tell how these evil workers hold a midnight meeting beneath the walnut trees on St. John’s Eve.  The elder tree is another haunt under whose branches witches are fond of lurking, and on this account caution must be taken not to tamper with it after dark.[8] Again, in the Netherlands, experienced shepherds are careful not to let their flocks feed after sunset, for there are wicked elves that prepare poison in certain plants—­nightwort being one of these.  Nor does any man dare to sleep in a meadow or pasture after sunset, for, as the shepherds say, he would have everything to fear.  A Tyrolese legend[9] relates how a boy who had climbed a tree, “overlooked the ghastly doings of certain witches beneath its boughs.  They tore in pieces the corpse of a woman, and threw the portions in the air.  The boy caught one, and kept it by him; but the witches, on counting the pieces, found that one was missing, and so replaced it by a scrap of alderwood, when instantly the dead came to life again.”

Similarly, also, they had their favourite flowers, one having been the foxglove, nicknamed “witches’ bells,” from their decorating their fingers with its blossoms; while in some localities the hare-bell is designated the “witches’ thimble.”  On the other hand, flowers of a yellow or greenish hue were distasteful to them.[10]

In the witchcraft movement it would seem that certain plants were in requisition for particular purposes, these workers of darkness having utilised the properties of herbs to special ends.  A plant was not indiscriminately selected, but on account of possessing some virtue as to render it suitable for any design that the witches might have in view.  Considering, too, how multitudinous and varied were their actions, they had constant need of applying to the vegetable world for materials with which to carry out their plans.  But foremost amongst their requirements was the power of locomotion wherewith to enable them with supernatural rapidity to travel from one locality to another.  Accordingly, one of their most favourite vehicles was a besom or broom, an implement which, it has been suggested, from its being a type of the winds, is an appropriate utensil “in the hands of the witches, who are windmakers and workers in that element.[11]” According to the Asiatic Register for 1801, the Eastern as well as the European witches “practise their spells by dancing at midnight, and the principal instrument they use on such occasions is a broom.”  Hence, in Hamburg, sailors, after long toiling against a contrary wind, on meeting another ship sailing in an opposite direction, throw an old broom before the vessel, believing thereby to reverse the wind.[12] As, too, in the case of vervain and rue, the besom, although dearly loved by witches, is still extensively used as a counter-charm against their machinations—­it being a well-known belief both in England and Germany that no individual of this stamp can step over a besom laid inside the threshold.  Hence, also, in Westphalia,