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Witches 9 Brooms. 



Witch- finding reached its climax in 1645, when a man named 

 Hopkins assumed the title of Witch-finder General, and in the 

 Eastern Counties superintended the examination of witches by 

 means of the most horrible tortures. When any unaccountable or 

 unexpected event happened, " if anyone had a sheep sick of the 

 giddies, or a hog of the mumps, or a horse of the staggers, or a 

 knavish boy of the school, or an idle girl of her wheel, or a young 

 drab of the sullens, and she hath a little help of the epilepsy or 

 cramp," then an appeal was made to the witch-finder, who looked 

 round the neighbourhood for some one of the type of features which 

 pointed to a witch. In Africa at present there are places where no 

 old woman's life is safe for twenty-four hours at a time ; and in 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England age was as 

 little respected. If the old woman on whom suspicion fell could 

 not show her broom when asked, this afforded a clue. Again, if 

 on the trees in the neighbourhood a witch's broom was found 

 growing it was clear that the witch was not far off who grew it for 

 use in the black art. 1 



A farmer's wife who was not very prosperous was told that if 

 she would do as her neighbours' wives did she would thrive too. 

 These women were witches deeply learned in the Devil's wicked 

 ways. Having imposed on her a vow of secrecy they told her 

 when she went to bed to take the besom with her, leave it in her 

 place when her husband was asleep, and come with them. Having 

 slipped away she found her neighbours waiting with brooms and 

 sieves, and the three, mounted on their brooms, sped over hill and 

 glen. When they reached the mountain they found its top in 

 flames. They heard sweet music, and a savoury smell arose from 



1 As to the reason why a broom was considered an appropriate vehicle for a witch, 

 I can only throw ont this suggestion : — The word scoba (from scopa) was used 

 for a broom, and witches were called scobaces because they rode on brooms. 

 The same word scoba was used for milfoil, mille foliola. This was not the 

 plant we now call milfoil, but the horsetail, equisctum, which was sold in Rome 

 for brooms. Whether the fanciful artists of the time drew a witch with a 

 horsetail behind her, and converted this into a broom, I must leave those pos- 

 sessed of the necessary scholarship and leisure to determine ; but certain 

 references to brooms in mythology would point to an earlier origin than this. 



