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94
deadly Aconitum, that sprang up from the foam of the savage
many-headed Cerberus, the watch-dog of the infernal regions :—
Medea to dispatch a dang’rous heir
(She knew him) did a poisonous draught prepare,
Drawn from a drug long while reserved in store,
For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore.
That from the Echidncean monster’s jaws
Derived its origin.”
Medea’s sister, the Enchantress Circe, having been neglected
by a youth for whom she had conceived a passion, turned him, by
means of a herb potion, into a.brutal shape, for
“ Love refused, converted to disdain.
Then, mixing powerful lierbs with magic art.
She changed his form who could not change his heart.”
So intimate was the acquaintance of this celebrated Witch
with the subtle properties of all plants, that by the aid of the
noxious juices she extracted from them, she was enabled to exercise
marvellous powers of enchantment. At her bidding,
“ Now strange to tell, the plants sweat drops of blood,
I'he trees are toss’d from forests where they stood ;
Blue serpents o'er the tainted herbage slide,
Pale glaring spectres on the lether ride.”
Circe was assiduous in “ simpling on the flow’ry hills,” and
her attendants were taught to despise the ordinary occupations of
women they were unburdened by household cares.
“ But culled, in canisters, disastrous flowers
And plants from haunted heaths and Fairy bowers.
With brazen sickles reap’d at planetary hours
Each dose the goddess weighed with watchful eye;
So nice her art in impious pliarmacy.”
Old Gerarde tells us that Circe made use in her incantations
and witchcrafts of the Mullein or Hag-taper (Verhascum Thapsus) ;
and Gower relates of Medea that she employed the Feldwode,
which is probably the same plant, its Anglo-Saxon name being
Feldwyrt.
“ Tho toke she Feldwode and Verveine,
Of herbes ben nought better tweine.”
The composition of philtres, and the working of spells and
incantations to induce love, are amongst the most highly prized
of witches’ functions, investing them with a power which they
delight to wield, and leading to much pecuniary profit.
In Moore’s ‘ Light of the Haram,’ the Enchantress Namonna,
who was acquainted with all spells and talismans, instructs
Nourmahall to gather at midnight—“ the hour that scatters spells
on herb and flower”—certain blossoms that, when twined into a
wreath, should act as a spell to recall her Selim’s love. The
flowers gathered, the Enchantress proceeds to weave the magic
chaplet, singing the while—
“ I know where the wing’d visions dwell
That around the night-bed play;
I know each herb and floweret’s bell,
Where they hide their wings by day;
Then hasten we, maid,
To twine our braid.
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.
“ The image of love, that nightly flies
To visit the bashful maid ;
Steals from the Jasmine flower, that sighs
Its soul, like her, in the shade.
The dream of a future happier hour,
That alights on misery’s brow,
Springs out of the silvery Almond flower
That blooms on a leafless bough.
“ The visions that oft to worldly eyes
The glitter of mines unfold,
Inhabit the mountain herb that dyes
The tooth of the fawn like gold.
The phantom shapes—oh, touch not them ! —
That appal the murderer’s sight,
Lurk in the fleshly Mandrake’s stem,
That shrieks when pluck’d at night !
“ The dream of the injur’d, patient mind,
That smiles at the wrongs of men,
Is found in the bruis’d and wounded rind
Of the Cinnamon, sweetest then.
Then hasten we, maid,
To twine our braid,
To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.”
The chief strength of poor witches lies in the gathering and
boiling of herbs. The most esteemed herbs for their purposes
are the Betony-root, Henbane, Mandrake, Deadly Nightshade,
Origanum, Antirrhinum, female Phlox, Arum, Red and White
Celandine, Millefoil, Horned Poppy, Fern, Adder’s-tongue, anc.
ground Ivy. Root of Plemlock, “ digged in the dark,” slips of Yew,
“ slivered in the moon’s eclipse,” Cypress, Wild Fig, Larch, Broom,
and Thorn are also associated with Witches and their necromancy.
The divining Gall-apple of the Oak, the mystic Mistletoe, the
Savin, the Moonwort, the Vervain, and the St. John’s Wort are
considered magical, and therefore form part of the Witches’
pharmacopoeia—to be produced as occasion may require, and their
juices infused in the hell-broths, philtres, potions, and baleful
draughts prepared for their enemies. Cuckoo-flowers are gatherec.
in the meadows on the first of May. Chervil and Pennyroyal are
used because they both have the effect of making anyone tasting
their juices see double. Often many herbs are boiled together—
by preference seven or nine. Three kinds of.^wood make bewitched
water boil. Witch-ointments, to be effective, must contain seven
herbs.