- A secret society of "horse whisperers" formed
by ploughmen in the rolling farmlands of Buchan spawned the notorious Ku
Klux Klan in the Southern states of the United States.
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- That is the astonishing claim made by a Scottish veterinary
surgeon in a book to be published later this month, detailing the rise
and fall of the mysterious societies of horsemen that spread from the farms
of the north-east of Scotland throughout Britain and then across the Atlantic.
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- Russell Lyon, the son of a Lanarkshire farmer who now
works as a vet in Cambridge, spent almost five years tracing the history
of the secret societies which originated in that corner of Scotland in
the 18th century.
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- They claimed to have a "magic word" which,
when whispered in a horse's ear, seemed to give ploughmen immediate and
total control over the animal - 200 years before the modern day "horse
whisperers" of the US prairies, celebrated in Robert Redford's eponymous
film.
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- But Mr Lyon has discovered that far from using their
voices to control their horses, the members of the secret societies of
Buchan, whose practices were shrouded in pagan ritual and devil worship,
used ancient herbal concoctions to give them their apparently mysterious
power over the animals.
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- He has also revealed that while some of the ploughmen's
societies in Britain forged links with the Masonic movement, six horsemen,
recruited by the Confederate army after emigrating to the US, went on to
form the secret society which was to become the hated and feared Ku Klux
Klan.
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- Mr Lyon said: "The methods which the horsemen of
Buchan used were totally different from the modern horse whisperers. They
told the public they had this magic word to control their animals, but
what the secret societies of Buchan ploughmen were actually doing was to
use different sorts of smells to condition their animal to behave.
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- "They used powerful aromatic oils, made from herbs
like rosemary, which they would smear on their foreheads or incorporate
into oatcakes to make the horses respond to them. And they also had 'reisting'
smells which they would use to make a horse freeze."
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- The secrets of the "horse whisperers" were
passed from one generation of ploughmen to the next at meetings of the
societies. Young farmhands would be taken into a darkened byre to shake
hands with the "auld chiel" - the devil - after swearing the
oath of secrecy.
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- One of the members, dressed in a shaggy coat and with
horns on his head, would use the foot of a dead calf, heated and covered
in phosphorus to make it glow in the dark, as the devil's hand, striking
fear into the hearts of the new recruits. "They were warned that if
they divulged the secrets, they were liable to be disembowelled and their
bodies buried on the sea shore," said Mr Lyon.
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- According to the book, the secret societies of the Buchan
ploughmen spread to the large farms of East Lothian and Midlothian, then
into the Borders and as far south as East Anglia. But the societies' legacy
took an even more sinister turn in the US.
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- Mr Lyon said he had received information from sources
in Canada, the US and Australia that six young men from Buchan, who had
emigrated to the US, were recruited during the American Civil War by the
Confederate army's cavalry.
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- He explained: "They became cavalry officers and,
at the end of the war, these six young men were bored and decided to set
up a secret society using their knowledge of the whisperers' traditions
and oaths as the basis.
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- "It started as just another hellfire club and then
it just got out of hand and led directly on to the Ku Klux Klan."
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- According to Mr Lyon's detailed research, most of the
secret societies in Britain died out when the heavy horses were replaced
by tractors. But he claimed: "There are one or two still around, and
at least one society still meets in Orkney."
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- Meanwhile, a recently published history of the Ku Klux
Klan has claimed that General John Gordon, the descendant of an Aberdeen
emigrant who became one of the most celebrated commanders in the Confederate
army, was appointed Grand Dragon in Georgia of the Klan's "Invisible
Empire" following the Civil War.
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- General Gordon rose through the ranks during the conflict
from a captain of Alabama volunteers to major general in charge of the
Confederate army's 2nd Corps. He fought at Bull Run, Appomattox and Gettysburg,
then entered politics after the war and served Georgia as both governor
and senator. He was a direct descendant of John George Gordon, one of seven
Aberdeen brothers who emigrated to Charleston in South Carolina in 1724.
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- A recent history of the Ku Klux Klan, The Fiery Cross,
claims General Gordon was one of a number of prominent southern figures
who were actively involved in the Klan, leading their activities in Georgia
as Grand Dragon".
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- The Quest for the Original Horse Whisperers is published
by Luath Press on 17 July, priced at £16.99.
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- <http://www.scotsman.com>©2003 scotsman.com
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- http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=723412003
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