Sunday, January 8, 2017

I noticed an interesting detail in this article on How Witches' Brews Helped Bring Modern Drugs to Market. We all know that witches ride broomsticks, right?



Also, witches liked to anoint themselves with psychoactive herbs: "witches applied the salve to their skin—either under the arms or (for the daring) on the genitalia." 

And:
A 1324 inquisitor’s account of a suspected witch, Lady Alice Kyteler, does paint an interesting image of the ointment in action:
In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oynment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin.”
The missing datum is that in the Middle Ages, women did not wear underpants. Panties are a 19th Century invention. So if Lady Alice was greasing up a staff, and then "riding it," odds are she was absorbing her active ingredients through her, ah, lady bits.

(I'll leave it to you to decide whether the riding of the broomstick is accurately shown.)

No wonder they thought they were flying.

1 comments

Post a Comment



This page is powered by Blogger.


The Circle Cast Web Site