830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



visible, and to turn the swords of foes against themselves.* The 

 Swiss peasants aflBrm that the Ascension-Day wreaths of the 

 amaranth make the wearer invisible, and in the Tyrol the mistle- 

 toe is credited with this propertj';. 



But some plants, as we have already pointed out, were cred- 

 ited with the magic property of revealing the presence of witches, 

 and of exposing them engaged in the pursuit of plying their ne- 

 farious calling. In this respect the St. John's wort was in great 

 request, and hence it was extensively worn as an amulet, espe- 

 cially in Germany on St. John's Eve, a time when not only 

 witches by common report peopled the air, but evil spirits wan- 

 dered about on no friendly errand. Thus the Italian name of 

 "devil-chaser," from the circumstance of its scaring away the 

 workers of darkness, by bringing their hidden deeds to light. 

 This, moreover, accounts for the custom so prevalent in most 

 European countries of decorating doorways and windows with its 

 blossoms on St. John's Eve. 



But, in spite of plants of this kind, witches somehow or other 

 contrived to escape detection by the employment of the most sub- 

 tle charms and spells. They generally, too, took the precaution 

 of avoiding such plants as were antagonistic to them, displaying 

 a cunning ingenuity in most of their designs which it was by no 

 means easy to forestall. Hence in the composition of their phil- 

 ters and potions they infused the juices of the most deadly herbs, 

 such as that of the nightshade or monk's-hood ; and to add to the 

 potency of these baleful draughts they considered it necessary to 

 add as many as seven or nine of the most poisonous plants they 

 could obtain, such, for instance, as those enumerated by one of 

 the witches in Ben Jonson's " Masque of Queens/' who says : 



" And I ha' been plucking plants among 

 Hemlock, henbane, adder's tongue ; 

 Nightshade, raoonwort, libbard's bane, 

 And twice, by the dogs, was like to be ta'en," 



Another plant used by witches in their incantations was the 

 sea or horned poppy, known in mediaeval times as Ficus infer- 

 nalis ; hence it is further noticed by Ben Jonson in the " Witches' 



Song": 



" Yes, I have brought to help our vows, 

 Horned poppy, cypress-boughs, 

 The fig-tree wild that grows on tombs. 

 And juice that from the larch-tree comes." 



Then, of course, there was the wondrous moonwort {BotrycMum 

 lunaria), which was doubly valuable from its mystic virtue, for, 



* See Fiske, " Myths and ^lythmakers," p. 44 ; also Baring-Gould's " Curious Myths of 

 the Middle Age?," 1877, p. 398. 



