context of culture and positive psychology 1.0
and 2.0. In a current project, she investigates life crises and their individual
coping strategies from different cultural viewpoints. Other current research
interests include Ikigai—especially in the context of adult education and
counselling—and Design Thinking.
Claude-Hélène Mayer (Dr. habil., PhD, PhD) is Professor in Industrial and
Organisational Psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and
People Management at the University of Johannesburg, an adjunct professor
at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and a
senior research associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
She holds a PhD in Psychology (University of Pretoria, South Africa), a PhD
in Management (Rhodes University, South Africa), a Doctorate (Georg-­
August University, Germany) in Political Sciences (socio-cultural anthropol-
ogy and intercultural didactics) and a Habilitation (European University
Viadrina, Germany) in Psychology with focus on work, organizational and
cultural psychology. She has published several monographs, text collections,
accredited journal articles and special issues on transcultural mental health

ix
x Notes on Editors and Contributors

and well-being, sense of coherence, shame, transcultural conflict management

and mediation, women in leadership in culturally diverse work contexts, con-
stellation work, coaching and psychobiography.

Contributors

Francesca Addarii graduated in School and Community Psychology from

the University of Bologna in 2016 and is attending the psycho-analytic school
at the Istituto Freudiano (Rome). Her research interests include psychology in
healthcare settings, paediatric oncology and humour. She coordinates a
psycho-­educational project titled La scacchiera di Onnon, which aims at pro-
moting children’s well-being and soft skills by playing chess at school. She is
the author of the monograph Alla scoperta del Paese degli Scacchi (Erickson,
2020) and the book series Il coraggioso viaggio della Cura and Teenroom (Bristol
Meyer Squibb), which support children and adolescents with cancer.
Susana Amante is professor at the Polytechnic of Viseu—School of
Management and Technology (Portugal). She holds a PhD in English
Philology. Her research areas of interest are literatures and cultures (especially
of English-speaking countries), gender studies, children’s literature, didactics
of languages, languages and entrepreneurship, and translation studies.Susana
Amante has evaluated and certified textbooks of Portuguese and English lan-
guages for middle school students and has proven work experience as a trans-
lator. She is (co)author of several national and international papers and has
presented various talks at national and international events. She is the peda-
gogical coordinator of the “Co-Creation-based learning” Project.
Elena Amore is a freelance psychologist who works with children, adoles-
cents and adults. She carries out research and training activities in the field of
developmental and hospital psychology, chronicity and humour. She has pub-
lished on the use of non-pharmacological techniques to reduce pain and dis-
tress and on the use of therapeutic games in the paediatric hospital setting.
Lorena Antonovici is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Psychology
and Sciences of Education, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași.
Throughout her academic career, she studied the influence of humour in the
domain of romantic relationships. Her results were published in the Journal of
Experiential Psychotherapy, Romanian Journal of Artistic Creativity and the
Romanian Journal of Social Psychology.
 Notes on Editors and Contributors xi

Marek Bartzik is a research assistant in the “Care for Joy” project at the
University of Lübeck and also a change manager in the public sector. His
research focus is on the field of applied positive psychology and particularly
on humour and flow experience in the working context. After completing his
Master’s degree in Business Psychology, Marek Bartzik gained practical experi-
ence in human resources development and change management in the pub-
lic sector.
Christine Béal is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Université Paul Valéry
Montpellier 3 and a member of Praxiling, a CNRS (National Centre for
Scientific Research) Research Lab specializing in linguistics and communica-
tion. Her field of expertise is French linguistics, interactional linguistics and
cross-cultural pragmatics. Her work is based on naturally occurring data
(spontaneous talk between work colleagues, meetings, job interviews and
friends) in French and English. She has focussed on terms of address, speech
acts, politeness, rituals and routines, turn-taking and conversational humour.
Doris Bergen is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Miami University. Her
research has included the study of play development, effects of technology-­
augmented toys on childhood play, children’s humour development and eval-
uation of early childhood programmes. She, also, is a Miami University
Distinguish Scholar, having published 14 books and over 70 refereed articles
and book chapters.
Marija Branković, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Media
and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade.
Octav Sorin Candel is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Psychology
and Sciences of Education, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași. His main
research interests are in couple and family psychology and psychometry. He
published multiple articles in journals such as Personality and Individual
Differences, European Journal of Dental Education, Romanian Journal of Applied
Psychology and Journal of Psychological and Educational Research.
Ana Maria Costa is a professor at the Polytechnic of Viseu—School of
Education (Portugal). She holds a PhD in American Studies—American his-
tory, culture and literature. In addition to the research Ana Maria Costa has
been carrying out in the context of American culture and literature, mainly
with regard to the work of the novelist Sinclair Lewis, she has recently been
undertaking research in the field of Portuguese and World Literature and
other Arts, specifically with regard to the role of space as a structuring cate-
gory of the narrative.Ana Maria Costa is (co)author of several national and
xii Notes on Editors and Contributors

international papers within the aforementioned study fields. A member of the

editorial board of several international scientific journals, she is associate edi-
tor of one of them.
Sibele Dias de Aquino is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Psychology at Pontifical
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio, Brazil) and researcher in
Laboratory of Research in Social Psychology (L2PS) at the same university.
She has a master’s degree in Social Psychology, MBA in Business
Communication, and also MBA in Services Marketing. She has a bachelor’s
degree in Social Communication, with a degree in Advertising. Research
interests include social psychology, specifically persuasive communication,
social influence, consumer behavior, and subjective well-being.
Margherita Dore is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Rome “La
Sapienza”, Italy. She is the author of Humour in Audiovisual Translation.
Theories and Applications (2019). She edited one essay collection on transla-
tion practice, Achieving Consilience. Translation Theories and Practice (2016); a
special issue of Status Quaestionis on audiovisual retranslation (2018); one
special issue of the European Journal of Humour Research on multilingual
humour and translation (2019) and (with Klaus Geyer) a special issue of
InTRAlinea on dialect, translation and multimedia. She (co)authored several
papers on humour in translated audiovisual texts and in a range of other con-
texts, including stand-up comedy.
Marta Doroszuk is a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Philosophy, Institute
of Psychology at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. She is a member
of the CogNeS Doctoral School, an international PhD program in Social and
Cognitive Neuroscience, and member of Centre for Social Cognitive Studies
CSCS. Her main research interests are intergroup relations, facial expression
of emotions, and cross-cultural communication.
Pablo Flores is a professor at the University of Granada—Faculty of
Education (Spain). He holds a PhD in mathematics education. His research
interest is mathematics education, and his priority lines of research are profes-
sional knowledge and development of mathematics teachers, as well as didac-
tic resources for mathematics teaching, including humour. He has participated
in various research projects in mathematics education, tutored doctoral theses
on the subject and taught as a secondary school mathematics teacher. Since
1990, in the Faculty of Education, he has collaborated in the undergraduate
training of mathematics teachers. Pablo Flores is (co)author of several national
and international journal papers and materials to support the training of
mathematics.
 Notes on Editors and Contributors xiii

Jennifer Fluri received her PhD in Geography and Women’s and Gender
Studies from Pennsylvania State University. She is a professor in the
Department of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder and previ-
ously held an associate professorship in Geography and Women’s and Gender
Studies at Dartmouth College. She is a political geographer, and her research
focuses on gender, geopolitics, international aid/development, conflict and
peace building in Afghanistan. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed arti-
cles and co-authored a book with Rachel Lehr titled The Carpetbaggers of
Kabul and Other American-Afghan Entanglements, which was published in
2017 as part of the Geographies of Social Justice series. She is one of four co-­
authors of the 2017 book Feminist Spaces: Gender and Geography in a Global
Context and co-author of Engendering Development: Capitalism and Inequality
in the Global Economy, with Amy Trauger. Her research project focuses on
Afghan women’s political influence and the diverse experiences of Afghan
women’s political activism, funded by the National Science Foundation.
Gülcan Garip is Academic Lead in Psychology at the University of Derby
and is interested in the self-management of health and illness, including the
role of humour and laughter on well-being.
Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky completed MSc Health Psychology and MBA
and created the Laughie laughter prescription. She is interested in the poten-
tial of laughter and humour to benefit well-being and personal development.
Dzintra Iliško, Ph.D., is a professor in Institute of Humanities and Societal
Sciences at Daugavpils University, Latvia. She is a co-editor of the interna-
tional journal Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education and the
author of more than 70 publications. She is a member of international net-
works, such as the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values
(ISREV) and the European Society of Women in Theological Research
(ESWTR). Her research interests are reorienting education towards the aim
of sustainable education, sustainability competencies, transdisciplinary
research, and inclusive education.
Blessing Inya is a lecturer at the Department of English and Literary Studies,
Federal University Oye-Ekiti, and a prospective PhD student. She has her MA
from the University of Ibadan. She has published book chapters and journal
articles on lexico-semantics, gender discourse and humour. She is interested
in discourse analysis and linguistic gender studies. Her paper on humour
includes “Conversational Humour in a Nigerian Radio News Programme: A
Case Study of Lati inu aka aka Biodun/Kayode”. European Journal of Humour
Research 6 (4) 75–94 (Co-authored 2018).
xiv Notes on Editors and Contributors

