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.