Witch hazel

“ Though the witch-hazel is no longer invested with eerie charms, it still has its own peculiar way of doing things. It chooses to bloom alone in the autumn, just at the time its seeds are ripe and scattering. ”

“ There is something infinitely appealing about the character of the witch. She seems a creature of tragic loneliness, conscious of her own dark powers, yet conscious also of her exile from the good, and knowing that all the evil she evokes will somehow come back to her, that her curses will come home, as in the case of Witch Hazel, where the witch, by making a cake of hair to overcome her [158] rival in love, brings on a tempest that kills her lover and drives her mad. ”

“ Witch-hazel has nothing whatever to do with witches, notwithstanding its reputed powers in divination, but is borrowed from the wych-elm, the wood of that tree having been used in making chests called 'wyches.' (Prior.) ↑ We are indebted to science for this word 'grackle' which is an Anglicized form of the Latin Gracula—a jack daw, a proof that even the scientific mind was biased in favor of recognizing the distant relationship. The black bird of England is a thrush—the ouzel cock or merle of the old English poets. ”

“ Vash was always ready for an "Aaron," too; they could not do without her, any more than without Sulie. Pretty soon, when Diana should have left school, and Vash should be a little bigger, they meant to "coöperate," as the Holabirds had done at Westover.
Of course, they knew a great deal about the Holabirds by this time. Hazel had stayed a week with Dorris at Miss Waite's; and one of Witch Hazel's weeks among "real folks" was like the days or hours in fairy land, that were years on the other side. She found out so much and grew so close to people. ”

“ If you have never seen the witch-hazel in bloom, it will pay you to travel five hundred and five miles to see it. But you won’t need to go so far,—unless you live beyond the prairies,—for the witch-hazel grows from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to Minnesota and Alabama. ”

“ A forked twig of witch hazel, made into a divining-rod, was supposed, in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, to give warning of witches, and to be efficacious in discovering them.
Worms. If, on your way to a sick person, you pick up a stone and find no living thing under it, it tells you that the sick person will die, but if you find there an ant or worm, it presages the patient’s recovery. ”

“ I have heard people say so.'
'And you know the woman I mean?'
'She is bound to be a witch!—but further than that—'
'The likeness is really remarkable,' said Stuart, seriously; 'you have the Mary Stuart brow exactly, and the mouth, as I said; and I think, as far as difference of colour admits similarity of effect, the eyes have the same trick of power. I suppose you like power?'
'I suppose I should! Mr. Falkirk ties up all my power, and labels it "Edge tools," ' said Wych Hazel. ”

“ But the brook was delicious. You know, it was all new to me, Mr. Falkirk.'
'Like the fairy-tale you wanted?' said her guardian smiling.
She smiled, too, but her answer was only a sweet, 'Are you glad to see me here, sir?'
'I am glad if you are glad, Miss Hazel. I did not suspect that any genie or enchanter had got hold of you yet.'
'Only "if," ' she said to herself. 'I wonder how it feels to have anybody care for one very much!' But no word of that came out. ”

“ When thou comest, bring each time a silken rope, and I will make a ladder, and when it is quite ready I will get down by it out of the tower, and thou shalt take me away on thy horse." They agreed that he should come to her every evening, as the old woman came in the day-time. So the witch knew nothing of all this until once Rapunzel said to her unwittingly,
"Mother Gothel, how is it that you climb up here so slowly, and the King's son is with me in a moment?"
"O wicked child," cried the witch, "what is this I hear! I thought I had hidden thee from all the world, and thou hast betrayed me!" ”

“ In an instant the sweet, unconscious child was gone, and a dignified maiden stood in her stead.
"You may take anything you fancy," she said. "Miles won't mind."
The young man stood appalled. "You—you won't give me one?" he expostulated.
"You can't want it very much if you find it too much trouble to take one for yourself," she answered evasively.
"Hazel," he said, much aggrieved, "you have given me flowers before. Don't you remember the little bunch of Shepherd's Eye?" ”

