pPant/ of tKe ©yircfte/-. 93 



rendezvous, they took a Reed or Cane, and, on making some 

 magical signs, and uttering certain barbarous words, it became 

 transformed into a horse, wliich carried them thither with extraor- 

 dinary rapidity. 



If the Witches are married, it becomes necessary to administer 

 to their husbands a potion that shall cause them to slumber and 

 keep them asleep during the Witches' absence in the night. For 

 this purpose the Sleep-Apple, a mossy sort of excrescence on the 

 Wild Rose, and Hawthorn (called in the Edda Sleep-Thorn), are 

 employed, because they will not allow anyone to awake till they 

 are taken away. A very favourite plant made use of by American 

 W^itches to produce a similar result, is the Flor de Pesadilla, or Night- 

 mare Flower of Buenos Ayres, a small, dark-green foliaged plant, 

 with lanceolate leaves and clusters of greenish-white flowers, 

 which emit a powerful narcotic smell. From the acrid milky juice 

 pressed from the stem of this plant, W^itches obtain a drug which, 

 administered to their victims, keeps them a prey all night to terrible 

 dreams, from which they awake with a dull throbbing sensation 

 in the brain, while a peculiar odour pervades the chamber, causing 

 the air to appear heavy and stifling. 



Ben Jonson, in his ' Masque of Queens,' introduces therein a 

 conventicle of Witches, who, as part of the business which has 

 brought them together, relate their deeds. One of the hags, who 

 has been gathering that mysterious plant of superstition, the 

 Mandragora, croaks : — 



*' I last night lay all alone 



On the ground, to hear the Mandrake groan ; 

 And plucked him up, though he grew full low ; 

 And, as I had done, the cock did crow." 



Another, whose sinister proceedings have excited the neigh- 

 bouring watch-dogs, remarks : — 



" And I ha' been plucking plants among 

 Hemlock, Henbane, Adder's-tongue ; 

 Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard's-bane, 

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



And a third, who has procured a supply of the plants needful 

 for the working of the Witches' spells, says : — 



" 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." 



One of the principal results of the knowledge possessed by 

 W' itches of the properties of herbs was the concoction by them of 

 noxious or deadly potions with which they were enabled to work 

 their impious spells. Ovid tells us how Medea, in compounding a 

 poisonous draught, employed Monk's-hood or Wolf's-bane, the 



