Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/855

Rh was lately in my shop, and in pulling out her purse brought out also a piece of stick a few inches long. I asked her why she carried that in her pocket. 'Oh' she replied, 'I must not lose that, or I shall be done for.' 'Why so?' I inquired. 'Well,' she answered, 'I carry that to keep off the witches; while I have that about me, they can not hurt me.' On my adding that 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 can not hurt me.'"

Occasionally when the dairy-maid 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 counties 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.

Lastly, to counteract the spell of the evil eye, from which many innocent persons were believed to suffer in the witchcraft period, many flowers have been in requisition among the numerous charms used. Thus, the Russian maidens still hang round the stem of the birch-tree red ribbon, the Brahmans gather rice, and in Italy rue is in demand. The Scotch peasantry pluck twigs of the ash, the Highland women the groundsel, and the German folk wear the radish. In early times the ringwort was recommended by Apuleius, and later on the fern was regarded as a preservative against this baneful influence. The Chinese put faith in the garlic; and, in short, every country has its own special plants. It would seem, too, that after a witch was dead and buried, precautionary measures were taken to frustrate her baneful influence. Thus, in Russia, aspen is laid on a witch's grave, the dead sorceress being then prevented from riding abroad.

first mention of a canal to unite the oceans was made—to assert its impossibility—by an old Spanish historian, P. Acosta, who said, in 1588, that "no human power would be sufficient to cut through the strong and impenetrable bonds which God has put between the two oceans of mountains and iron rocks"; and he added, "If it were possible, it would appear to me to be very just to fear the vengeance of Heaven for attempting to improve the works which the Creator, in his almighty will and providence, ordered from the creation of the world."