Part 4 (1/2)
She rears, she plunges, and finally as a last resort, if necessary, lies down on the ground and refuses to stir. ”Why, that is very flattering to you, Dulcibel,” said Raymond smiling. ”I never knew an animal of better taste.”
”That may be,” replied the maiden blus.h.i.+ng; ”but you see how it is that I shall never be able to sell Little Witch if I desire to do so. She is not worth her keep to any one but me.”
”Little Witch! Why did you ever give her a name like that?”
”Oh, I was a mere child--and my father, who had been a sea-captain, and all over the world, did not believe in witches. He named her ”Little Witch” because she was so black, and so bent on her own way. But I must change her name now that people are talking so about witches. In truth my mother never liked it.”
CHAPTER VIII.
An Examination of Reputed Witches.
Warrants had been duly issued against Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and the Indian woman t.i.tuba, and they were now to be tried for the very serious offence of bewitching the ”afflicted children.”
One way that the witches of that day were supposed to work, was to make images out of rags, like dolls, which they named for the persons they meant to torment. Then, by sticking pins and needles into the dolls, tightening cords around their throats, and similar doings, the witches caused the same amount of pain as if they had done it to the living objects of their enmity.
In these cases, the officers who executed the warrants of arrest, stated ”that they had made diligent search for images and such like, but could find none.”
On the day appointed for the examination of these poor women, the two leading magistrates of the neighborhood, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, rode up the princ.i.p.al street of the village attended by the marshal and constables, in quite an imposing array. The crowd was so great that they had to hold the session in the meeting-house The magistrates belonged to the highest legislative and judicial body in the colony. Hathorne, as the name was then spelt, was the ancestor of the gifted author, Nathaniel Hawthorne--the alteration in the spelling of the name probably being made to make it conform more nearly to the p.r.o.nunciation. Hathorne was a man of force and ability--though evidently also as narrow-minded and unfair as only a bigot can be. All through the examination that ensued he took a leading part, and with him, to be accused was to be set down at once as guilty. Never, among either Christian or heathen people, was there a greater travesty of justice than these examinations and trials for witchcraft, conducted by the very foremost men of the Ma.s.sachusetts colony.
The accounts of the examination of these three women in the ma.n.u.script book I have alluded to, are substantially the same as in the official records, which are among those that have been preserved. I will give some quotations to show how the examinations were conducted:--
”Sarah Good, what evil spirit are you familiar with?”
She answered sharply, ”None!”
”Have you made no contracts with the Devil?”
”No!”
”Why then do you hurt these children?”
”I do not hurt them. I would scorn to do it.”
”Here the children who were facing her, began to be dreadfully tormented; and then when their torments were over for the time, again accused her, and also Sarah Osburn.
”Sarah Good, why do you not tell us the truth? Why do you thus torment them?”
”I do not torment them.”
”Who then does torment them?”
”It may be that Sarah Osburn does, for I do not.”
”Her answers,” says the official report, ”were very quick, sharp and malignant.”
It must be remembered in reading these reports, that the accused were not allowed any counsel, either at the preliminary examinations, or on the trials; that the apparent sufferings of the children were very great, producing almost a frenzied state of feeling in the crowd who looked on; and that they themselves were often as much puzzled as their accusers, to account for what was taking place before their eyes.
In the examination of Sarah Osburn, we have similar questions and similar answers. In addition, however, three witnesses alleged that she had said that very morning, that she was ”more like to be bewitched herself.” Mr. Hathorne asked why she said that. She answered that either she saw at one time, or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian, all black, which did pinch her in the neck, and pulled her by the back part of the head to the door of the house. And there was also a lying spirit.