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passed through cleft trees, to cast out all witchcraft, or to neutralise
its baleful effects, and to protect them from the influence of Witches;
and sometimes they were passed through the branches of a Maple,
in order that they might be long-lived. Sick sheep were made to
go through the cleft of a young Oak, with a view of transferring
their diseases to the spirit of the tree. People afflicted with ague
were directed to repair to the Cross Oaks which grew at the
junctions of cross-roads, for the purpose of transferring to them
their malady. Aguish patients were ordered to proceed without
speaking or crossing water, to a lofty Willow, to make a gash in
it, breathe three times into the crevice, close it quickly, and hasten
away without looking b a ck : if they did this correctly, the ague
was warranted to leave them. A twisted neck or cuts in the body
were thought to be cured by twisting a Willow round the affected
part. In the West of England, peasants suffering from blackhead
were bidden to crawl under an arched Bramble, and if they had
the toothache, the prescribed remedy was for them to bite the
first Fern that appeared in Spring. In other parts of the country
toothache was cured by sticking into the bark of a young tree the
decayed tooth after it had been drawn. I f a child did not willingly
learn to walk, the Wise Woman of the village would direct its
troubled mother to make it creep through the long withes of the
Blackberry-bush, which were grown down to the earth, and had
taken fresh root therein. Sufferers from gout were relieved by the
Witch transferring the disorder to some old Pine-tree, or rather to
the genius inhabiting it. Many magical arts attended the transference
of the disease to the spirit of the vicarious tree, and the
operation was generally accompanied by the recital of some
formula. Amongst the forms of adjuration was the following commencement
: “ Twig, I bind thee ; fever, now leave m e ! ” A
sufferer from cramp was ordered to stretch himself on a Plum-tree,
and say, “ Climbing-plant, stand ! Plum-tree, waver.”
I f we seek for the origin of this superstitious notion of transferring
diseases to trees, we shall find a clue in the works of
Prof. Mannhardt, who recounts the names of demons which in
Germany are identified with nearly all the maladies of plants, and
particularly with those of Wheat and vegetables.* The superstitious
country people, struck with the affinity which exists
between the vegetable world and the animal world, came, in course
of time, to think that the same demon caused the disease of plants
and that of man ; and therefore they conceived that, in order to
safeguard mankind, it was only necessary to confine the demon in
the plant. Examples of this belief are still to be found in our own
country, and similar superstitious observances are common on the
Continent. The German peasant creeps through an Oak cleft to
cure hernia and certain other disorders; and the Russian moujik
* The names of certain of these demons will be found in the previous chapter.
splits an Ilex in order to perform a similar curative operation.
De Gubernatis tells us that the Venetian peasant, when fever-
stricken, repairs to a tree, binds up the trunk, and says to it
thrice, without taking breath, “ I place thee here, I leave thee here,
and I shall now depart.” Thereupon the fever leaves the patient;
but if the tree be a fruit tree, it will from that time cease to yielc.
fruit. In the Netherlands, a countryman who is suffering from the
ague will go early in the morning to an old Willow-tree, tie three
knots in a branch, and say; “ Good morning, old one! I give thee
the cold; good morning, old one.” This done, he will turn rounc.
quickly, and run off as fast as he can, without looking behind him.
But to revert to the superstitious practices of English Witches,
Wise Women, and midwives. One of their prescriptions for the
ague was as follows :—A piece of the nail of each of the patient’s
fingers and toes, and a bit of hair from the nape of the neck, being
cut whilst the patient was asleep, the whole were wrapped up in
paper, and the ague which they represented was put into a hole
in an Aspen tree, and left there, when by degrees the ague woulc.
quit the patient’s body. A very old superstition existed that
diseases could be got rid of by burying them: and, indeed,
Ratherius relates that, so early as the tenth century, a case of
epilepsy was cured by means of a buried Peach-blossom; it is
not surprising, therefore, that English Witches should have professed
themselves able to cure certain disorders in this fashion ;
and accordingly we find that diseases and the means of their cure
were ordered by them to be buried in the earth and in ants’ nests.
One of the Witches’ most reliable sources of obtaining money
from their dupes was the concoction of love-philtres for despondent
swains and love-sick maidens. In the composition of these potions,
the juices of various plants and herbs were utilised ; but these wil.
be found adverted to in the chapter on Magical Plants. Fresh
Orchis was employed by these cunning and unscrupulous simplers,
to beget pure love ; and dried Orchis to check illicit love. Cyclamen
was one of the herbs prescribed by aged crones for a love
potion, and by midwives it was esteemed a most precious and
invaluable herb ; but an expectant mother was cautioned to avoid
and dread its presence. If, acting on the advice of the Wise
Woman, she ate Quince- and Coriander-seed, her child, it was
promised, would assuredly be ingenious and witty ; but, on the
contrary, should she chance to partake too bountifully of Onions,
Beans, or similar vaporous vegetable food, she was warned that
her offspring would be a fool, and possibly even a lunatic. Mothers
were also sagely cautioned that to preserve an infant from evil, it
was necessary to feed it with Ash-sap directly it was born ; and
they were admonished that it should never be weaned while the
trees were in blossom, or it would have grey hair.
As relics of the charms and prescriptions of the old Witches,
countless superstitions connected with plants are to be found at the
H—2