fire blackened banksia pod
photo by simone-walsh

"The fairies, besides being vengeful, are also very arrogant, and allow no interference with their old-established rights"

Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde (1887)

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"decked with black lambskin and white catskin, with polished metal and shining stones"

garb of a female witch, Folklore Vol. 63, No. 4 (Dec., 1952), M.A. Murray

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"witches had their favourite flowers, one having been the foxglove, nicknamed ‘witches’ bells, from their decorating their fingers with its blossoms; while in some localities the hare-bell is designated the “witches’ thimble.” On the other hand, flowers of a yellow or greenish hue were distasteful to them."

 The Folklore of Plants, Margaret Baker, 1969

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"All over its branches were hundreds of locks of coarse black hair, teeth, bits of coloured cloth, rags, and morsels of ribbon"

The Folk-lore of Plants, By Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer

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"she applied ointments and drops with tiny feathery brushes and little bone pins …"

A.S. Byatt, from The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye