In a dark cavern, a bubbling cauldron hisses and spits, and the three witches suddenly appear onstage. They circle the cauldron, chanting spells and adding bizarre ingredients to their steely of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog. Hecate materializes and compliments the witches on their work. One of the witches then chants: By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. In fulfillment of the witch’s prediction, Macbeth enters. He asks the witches to reveal the truth of their prophecies to him. To answer his questions, they summon horrible apparitions, each of which offers a prediction to allay Macbeth’s fears. First, a floating head warns him to beware Macduff; Macbeth says that he has already guessed as much. Then a bloody child appears and tells him that none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.