Onwu Inya is a lecturer in the Department of General Studies, Federal

University of Technology, Akure. He obtained his BA in English from Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria, in 2007 and an MA in English from the University of
Ibadan in 2011. He then obtained PhD in English language from the
University of Ibadan in 2018. He is interested in pragmatics, metaphor, legis-
lative discourse and humour. His papers have appeared in Linguistik Online,
Theory and Practice in Language Studies and in a number of edited volumes.
His papers on humour in the Nigerian contexts include the following:
“Pragmatics of Humour in a Nigerian University’s Departmental Chat
Rooms”. In Taiwo, R., Odebunmi, A., and Adetunji, A. (eds) Analyzing
Language and Humor in Online Communication. United States of America:
IGI Global. pp. 190–206; (2016); “Conversational Humour in a Nigerian
Radio News Programme: A case study of Lati inu aka aka Biodun/Kayode”.
European Journal of Humour Research 6 (4) 75–94 (Co-authored 2018).
Yesim Kakalic is a PhD student at the University of Warwick. Her research
focuses on the identity construction of German-Turkish adolescents with a
particular interest in social integration. Yesim also has an MSc in Intercultural
Communication from the University of Warwick and a Bachelor’s degree in
International Business from Dokuz Eylül University.
James L. Kelley After receiving his education at three American universities,
scholar James L. Kelley settled in to a life of researching and writing about,
among other things, the fascinating lives of creative people. His first two
books are A Realism of Glory: Lectures on Christology in the Works of Protopresbyter
John Romanides (2009) and Anatomyzing Divinity: Studies in Science,
Esotericism and Political Theology (2011). His third book, Orthodoxy, History,
and Esotericism: New Studies (2016), is a history of esoteric influences on
Western religious culture.
Truong Thi Khanh Ha, Ph.D., is an associate professor in Faculty of
Psychology, VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi. Her doctorate is from Lomonosov Moscow State
University, Russia, in 2006. One of her research interests currently focuses on
improving the subjective well-being of Vietnamese children and adolescents.
Heesun Kim has completed her PhD in Management at the University of
Auckland (New Zealand). She is positioned as an assistant professor in
Management, Yonsei University Mirae Campus. Heesun’s research involves
Korean workplaces and culture, humour and workplace relationships and has
recently published in high-quality journals, such as Journal of Management
Inquiry, Frontiers in Psychology and Asian Studies Review.
 Notes on Editors and Contributors xv

Christopher Marcin Kowalski is a Ph.D. student in the Department of

Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His main research
interests are dark personality traits and rumination.
Georg Krammer, Ph.D., is University College Professor of Educational
Measurement and Applied Psychometrics at the University College for
Teacher Education Styria in Graz, Austria.
Maria Magdalena Kwiatkowska, Ph.D., student and research assistant in
the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
University in Warsaw, Poland.
Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar (PhD in Linguistics) is a researcher at the Centro
de Investigación de Estudios Avanzados, Vicerrectoría de Investigación y
Postgrado, Universidad Católica del Maule (Chile), where she is also the vice-­
president of the Ethics Committee and a lecturer in the PhD Programmes of
Education and of Psychology. She is also a research associate of the Language
in the Workplace Project, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Mariana is a discourse analyst whose research has focused on healthcare com-
munication. Some of her recent work includes Clinicians’ Narratives in the Era
of Evidence-Based Practice and book chapters such as “Ethnographic methods”
in De Gruyter Handbook of Methods in Pragmatics.
Samuel Lins, Ph.D., is Professor of Social Psychology and researcher of the
Laboratory of Social Psychology in the Center for Psychology at the University
of Porto (CPUP). He graduated in psychology and management, and his
research interests include consumer psychology and behavior. His recent
research projects are focused on how the group processes (social comparison,
social identity, and social influence) trigger impulse buying.
Aakriti Malik is a clinical psychologist working at the Acute Inpatient Unit
at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. She specializes in work-
ing with adolescents, adults and families dealing with concerns on the anxiety,
mood, addictions, trauma, grief, psychosomatic and the personality spectrum.
In her work with clients in psychotherapy, Aakriti focuses on creating a safe,
enriching and a non-pathological space for them to find their true potential.
Additionally, she has worked as a lecturer teaching undergraduate students in
academic institutions of India and Malaysia. A graduate of NIMHANS,
Bangalore, India, Aakriti’s publications include articles and book chapters in
Indian and international j­ournals on bullying, psychological management in
oncology and exploring various themes in the client–therapist dyad in
psychotherapy.
xvi Notes on Editors and Contributors

Sadia Malik, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of

Psychology, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
Maria Aldina Marques has a PhD in Language Sciences, specialization in
Portuguese Linguistics (2000), with a dissertation on Aspects of the
Functioning of Parliamentary Political Discourse—the enunciative organiza-
tion in the Government Interpellation Debate. She is associate professor (with
“agregação”) of the Department of Portuguese and Lusophone Studies at the
Institute of Arts and Human Sciences of the University of Minho. She has
several publications on Portuguese and foreign books and journals. Her main
research interests, within a theoretical framework of linguistic discourse anal-
ysis, are political discourse, media discourse and scientific discourse.
Rosanna Martin is a psychologist and psychotherapist specializing in psy-
chotherapy for children and adolescents. Since 2006, she has been a member
of the Psychology Service Unit at Meyer Children’s Hospital. She cooperates
with other departments such as Infectious Diseases, International Adoptions,
Gastroenterology and Oncology. She is also interested in the treatment of
somatic symptom disorders and eating disorders among 0–3-year-old chil-
dren. Since 2020, she has been the coordinator of the Pediatric Hospital
Psychology Services at Meyer Children’s Hospital.
Lolo Jacques Mayer is an emerging young scholar, writer, actor and
researcher. His interests are exploring the human mind, machine learning,
4IR, programming and smart technologies. Besides that he enjoys statistics,
mechanics and the sciences. Additionally, he holds talks on social, cultural
and racial issues and presents autoethnographical accounts in his talks against
racism and discrimination. From 2018 to 2020, he was a member of Mensa
in Germany.
Luís Menezes is a professor at the Polytechnic of Viseu—School of Education
(Portugal). His main research interests are mathematics teaching practices and
teacher education. Particularly, his interests pertain to the role of communica-
tion in the mathematics classroom and the processes of construction and
knowledge transfer. He was part of the team that developed the national
mathematics curriculum for basic education (2007). Having previously coor-
dinated the “In-service Teacher Education Programme in Mathematics
(PFCM—Viseu)”, a national project involving primary and middle school
teachers, he has been coordinating, since 2015, the HUMAT research project
“Humour in mathematics teaching”. Luís Menezes is (co)author of several
articles published in national and international journals and curriculum mate-
rials to support mathematics teachers’ training.
 Notes on Editors and Contributors xvii

Kerry Mullan is Associate Professor and Convenor of Languages at RMIT

University. She teaches French language and culture, and sociolinguistics. Her
main research interests are cross-cultural communication and differing inter-
actional styles, particularly those of French and Australian English speakers.
She also researches in the areas of intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis,
language teaching and conversational humour.
Ginés Navarro-Carrillo, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department
of Psychology at the University of Jaén, Spain.
Felix-Kingsley Obialo is a Catholic priest, creativity practitioner and an
adjunct of the University of Ibadan School of Business and Centre for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation. His research interests include creativity,
innovation, change leadership, humour and entrepreneurship.
Rudolf M. Oosthuizen received a BA degree (Cum Laude) from the
University of Pretoria in 1992 and obtained a BA (Honours) in Psychology at
the same university in 1993. In 1999, an MA degree in Industrial and
Personnel Psychology was conferred on him by the Potchefstroom University
for Christian Higher Education. In 1999, he registered as Industrial
Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. In 2005, he
completed a DLitt et Phil in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the
University of South Africa (Unisa). Currently, Rudolf is an associate professor
in the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the
University of South Africa and an Adjunct Professor in the School of
Psychology and Counselling at the University of Southern Queensland,
Australia.Rudolf is the manager of the MCom IOP programme, and he is
responsible for the lecturing of honours subjects and the supervision of mas-
ter’s and doctoral students. He has presented conference papers at national
and international conferences and published articles in accredited scientific
journals. His fields of interests are (1) career psychology, career development
and management from an individual, group and organizational perspective in
the twenty-­first century world of work; (2) positive psychology, with the focus
on salutogenesis and well-being, sense of coherence, locus of control, self-
efficacy, the hardy personality and learned resourcefulness; (3) employment
relations and the improvement of the quality of employment relations in
organizations and in society in general; and (4) the 4th Industrial Revolution
(smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms).
Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios, Ph.D., is a strategic senior research fellow in
the School of Psychology and Counselling at Queensland University of
Technology (QUT, Australia) with expertise in applied psychology and human
xviii Notes on Editors and Contributors

