ENGLISH WITCHES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1924, Page 20

ENGLISH WITCHES

IN DAYS OF OLD

POWER OVER SUPERSTITIOUS

YOKELS

One of the features of bygone days that our countryside is fortunate to see no more* is the "wise woman," or witch, the maker of magic. Nowadays, declares B.D. in the "Manchester Guardian," we have a sneaking affection 'for witches. : Wo- think of th?m as quaint ■ old ladies who rode about on low horse-power aerobroomsticks, did amusing rural conjuring tricks, and, at the end of 'their career, /were sometimes burned at the stake. We did not realise what wicked women they usually were land what an incalculable amount of pain and sorrow they inflicted, with their potions and spells and threats, upon the credulous countryfolk of Britain for a thousand years, i Witches varied in the range: and energy of their operations, but all had this in common, that they were not in the business for their health.'. The power -which.they held over the superstitious yokels was riot exerted in, the interests of moral right or wrong. Had it been so exerted, witches might have. made an honourable place in history for themselves in the'centuries when so long as the villagers avoided giving offence to their feudal overlords neither priest nor noble took more than the most cursory interest in seeing that justice was done among them. But. the incidence of:the favours that they: distributed;and. the curses that they, laid upon the coun-try-folk was entirely dependent on;cash transactions. '. . ~ Certain plants were so .extensively used, by generation after generation of witches in their mystic spells that they gained a well-established reputation for having magic properties. And along with them grew up the reputations of other plants, which were held to be antidotss to, or defenders from, the daik doings of witches. ' '■■. :■-."■■..-.'■'■' ; ; ■ , : MOONWORT. '.'.':- :. „- MoOnwort was a witch's plant.' ■ '.■']. It: opened locks; and unshod horses. ' Ita round, .flat, silvery frond showed that it was under the 'domination -of the moon. Chaucer described it as one of the witches' and night-hags' most potent charms. : Trefoil and wood anemone, on the -other hand;-:, staved . off witches, on account of their triple leaves typifying the Trinity. .That is why shamrock, a form of trefoil, has its Irish reputation. The pretty yellow '.head of St.; John's /wort- ("wort -is old English for-; plant) put to flight 'ghosts and evil spirits.: Jeremy-Taylor, in his "JMssiiasions . from. Popery," discussing priests' wayH of discovering the presence of theidevil, says :" . ..- . . and specially St. -John's wort, which therefore they.'■ call devil's"flight." '^-This was from the old .pagan.name Fuga demonium, which Pliny says it received from1 scaring demons:. . Irish peasants stillput their faith, in it, picking bunches on the eve of St. John's Day and changing them over their front doors and* beds to ward off bogies. -, ■ } . ' '„' Monkshood, or, wOlfsbane, sacred to Hecate, has always been a witch's flower. It :is highly, poisonous, and it 'derived its second name': from ; our .AngloSaxon ancestors having dipped theiri arrows in.it before firing at wolves, so that glancing shots still proved fatal, though the ; beast managed to get; back into, tho dense forest ..undergrowth. The curled, spike-tippeil root of the plant1, like ascorpion's tail, and the queer hel-met-shaped flpwer added to its reputa r tion for uncanniness. .•■ . '■• . ■;., -. Vervain, or holy herb; with its unobtrusive spikes of'pale lilac blossoms, was already,'a magic plant in the- distant days of the sun worship of the ancient Persians, when their priests carried sprigs of it when: approaching'the altar. So did the pagan priests :of Greece'and Rome, and the Druids. It was n protection against witchcraft and shakerbite, and a beautifier. Women put sprigs.of.it in their bath .'in the old days, "and smeared a decoction on their face to banish: freckles..'-'; In old England.a sprig wis hung; in-the house to ward off evil spirits, _and a couplet, still chanted by country' children, declares that : " './'.;. ,"'. ; ; '-.'-:■ ■'-.■ ■: "Vervain and dill ■' -;■-. '.".•""■:'' . Hinder witches,of their wi11."." MOUNTAIN ASH A.ND MISTtETOE Mountain ash, or rowan, was highly esteemed in its chief-haunts, Scotland, Wales, and the 'Isle of ,MaU; for.its power to ward off. the evil eye. Withered sprigs of it were- carried in the pocket for this purpose, and crosses of the wood Avere made to hang over doors and; barns, from the.; eaves" of farmhouses, and even around tho necks of cattle on St. John's. Eva. . : '" 'Yew was the sacred'tree of the Druids. An uncanny influence: clung to it/" and ; it was supposed to enter into the mysterious "hell brotlis" and other malevolent compounds of witches. It was considered that the- belated warfarer risked sickness • and death if he was so rash, as to sleep under it. Mistletoe, on-the" other, hand, despite its intimate associations with Druids, was held in good odour. All heal was -its. %'i I English name. -Its fantastic growth up in the lofty tree-tops, its antlered branches, and its greenish-white, shiny berries, like; little moons, fed the fires of. superstition. - It got a namo for exerting healing and protective properties.- Priests-called it-Ligniim Sanctoe Crusis (the Wood of . the :>Holy Cross). Protective amulets were made of it and worn round the neck, to make it. impossible for a witch to put a spellon you, and, later, to avert the plague. . , HJere and there',- in your . comings and goings ■ through the remoter parts- of j Britain, you will'find some of these be-. 1 liefs -still lingering. An astonishing amount of foolish superstition pervaded the country even as recently as SO years ago. But i^he coming of compulsory school attendance changed all this. Tha schools, at.any rate,-.have, banished the ! evil old fears and ."cures," and ■ led the people, to put their faith in the clergy, the magistrates, and the doctors, instead of in the bunkum of wvicked and: illiterate old;grannies. .. '