pPant/ u/SeiL it^ ^pePf/-. 99 



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 yield 

 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 round 

 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, w^hen by degrees the ague would 

 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 pro- 

 fessed 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 will 

 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. Cycla- 

 men 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 

 ^^'oman, 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 w^eaned while the 

 trees were in blossom, or it w^ould 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 