factors. Oviedo-Trespalacios has extensive experience in researching behav-

iour in international research projects in more than 30 countries, and his
research is widely reported in international media, including the ABC, the
New York Times, The Independent, the Men’s Health Magazine, and The
Washington Post.
Eva Boyanova Papazova, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Institute for
Research in Education, Bulgaria. She has majored in Psychology at Sofia
University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and defended her Ph.D. degree at the
Institute of Psychology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. For over 15 years, she
worked in the Department of Psychology at IPHS, BAS. Her main research
interests are in the areas of developmental and educational psychology. She is
an author and co-author of two monographs and more than 50 scientific
publications in Bulgarian and English.
Joonha Park, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Management, NUCB
Business School, Japan. She has studied conceptions of what it means to be
human across cultures and dehumanization in intergroup relations in her gradu-
ate years at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Before joining NUCB
Graduate School, she worked as a research fellow at the University of Tokyo,
where she investigated within-cultural differences in relational self in East Asia.
Research interests include psychological well-being, moral values in crisis, multi-
culturalism and acculturation, dehumanization, and environmental psychology.
Matthias Pauwels is a cultural and political philosopher employed as a post-
doctoral researcher at the School of Philosophy of North-West University. He
conducts a book project on the entanglements of aesthetics and politics in the
South African postcolony, parts of which have already been published as arti-
cles in both South African and international journals. Dr. Pauwels obtained
his BA and MA degrees in Philosophy at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam
(The Netherlands) and his DPhil degree in Philosophy at the University of
Pretoria with a thesis on the relation between aesthetics and politics in the
work of contemporary French philosopher Jacques Rancière. He also holds an
MSc degree in Architecture from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium).
Previously, Dr. Pauwels lived in the Netherlands for many years where he was
co-founder and co-director of the independent theoretical research office
BAVO. His key publications include the co-edited volumes Cultural Activism
Today: The Art of Over-­ Identification (2007) and Urban Politics Now:
Re-Imagining Democracy in the Neoliberal City (2007), as well as the co-
authored monograph Too Active to Act: Cultural Activism after the End of
History (2010).
 Notes on Editors and Contributors xix

Corinna Peifer is Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the

University of Lübeck, Germany. Her research is located at the interface
between Work and Organizational Psychology and Psychophysiology, and she
is particularly interested in flow experience, how it relates to stress and well-­
being, and in protective factors such as humour. Corinna Peifer is founding
member of the European Flow-Researchers’ Network (EFRN), Country
Representative Germany for the European Network for Positive Psychology
(ENPP) and Vice-President of the German Association of Positive Psychology
Research (DGPPF).
Barbara Plester is a senior lecturer in the Department of Management and
International Business at the University of Auckland. Although this is a seri-
ous job, she laughs a lot because her research explores workplace humour, fun,
play, organizational culture, food rituals, psychological well-being at work
and critical perspectives of organizational life. Barbara belongs to the
Organization Studies group and teaches Organizational Behavior,
Organizational Theory and Human Resource Management (HRM) infused
with humour stories, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She
serves on the University of Auckland Education Committee—concerned with
teaching and learning in her university. Prior to her academic career, Barbara
worked in Publishing and Information Technology companies and has practi-
cal experience in Sales, Marketing and HRM, where she was once accused of
laughing too much at work!
Radosław Rogoza, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Cardinal Stefan
Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland. He is the author of over 50 pub-
lished papers, principal investigator of two research grants, and recipient of
international awards granted by the International Society for the Study of
Individual Differences and the Association for Research in Personality. His
research interests include personality and individual differences, especially
narcissistic traits within the dark side of personality.
Julie Aitken Schermer, Ph.D. (formerly Harris), is a professor in the
Departments of Management and Organizational Studies and Psychology at
the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. She is a section editor
of the journal Personality and Individual Differences, and is the past-president
of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.
Stephanie Schnurr is an associate professor at the University of Warwick.
Her main research interest is professional communication with a particular
focus on leadership discourse. Stephanie has published widely on the multiple
functions of humour, identity construction, the role of culture, and gender in
xx Notes on Editors and Contributors

a range of professional and medical contexts. She is also the author of The
Language of Leadership Narratives (with Jonathan Clifton and Dorien van de
Mieroop, 2020), Language and Culture at Work (with Olga Zayts, 2017),
Exploring Professional Communication (2013) and Leadership Discourse at
Work (2009).
Ayşe Aslı Sezgin is an associate professor in the Department of
Communication Sciences at Çukurova University, Faculty of Communication.
Ayşe Aslı Sezgin completed her PhD at Gazi University, Ankara/Turkey. Her
research interest lies in the area of new media, communication technologies,
social media, political communication, media literacy, news literacy, media
and humour.
Rupak Shrestha is a PhD Candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder.
He researches primarily questions of sovereignty, territory, ethnicity in rela-
tion to borders, (im)mobilites and placemaking. He is interested in under-
standing how certain populations are rendered powerless through state
mechanisms, and in the ways in which the rendered powerless navigate, coun-
teract and resist the dispossession of their bodies, land and memory in their
everyday lives. The central node of his research lies in understanding how
sovereignty is realized every day. For his dissertation, he is researching the
processes through which Tibetans-in-exile exercise and negotiate political life
in Nepal through engagements with politics of indigeneity, against the inten-
sification of China’s politics of development and practices of extra-territorial
sovereignty. He is also engaged with visual methodologies to emphasize other
ways of seeing, knowing and being in the world.
Jennifer Tehan Stanley is Associate Professor of Psychology at University of
Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. She is an experimental psychologist who studies
ageing and emotions and has published and presented on age differences in
humor styles.
Liat Steir-Livny is a senior lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies,
Creation and Production at Sapir College, and a tutor and course coordinator
in the Cultural Studies MA program and the Department of Literature,
Language, and the Arts at the Open University of Israel. Her research focuses
on the changing commemoration of the Holocaust in Israel from the 1940s
until the present. It combines Holocaust studies, Humor Studies, Memory
Studies, cultural Studies, Trauma studies and Film studies. She has authored
numerous articles and five books: Two Faces in the Mirror: The Representation
of Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema (Eshkolot-­Magness, 2009, Hebrew);
Let the Memorial Hill Remember: The New Commemoration of the Holocaust in
 Notes on Editors and Contributors xxi

Israeli Popular Culture (Resling, 2014, Hebrew); Is it O.K to Laugh about It?
Holocaust Humour, Satire and Parody in Israeli Culture (2017); One Trauma,
Two Perspectives, Three Years (The Herzl Institute for the Study of Zionism,
University of Haifa, 2018, Hebrew); Remaking Holocaust Memory:
Documentary Cinema by Third-Generation survivors in Israel (2019).
Jorge Torres-Marín, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department
of Research Methods in Behavioral Sciences at the University of Granada, Spain.
Maria Nicoleta Turliuc is a professor at the Department of Psychology,
Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education, Alexandru Ioan Cuza
University of Iași. She is the director of the Well-being, Stress and Resilience
Laboratory, and director of the Centre for Personal Development and
Professional Formation. She obtained the “Andrew Mellon” postdoctoral
grant offered by Maison des sciences de l’homme (MSH, Paris, France) and
Council of American Overseas Research Centers (Washington D.C.). She has
authored 5 books, coordinated 6 volumes and published more than 50 book
chapters in the country and abroad. Also, she is the author of more than 50
articles that have appeared in important international journals (e.g., Journal of
Happiness Studies, Journal of Family Psychology, International Journal of Stress
Management, Journal of Loss and Trauma, Measurement and Evaluation in
Counseling and Development, etc.).
Jennifer R. Turner is a doctoral student in the Adult Development and
Aging programme in the Psychology Department at University of Akron
(Akron, Ohio, USA). She is interested in the emotional and social lives of
adults across the lifespan.
Laura Vagnoli is a psychologist in Education and Development at the
Paediatric Psychology Services of Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence
(Italy). She’s a co-founder of the international research group Healthcare
Clowning Research International Network (H-CRIN+). She is a member of
International Society for Humour Studies (ISHS) and co-Editor-in-­Chief of
the Italian Journal of Humour Research (Rivista Italiana di Studi sull’Umorismo,
RISU). She has published extensively on the use of non-pharmacological
techniques to reduce pain and anxiety in hospitalized children.
Floriano Viseu is a professor at the University of Minho—Institute of
Education, Braga (Portugal). Inasmuch as his professional activities are con-
cerned, he is a teacher and trainer in undergraduate training courses for math-
ematics teachers. He conducts research on mathematics teacher education,
didactic knowledge of mathematics and the use of technological materials in
xxii Notes on Editors and Contributors

the teaching and learning of mathematics topics. He has tutored doctoral

theses in these research areas. He is (co)author of national mathematics cur-
ricula, as well as of textbooks on mathematics. He is (co)author of several
papers that have appeared in national and international journals, and he has
presented talks at national and international conferences.
Tatiana Volkodav, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of
Pedagogy and Psychology at Kuban State University in Krasnodar, Russia. She
has a background in cross-cultural communication and psychological coun-
selling, two professions that she still pursues alongside academic research. Her
new research project concerns the individual- and country-level predictors of
love, mate attraction, and physical attractiveness in sex/gender and cross-cul-
tural contexts.
Anna Włodarczyk, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of
Psychology at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. She received her
Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of the Basque Country, and com-
pleted postdoctoral fellowships from Universidad de Santiago de Chile
(USACH), focusing on psychosocial effects of participation in collective gath-
erings and collective action from the cross-cultural perspective. Research
interests cover: coping and emotional regulation, posttraumatic growth, polit-
ical psychology, social identity, intergroup relations, gender and positive
psychology.
Tuğba Yolcu is an associate professor at Tarsus University, Faculty of
Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and
Public Administration. Her research interest lies in the area of Turkish politi-
cal life, constitution and political institutions, politics and state philosophy,
and political culture.
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Humor styles and self-esteem means for each country sample.
(Note that self-­esteem scores were multiplied by a value of 10) 25
Fig. 6.1 Humour in cultural transitions 122
Fig. 8.1 Recession by Asukwo (n.d.). Credit: BUSINESSDAY 166
Fig. 20.1 Position in adult education  390
Fig. 20.2 Employment status of participants in adult education 390
Fig. 20.3 Duration of activity in adult education 391
Fig. 20.4 Relevance of humour in adult education 392
Fig. 20.5 Functions of humour in adult education 405
Fig. 21.1 Depiction of the main humour functions and their relationship
with Jakobson’s model of communication (Günther, 2003, 18) 422
Fig. 23.1 Everyday humour as expressed by laughter; a theoretical frame-
work with examples. Note 1. From the definition for humour as a
character strength: Liking to laugh and tease; bringing smiles to
other people; seeing the light side; making (not necessarily telling)
jokes (Peterson & Seligman, 2004, p. 30). 2. Confirmed humour
strength correlates (Niemiec, 2019). Source: FGS (from thesis
notes, 2020). 463
Fig. 23.2 Humour–laughter–affect (HuLA) model. Note. The original
version (Gonot-­Schoupinsky et al., 2020a) includes notes giving
more details. Arrows show given or potential bi-directional cause
and effect relationships 470
Fig. 24.1 The Humour-Flow Model 485

