[Footnote 210: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 67, 209, 210.] To hail the coming of spring they made a figure of May, a mannikin of flowers and foliage.[211] [Footnote 211: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 434.] Close by _l'Arbre-des-Dames_, beneath a hazel-tree, there was a mandrake. He promised wealth to whomsoever should dare by night, and according to the prescribed rites, to tear him from the ground,[212] not fearing to hear him cry or to see blood flow from his little human body and his forked feet. [Footnote 212: _Atropa Mandragor_, female mandragora, _main de gloire_, _herbe aux magiciens_. _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 89, 213. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 236.] The tree, the spring, and the mandrake caused the inhabitants of Domremy to be suspected of holding converse with evil spirits. A learned doctor said plainly that the country was famous for the number of persons who practised witchcraft.[213] [Footnote 213: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 209.] When quite a little girl, Jeanne journeyed several times to Sermaize in Champagne, where dwelt certain of her kinsfolk. The village priest, Messire Henri de Vouthon, was her uncle on her mother's side. She had a cousin there, Perrinet de Vouthon, by calling a tiler, and his son Henri.[214] [Footnote 214: This is probable but not certain. _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 74, 388; vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. xviii _et seq._; 7, 8, 10, _passim_. C. Gilardoni, _Sermaize et son eglise_, published at Vitry-le-Francois, 1893, 8vo.] Full thirty-seven and a half miles of forest and heath lie between Domremy and Sermaize. Jeanne, we may believe, travelled on horseback, riding behind her brother on the little mare which worked on the farm.[215] [Footnote 215: Capitaine Champion, _Jeanne d'Arc ecuyere_, Paris, 1901, 12mo, p. 28.] At each visit the child spent several days at her cousin Perrinet's house.[216] [Footnote 216: Boucher de Molandon, _La famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 627. E. de Bouteiller et G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. 9 and 10. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. xlv _et seq._]