"Jasa ga vjestice"--"The witches ride him"--refers to the ancient and world-wide belief that witches turn men into animals and ride them in sleep. The hazel tree and nut are allied to the supernatural or witchly in many lands. For the divining rod, which is, according to "La Grande Bacchetta Divinatoria O Verga rivelatrice" of the Abbate Valmont, the great instrument for all magic and marvels, must be made of "un ramo forcuto di nocciuòlo"--"a forked branch of hazel-nut"--whence a proverb, "Vracarice, coprnjice, kuko ljeskova!"--"Sorceress, witch, hazel-stick." This is a reproach or taunt to a woman who pays great attention to magic and witchcraft. "This reveals a very ancient belief of the witch as a wood-spirit or fairy who dwells in the nut itself." More generally it is the bush which, in old German ballads, is often addressed as Lady Hazel. In this, as in Lady Nightingale, we have a relic of addressing certain animals or plants as if they were intelligences or spirits. In one very old song in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," a girl, angry at the hazel, who has reproached her for having loved too lightly or been too frail, says that her brother will come and cut the bush down. To which Lady Hazel replies:-- "Although he comes and cuts me down, I'll grow next spring, 'tis plain, But if a virgin wreath should fade, 'Twill never bloom again." To keep children from picking unripe hazel-nuts in the Canton of Saint Gall they cry to them, "S' Haselnussfràuli chumt"--"The hazel-nut lady is coming!" Hence a rosary of hazel-nuts or a hazel rod brings luck, and they may be safely hung up in a house. The hazel-nut necklaces found in prehistoric tombs were probably amulets as well as ornaments. Among popular sayings we may include the following from the Gorski Vijenac:-- "A eto si udrijo vladiko, U nekakve smucene vjetrove, Ko u marcu sto udre vjestice." "But behold, O Vladika, Thou hast thrown thyself into every storm, As witches throw or change themselves to cattle." And with these we may include the curse, "Izjele te viestice"--"May the witches eat you!" which has its exact parallel in Romany. Also the Scottish saying, "Witches, warlocks, and gypsies soon ken ae the ither":-- "Witches and warlocks without any bother, Like gypsies on meeting well know one another." I may appropriately add to these certain proverbs which are given in an extremely rare "Denham Tract," of which only fifty copies were printed by John Bell Richmond, "in. Com. Ebor." This quaint little work of only six pages is entitled, "A Few Popular Rhymes, Proverbs, and Sayings relating to Fairies, Witches, and Gypsies," and bears the dedication, "To every individual Fairy, Witch, and Gypsy from the day of the Witch of Endor down to that of Billy Dawson, the Wise Man of Stokesley, lately defunct, this tract is inscribed." WITCHES. Vervain and Dill Hinder witches from their will.