Why do witches ride brooms to fly?

This image is so familiar to everyone’s childhood, in fairy tales, comics, cartoons… a witch wearing a wide-brimmed hat riding a broom handle flies in the dark. Have you ever wondered why this is so, the reason will surprise many people: bread!

In medieval Europe, bread was one of the staple foods, bread was usually made from barley ( rye ). Barley can be infected with a fungus called ergot . If accidentally ingested in large amounts, can cause death, but in small amounts, this mushroom can cause hallucinations for humans. Since then, there are people who have deliberately used this mushroom to cause hallucinations.

Not only that, we also experimented with many types of plants and found several trees can also cause hallucinations and modulation of hallucinogens, like drug production today . These people are considered witches, making poisons. Many ancient texts have been recorded, some plants such as: deadly nightshade (a plant belonging to the nightshade family), henbane (cyan tree) … are used to make hallucinogenic substances.