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 closely associated with the witches, as in Germany, where all flax must be spun before Twelfth Night, for one who spins afterwards is liable to be bewitched.

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.