Associated Press, Halloween, 2004       PRESTONPANS, Scotland - Accused witches - and their cats - executed during a wave of hysteria and religious ferment hundreds of years ago will be pardoned today in this Scottish township, a court official said Friday.     This ceremony will publicly pardon 81 people executed in the 16th and 17th centuries for being witches. The pardons have been granted under ancient feudal powers due to be abolished within weeks.     "There'll be no witches' hats, dress-ups or that sort of thing - it will be a fairly solemn occasion," said Adele Conn, spokeswoman for the baronial court granting pardons.     More than 3,500 Scots, mainly women and children, and their cats were killed in witch hunts. Many were condemned on flimsy evidence, such as owning a black cat or brewing homemade remedies.     Prestonpans region recorded one of the largest numbers of witch executions in Scotland, said Conn, spokeswoman for the Barons Courts of Prestoungrange & Dolphinstoun.     Gordon Prestoungrange, the 14th baron, granted the pardons in the last session of his court, she said.     "Most of those persons condemned for witchcraft...were convicted on the basis of spectral evidence - that is to say, prosecuting witnesses declared that they felt the presence of evil spirits or heard spirit voices," the court said in its written findings.     "Such spectral evidence is impossible to prove or to disprove...One is convicted upon the very making of such charges without any possibility of offering defense."     The court declared an absolute pardon to all those convicted, "as well as to the cats concerned."