render it suitable for any design that the witches might have in view.
Considering, too, how multitudinous and varied were their actions, they
had constant need of applying to the vegetable world for materials with
which to carry out their plans. But foremost amongst their requirements
was the power of locomotion wherewith to enable them with
supernatural rapidity to travel from one locality to another. Accordingly,
one of their most favourite vehicles was a besom or broom, an
implement which, it has been suggested, from its being a type of the
winds, is an appropriate utensil "in the hands of the witches, who are
windmakers and workers in that element.[11]" According to the Asiatic
Register for 1801, the Eastern as well as the European witches "practise
their spells by dancing at midnight, and the principal instrument they
use on such occasions is a broom." Hence, in Hamburg, sailors, after long
toiling against a contrary wind, on meeting another ship sailing in an
opposite direction, throw an old broom before the vessel, believing
thereby to reverse the wind.[12] As, too, in the case of vervain and rue,
the besom, although dearly loved by witches, is still extensively used as
a counter-charm against their machinations—it being a well-known
belief both in England and Germany that no individual of this stamp can
step over a besom laid inside the threshold. Hence, also, in Westphalia,
at Shrovetide, white besoms with white handles are tied to the cows'
horns; and, in the rites connected with the Midsummer fires kept up in
different parts of the country, the besom holds a prominent place. In
Bohemia, for instance, the young men collect for some weeks beforehand
as many worn-out brooms as they can lay their hands on. These, after
dipping in tar, they light--running with them from one bonfire to
another--and when burnt out they are placed in the fields as charms
against blight.[13] The large ragwort--known in Ireland as the "fairies'
horse"--has long been sought for by witches when taking their midnight
journeys. Burns, in his "Address to the Deil," makes his witches "skim the
muirs and dizzy crags" on "rag-bred nags" with "wicked speed." The
same legendary belief prevails in Cornwall, in connection with the Castle
Peak, a high rock to the south of the Logan stone. Here, writes Mr.
Hunt,[14] "many a man, and woman too, now quietly sleeping in the
churchyard of St. Levan, would, had they the power, attest to have seen
the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights, mounted on
the stems of the ragwort." Amongst other plants used for a similar
purpose were the bulrush and reed, in connection with-which may be
quoted the Irish tale of the rushes and cornstalks that "turn into horses
the moment you bestride them[15]." In Germany[16] witches were said
to use hay for transporting themselves through the air.
When engaged in their various occupations they often considered it
expedient to escape detection by assuming invisibility, and for this object
sought the assistance of certain plants, such as the fern-seed[17]. In
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