Salem Witchcraft Part 21

"Have you made no contract with the Devil?--No: I never saw the Devil in my life.

"Why do you hurt these children?--I do not hurt them.

"Who do you employ, then, to hurt them?--I employ n.o.body.

"What familiarity have you with Sarah Good?--None: I have not seen her these two years.

"Where did you see her then?--One day, agoing to town.

"What communications had you with her?--I had none, only 'How do you do?' or so. I do not know her by name.

"What did you call her, then?

"(Osburn made a stand at that; at last, said she called her Sarah.)

"Sarah Good saith that it was you that hurt the children.--I do not know that the Devil goes about in my likeness to do any hurt.

"Mr. Hathorne desired all the children to stand up, and look upon her, and see if they did know her, which they all did; and every one of them said that this was one of the women that did afflict them, and that they had constantly seen her in the very habit that she was now in. Three evidences declared that she said this morning, that she was more like to be bewitched than that she was a witch. Mr. Hathorne asked her what made her say so. She answered that she was frighted one time in her sleep, and either saw, or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian all black, which did pinch her in her neck, and pulled her by the back part of her head to the door of the house.

"Did you never see any thing else?--No.

"(It was said by some in the meeting-house, that she had said that she would never believe that lying spirit any more.)

"What lying spirit is this? Hath the Devil ever deceived you, and been false to you?--I do not know the Devil. I never did see him.

"What lying spirit was it, then?--It was a voice that I thought I heard.

"What did it propound to you?--That I should go no more to meeting; but I said I would, and did go the next sabbath-day.

"Were you never tempted further?--No.

"Why did you yield thus far to the Devil as never to go to meeting since?--Alas! I have been sick, and not able to go.

"Her husband and others said that she had not been at meeting three years and two months."

The foregoing ill.u.s.trates the unfairness practised by the examining magistrate. He took for granted, as we shall find to have been the case in all instances, the guilt of the prisoner, and endeavored to entangle her by leading questions, thus involving her in contradiction. By the force of his own a.s.sumptions, he had compelled Sarah Good to admit the reality of the sufferings of the girls, and that they must be caused by some one. The amount of what she had said was, that, if caused by one or the other of them, "then it must be Osburn," for she was sure of her own innocence. This expression, to which she was driven in self-exculpation, was perverted by the reporter, Ezekiel Cheever, and by the magistrate, into an indirect confession and a direct accusation of Osburn. In the absence of Good, the magistrate told Osburn that Good had confessed and accused her.

This was a misrepresentation of one, and a false and fraudulent trick upon the other. Considering the feeble condition of Sarah Osburn generally, the snares by which she was beset, the distressing and bewildering circ.u.mstances in which she was placed, and the infirm state of her reason, as evidenced in her statement of what she saw, or dreamed that she saw and heard,--not having a clear idea which,--her answers, as reported by the prosecutors, show that her broken and disordered mind was essentially truthful and innocent.

Sarah Osburn was removed from the meeting-house, and t.i.tuba brought in and examined, as follows:--

"t.i.tuba, what evil spirit have you familiarity with?--None.

"Why do you hurt these children?--I do not hurt them.

"Who is it then?--The Devil, for aught I know.

"Did you never see the Devil?--The Devil came to me, and bid me serve him.

"Who have you seen?--Four women sometimes hurt the children.

"Who were they?--Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and I do not know who the others were. Sarah Good and Osburn would have me hurt the children, but I would not.

"(She further saith there was a tall man of Boston that she did see.)

"When did you see them?--Last night, at Boston.

"What did they say to you?--They said, 'Hurt the children.'

"And did you hurt them?--No: there is four women and one man, they hurt the children, and then they lay all upon me; and they tell me, if I will not hurt the children, they will hurt me.

"But did you not hurt them?--Yes; but I will hurt them no more.

"Are you not sorry that you did hurt them?--Yes.

"And why, then, do you hurt them?--They say, 'Hurt children, or we will do worse to you.'

"What have you seen?--A man come to me, and say, 'Serve me.'

"What service?--Hurt the children: and last night there was an appearance that said, 'Kill the children;' and, if I would not go on hurting the children, they would do worse to me.

"What is this appearance you see?--Sometimes it is like a hog, and sometimes like a great dog.

"(This appearance she saith she did see four times.)

"What did it say to you?--The black dog said, 'Serve me;'

but I said, 'I am afraid.' He said, if I did not, he would do worse to me.

"What did you say to it?--I will serve you no longer. Then he said he would hurt me; and then he looks like a man, and threatens to hurt me. (She said that this man had a yellow-bird that kept with him.) And he told me he had more pretty things that he would give me, if I would serve him.

"What were these pretty things?--He did not show me them.

"What else have you seen?--Two cats; a red cat, and a black cat.

"What did they say to you?--They said, 'Serve me.'

"When did you see them?--Last night; and they said, 'Serve me;' but I said I would not.

"What service?--She said, hurt the children.

"Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning?--The man brought her to me, and made pinch her.

"Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night, and hurt his child?--They pull and haul me, and make go.

"And what would they have you do?--Kill her with a knife.

"(Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, when the child saw these persons, and was tormented by them, that she did complain of a knife,--that they would have her cut her head off with a knife.)

"How did you go?--We ride upon sticks, and are there presently.