“Tho toke she Feldwode and Verveine, Of herbes ben nought better tweine.”
The composition of philtres, and the working of spells and incantations to induce love, are amongst the most highly prized of witches’ functions, investing them with a power which they delight to wield, and leading to much pecuniary profit.
In Moore’s ‘Light of the Haram,’ the Enchantress Namouna, who was acquainted with all spells and talismans, instructs Nourmahall to gather at midnight--“the hour that scatters spells on herb and flower”--certain blossoms that, when twined into a wreath, should act as a spell to recall her Selim’s love. The flowers gathered, the Enchantress proceeds to weave the magic chaplet, singing the while--
“I know where the wing’d visions dwell That around the night-bed play; I know each herb and floweret’s bell, Where they hide their wings by day; Then hasten we, maid, To twine our braid, To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.
“The image of love, that nightly flies To visit the bashful maid; Steals from the Jasmine flower, that sighs Its soul, like her, in the shade. The dream of a future happier hour, That alights on misery’s brow, Springs out of the silvery Almond flower That blooms on a leafless bough.
“The visions that oft to worldly eyes The glitter of mines unfold, Inhabit the mountain herb that dyes The tooth of the fawn like gold. The phantom shapes--oh, touch not them!-- That appal the murderer’s sight, Lurk in the fleshly Mandrake’s stem, That shrieks when pluck’d at night!
“The dream of the injur’d, patient mind, That smiles at the wrongs of men, Is found in the bruis’d and wounded rind Of the Cinnamon, sweetest then. Then hasten we, maid, To twine our braid, To-morrow the dreams and flowers will fade.”
The chief strength of poor witches lies in the gathering and boiling of herbs. The most esteemed herbs for their purposes are the Betony-root, Henbane, Mandrake, Deadly Nightshade, Origanum, Antirrhinum, female Phlox, Arum, Red and White Celandine, Millefoil, Horned Poppy, Fern, Adder’s-tongue, and ground Ivy. Root of Hemlock, “digged in the dark,” slips of Yew, “slivered in the moon’s eclipse,” Cypress, Wild Fig, Larch, Broom, and Thorn are also associated with Witches and their necromancy. The divining Gall-apple of the Oak, the mystic Mistletoe, the Savin, the Moonwort, the Vervain, and the St. John’s Wort are considered magical, and therefore form part of the Witches’ pharmacopœia--to be produced as occasion may require, and their juices infused in the hell-broths, philtres, potions, and baleful draughts prepared for their enemies. Cuckoo-flowers are gathered in the meadows on the first of May. Chervil and Pennyroyal are used because they both have the effect of making anyone tasting their juices see double. Often many herbs are boiled together--by preference seven or nine. Three kinds of wood make bewitched water boil. Witch-ointments, to be effective, must contain seven herbs.