xxiii
 List of Tweets

Tweet 5.1 Resignation of CHP’s Leader 102

Tweet 5.2 The match-fixing scandal in Fenerbahçe Football Club 103
Tweet 5.3 Syrian Migration Wave 103
Tweet 5.4 Gezi Park Protests 104
Tweet 5.5 Increase of inflation 104
Tweet 5.6 March 31st power outage 105
Tweet 5.7 July 15th coup attempt 105
Tweet 5.8 Referendum for a constitutional amendment 105
Tweet 5.9 Economic crises 106
Tweet 5.10 Shopping bag sale 106
Tweet 5.11 Covid-19 pandemic 106

xxv
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Demographic statistics for the samples across 15 countries 21

Table 2.2 Scale descriptives for the four humor style scales and self-
esteem for each country 22
Table 2.3 Descriptive statistics for the humor styles and self-esteem
measures for the entire sample 23
Table 2.4 Correlations between the humor styles, self-esteem, and
covariates of gender and age 24
Table 2.5 Correlations between the humor styles and self-esteem for each
country26
Table 2.6 Predicting self-esteem across 15 countries 32
Table 3.1 The speaker/target/recipient interplay 49
Table 5.1 The social crises by themes in Turkey (2010–2020) 100
Table 5.2 Connor-Davidson resilience scale (Connor & Davidson, 2003,
p. 78)101
Table 8.1 Demographic Characteristics of Participants 153
Table 8.2 Bivariate Analysis of Gender (Male and Female) Across
Different Items of ‘Suffering and Smiling’ 157
Table 8.3 Bivariate Analysis of Educational Attainment (WAEC, First
Degree/HND, Master’s and PhD) Across Different Items of‘
Suffering and Smiling’ 158
Table 8.4 Bivariate Analysis of Religion (Christianity, Islam and African
Traditional Religion) Across Different Items of ‘Suffering and
Smiling’161
Table 21.1 Categories and subcategories of analysis (authors’ own source) 427
Table 21.2 Frequency (%) of teachers on their assessment regarding their
sense of humour, according to nationality (n = 1088)427

xxvii
xxviii List of Tables

Table 21.3 Means of teachers’ agreement on items about a person’s sense

of humour, according to nationality (n = 1088)428
Table 21.4 Means of teachers’ agreement on items about what humour is,
according to nationality (n = 1088)428
Table 21.5 Frequency (%) of teachers on the compatibility of mathematics
teaching with the use of humour, according to nationality
(n = 1088)429
Table 21.6 Means of teachers’ agreement on items about the compatibility
of mathematics teaching with the use of humour, according to
nationality (n = 1088)429
Table 21.7 Frequency (%) of the use of humour in lessons to teach
mathematics, according to nationality (n = 1088)430
Table 21.8 Means of teachers’ agreement on items about the aim of using
humour to teach mathematics, according to nationality 430
Table 21.9 Analysis of accounts of the use of humour 431
Table 21.10 Categories of analysis of the use of humour in the mathematics
classroom435
Table 22.1 Adolescents’ attendance of the amateur dubbing workshop 447
Table 22.2 Adolescents’ reason(s) for attending the amateur dubbing
workshop for the first time 448
Table 22.3 Adolescents’ feeling(s) during the amateur dubbing workshop 448
Table 22.4 Adolescents’ character choice and preferences 449
Table 22.5 Adolescents’ evaluation of the amateur dubbing workshop 451
Table 22.6 Adolescents’ limitations and problems experienced during the
amateur dubbing workshop 451
 1
Editorial: The Handbook of Humour
Research—Psychological, Cultural
and Social Perspectives
Elisabeth Vanderheiden and Claude-Hélène Mayer

After all, humour is an essentially human phenomenon and, as such, enables

people to distance themselves from everything and everyone, and thus also from
themselves, in order to take full control of themselves.

Viktor Frankl (“Schließlich ist der Humour ein wesentlich menschliches

Phänomen und ermöglicht als solches dem Menschen, sich von allem und jedem
und so denn auch von sich selbst zu distanzieren, um sich vollends in die Hand zu
bekommen” (Frankl, 2015, 125; translation by Elisabeth Vanderheiden))

1.1 Introduction
Humour has been the subject of intensive research from various scientific
perspectives for many years (see Ruch, 1998/2007; Martin, 2007; McGhee,
2010; Proyer et al., 2012). It has been shown that humour can have a

E. Vanderheiden (*)
Global Institute for Transcultural Research, Römerberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
e-mail: info@transculturalresearch.org
C.-H. Mayer
Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management,
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Europa Universität Viadrina,
Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
e-mail: claudemayer@gmx.net

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

E. Vanderheiden, C.-H. Mayer (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Humour Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78280-1_1
2 E. Vanderheiden and C.-H. Mayer

far-­reaching influence in various fields of life and fields of action. Humour

can make a decisive contribution to improving social interactions and solving
problems (see Führ, 2008). In work contexts, it can reduce feelings of stress
and have a positive effect on the perception of leadership and management
tasks (see Putz & Breuer, 2017). In the medical context, the effect of humour
has been researched primarily in connection with pain therapies, severe dis-
eases and palliative medicine. Previous studies have shown the positive effects,
for example, in anxiety and pain reduction, and its positive influence on reha-
bilitation (see Dionigi et al., 2013; Yun et al., 2015). Additionally, humour
strengthens mental resistance and is “an extremely effective technique for pro-
cessing emotions” (Ruch & Hofmann, 2015) from negative to rather positive
experiences. In educational contexts, humour can have a decisive effect in
positively shaping the learning atmosphere, increasing learning success or
strengthening social relationships (Löschmann, 2015; Siebert,
2000, 2012, 2019, 2021; Siebert & Rohs, 2017).
However, how humour is perceived and understood, what its roots are,
how it is used, what its boundaries and taboos are and how people react to it,
all depend upon various factors and contexts such as sex, age, family status,
politics, religion, values and other social, cultural and psychological aspects
(Alharthi, 2014; Davis, 2013; Mireault & Reddy, 2016; Yue et al., 2016).
This handbook is intended to be a primary reference book on humour from
social, cultural and psychological perspectives, particularly emphasising trans-
disciplinary and multicultural views. The aim of this book is to synthesise
empirical, research-based and theoretical approaches to humour in cultural
contexts and across cultures to provide a comprehensible strength-based per-
spective on humour. Humour is explored as a coping mechanism in critical
and challenging situations across the lifespan, and from cultural as well as
globalised theoretical, empirical and conceptual viewpoints.

1.2 Contemporary Humour Research

In this book, the reader will find conceptual theoretical and empirical chap-
ters on humour in contemporary, Covid-19 and future-orientated research. It
brings new original research on humour from transdisciplinary and transcul-
tural perspectives. Additionally, it focuses on humour as a resource from
socio-cultural and psychological viewpoints and includes authors from a vari-
ety of cultures, social contexts and countries. Further, it presents new research
findings and provides new directions for future humour research. Different
chapters also refer to recent research on humour in the context of the volatile,
 1 Editorial: The Handbook of Humour Research—Psychological… 3

uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times and the global Covid-19
pandemic.
Completely new impulses for humour research arise from the Covid-19
pandemic because humour has proven to be a central resource for many peo-
ple in the context of this pandemic, especially in the digital space. People use
humour in a variety of ways to manage their anxiety about the pandemic and
its impact, as evidenced by recent research (e.g. Ceuterick, 2020; Chaturvedi,
2020; Dynel, 2013; Fadhil Ali & Hidayat Ahmed, 2020; Ridanpää, 2020;
Torres et al., 2020; Nasreen, 2021; Glaveanu & de Saint Laurent, 2021;
Walker & McCabe, 2021). For example, terror management theory (Mayer
& Vanderheiden, 2021, in press) suggests that, particularly in the face of
reminders of death or fear of death, humour can function as a natural and
often effective means of regulating stressful or traumatic experiences (Long &
Greenwood, 2013), showing itself to be culturally variable (Ma-Kellams &
Blascovich, 2012; Wolfe & Tubi, 2018). Humour also proves to be an effi-
cient antidote to hopelessness in times of pandemic (Saricali et al., 2020). It
is likely to promote the transmission of positive emotions, support distancing
from negative events and promote social cohesion (Amici, 2020). Given the
huge and far-reaching impact of the pandemic, humour is capable of proving
not only to be an effective coping strategy in the crisis but also effective in
reducing stress and maintaining emotional well-being (Hussein & Aljamili,
2020). However, the expressions of humour that emerge during the pandemic
manifest not only as individual coping strategies but also as part of critical
discourse (Adipitoyo et al., 2020) and as political expressions of resistance to
manifest structural injustices and inequalities (Outley et al., 2020).

1.3 Insights Into the Volume’s Content

and Its Contribution
This volume adds to the literature on humour from different disciplinary per-
spectives with special views from psychological, cultural, social and pedagogi-
cal perspectives, and takes various theoretical and methodological standpoints
into account while drawing from a variety of focus points. The parts and
chapters of this book aim at providing new perspectives on humour from dif-
ferent cultural, professional and disciplinary research perspectives and across
socio-cultural contexts.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Availing himself of the credulity of his countrymen, he pretended
to hold frequent intercourse with a spirit or genii, still much
distinguished in the West Highlands under the appellation of Glastig.
This he turned to excellent account, as the stories which his partisans
fabricated of the command he had over the Glastig, and the
connexion between them, terrified the people so much, that few
could be prevailed upon to watch their cattle at night, and they thus
fell an easy prey to this artful rogue.
Archibald’s father having died early, his mother afterwards
married a second husband, who resided in a neighbouring island.
When she died, her son was out of favour with his stepfather, and he
was refused the privilege of having the disposal of his mother’s
remains, nor did he think it prudent to appear openly at her funeral.
He however obtained accurate information of the place where the
corpse was lying. One dark night, he made an opening in the
thatched roof of the earthen hut, and the wakers being occupied in
the feats of athletic exercise usually practised on these occasions, the
body being excluded from their sight by a screen which hung across
the house, Archibald carried it off to his boat like another Æneas. He
also got possession of the stock of whisky intended for the occasion,
as it lay in the same place—thus discharging the last duties of a pious
son with little expense to himself.
A fatal event at length occurred, which rendered it necessary for
the man to retire from trade. He made a descent on one of the small
islands on that coast, and had collected the cattle, when the
proprietor (who had information of the circumstance), made his
appearance to rescue them. Archibald was compelled to yield up his
prey, but one of the villains who accompanied him levelled his
musket at the gentleman, and shot him dead from the boat.
The robber was fully aware of his danger, and, with the assistance
of a fair wind, he shaped his course for the mainland. He pushed on
with all possible speed, and arrived at Inveraray before sunrise the
following morning. Having information that Stewart of Appin was
then in town, he watched his motions, and at an early hour saw him
on the street in conversation with the sheriff of the county.
Archibald, who was an old acquaintance, saluted him, and his salute
was returned. When Appin parted with the sheriff, Archibald
complained that he had taken no notice of him the preceding day,
when he accosted him in the same place. Appin said he was
conscious of having seen him, but that he was much hurried at the
time, and hoped he would excuse him. The robber’s object was
accomplished. Appin had no doubt of the truth of what he said; and
on his trial for the murder, an alibi was established in his favour,
from this very extraordinary piece of address. Some of his crew were
afterwards taken in Ross-shire, and executed there by order of the
Earl of Seaforth, though the actual murderer escaped punishment.
Archibald, however, never again plundered on a large scale. He died
about the middle of the 17th century, and his name still stands
unrivalled for cunning and address in his calling.—“Traditions of the
Western Highlands,” in the London Literary Gazette.
 THE MURDER HOLE:

An Ancient Legend of Galloway.

Ah, frantic Fear!
I see, I see thee near;
I know thy hurried step, thy haggard eye!
Like thee I start, like thee disordered fly!
Collins.

