The local constable was a friend of Laguna’s, so the doctor was able to obtain some of the ointment to experiment with.
composed of soporific herbs such as hemlock, nightshade, henbane, and mandrake.”
#WITCH RIDING BROOM FULL#
In the early 1500s, physician Andres Laguna described one such substance that was taken from the home of an accused witch as “a pot full of certain green ointment. “Anyone observing the leaping broomstick dance of witches at the full moon,” says anthropologist Robin Skelton, “could be expected to think of flying.”Īnother explanation is that the broomsticks and the potions that witches brewed in their cauldrons are linked, and the former was a tool for delivering the latter.ĭuring the witch panics of the Middle Ages, authorities confiscated various brews, ointments, and salves from people accused of witchcraft and sorcery. One proposed explanation has its roots in a pagan ritual where people danced astride poles, pitchforks, and brooms in their fields, jumping as high as they could to entice their crops to grow to that height. How did that odd choice of transportation get tied to witches and locked into our collective imagination? The popular image of a witch, which you can see everywhere right now in the form of Halloween costumes and decorations, is a woman with a pointy hat and warty nose stirring a cauldron or flying on a broom.
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