Chapter 19

Thunder. Enter the three Witches
First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Third Witch
Harpier cries 'Tis time, 'tis time.

First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Dashiell and Regina hovered over a copy of Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I.

“Dash, how did you ever come up with this?” Regina asked.

“Well, it was fairly simple, actually. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier. But as you can see, it uses some fairly archaic terms. A ‘tiger’s chaudron’ is a tiger’s entrails. That explains the zoo. ‘Finger of birth-strangled babe, ditch delivered by a drab.’ Drab is another word for prostitute. And the liver of blaspheming Jew. You said Mr. Goldman was killed in his home, Friday night at 8. Goldman is a Jewish name, and 8 pm is the Sabbath. He should have been at Temple. So it adds up.”

“Okay Dash, but what about the pilot’s thumb? That’s not here. And they didn’t even have airplanes in Shakespeare’s day. So it had to be some other kind of pilot, like on a riverboat.”

“Ah, well this is where the cleverness comes in. And something of the nature of witchcraft. Most witchcraft spells are designed the way they are not because you need anything specific. Rather, they exist to help clear and focus the mind. The actual words and ingredients are unimportant. In this case, having an airline pilot’s thumb helps the witches concentrate on their end goal. And the fact that it isn’t part of this spell doesn’t matter. It’s associated with the play. Which makes sense. I think they’re trying to summon Hecate. And there’s no reason a demigoddess would be called by a potion. But as you can see, she appears right after the charm is completed. That should be enough to work in this day and age.”

“Alright fine. But what about some of these other ingedients? A witches’ mummy? The ‘maw and gulf’ of a ‘ravined salt sea shark’? And scale of dragon? There’s no such things as dragons, Dash. How can they possibly hope to complete the spell?”

“I think I can answer that,” said a new female voice from the door.

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