In a remote district of country belonging to Lord Cassilis, between

Ayrshire and Galloway, about three hundred years ago, a moor of
apparently boundless extent stretched several miles along the road,
and wearied the eye of the traveller by the sameness and desolation
of its appearance: not a tree varied the prospect—not a shrub
enlivened the eye by its freshness—not a native flower bloomed to
adorn this ungenial soil. One “lonesome desert” reached the horizon
on every side, with nothing to mark that any mortal had ever visited
the scene before, except a few rude huts that were scattered near its
centre; and a road, or rather pathway, for those whom business or
necessity obliged to pass in that direction. At length, deserted as this
wild region had always been, it became still more gloomy. Strange
rumours arose that the path of unwary travellers had been beset on
this “blasted heath,” and that treachery and murder had intercepted
the solitary stranger as he traversed its dreary extent. When several
persons, who were known to have passed that way, mysteriously
disappeared, the inquiries of their relatives led to a strict and anxious
investigation; but though the officers of justice were sent to scour the
country, and examine the inhabitants, not a trace could be obtained
of the persons in question, nor of any place of concealment which
could be a refuge for the lawless or desperate to horde in. Yet as
inquiry became stricter, and the disappearance of individuals more
frequent, the simple inhabitants of the neighbouring hamlet were
agitated by the most fearful apprehensions. Some declared that the
death-like stillness of the night was often interrupted by sudden and
preternatural cries of more than mortal anguish, which seemed to
arise in the distance; and a shepherd one evening, who had lost his
way on the moor, declared he had approached three mysterious
figures, who seemed struggling against each other with supernatural
energy, till at length one of them, with a frightful scream, suddenly
sunk into the earth.
Gradually the inhabitants deserted their dwellings on the heath,
and settled in distant quarters, till at length but one of the cottages
continued to be inhabited by an old woman and her two sons, who
loudly lamented that poverty chained them to this solitary and
mysterious spot. Travellers who frequented this road now generally
did so in groups to protect each other; and if night overtook them,
they usually stopped at the humble cottage of the old woman and her
sons, where cleanliness compensated for the want of luxury, and
where, over a blazing fire of peat, the bolder spirits smiled at the
imaginary dangers of the road, and the more timid trembled as they
listened to the tales of terror and affright with which their hosts
entertained them.
One gloomy and tempestuous night in November, a pedlar-boy
hastily traversed the moor. Terrified to find himself involved in
darkness amidst its boundless wastes, a thousand frightful
traditions, connected with this dreary scene, darted across his mind:
every blast, as it swept in hollow gusts over the heath, seemed to
teem with the sighs of departed spirits; and the birds, as they winged
their way above his head, appeared, with loud and shrill cries, to
warn him of approaching danger. The whistle, with which he usually
beguiled his weary pilgrimage, died away into silence, and he groped
along with trembling and uncertain steps, which sounded too loudly
in his ears. The promise of Scripture occurred to his memory, and
revived his courage: “I will be unto thee as a rock in the desert, and
as an hiding-place in the storm.” “Surely,” thought he, “though alone,
I am not forsaken;” and a prayer for assistance hovered on his lips.
A light now glimmered in the distance which would lead him, he
conjectured, to the cottage of the old woman; and towards that he
eagerly bent his way, remembering, as he hastened along, that when
he had visited it the year before, it was in company of a large party of
travellers, who had beguiled the evening with those tales of mystery
which had so lately filled his brain with images of terror. He
recollected, too, how anxiously the old woman and her sons had
endeavoured to detain him when the other travellers were departing;
and now, therefore, he confidently anticipated a cordial and cheering
reception. His first call for admission obtained no visible marks of
attention, but instantly the greatest noise and confusion prevailed
within the cottage. “They think it is one of the supernatural visitants
of whom the old lady talks so much,” thought the boy, approaching a
window, where the light within showed him all the inhabitants at
their several occupations; the old woman was hastily scrubbing the
stone floor, and strewing it thickly with sand, while her two sons
seemed, with equal haste, to be thrusting something large and heavy
into an immense chest, which they carefully locked.
The boy, in a frolicsome mood, thoughtlessly tapped at the
window, when they all instantly started up with consternation so
strongly depicted on their countenances, that he shrunk back
involuntarily with an undefined feeling of apprehension; but before
he had time to reflect a moment longer, one of the men suddenly
darted out at the door, and seizing the boy roughly by the shoulder,
dragged him violently into the cottage.
“I am not what you take me for,” said the boy, attempting to laugh;
“but only the poor pedlar who visited you last year.”
“Are you alone?” inquired the old woman, in a harsh, deep tone,
which made his heart thrill with apprehension.
“Yes,” said the boy, “I am alone here; and alas!” he added with a
burst of uncontrollable feeling, “I am alone in the wide world also!
Not a person exists who would assist me in distress, or shed a single
tear if I died this very night.”
“Then you are welcome!” said one of the men with a sneer, while
he cast a glance of peculiar expression at the other inhabitants of the
cottage.
It was with a shiver of apprehension, rather than of cold, that the
boy drew towards the fire, and the looks which the old woman and
her sons exchanged made him wish that he had preferred the shelter
of any one of the roofless cottages which were scattered near, rather
than thrust himself among persons of such dubious aspect. Dreadful
surmises flitted across his brain; and terrors which he could neither
combat nor examine imperceptibly stole into his mind; but alone,
and beyond the reach of assistance, he resolved to smother his
suspicions, or at least not increase the danger by revealing them. The
room to which he retired for the night had a confused and desolate
aspect: the curtains seemed to have been violently torn down from
the bed, and still hung in tatters around it; the table seemed to have
been broken by some violent concussion, and the fragments of
various pieces of furniture lay scattered upon the floor. The boy
begged that a light might burn in his apartment till he was asleep,
and anxiously examined the fastenings of the door; but they seemed
to have been wrenched asunder on a former occasion, and were still
left rusty and broken.
It was long ere the pedlar attempted to compose his agitated
nerves to rest, but at length his senses began to “steep themselves in
forgetfulness,” though his imagination remained painfully active,
and presented new scenes of terror to his mind, with all the vividness
of reality. He fancied himself again wandering on the heath, which
appeared to be peopled with spectres, who all beckoned to him not to
enter the cottage, and as he approached it, they vanished with a
hollow and despairing cry. The scene then changed, and he found
himself again seated by the fire, where the countenances of the men
scowled upon him with the most terrifying malignity, and he thought
the old woman suddenly seized him by the arms, and pinioned them
to his side.
Suddenly the boy was startled from these agitated slumbers, by
what sounded to him like a cry of distress; he was broad awake in a
moment, and sat up in bed; but the noise was not repeated, and he
endeavoured to persuade himself it had only been a continuation of
the fearful images which had disturbed his rest, when, on glancing at
the door, he observed underneath it a broad red stream of blood
silently stealing its course along the floor. Frantic with alarm, it was
but the work of a moment to spring from his bed, and rush to the
door, through a chink of which, his eye nearly dimmed with affright,
he could watch unsuspected whatever might be done in the adjoining
room.
 His fear vanished instantly when he perceived that it was only a
goat that they had been slaughtering; and he was about to steal into
his bed again, ashamed of his groundless apprehensions, when his
ear was arrested by a conversation which transfixed him aghast with
terror to the spot.
“This is an easier job than you had yesterday,” said the man who
held the goat. “I wish all the throats we’ve cut were as easily and
quietly done. Did you ever hear such a noise as the old gentleman
made last night? It was well we had no neighbours within a dozen
miles, or they must have heard his cries for help and mercy.”
“Don’t speak of it,” replied the other; “I was never fond of
bloodshed.”
“Ha! ha!” said the other, with a sneer, “you say so, do you?”
“I do,” answered the first, gloomily; “the Murder Hole is the thing
for me—that tells no tales; a single scuffle,—a single plunge,—and the
fellow’s dead and buried to your hand in a moment. I would defy all
the officers in Christendom to discover any mischief there.
“Ay, Nature did us a good turn when she contrived such a place as
that. Who that saw a hole in the heath, filled with clear water, and so
small that the long grass meets over the top of it, would suppose that
the depth is unfathomable, and that it conceals more than forty
people, who have met their deaths there? It sucks them in like a
leech!”
“How do you mean to despatch the lad in the next room?” asked
the old woman in an undertone. The elder son made her a sign to be
silent, and pointed towards the door where their trembling auditor
was concealed; while the other, with an expression of brutal ferocity,
passed his bloody knife across his throat.
The pedlar boy possessed a bold and daring spirit, which was now
roused to desperation; but in any open resistance the odds were so
completely against him that flight seemed his best resource. He
gently stole to the window, and having forced back the rusty bolt by
which the casement had been fastened, he let himself down without
noise or difficulty. “This betokens good,” thought he, pausing an
instant, in dreadful hesitation what direction to take. This
momentary deliberation was fearfully interrupted by the hoarse
voice of the men calling aloud, “The boy has fled—let loose the
bloodhound!” These words sunk like a death-knell on his heart, for
escape appeared now impossible, and his nerves seemed to melt
away like wax in a furnace. “Shall I perish without a struggle?”
thought he, rousing himself to exertion, and, helpless and terrified as
a hare, pursued by its ruthless hunters, he fled across the heath.
Soon the baying of the bloodhound broke the stillness of the night,
and the voice of its masters sounded through the moor, as they
endeavoured to accelerate its speed. Panting and breathless, the boy
pursued his hopeless career, but every moment his pursuers seemed
to gain upon his failing steps. The hound was unimpeded by the
darkness which was to him so impenetrable, and its noise rung
louder and deeper on his ear,—while the lanterns which were carried
by the men gleamed near and distinct upon his vision.
At his fullest speed the terrified boy fell with violence over a heap
of stones, and having nothing on but his shirt, he was severely cut in
every limb. With one wild cry to Heaven for assistance, he continued
prostrate on the earth, bleeding and nearly insensible. The hoarse
voices of the men, and the still louder baying of the dog, were now so
near, that instant destruction seemed inevitable; already he felt
himself in their fangs, and the bloody knife of the assassin appeared
to gleam before his eyes. Despair renewed his energy, and once
more, in an agony of affright that seemed verging towards madness,
he rushed forward so rapidly that terror seemed to have given wings
to his feet. A loud cry near the spot he had left arose in his ears
without suspending his flight. The hound had stopped at the place
where the pedlar’s wounds bled so profusely, and deeming the chase
now over, it lay down there, and could not be induced to proceed. In
vain the men beat it with frantic violence, and cried again to put the
hound on the scent,—the sight of blood satisfied the animal that its
work was done, and it obstinately resisted every inducement to
pursue the same scent a second time.
The pedlar boy in the meantime paused not in his flight till
morning dawned; and still as he fled, the noise of steps seemed to
pursue him, and the cry of his would-be assassins sounded in the
distance. He at length reached a village, and spread instant alarm
throughout the neighbourhood; the inhabitants were aroused with
one accord into a tumult of indignation—several of them had lost
sons, brothers, or friends on the heath, and all united in proceeding
immediately to seize the old woman and her sons, who were nearly
torn to pieces in their furious wrath. Three gibbets were at once
raised on the moor, and the wretched culprits confessed before their
execution to the destruction of nearly fifty victims in the Murder
Hole, which they pointed out, and near which they suffered the
penalty of their crimes. The bones of several murdered persons were
with difficulty brought up from the abyss into which they had been
thrust; but so narrow is the aperture, and so extraordinary the depth,
that all who see it are inclined to coincide in the tradition of the
country people, that it is unfathomable.
The scene of these events still continues nearly as it was three
hundred years ago: the remains of the old cottage, with its blackened
walls (haunted, of course, by a thousand evil spirits), and the
extensive moor, on which a more modern inn (if it can be dignified
with such an epithet) resembles its predecessor in everything but the
character of its inhabitants. The landlord is deformed, but possesses
extraordinary genius; he has himself manufactured a violin, on
which he plays with untaught skill,—and if any discord be heard in
the house, or any murder committed in it, this is his only instrument.
His daughter (who has never travelled beyond the heath) has
inherited her father’s talent, and learned all his tales of terror and
superstition, which she relates with infinite spirit; but when you are
led by her across the heath to drop a stone into that deep and narrow
gulf to which our story relates,—when you stand on its slippery edge,
and, parting the long grass with which it is covered, gaze into its
mysterious depths,—when she describes, with all the animation of an
eye-witness, the struggle of the victims clutching the grass as a last
hope of preservation, and trying to drag in their assassin as an
expiring effort of vengeance,—when you are told that for three
hundred years the clear waters in this diamond of the desert have
remained untasted by mortal lips, and that the solitary traveller is
still pursued at night by the howling of the bloodhound,—it is then
only that it is possible fully to appreciate the terrors of “The Murder
Hole.”—Blackwood’s Magazine, 1829.
 THE MILLER OF DOUNE:
A TRAVELLER’S TALE.

