PPT Slide
European witches were commonly associated with the use of magical ointments, oils, and salves. So-called witches would anoint themselves with these ointments before taking to the air on their broomsticks. One seventeenth-century English witch confessed that "before they are carried to their meetings, they anoint their Foreheads and their Hand-wrists with an Oyl the Spirit brings them (which smells raw)". Other English witches said the greenish oil was applied with a feather to the forehead. Some were believed to apply the unguent to their armpits.
The flying ointment of Basque witches (according to information obtained by torturing one of them, Maria of Ituren) involved skinning toads alive and mixing the dried, powdered flesh with water lilies.