Besom

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.

A number of different recipes for "flying ointments" have survived from the early modern period,[1] some of the constituents of which not only have hallucinogenic properties but are fat-soluble and could have been absorbed transdermally.

[4] Other tropane-containing, nightshade ingredients included the famous mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), Scopolia carniolica and Datura stramonium, the thornapple.

[5] The alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine present in these solanaceous plants are not only potent (and highly toxic) hallucinogens of the deliriant class, but are also fat-soluble and capable of being absorbed through unbroken human skin.

[6][3] Another ingredient listed frequently in the various flying ointment recipes is the even more toxic Aconitum napellus, which has (among others) the English common name wolfsbane (i.e. "slayer of wolves").

On Carrington Moss , 1851, David Cox , shows individuals gathering material for besoms.
On the operation of a witch's broom, "Discourse on the worship of Priapus," pg 210, Richard Payne Knight Esq, on the conclusions of the "Malleus Maleficarum"
Preparation for the Witches' Sabbath by David Teniers the Younger . Note on the left an older witch reading from a grimoire while anointing the bottom of a young, naked witch, who is about to fly to the sabbath upon an inverted besom with a lit candle attached to its twigs. Note also stoppered vial , crock with lid and small pot with protruding spoon near back foot of young witch.
Preparation for the Witches' Sabbath Detail of engraving by J. Aliame based on Teniers the Younger painting above. Note (more clearly visible in this copy than in the original) that witch in front of young witch being anointed is not only flying upward, but has also shapeshifted into wolf ( werewolf ) or dog form.
A Russian venik .