A besom ('biːzəm) is a broom, a household implement used for sweeping. The term is now mostly reserved for a traditional broom constructed from a bundle of twigs tied to a stout pole. The twigs used could be broom (i.e. Genista, from which comes the modern name "broom" for the tool), heather or similar. The song "Buy Broom Buzzems" from Northern England refers to both types of twig. From the phrase broom besom the more common broom comes. In Scotland, besoms are still occasionally to be found at the edge of forests where they are stacked for use in early response to an outbreak of fire.
As a result of its construction around a central pole, the brush of the besom is rounded instead of flat. The bristles can be made of many materials including, but not limited to straw, herbs, or twigs. Traditionally the handle is of hazel wood and the head is of birch twigs. Modern construction uses bindings of wire and string (instead of the traditional split withy) and the head is secured by a steel nail instead of a wooden dowel.
Flying ointment
A number of different recipes for "flying ointments" have survived from the Early modern period, some of the constituents of which not only have hallucinogenic properties but are fat-soluble and could have been absorbed transdermally. Certain researchers have speculated that the stereotypical image of the witch "flying" astride the broomstick of a besom may derive from traditions concerning the use of broomsticks or other staves by women to apply psychotropic ointments to their vaginal or anal mucosa. The active ingredients in Flying ointments were primarily plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae, most commonly Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) and Hyoscyamus niger (henbane), belonging to the tropane alkaloid-rich tribe Hyoscyameae. Other tropane-containing, nightshade ingredients included the famous Mandrake Mandragora officinarum, Scopolia carniolica and Datura stramonium, the Thornapple.
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Flying ointment is a hallucinogenic ointment said to have been used by witches in the practice of European witchcraft from at least as far back as the Early Modern period, when detailed recipes for such preparations were first recorded and when their usage spread to colonial North America. The ointment is known by a wide variety of names, including witches' flying ointment, green ointment, magic salve, or lycanthropic ointment. In German it was Hexensalbe (witch salve) or Flugsalbe (flying salve).
La Jusquiame noire (Hyoscyamus niger) est une plante herbacée de la famille des Solanacées, originaire d'Eurasie. C'est une plante toxique, riche en alcaloïdes tropaniques (hyoscyamine, scopolamine et atropine). Connue, avec le datura stramoine et la belladone, comme « Solanacée parasympatholytique officinale », la jusquiame noire est inscrite à la Pharmacopée européenne. thumb|left|180px|Port de la jusquiame noire thumb|240px|Fleurs de jusquiame noire La jusquiame noire est une plante annuelle ou bisannuelle selon la variété, à odeur désagréable et à poils glanduleux collants.
Le Datura officinal, Stramoine ou Stramoine commune (Datura stramonium L.) est une espèce de plantes dicotylédones de la famille des Solanaceae. Ses nombreux noms vernaculaires (herbe aux fous, pomme-épineuse, herbe-aux-taupes, chasse-taupe, herbe du diable, herbe aux sorciers endormeuse, pomme poison, trompette des anges, herbe Jimson ou trompette de la mort) évoquent la forme de la fleur ou la toxicité de la plante.