“ Birds of sorts, ceaselessly trilling their sweet notes, hopped to the lower branches as she passed; presently one or two, leaving the piping chorus for a space, fluttered to the ground near her feet and, as she paused, seemed to be considering her in a conclusive, bright-eyed way, with heads first on this side, then on that, as if questioning the cause of her muteness.
And, indeed, Hazel was unlike herself this summer morning. It was her wont to greet her subjects graciously with chirps and chirrups and all manner of sweet wood-notes. ”

“ People in fairy tales never do.'
'Life is not a fairy tale, Hazel,' said Dr. Maryland, shaking his head a little. 'My dear, you are a real woman. Did you ever think what you would try to do in the world?—what you would try to do with your life, I mean?'
'Do with it?' the girl repeated, her brown eyes on the Doctor's face as if looking for his meaning. 'I think, I should like to enjoy it, if I could. And it has been very commonplace, lately, sir. Mr. Falkirk don't pet me and play with me as he used to—and he won't let me play with him ”

“ The girl released her hold of the stick and sat up, one slender foot and ankle becoming visible beneath the canopy of leaves above the young man's head, and with both hands she parted the green screen before her face and peeped down at him. It was a lovely face that Paul beheld—bewitching, indescribable in its charm, framed in soft brown hair.
"Hazel—Miss Le Mesurier," he cried, "have you lived in that tree ever since I went away?" For he now recognised the giant oak. "I always said you were a little Dryad. Won't you deign to come down and be mortal for a while?" ”

“ Awake!"
"Blimey!" gasped Biles from between chattering teeth.
"Truly," observed Bogembwe, "Fear is an evil thing. I, Chief of the Ovambos, have feared this thing. Aie! All the Ovambos have feared him and we dared not disobey the commands his messenger gave us. Ho! What will the Elders say? What will the witch doctors say when I show them this?"
Quinton chuckled: "You are wise, Bogembwe. Show The Leopard to them just as he is and witchcraft will die in the Kaokovelds. Shame and laughter will kill it. But put him down, there may be others."
"There were others, Losako."
"Maddon done it!" ”

“ Fable gives the following account of the origin of the signification of the Hazel. There was a time when men were at constant war with each other, and could not be restrained from cruelty and revenge by any tie of kin. The gods at length took pity on them. Apollo and Mercury made presents to each other, and descended to the earth. The god of harmony received from the son of Maia the shell of a tortoise, out of which he had constructed a lyre, and gave him in exchange a Hazel stick, which had the power of imparting a love of virtue and of reconciling hearts divided by envy and hate. ”

“ Without the help of witchcraft the man could not have escaped, the women said, and for once Maud felt thankful to the unknown witch, whoever she might be, who had done this service. She believed in witchcraft almost as fully as the ignorant villagers, but she did not believe Dame Coppins was a witch simply because she did not choose to tell all the village her business—where she had come from, and what had induced her to take the lonely cottage outside Hayslope,—and this was the only reason they had for supposing her a witch. ”

“ Hazel stood at the open window in a nightdress that she had found in one of the chests—a frail, yellowish thing with many frills of cobwebby lace made and worn by some dead woman on a forgotten bridal. It was symbolic of Hazel's whole life that she came in this way both to Undern and the Mountain—as bare of woman's regalia as a winter leaf is of substance. ”

“ She died when Hazel was nine, and it was a lovely memory of "mamma" that Hazel cherished: a vision of loveliness in trailing white silk, or velvet, or lace,--her mother always wore white, it was her Southern inheritance,--with a single dark-red rose among the folds of Venetian point of the bertha; always a gleam of white neck and arms banded with flashing, many-faceted diamonds, or roped with pearls; always a sense of delicious white warmth and fragrance, as the vision bent over her and pressed a light kiss upon her cheek. ”

“ And always there would be Hazel, alluring him with an imperishable magic even stronger than beauty, startling him from his hard-won calm by the turn of a wrist, the curve of a waist-ribbon, a wave of her hair. ”

“ A very dusky brown maiden, with a petticoat of flashing purple, and a jacket of crimson, and extremely puzzling hair tied up with knots of corn color, stood in possession over the stove, tending a fricassee, of which Hazel recognized at once the preparation and savor as her mother's; while beside her on a cricket, munching cold biscuit and butter with round, large bites of very white little teeth, sat a small girl of five of the same color, gleaming and twinkling as nothing human ever does gleam and twinkle but a little darkie child. ”

