This one made me giggle, I pick it.
If you want to fend off witches and the trouble they can bring, there are a number of measures you can take. For example, a variety of plants grown in the garden or hung in the house are said to keep away witches. They are used in different ways including:
- fennel stuffed in the keyhole or hung over a door.
- rosemary planted by the door step
- rowan twigs or branches hung above doors, beds, and cupboards
- holly and ivy growing on any part of the house.
In the home, wax from consecrated candles , such as those used at Candlemas or other religious ceremonies, may also protect against witches, if sprinkled around the home. There is evidence of this practice from as early as the sixteenth century in Europe.
Witches were often thought to steal horses and sometimes cows. They were said to ride them to exhaustion during the night. But a stone with a naturally made hole that was hung in the stable was believed to keep witches out. Indoors, similar stones hung over the bed were thought to prevent sleepers from having nightmares. It was said that iron, particularly iron that was cold to the touch, repelled wiches, so an iron horseshoe hung over the threshold kept them away from the house, too. A knife, also a cold metal, stuck into a door lintel (or mast, if on a ship or boat), is good luck, and also keeps witches away.
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