Chapter I.
In the reign of James the Fifth, the mill on the Teath, near Doune,
was possessed, as it had been for abune a century, by a family of the
name of Marshall.
They were a bauld and a strong race of men, and when the miller
of whom we’re now to speak was in his prime, it used to be a
common saying in the kintra, “Better get a kick frae a naig’s foot,
than a stroke frae John Marshall;” and even now that he was
threescore and one, there were unco few that liked to come to grips
wi’ him. But though John kent he need fear nae man, and would
carry things wi’ a high hand when needfu’, yet he was onything but
quarrelsome, and was aye mair ready to gree wi’ a man than to fight
wi’ him; and as he was a gash sensible man, and thoroughly honest,
he had mony frien’s and weel-wishers, and was muckle respeckit in
the hale kintra side.
John’s family consisted of twa sons and a dochter, who had lost
their mither when they were but weans. The eldest, James, was as
like what his father was at the same age, as twa peas; only, if
onything, a thought stronger. William, the next, was mair slender;
but though he couldna put the stane, nor fling the fore-hammer,
within mony an ell o’ James, yet he could jump higher than ony man
he had ever met wi’; and as for rinnin’, naebody could come near
him. Of Jeanie Marshall we need say nae mair than that she was a
sensible, spirited, light-hearted lassie, the pride of her brothers, and
her father’s darling.
 It happened ae night, as the miller was coming back frae gien his
horse a drink at the water, that he heard something cheep-cheeping
in the grass at the roadside, and every now and then it gied a bit flee
up in the air, and then doun again; and upon looking at it again, the
miller saw that it was a robin chased by a whuttrit, which was trying
to grip it; and the miller said to himsel, “I canna thole to see the puir
bit burdie riven a’ to coopens afore my very een;” so he banged aff
the horse, and ran and got it up in his hand, and he let drive sic a
kick at the whuttrit, that the beast gaed up in the lift, and ower the
hedge, just as if it had been a kuisten snawba’.
On lookin’ at the robin, John saw some straes stickin’ to’t wi’ burd-
lime, which had stoppit it frae fleein’, and he begood to pike them
aff; but Clod, who was a restless brute, and was wearyin’ for his
stable, tuggit and ruggit sae at the helter, that the miller could come
nae speed ava. “And now,” says the miller, “gif I set you doun, puir
thing, as ye are, some beast or anither will come and worry ye; and
it’s no in my power to get on that dancing deevil’s back wi’ ae hand—
sae gang ye in there;” and he lifted up the flap o’ his pouch, and pat
in the robin.
Now, John Marshall kentna that a’ this time there was a man at
the back o’ the hedge wi’ a cockit gun in his hand, ready to shoot the
whuttrit; but who, when he saw the miller jump aff his horse, took
doun the gun frae his shouther, to watch the upshot o’t; and when he
heard what the miller said, and saw him put the robin in his pouch,
he thought to himsel, “I maun ken something mair about this man;”
sae he follows the miller at a distance. And when he sees him come
out o’ the stable, and into the house, and the door steekit, and a’
quiet, he slips up to a window which was a wee bit open, and whaur
he could hear and see a’ that gaed on. The first thing he sees is the
miller and his family preparing for family worship, for that was a
thing John Marshall ne’er missed; and after the psalm was dune, the
miller spreads the Bible before him, and pittin’ his hand into his
pouch for his napkin, to dight his spectacles, out comes napkin, an’
burd, an’ a’.
“’Od,” says Jeanie, saftly, “gif my father hasna brought hame a
robin.”
“Whaur got ye the bit robin, father?” said William.
 “Ne’er ye mind, William, my man,” said the miller; “I’m gaun to
read ye a part o’ the Word o’ God, and that will do ye mair gude than
onything I hae to tell ye;” and as he pat out his hand to tak the corner
o’ his napkin, the robin gied him a dab. “Aye, neebor!” says the
miller. “But ye’re no to blame, puir beastie, for ye wasna to ken
whether I meant ye ill or gude. And now that I think o’t,” continued
the miller, “I’ll pass by our regular order the night, and read ye that
chapter whaur we’re tauld that no even a sparrow shall fa’ to the
grund without the Lord wills it.”
When he had finished it, they a’ went doun on their knees, and the
miller, amang ither things, prayed that He, wha took care even o’ the
bit burds o’ the air, would watch for their welfare, and gie them grace
to resist a’ temptation, and to live a gude and a godly life, like men
and like Christians. And when it was ower, and Jeanie was putting by
the Bible, a dirl comes to the door.
“See wha’s that, Jeanie,” cried the miller. Sae Jeanie opens it, and
when she comes back, she says, “It’s ane John Murdoch, father,
wha’s travell’t a gey lang bit the day; but gif it’s no convenient to tak
him in, he’ll just trudge on.”
“Bring him ben, lassie,” quoth the miller. Sae in walks John
Murdoch, a plain, honest, kintra-like chiel; and “Guid e’en to you,
miller,” says he.
“The same to you, frien’,” says John Marshall; “and sit ye doun,
and pit by your bonnet. We’re gaun to hae our parritch belyve, and if
ye’ll tak your share o’ them, and stay a’ night wi’ us, we’ll mak ye
welcome.”
“Wi’ a’ my heart,” says John Murdoch, sitting himsel down. “And
ye’ve gotten a bit burdie on the table, I see,—but it’s a wee douf ways,
I think.”
“Ou aye,” quoth the miller, “the puir thing’s gotten a bit fright the
night; and it’s a’ stickin’ wi’ burd-lime, and I kenna how to get it aff.”
“Let me see’t,” says John Murdoch, “I hae some bit notion o’ thae
things.” An’ he took a’ the straes aff it, and dighted and cleaned its
feathers, and made it just as right’s ever.
“And whaur’ll we put it now?” said he.
“’Od,” quoth the miller, “it would amaist be a pity to put it out at
the window the night; sae, Jeanie, see, if there’s naething to haud it
till the morn’s morning.”
“We’ll sune manage that,” said Jeanie, takin’ doun an auld cage.
The robin being safely disposed of, John Murdoch began to speak
to the miller of a heap o’ things, and he had the best o’t on maist o’
them; but when he cam to speak o’ kye, and on kintra matters, “I hae
ye now, man,” thought the miller; but faith he found John Murdoch
his match there too; and he said to himsel, “Od, but he’s a queer man
that, sure eneugh.” And John Murdoch gaed on tellin’ a wheen funny
stories. The miller leugh and better leugh, and Jeanie was sae ta’en
up about them, that in she rins twa handfu’s o’ saut instead o’ meal
into the parritch, and them sauted afore. Sae when they’re set on the
table, John Murdoch gets the first platefu’; and when he tastes them,
he says very gravely, “No that ill; but maybe ye’ll hae run out o’
saut?”
“Saut!” cried William, “do they want saut?” and in gangs a
spoonfu’.
“Gudesake!” cried he, turning roun’ to John Murdoch.
“What’s wrang with them, William?” said the miller.
“Ou, naething, naething, father—only they’re as saut’s lick, that’s
a’.”
“Gae awa wi’ your havers,” cried Jeanie; “let me taste them. Bless
me! an’ how in a’ the wide warl’ could that happen? I ne’er made sic a
mistak in a’ my days, an’ I canna account for’t in no gate.”
“Now dinna ye gang and vex yoursel about it,” said John Murdoch,
“for they’ll just gaur the yill there gang doun a’ the better.”
“If that’s the gate o’t,” cried the miller, “they’ll need strong yill frae
the first; sae, Jeanie, put ye that sma’ thing by, and bring the ither.”
“Na, na, gudeman,” says John Murdoch, “if we do that, wee’l be
fou; sae let’s begin wi’ the sma’ thing first, and we can tak the strong
yill afterwards, at our leisure.”
“Weel, weel,” said the miller, “sae be’t.”
Sae after supper they fell to the strong yill, and to crackin’, and the
miller took his share in’t, but nane o’ his family said onything maist;
but they couldna keep their een aff John Murdoch when he was
lookin’ at their father, though they found that they couldna look him
steady in the face when he turned to them, just frae something in his
ee, they couldna tell what.
“And it’s a bonnie place this o’ yours, miller,” said John Murdoch;
“and nae doubt you and your folk afore ye hae been a gey while in’t.”
“’Deed hae we,” said the miller, a wee gravely, “and, as ye say, it’s a
gey bonnie bit place.”
John Murdoch was gaun to ask something mair about it, but he
stopped on getting a particular look frae Jeanie, and changed the
subject; but the miller noticed it, and guessing the reason, said to
John Murdoch, “Ye see, frien’, that me and my forefathers hae had
this place for about twa hunder years, and we’re sweert to leave’t,
and my bairns ken that, and dinna like to speak o’t.”
“And what’s makin’ ye leave’t?” says John Murdoch; “that’s to say,
if its no ony secret.”
“Ou, nane ava,” says the miller; “it’s just this, ye see: its owner
thinks that it’s worth mair rent, and maybe he counts on our gien
him mair than the value o’t rather than gang awa, sae he’s just put
the double on’t, and gang we maun; for to stay here at that rate,
would just rin awa wi’ the wee thing I hae laid by for my bairns,
which I would be sweert to see. It’s no very muckle, to be sure; but I
can say this, John Murdoch, that it wasna gotten either by cheating
or idleness. However, we needna weary you wi’ our concerns, sae
come, we’s drink King James, and lang life to him.”
“Wi’ a’ my heart, miller,” quoth John Murdoch. “And nae doubt
ye’ll a’ be gaun to the sports that’s sune to be hauden at Stirling; they
say there’ll be grand fun, and I was just thinking that your auld son
there wadna hae a bad chance o’ winning at puttin’ the stane, or
flinging the mell.”
“And I ken,” cried Jeanie, “wha wad hae some chance at the race,
gif there’s to be ane.”
“Dinna brag, bairns,” said the miller, “and then, if ye’re waured,
there’s naething to be ashamed o’; but whether we gang there or no,
time will show; in the meantime, Jeanie, bring anither bottle o’
strong yill.”
“Miller,” quoth John Murdoch, “ken ye what hour it’s?”
“Me!” said the miller, “not I—maybe half an hour after nine.”
