an underground cellar belonging to the Castle of Penyard, where they
were kept by supernatural force. A farmer, however, made up his mind to
get them out, and employed for the purpose twenty steers to draw down
the iron door of the vault. On the door being slightly opened, a jackdaw
was seen sitting on one of the casks, but the door immediately closed
with a bang--a voice being heard to say,

"Had it not been
For your quicken tree goad,
And your yew tree pin,
You and your cattle
Had all been drawn in."

Another anecdote current in Yorkshire is interesting, showing how fully
superstitions of this kind are believed[25]:--"A woman was lately in my
shop, and in pulling out her purse brought out also a piece of stick a
few inches long. I asked her why she carried that in her pocket. 'Oh,'
she replied, 'I must not lose that, or I shall be done for.' 'Why so?' I
inquired. 'Well,' she answered, 'I carry that to keep off the witches;
while I have that about me, they cannot hurt me.' On my adding that
there were no witches nowadays, she instantly replied, 'Oh, yes! there
are thirteen at this very time in the town, but so long as I have my
rowan-tree safe in my pocket they cannot hurt me.'"

Occasionally when the dairymaid churned for a long time without making
butter, she would stir the cream with a twig of mountain ash, and beat
the cow with another, thus breaking the witch's spell. But, to prevent
accidents of this kind, it has long been customary in the northern
countries to make the churn-staff of ash. For the same reason herd-boys
employ an ash-twig for driving cattle, and one may often see a