The Witches Of Salem

Early in 1692, girls and young women of Salem village began to show signs of a frightening affliction. They fell into fits, uttered strange sounds, and screamed when they heard the Lord's Prayer. The diagnosis was not long in coming. They were bewitched. March 1st began the series of hearings and trials that would lead to the arrest of at least 150 'witches' and the execution of 19 persons and two dogs. For many of the accounts of these trials and the testimony against the witches, we look to Cotton Mather, whose 'Wonders Of The Invisible World' stands as the contemporary report of the proceedings.

THE GOSPEL WITCH

Martha Cory, whose husband, Giles, was later to be pressed to death beneath rocks for refusing to plead guilty or not guilty to yet another charge of witchcraft, was the first respectable member of the community to be accused by the afflicted girls. The Rev. Deodat lawson of Boston describes her questioning by the testimony-gathering magistrates:

On Monday, the 21st of March, the magistrates of Salem were appointed to come to examination of Goodwife Cory. And at about 12 of the clock they went into the meetinghouse, which was thronged with spectators. And Goodwife Cory, being called to answer to what was alleged against her, desired to pray, which was much wondered at in the presence of so many hundred people. The magistrates told her they would not allow it, they came there, not to hear her pray, but to examine her.

The worshipful Mr. Hathorne asked her why she afflicted those children? She said she did not afflict them. He asked her, who did, then? She said, "How should I know?"

The number of afflicted persons were about that time 10. These were most of them at Goodwife Cory's examination and did vehemently accuse her in the assembly of afflicting them by biting, pinching, strangling, etc. And that they in their fits see her likeness coming to them and bringing a book to them. She said she had no book. They affirmed that she had a yellow bird that used to suck between her fingers, and being asked about it, if she had any familiar spirit that attended her, she said she had no familiarity with any such thing. She was a Gospel woman. And the afflicted persons told her, "Ah, she was a Gospel Witch!"

It was observed several times that if she did but bite her underlip during the examination, the persons afflicted were bitten on their arms and wrists, and produced the marks before the magistrates, ministers and others. And being watched for that, if she did but pinch her fingers or grasp one hand hard in another, they were pinched and produced the marks. After that, it was observed, that if she did but lean her breast against the seat in the meetinghouse, they were afflicted. After these postures were watched, if she said Cory did but stir her feet, they were afflicted in their feet and stamped fearfully.

The afflicted persons asked her why she did not go to the company of witches which were mustering before the meetinghouse. Did she not hear the beating of their drums? They accused her of having familiarity with the devil during the examination, in the shape of a black man whispering to her ear. They affirmed that her yellow bird sucked between her fingers in the assembly.

She denied all that was charged upon her, and said they could not prove her a witch. She was that afternoon committed to Salem prison, and after she was in custody, she did not appear to them anymore.

DEVIL DOGS AND OXEN

Trim, tart-tongued Susanna Martin of Amesbury had a longstanding reputation as a witch. But only now, in the turmoil of the Salem accusations, did her victims come forward to recite wondrous tales of her witcheries to the assembled magistrates.

There was the tale of the Enchanted Oxen of Salisbury Beach. Fourteen head that John Allen had put ot to fatten on the salt grass had one day been goaded by the devil into swimming to Plum Island. When Allen traced them there and tried to round them up, the oxen ran from him 'with a violence...wholly diabolic' and plunging into the water swam straight out to sea.

Faced with so ruinous a disaster, a good Puritan searches his conscience to see 'what sin unrepented of' that God is punishing him for. Allen may have started such a search, but he was interrupted by a memory ringing in his ears like a spiteful echo of the shrill voice of Susanna Martin. "Your oxen will never do you much service!"
It came back to him now. Just before her turned his oxen out to grass he had refused to hitch his oxcart to haul her some stones, and in those words had Susanna mocked him.
"Dost thou threaten me, thou old witch? I'll throw thee into the brook!" he had shouted, but Susanna had nimbly run across the bridge out of his way. Who but Susanna had sent the devil into his cattle?

There was the case of the Phantom Puppies. Susanna Martin owned several puppies. At first, they existed at the physical level, her female dog produced a likely litter, and John Kembal had contracted to buy one. But when he came to purchase it, Susanna would not let him have his choice and was wroth when he then refused to buy at all. "I'll give you puppies enough!" she cried after him. And indeed she did. It began toward sundown with a little black cloud in the northwest. Kembal saw it when he came out of his woodlot, with his ax over his shoulder, and at the same moment, found himself in the grip of a power that made his feet unsteady. Though a broad, straight cartway lay before him, he began to weave from side to side, lurching into stumps, tripping and sometimes falling headlong, as and all. When finally he came out to the road near the meetinghouse, he found a puppy waiting for him. At least it was a thing like a puppy...small, dark and devilishly playful. It nipped at his heels, ran back and forth between his feet. Kembal took it for a real enough puppy until he swung his ax at it. Then a strange thing happened. The puppy leaped aside and vanished into the ground. Kembal stared about him, rubbed his eyes and stumbled on. Up the shadowy road waited another puppy. A large puppy, black as coal, and vicious. It sprang for his throat, his belly and darting behind him, made for his shoulders. Swinging his ax made no impression it at all. "In the name of Jesus Christ, avoid!" cried Kembal at last, and lo, the puppy was gone.

He was panting when he got to his kitchen, but took care to say no word to his wife. It might scare her. Besides, there is no knowing what a woman's inconsequence will suggest. It is common enough for maids to bring beer by the pailful to men working in field or woodlot, his wife might jump to the conclusion that he had refreshed himself too often. His reticence made it the more remarkable that the story was all over town the next day. People grinned at him knowingly and asked for the puppies.. How, he demanded, did they know? And he traced the gossip to Susanna Martin, who cold have had only one way of knowing. She herself had sent her devils in to form of puppies to torment him!

IT WAS OVER

On 22 September, seven witches and one lone wizard were packed into a cart and hauled the long mile to Gallows Hill. The sheriff had not chosen the most convenient spot for his hangings, but he had chosen a conspicuous one, for the hangings were made a spectacle by intention.
The Puritans never denied themselves this sort of show.
It was considered a sound deterrent to immoral impulses, especially now, when the devil was so busy proselytizing the country.
Besides, it was always interesting to watch.
These people who could not follow the spectacle at close range, spied on it at a distance from their upper windows.

From Gallows Hill, the witches, in their turn, could take one last look at the distant waters of the bay - gray today, for the sky was overcast and rain was threatening- and at the brightness of the low, rugged hills that rolled down to the shore, alight with the smoky blue of the asters and the first turning of the leaves, for winter was coming. A winter for which they need to cut and carry no wood.

At the steep ascent of the hill, the cart became stuck in the road.
The accusers, riding close behind, plainly saw the devil hold it back.

At the gallows, the wizard tried to address the people of Salem, protesting his innocence, but the waiting sheriff was smoking a pipe by his head and the smoke blowing into his face choked him off.
The girls said that, too, was the devil's work, though it seemed somewhat inconsistent of him.
Then, it was over.

"What a sad thing," remarked Noyes, the sheriff, looking up at the oak tree with it's heavy fruit, "to see eight firebrands of hell...the devil's familiars hanging there."

INNOCENT BLOOD

Four years after the trials were over, 12 of the jurors who sat in judgement on the Salem witches acknowledged their own error in an extraordinary written statement that read in part:

"We confess that we ourselves were not capable to understand, nor able to to withstand, the mysterious delusions of the Powers of Darkness and Prince of the Air..."

"Whereby we fear we have been instrumental with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon ourselves and the people of the Lord, the guilt of innocent blood."

HOW TO TELL A WITCH

With the threat of infernal doings ever present, formulas for the detection of witches were collected and studiously discussed, even by the best educated.

A typical list of 'evidences' for detecting 'a witch in league with the devil' included:

* A witch's mark, caused by the devil touching or sucking the witch.

"This mark is insensible, and being prick'd, it will not bleed. Sometimes it is like a teat.
Sometimes nothing more than a bluish spot.
Sometimes it is a red spot.
Sometimes the flesh sunk.
But the witches do sometimes cover them."

* The witch's words, whether talking to her familiars, boasting of harm done, or threatening the evil that will come.

* Deeds 'as when they have been seen with their spirits, or even secretly feeding any of their imps.
Or, when there can be found any of their pictures, their poppets (dolls), and other hellish compositions.'

* The witch's uncontrollable ecstasies, 'with the deight whereof witches are so taken, that they will hardly conceal the same.'

* The confessions of fellow witches, hearing detailed witness against their colleagues, 'that they have seen them with their spirits, or that they have received spirits from them, or that they can tell when they used witchery tricks to do harm, or that they told them what harm they had done, or that they can show the mark upon them, or that they have been together in their meetings...'

* The witch's own confession.
''It is no rare thing for witches to confess," Cotton Mather, the author concluded.