hat
there were no witches nowadays, she instantly replied, 'Oh, yes! there
are thirteen at this very time in the town, but so long as I have my
rowan-tree safe in my pocket they cannot hurt me.'"

Occasionally when the dairymaid churned for a long time without making
butter, she would stir the cream with a twig of mountain ash, and beat
the cow with another, thus breaking the witch's spell. But, to prevent
accidents of this kind, it has long been customary in the northern
countries to make the churn-staff of ash. For the same reason herd-boys
employ an ash-twig for driving cattle, and one may often see a
mountain-ash growing near a house. On the Continent the tree is in equal
repute, and in Norway and Denmark rowan branches are usually put over
stable doors to keep out witches, a similar notion prevailing in
Germany. No tree, perhaps, holds such a prominent place in
witchcraft-lore as the mountain-ash, its mystic power having rarely
failed to render fruitless the evil influence of these enemies
of mankind.

In our northern counties witches are said to dislike the bracken fern,
"because it bears on its root the initial C, which may be seen on
cutting the root horizontally."[26] and in most places equally
distasteful to them is the yew, perhaps for no better reason than its
having formerly been much planted in churchyards. The herb-bennett
(_Geum urbanum_), like the clover, from its trefoiled leaf, renders
witches powerless, and the hazel has similar virtues. Among some of the
plants considered antagonistic to sorcery on the Continent may be
mentioned the water-lily, which is gathered in the Rhine district with a
certain formula. In Tuscany, the lavender counteracts the evil eye, and
a German antidote against the hurtful effects of any malicious influence
was an ointment made of the leaves of the marsh-mallow. In Italy, an
olive branch which has been blessed keeps the witch from the dwelling,
and in some parts of the Continent the plum-tree is used. Kolb, writes
Mr. Black,[27] who became one of the first "wonder-doctors" of the
Tyrol, "when he was called to assist any bewitched person, made exactly
at midnight the smoke of five different sorts of herbs, and while they
were burning the bewitched was gently beaten with a martyr-thorn birch,
which had to be got the same night. This beating the patient with thorn
was thought to be really beating the hag who had caused the evil."

Some seasons, too, have been supposed to be