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One of the favourite remedies of Scotch Witches is the Wooc -
bine or Honeysuckle. In effecting their magical cures, they cause
their patients to pass a certain number of times (usually nine)
through a “ girth ” or garland of Woodbine, repeating the while
certain incantations and invocations. According to Spenser,
Witches in the Spring of every year were accustomed to do
penance, and purify themselves by bathing in water wherein
Origane and Thyme had been placed :—
“ Till on a day (that day is every Prime,
When witches wont do penance for their crime)
I cbaunst to see her in her proper hew,
Bathing herself in Origane and Thyme.”
In Lower Germany, the Honeysuckle is called Alhranke, the
Witch-snare. Long running plants and entangled twigs are called
Witch-scapes, and the people believe that a Witch hard pursued
could escape by their means.
On the Walpurgisnacht, the German Witches are wont to
gather Fern to render themselves invisible. As a protection
against them, the country people, says Aubrey, “ fetch a certain
Thorn, and stick it at their house door, believing the Witches can
then do them no harm.” On the way to the orgies of this night,
the Oldenburg Witches are reputed to eat up all the red buds of the
Ash, so that on St. John’s Day the Ash-trees appear denuded of
them.T
he German Witches are cunning in the use and abuse of
roots : for example, they recommend strongly the Meistevwurzel
(root of the master), ihe Bàrwurzel (root of the bears), the Eberwurzel
(root of the wild boar), and the Hivschwurzel (root of the stag—a
name given to the Wild Farsley, to the Black Gentian, and to the
Thapsia), as a means of making a horse run for three consecutive
days without feeding him.
On St. John’s Eve, the Witches of Russia are busily engaged
searching on the mountains for the Gentiana amarella, and on the
morning of St. John’s Day, for the Lythrum silicaria, without having
found which no one can hope to light upon the former herb. These
herbs being hostile to Witches, are sought by them only to be
destroyed.
In Franche-Comté they tell of a certain satanic herb, of which
the juice gives to Witches the power of riding in the air on a broomstick
when they wish to proceed to their nocturnal meeting.
pFantiè UièeiL. ^01* ©ftarmil) ÉpefFíi).
In mediæval times the sick poor were accustomed to seek and
find the relief and cure of their ailments at the hands of studious,
kind-hearted monks, nnd gentle, sympathetic nuns; but after the
Reformation, the practice of the healing art was relegated either
to charitable gentlewomen, who deemed it part of their duty to
97
master the mysteries of simpling, or to the Wise Woman of the
village, who frequently combined the professions of midwife and
simpler, and collected and dispensed medical herbs. Too often,
however, the trade in simples and herbs was carried on by needy
and ignorant persons—so-called herbalists, quack doctors, anc.
charlatans, or aged crones, desirous of turning to account the
superficial knowledge they possessed of the properties of the
plants which grew on the neighbouring hill-sides, or were to be
found nearer at hand in the fields and hedgerows. As these
simplers and herbalists often made serious mistakes in their treatment,
and were willing, as a rule, to supply noisome and poisonous
herbs to anyone who cared to pay their price, it is not to be
wondered at that they were often regarded with dread by their
ignorant neighbours, and that eventually they came to be stigmatised
as Wizards and Witches.
In the preface to “ The Brittish Fhysician,” a work issued
by one Robert Turner, “ botanical student,” two hundred years
ago, the author, after expatiating on the value of herbs and plants,
adds : “ but let us not offer sacrifices unto them, and say charms
over them, as the Druids of old and other heathens ; and as do
some cacochymists, Medean hags, and sorcerers nowadays, who,
not contented with the lawful use of the creatures, out of some
diabolical intention, search after the more magical and occult
vertues of herbs and plants to accomplish some wicked ends; and
for that very cause. King Hezekiah, fearing lest the herbáis of
Solomon should come into profane hands, caused them to be
burned.” The old herbalist was doubtless acquainted with many
of the superstitious practices of the “ Medean hags ”—the Wise
Women, old wives, and Witches of the country^—to whom he so
scathingly refers. These ill-favoured beldames had a panacea for
every disease, a charm or a potion for every disorder, a talisman or
amulet against every ill. In addition to herbs. Rowan-tree, salt,
enchanted flints, south-running water, and doggrel verses were the
means employed for effecting a cure; whilst diseases were supposed
to be laid on by forming pictures and images of clay or wax, by
placing a dead hand or mutilated member in the house of the
intended victim, or by throwing enchanted articles at his door.
In reality, however, the mischief was done by means of poisonous
herbs or deadly potions, cunningly prepared by the Witch and her
confederates.
One of the most remarkable of the many superstitions inculcated
by these Ignorant and designing Witches and quacks, was
the notion that diseases could be transferred from human beings to
trees. Gilbert White has recorded that at Selborne there stood.
In his time, a row of Follard-Ashes which, when young and flexible,
had been severed and held open by wedges, while ruptured children,
stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a belief
that their infirmity would be thereby cured. Children were also
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