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, at Shrovetide, white besoms with white handles are
tied to the cows' horns; and, in the rites connected with the Midsummer
fires kept up in different parts of the country, the besom holds a
prominent place. In Bohemia, for instance, the young men collect for
some weeks beforehand as many worn-out brooms as they can lay their
hands on. These, after dipping in tar, they light--running with them
from one bonfire to another--and when burnt out they are placed in the
fields as charms against blight.[13] The large ragwort--known in Ireland
as the "fairies' horse"--has long been sought for by witches when taking
their midnight journeys. Burns, in his "Address to the Deil," makes his
witches "skim the muirs and dizzy crags" on "rag-bred nags" with "wicked
speed." The same legendary belief prevails in Cornwall, in connection
with the Castle Peak, a high rock to the south of the Logan stone. Here,
writes Mr. Hunt,[14] "many a man, and woman too, now quietly sleeping in
the churchyard of St. Levan, would, had they the power, attest to have
seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights,
mounted on the stems of the ragwort." Amongst other plants used for a
similar purpose were the bulrush and reed, in connection with-which may
be quoted the Irish tale of the rushes and cornstalks that "turn into
horses the moment you bestride them[15]." In Germany[16] witches were
said to use hay for transporting themselves through the air.

When engaged in their various occupations they often considered it
expedient to escape detection by assuming invisibility, and for this
object sought the assistance of certain plants, such as the
fern-seed[17]. In Sweden, hazel-nuts were supposed to have the power of
making in