A Witches' Ladder

Or is it?

The history of this object seems to point to the ways in which the stories about an object may grow, allowing folk-lore itself to become folk-lorised.

Whether it's a device to enable witches to cross roof-tops, or a sinister voodoo-like way of knotting in ill-wishes for later release, or "nothing but a string set with feathers to frighten birds from a line of peas", it's a fascinating, beautiful object.

via England: The Other Within - Analysing the English Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum.