An Essay on Demonology 18

An Essay on Demonology 18

In

most of the instances at Salem, the confessions proved false and

deceptive, those who made them being totally ignorant of the nature of

witchcraft. Our learned author further observes, that if two credible

persons shall affirm on oath that they have seen the person accused,

_doing things which none but such as have familiarity with the devil

ever did or can do, that is a sufficient ground of conviction_. It was

on this ground that he justified the condemnation and execution of

George Burroughs, the minister; it being testified before the court,

that he had been seen to lift a barrel of molasses or cider, and to

extend with one hand a heavy musket at arms' length. Nothing could be

more sophistical than evidence of this description, for there are

persons who can lift a solid body of six or seven hundred pounds, and

can extend a king's arm at arms' length, when held at the smallest end

with one hand, and no jury in our day would condemn such to the

gallows as wizards.

 

It is among the most unaccountable facts, that those who, to save

their lives, belied their consciences, and confessed themselves guilty

of having formed a league with the devil, and of committing horrid

crimes, should be spared and suffered to live in society, while

others, relying on their innocence, honestly despised those tempting

conditions, should be consigned to the gallows. In fact, false

confessions, fraud, and counterfeit, were so palpable, that the halter

might with more justice have been applied to the accusers than to

those who actually suffered.

 

But such, at that time, was the state of the public mind, that the

more extravagant the tale, the more implicitly was it regarded. The

hostility to witchcraft was so prevalent as to give a general bias

unfriendly to the fair development of truth, or to the impartial

examination of facts and circumstances. The unhappy victims were

without defence, and their total ignorance subjected them to the most

cruel treatment and sufferings. In one instance on record, there

appears to us to be a profanation of the Lord's Prayer. The woman

being required to repeat it before the court, instead of 'deliver us

from evil,' expressed it 'deliver us from _all_ evil;' this was

considered as referring to her own condition, and she was ordered to

repeat it again. On the second trial, instead of 'hallowed be thy

name,' she expressed '_hollowed_ be thy name.' Thus by her using the

_o_, in place of _a_, it was concluded that she could not say the

Lord's Prayer, and she was committed to jail as a witch.

 

In Dr Mather's 'Magnalia,' we have the following instance of

witchcraft.

 

In the year 1679, the house of William Morse, at Newbury, was infested

with demons. 'Bricks, and sticks, and stones, were often by some

invisible hand, thrown at the house, and so were many pieces of wood;

a cat was thrown at the woman of the house, and a long staff was

danced up and down in the chimney, and afterwards the same long staff

was hanged by a line, and swung to and fro, and when two persons laid

it on the fire to burn, it was as much as they were able to do with

their joint strength to hold it there. An iron crook was violently, by

an invisible hand, hurled about, and a chair flew about the room until

at last it lit upon the table, where the food stood ready to be eaten,

and would have spoiled all, if the people had not with much ado saved

a little. A chest, was by an invisible hand, carried from one place to

another, and the doors barricaded; and the keys of the family taken

some of them from the bunch where they were tied, and the rest flying

about with a loud noise. For a while the people of the house could not

sup quietly; ashes would be thrown into their suppers and on their

heads. The man's shoes being left below, one of them would be filled

with ashes and coals and thrown up after him. When in bed a stone,

weighing about three pounds, was divers times thrown upon them. A box

and a board were likewise thrown upon them, and a bag of hops being

taken out of a chest, they were by the invisible hand, beaten

therewith, till some of the hops were scattered on the floor, where

the bag was then laid and left. The man was often struck by that hand,

with several instruments, and the same hand cast their good things

into the fire; yea, while the man was at prayer, a broom gave him a

blow on his head behind and fell down before his face. While the man

was writing, his ink-stand was by the invisible hand snatched from

him, and being able nowhere to find it, he saw it at length drop out

of the air down by the fire. A shoe was laid on his shoulder, and when

he would have catched it, it was snatched from him and was then

clapped on his head, and there held so fast, that the unseen fury

pulled him with it backward on the floor. He had his cap torn off his

head, and in the night he was pulled by the hair and pinched, and

scratched; and the invisible hand pricked him with some of his awls,

and with needles, and bodkins, and blows that fetched blood were

sometimes given him. His wife going down into the cellar, the trap

door was immediately by an invisible hand shut upon her, and a table

brought and laid upon the door. When he was writing another time, a

dish went and leaped into a pail and cast water upon the man and

spoiled what he was about. His cap jumped off his head and on again,

and the pot lid went off the pot into the kettle, then over the fire

together. A little boy belonging to the family was a principal

sufferer, for he was flung about at such a rate, that it was feared

his brains would be beaten out. His bed-clothes would be pulled from

him, his bed shaken, leaping forward and backward. The man took him to

hold in a chair, but the chair fell a dancing, and both of them were

very near being thrown into the fire. These, and a thousand such

vexations, befalling the boy at home, they carried him to live at a

doctor's. There he was quiet, but returning home he suddenly cried out

he was pricked on the back, where was found strangely sticking a three

tined fork belonging to the doctor, and had been seen at his house

after the boy's departure. Afterwards his troublers found him out at

the doctor's also, when crying out again he was pinched on the back,

they found an iron spindle stuck into him; and on the like outcry

again, they found pins in a paper stuck into him, and a long iron, a

bowl of a spoon stuck upon him. He was taken out of his bed and thrown

under it, and all the knives in the house were one after another stuck

into his back; which the spectators pulled out, only one of them

seemed to the spectators to come out of his mouth. The spectre would

make all his meat, when he was going to eat, fly out of his mouth, and

instead thereof make him fall to eating ashes, sticks, and yarn.'

 

The foregoing has all the air of an exaggerated narrative, and it is

probable that Dr Mather, in his love for the marvellous and wonderful,

recorded the circumstances without due examination, but merely from

the uncertain rumor among the credulous neighbors. The same story is

found on the records of the court at Salem, but with the following

explanatory circumstances as I have received them. It so happened,

that one Caleb Powell, an intelligent seaman, suspected that a boy,

the grandson of Morse, who lived in the family, was the cause of all

the mischief, and watched for an opportunity of detecting him. Going

one morning to Morse's house, he saw through the window, the said boy

throw a shoe slyly at the old man's head. Upon this, Powell told Morse

that if he would let his boy come and live with him a short time, he

_guessed_ that with a little astrology and a little astronomy, he

could unravel the mystery. Morse reluctantly consented, and his house

was not molested during the boy's absence. This, Morse acknowledged,

but yet, unwilling to suspect the boy, he and his neighbors concluded

that Powell had studied the black art, and had by that means been the

cause of all the mischief about Morse's house. Powell was accordingly

apprehended and tried at Salem. The testimony against him was

singular. One testified, that he had heard him say that by a little

astrology and a little astronomy, he guessed he could find out the

cause of Morse's trouble. Another testified, that he heard it said

that Powell had studied the black art with one Norwood, a famous

magician beyond sea. The result of the trial was, that although they

could find no positive evidence of his guilt, yet he had given so much

ground for suspicion, that he deserved to bear his own shame and the

costs of court. Morse's wife was at another time tried for witchcraft,

and condemned to be hung, but was afterwards reprieved, and died a

pious woman.

 

The following is an amusing story, well told, but it is from newspaper

authority, the Galaxy. About the year 1760, the fury of the

inhabitants of New England had declined towards suspected old women,

but their believing fear was not altogether quelled. At this time, a

case of witchcraft occurred in Billerica, under the ministry of the

Rev. Dr Cummings, who related the story with much satisfaction, as the

last which came within his precincts.

 

An old woman, of very peaceable character, lived pretty much alone in

a shell of a house near the meeting-house and the clergyman's

dwelling. She was suspected of witchcraft by a family who lived at two

miles' distance, in the west part of the town, and they brought

accusation immediately to the parson; who in those early times,

exercised not only the spiritual, but the temporal power of the

parish; he was often counsel for both parties, and was judge and jury,

without subjection to appeal. He was, moreover, a peace-maker. Mr C.

accused Mrs D. of witchcraft. 'How do you know she is a witch?'

'Because she has bewitched my mare.' 'How do you know that your mare

is bewitched?' 'Because she won't stand still to be saddled, and the

minute I get on, she kicks up and throws me off.' 'But what makes you

think that Mrs D. has bewitched her?' No answer. 'Have you had a

quarrel with her?' 'Oh no! I have had no quarrel.' 'But what is the

matter? surely she would not bewitch her for nothing.' 'Why I carried

her some corn on the mare about a week ago, and I didn't know but I

might have made a mistake in the measure so that it fell short, and

so'--'And because your corn fell short, you suspect that she found it

out, and is so angry as to bewitch your mare.' 'Yes, that's it, and I

want you to go and lay the devil.' 'Why, if you have raised the devil

by cheating in the corn, you had better lay him yourself.' 'Yes, but I

don't know how.' 'Go then, directly, and carry the balance of the

corn, and take good care never to commit such an act again: the devil

is always busy with people who do not perform all their duties

honestly.' The man slunk away home at this unexpected rebuke, and

failed not to carry corn enough to make full measure; which, however,

he feared to carry into the house to the old woman, but emptied it

down upon the door-stone. But the mare ceased to kick as usual;

whereupon Mr C. came to the minister, told him what he had done, and

begged for holy assistance. 'Go home,' said the parson, with all that

energy for which he was so remarkable, 'go home,--you need not trouble

yourself about witches; I'll not allow them to do any mischief, I

assure you--do your duty, so as to escape a guilty conscience, and if

your mare is refractory, whip her, as I do mine--go, and let me hear

no more about witches.' Mr C. obeyed, but he was far from convinced

that Mrs D. was not a witch, and he determined to put it to the

proof. For this purpose he boiled a large potato, which he put

directly from the boiling water, under the bewitched mare's saddle.

The caperings and kickings of the poor beast were excusable this time,

at least, for when after some hours the saddle was got off, it was

found that a severe mark was left behind it. The proof of the matter

was to be this; if the old woman had bewitched the mare, she would

have the same mark of a burn on her back. Two old women were prevailed

on to be of the examining committee. Dr Cummings was requested to be

of the party, with his Bible at hand, to prevent any fatal explosion

from Satan's nostrils. This office he prudently declined. His place

was supplied by another old woman, and Saturday night was appointed

for this examination. This time was chosen, because the good people

thought that Satan would not visit in holy hours. In the meantime, the

good woman got an inkling of what was going on; and as they entered a

long dark entry, they were saluted with a stupendous flash of powder

and tow, and a glorious clatter of tin pans. The committee was

scattered of course--and before church the next day, everybody in the

town knew, that the devil came, all covered with blue brimstone, to

save his disciple, the wicked Mrs D. This would have made a new era in

witchcraft in the town, but for the pertinent remarks of the parson

touching the matter; for he was enabled to dispense a word in season.