^^antf ui>G^._ \q ^peff/. 97 



master tlie mysteries of siniplinf^', or to the Wise Woman of the 

 villapje, 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, and 

 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 treat- 

 ment, 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 stigma- 

 tised as Wizards and Witches. 



In the preface to " The Brittish Physician," 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 herbals 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 W^itches 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 incul- 

 cated 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 Pollard- 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 



H 