 “Because it just wants five minutes of eleven,” quoth John
Murdoch.
“Five minutes o’ eleven!” cried the miller, “and me no in my bed!
Faith, then, frien’, since ye dinna seem for’t yoursel, we’ll just let the
yill stan’, and be aff to our nests; sae a gude soun’ sleep to you.”
“And the same to you and yours,” quoth John Murdoch, as he raise
and gaed awa wi’ William.
 Chapter II.
Next morning the miller’s family were up and out at the usual
hour; but John Murdoch, who had wearied himsel the day before,
and who hadna, maybe, been used to sae muckle strong yill at ance,
lay still; and it was aught o’clock when he cam into the kitchen and
bade Jeanie gude mornin’.
“And how’s the gudeman? and is he out or in?”
“How!” cries Jeanie, “he and the lave hae been up and out at their
wark three hours syne.”
“And what are ye gaun to be about, my dawtie?” says John
Murdoch.
“I’m gaun to wash the kirn,” says Jeanie.
“And suppose I haud it for ye, and help ye?” says he.
“Weel aweel,” says Jeanie, “gin ye like; we’ll hae’t the sooner
ower.”
And John Murdoch did his best, and was very active; and when a’
was dune, he says, “An’ now, my dawtie, what am I to get for helping
ye?”
“Nae mair,” quoth Jeanie, “than the thanks ye hae gotten already.”
“But in my kintra,” says John Murdoch, “when a lad helps a lass to
clean out a kirn, he aye gets ae kiss at least.”
“We ken naething about thae fashions hereabouts,” says Jeanie,
“sae haud ye out o’ my gate!”
But as she passed him, John Murdoch, who thought she wasna in
earnest, drew her suddenly to him, and he had ta’en twa or three
kisses before Jeanie could recollect herself; but the next minute she
threw him frae her, and catching the ladle, she ran to the parritch-
pat on the fire, and whipped aff the lid; and if John Murdoch, who
saw what was coming, hadna darted out at the back door, he wad hae
had it a’ about him; as it was, a part o’ the het parritch played splarge
aff the wa’ on his coat.
 “And now,” thought John Murdoch, “is this real anger, or is’t put
on?” and he stood a wee bit aff, joking an’ jeering her.
“Aye, aye,” says he, “ye’re makin’ an unco wark about it, just as if
ye hadna been kissed a dozen times frae lug to lug, an’ by as mony
lads, and no said a word about it.”
“Ye notorious vagabond that ye are,” cried Jeanie,—“but I’se sort
ye for’t;” and she flung down the ladle and ran to loose the muckle
dog.
“Ye’re surely no gaun to set the dog on me?” says John Murdoch.
“Am I no?” says Jeanie, drawing and working wi’ the collar wi’ a’
her might.
John Murdoch, seeing her sae determined, slips to ae side, and
gets his gun frae whaur he had hidden’t.
“And now, Jeanie,” cries he, “haud your hand, for see, I’ve a gun.”
“I dinna care gin ye had twenty guns,” said Jeanie, who had now
unbuckled the collar, an’ held it in her hands; “sae tak leg-bail an’ aff
wi’ ye, my man, or Bawtie comes to ye.”
“Jeanie,” quoth John Murdoch, “I’m ready to walk awa peaceably,
since it maun be sae; but I’ll no be hunted frae your father’s house
like a thief an’ a scoundrel; sae keep up your dog, if ye’re wise.”
“We’ll sune try that,” says Jeanie, loosening the collar; “sae at him,
Bawtie! an’ we’ll sune see him rin.”
But John Murdoch stirredna ae step, and when Bawtie made at
him, he keepit him aff for a while, till the brute gettin’ below the
muzzle, made a dart at him; and if John Murdoch hadna jumped
quickly to ae side, he wad hae gripped him; as it was, he took awa ane
o’ the tails o’ his coat. And when Jeanie saw that, she was in a terrible
fright, for she didna wish him hurt, and thought he wad hae ran for’t
when she loosed the dog, and she cried wi’ a’ her might for Bawtie to
come back. But the beast wadna mind her, for he had gotten twa or
three gude paps on the nose, which made him furious; and sae when
he’s gaun to mak anither spring, John Murdoch, who saw there was
naething else for it, levels at him and lets drive; and round and round
the beast gaed, and then ower wi’ him; and when Jeanie saw he was
killed, she set up a great screigh, and ran till him, abusing John
Murdoch.
 “I’m sorry for’t, but it’s a’ your ain faut, Jeanie,” says he, “an’ canna
now be helpit; sae fare-ye-weel.” An’ as he gaed awa, William comes
runnin’ in at the other side o’ the house, an’ cries to Jeanie to ken
what’s the matter.
“It’s a’ John Murdoch’s doings,” cried Jeanie; “he first affronted
me, an’ now he’s killed poor Bawtie.”
“An’ which way is he gane?” cried William.
“Out that gate,” said Jeanie; and away went William like a shot.
But John Murdoch, who had heard what passed, and didna want
to hae ony mair to do in the matter, coured down ahint some bushes
till William was passed; then rising up, he took anither direction, an’
thought he had got clear o’ him, but as he was stappin’ ower a dike,
William got a glimpse o’ him. Doun he comes after him at a bonnie
rate; an’ as he gets near him, “Stop, ye rascal!” he cries to him; “ye
may just as weel stop at ance, for ye may depend on my laying a
dizzen on ye for every hunder ell ye mak me rin after ye.”
And when John Murdoch heard that, the blude gaed up into his
brow, an’ he was thinking o’ standin’ still, when he hears James cry
out,—
“What’s the matter, William? An’ what are ye chasing the man
for?”
“He’s misbehaved to Jeanie, an’ shot Bawtie,” cried William.
“Then taigle him, just taigle him, till I come up,” cried James.
“It’s needless,” thought John Murdoch to himself, “to fight wi’ twa
o’ them, an’ ane o’ them a second Samson, and to mak an
explanation or apology wad be ten times waur, sae I’ll e’en pit on;”
an’ aff he gaed at nearly the tap o’ his fit. After rinning a gude bit, he
looks o’er his shouther, an’ seeing naebody near him, he thinks
they’ve gien’t up; but just as he’s coming to the end o’ a bit wood, he
sees William, wha had ta’en a nearer cut, just afore him; an’ round he
comes on him, crying, “Now, my man, I hae ye now,” putting out his
hand to catch John Murdoch; but John drave down his hand in a
moment, an’ clapping his foot ahint William’s, an’ whirling him to ae
side, “Tak ye that, my man,” says he; an’ William gaed down wi’ sic a
breinge, that the blude spouted out frae his nose, an’ the hale warld
gaed round wi’ him.
 It was a wee while or James cam up, an’ when he saw William
lying covered wi’ blude, “The Lord preserve us,” cried he, “the
callant’s killed!” an’ he sat down beside him, an’ got William’s head
on his knee, an’ tried to recover him. By an’ by, William opens his
een, an’ when he sees James, “After him, after him,” cries he, “an’ no
mind me.”
“After him,” says James, “an’ the man a mile agate already? It wad
be nonsense for me to try’t.”
“Then let me up, an’ I’ll try it mysel,” cried William.
But James held him fast. “The deil’s in the callant,” says he, “to
think o’ runnin’, an’ him no able to stand his lane. Lie still, I tell ye!”
And William, who knew it was in vain for him to strive with his
strong brither, thought it best no to struggle ony mair. When he had
gotten quite round again, James helpit him up, an’ as they’re gaun
down to the water for William to wash himsel, they meet Jeanie
coming fleein’ up the path; and when she saw William’s bloody face
and claes, she clasped her hands thegither, an’ would hae fa’en, if
James hadna keppit her. When they questioned her about what had
happened, she tell’t it to them honestly frae first to last, and blamed
hersel sair for being sae angry an’ rash, when, after a’, the man meant
nae ill; but the thought o’ what Geordie Wilson might think if he
heard o’t, an’ the shootin’ o’ Bawtie thegither, had perfectly
dumfoundered her. “However,” continued Jeanie, “I’m thankfu’ that
things are nae waur, an’ that the man’s awa.”
“Aye, he’s awa,” says James, “but gin him an’ me foregather again,
I’se promise him the best paid skin he e’er got since he was
kirstened.”
“Weel, weel,” said Jeanie, “but I hope ye’ll ne’er meet; an’ now we
must gang and pit puir Bawtie out o’ the gate, an’ think on something
to say about him, and about John Murdoch’s gangin’ awa sae early,
before our father comes in to his breakfast.”
 Chapter III.
The time was now drawing near for the sports to be held at
Stirling, and William was aye wanting to speak to his father about it,
and to ken if they were gaun; but Jeanie advised against it. “If ye
speak till him, and fash him about it enow,” says she, “it’s ten to ane
but he’ll say no, and then, ye ken, there’s an’ end o’t; but gif ye say
naething, and keep steady to your wark, like enough he may speak o’
gaun himsel; sae tak my advice an’ sae naething ava about it.”
William did as Jeanie wanted him, but still the miller didna speak,
an’ now it was the afternoon of the day before the sports were to
come on, an’ no a word had been said about them; an’ William was
unco vexed, an’ didna weel ken what to do. When he’s sitting
thinking about it, the door opens, an’ in steps their neebour,
Saunders Mushet, just to crack a wee; an’ by an’ by he says, “Weel,
miller, an’ what time will ye be for setting aff the morn’s morning?”
“Me!” said the miller, “an’ what to do?”
“What to do?” says Saunders, “why, to see the sports at Stirling, to
be sure; you’ll surely never think o’ missing sic a grand sight?”
“An’ troth, Saunders,” says the miller, “I had clean forgotten’t. ’Od,
I daursay there’ll be grand fun, an’ my bairns wad maybe like to see’t;
an’ now that I think o’t, they’ve dune unco weel this while past,
especially William there, wha’s wrought mair than e’er I saw him do
afore in the same space o’ time; sae get ye ready, bairns, to set out at
five o’clock the morn’s morning, an’ we’ll tak Saunders up as we gae
by.”
This was glad news to the miller’s family, an’ ye needna doubt but
they were a’ ready in plenty o’ time; an’ when they cam to Stirling,
they got their breakfast, an’ a gude rest before aught o’clock cam,
which was the hour when the sports were to begin; an’ grand sports
they were, an’ muckle diversion gaed on; but nane o’ the miller’s
family took ony share in them, till they cam to puttin’ the stane, and
flingin’ the mell.
“Now James, my man,” says Jeanie, squeezing his arm.