ly supposed
to make of withered branches in their charms.[70]

[70] See Jones's "Credulities, Past and Present," 1880, pp.
256-289.

Among other items of witch-lore mentioned by Shakespeare may be noticed
the common belief in the intercourse between demons and witches, to
which Prospero alludes in the "Tempest" (i. 2):

"Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself
Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!"

This notion is seriously refuted by Scot in his "Discovery of
Witchcraft" (book iv.), where he shows it to be "flat knavery."

The offspring of a witch was termed "Hag-seed," and as such is spoken of
by Prospero in the "Tempest" (i. 2).

Witches were also in the habit of saying their prayers backwards: a
practice to which Hero refers in "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 1),
where, speaking of Beatrice, she says:

"I never yet saw man,
How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward."

Familiar spirits[71] attending on magicians and witches were always
impatient of confinement.[72] So in the "Tempest" (i. 2) we find an
illustration of this notion in the following dialogue:

"_Prospero._ What is't thou canst demand?

_Ariel._ My liberty.

_Prospero._ Before the time be out? No more."

[71] Allusions to this superstition occur in "Love's Labour's
Lost" (i. 2), "love is a familiar;" in "1 Henry VI." (iii. 2),
"I think her old familiar is asleep;" and in "2 Henry VI." (iv.
7), "he has a familiar under his tongue."

[72] See Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," 1584, p. 85.

Lastly, the term "Aroint thee" ("Macbeth," i. 3), used by the first
witch, occurs again in "King Lear" (iii. 4), "Aroint thee, witch, aroint
thee." That _aroint_ is equivalent to "away," "begone," seems to be
agreed, though its etymology is uncertain.[73] "Rynt thee" is used by
milkmaids in Cheshire to a cow, when she has been milked, to bid her get
out of the way. Ray, in his "Collection of North Country Words" (1768,
p. 52), gives "Rynt ye, by your leave, stand handsomely, as rynt you
witch, quoth Bessie Locket to her mother. Proverb, Chesh." Some connect
it with the adverb "aroume," meaning "abroad," found in Chaucer's "House
of Fame" (book ii. stanza 32):

"That I a-roume was in the field."

Other derivations are from the Latin _averrunco_: the Italian _rogna_, a
cutaneous disease, etc.