“ Restlessly he walked around the Witches' Tower, near which he found excited groups, looking up at the windows, but none could tell him on which side Lydia had been imprisoned. The heartless remarks made by the people cut him to the quick. "Dost thou really take the pretty fair-haired creature to be a witch?" he heard a young man ask in a commiserating tone. "The Devil likes pretty girls and is not content with old hags like the herb-picker," was the coarse answer. It was well, that Frau Belier had locked up his dagger, as otherwise he would have stabbed the man for this callous brutality. ”

“ We may conjecture that other sympathetic means of destruction are employed against witchcraft. The following is expressly reported: the heart of a calf that has died is stuck all over with needles, enclosed in a bag, and thrown into flowing water before sunset.”786
There is the same reason for burning bewitched things. And the same thing holds good also of inanimate objects on which a witch has cast her spell. In Wales they say that “if a thing is bewitched, burn it, and immediately afterwards the witch will come to borrow something of you. If you give what she asks, she will go free ”

“ Verily some angel did show unto thee the adventures I went through. Joyed am I, too, that thou wert kept in ignorance of my fate; for then thou hadst not been so pleased to see me now. And wert thou greatly troubled when thou didst see me beset by dangers?" And I drew a trifle closer unto her side.
"Art anxious to know?"
"Ay, Ay, so anxious, Lady Hazel," and I seized her pretty hand. She drew it quickly from my grasp, and motioned with her head in the direction of Mary and Harleston. ”

“ I gladly take the extended olive-branch.
"Do not think me ungenerous, if I say that I cannot make up my mind to allow Hazel to stay with you. She is my only daughter, and your house, devoid as it is of women-folk, is not the place I should choose for a young girl. May I suggest that she should come to spend a day with you, and, need I say, dear uncle, how pleased I should be if you would visit us here, if you could bring yourself to put up with our plain faring and simple ways?
"Your affectionate niece, "HELEN LE MESURIER.
"P.S.—We can easily accommodate your servant." ”

“ Yet so afraid did the young rogues appear to be that this something would yet fly upon them and do them great harm, that Adam walked at once among them, touching one upon the shoulder.
“The witch!” screamed this lad, as if the devil himself had clutched him. With yells of terror all the boys scudded swiftly away, for a matter of twenty feet, and then turned about to look at Rust. Seeing a man merely, they were reassured. It is a singular and doubtless a fortunate matter that there was never such a thing conceived as a male witch. ”

“ I at once found the girls and told them the good news.
"Ah!" cried Hazel; "will it not be delightful to be able to have some life at court, after all this quiet and monotony, with every one away and no music, but that which Mary and I do make for ourselves?" And she clapped her hands, and smiled and courtesied to me, as though I were her partner in the dance.
"Not a great compliment to me, nor to Sir Frederick neither, when thou dost say there is no one at court," said I; for I did not altogether relish Hazel's superabundance of delight at the prospect of the change. ”

“ Paul rejoined; "but I should like one or two of the red ones, to remind me of your pretty fancy. Let me gather them; you will make yourself hot and tired."
But Hazel disclaimed all fatigue, and was presently tying together some of the tiny red blossoms with a wisp of tough grass.
"When are you two coming?" Gerald called. "I say, Charteris, come along home to lunch. The mater will be glad to see you."
Paul looked at Hazel. "May I?" he asked diffidently. "Mrs. Le Mesurier may——."
"Mother says that the house is always open to you," the girl replied in her gracious little way. ”

“ Suddenly a shadow fell on the ground near them, and looking up, all beheld the wicked witch and her ugly daughter, who had ridden out in the dragon car to enjoy Florizel's cruel death. The Enchanter immediately caused the dragon car to vanish, and the witch and her daughter fell tumbling through the air into a pond, and were changed into ugly little fishes. Then the Enchanter carried Florizel and Florian back to the witch's castle, where they found the tables spread and the dinner being prepared which was to celebrate the wedding of Florizel and the witch's daughter. ”