Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism Part 14

The same spirit, too, drawing elements from Mrs. Good, and using them, could make t.i.tuba feel as though Mrs. Good was by her side and making her suddenly deaf in prayer-time, even though it was the male spirit himself who then closed her ears.

Evidences of mediumistic capabilities in either the afflicted or the afflicters are worthy of distinct observation, and therefore we draw attention to the statement that the yellow-bird "hath been several times seen _by the children_." Therefore the sufferers were clairvoyants, as well as the accused.

"_Q._ Did you never practice witchcraft in your own country? _A._ No; never before now."

That answer renders it probable that previous to the winter then pa.s.sing she had never been conscious of the presence of spirits, or of conversations with or subjection to them. She, perhaps, reveals a lurking suspicion that her experiences of late might be witchcrafts. But her notions as to what const.i.tuted that might well, if not necessarily, be very different from those existing in the more unfolded and logical minds of her master and her examiners, who made the chief essence of it consist in a compact made with a Majestic and Malignant Devil--such a devil as would differ very widely in appearance from t.i.tuba's "_man_." She freely described the unsought presence of a spirit-man with her on sundry occasions; also her talks with him, and forced service under him. This essentially was only disclosure of the fact that her own organism and temperaments were such and so conditioned that disembodied intelligences could sometimes be seen and heard by her, and could force her to be their tool. Her witchcraft was devoid of voluntary compact to serve an evil one; devoid of evil intent in its practice. If she confessed herself to be a witch, it was only a kindly and loving one, desiring to be truthful and good, and inflicting hurt only when forced to it. She confessed only to clairvoyance, clairaudience, and weakness of her own will-powers.

"_Q._ Did you see them do it now while you are examining (being examined)?

_A._ No, I did not see them. But I saw them hurt at other times. I saw Good have a cat beside the yellow-bird which was with her."

Obviously some contortions, antics, or sufferings which the afflicted girls, who were present at the examination, had just experienced or were then manifesting, led to the question, "Did you see them do it now?" Here again appears the a.s.sumption of the court that t.i.tuba might be gifted with powers or faculties which would enable her to discern animate and designing workers who were invisible by external optics. Her inner sight was closed then, but at some other times had been open.

"_Q._ What hath Osburn got to go with her? _A._ A thing; I don't know what it is. I can't name it. I don't know how it looks. She hath two of them.

One of them hath wings, and two legs, and a head like a woman. The children saw the same but yesterday, which afterward turned into a woman.

_Q._ What is the other thing that Goody Osburn hath? _A._ A thing all over hairy; all the face hairy, and a long nose, and I don't know how to tell how the face looks; with two legs; it goeth upright, and is about two or three foot high, and goeth upright like a man; and last night it stood before the fire, in Mr. Parris's hall."

The obscurity of this description is fully paralleled by the prophet Ezekiel, who, in presenting the beings seen in the first of his "visions of G.o.d," uses the following language, in chap. i.: "They had the likeness of a man, and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings; and their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished bra.s.s. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings; and their wings were joined one to another; and they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward; as for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle." This quotation from the Bible hints with much distinctness that inherent difficulties may beset any clairvoyant who undertakes to set forth in our language, which was formed for description of material objects, some things which are occasionally perceived by the spiritual senses. Where the prophet was so vague and mystical we may pardon the ignorant slave if she failed to be very lucid, and if one suspects her of attempting to put forth nothing but fiction, because she was so obscure, how can he consistently withhold similar suspicions in relation to the prophet?

We will pa.s.s to the children's credit the fact that they also saw Osburn's ungainly and hairy attendant.

"_Q._ Who was that appeared to Hubbard as she was going from Proctor's?

_A._ It was Sarah Good, and I saw her send the wolf to her."

Facts are transpiring in the present age which indicate with much distinctness that a spirit can present the semblance of a spirit-beast or other spirit-object to the vision of many clairvoyants at the same time, and also that he can, if he so elect, psychologize simultaneously all clairvoyants with whom he is in rapport, and cause them all to believe that they see any beast or object which his mind merely conceives of with distinctness. Therefore sight of a wolf by the mediumistic Hubbard girl, and t.i.tuba's perception of the same proceeding from mediumistic Sarah Good, could all be produced by the mere volition of that "something like a man," provided only that he was then in rapport with all of those three sensitive ones.

"_Q._ What clothes doth the man appear unto you in? _A._ Black clothes sometimes; sometimes serge coat of other color; a tall man with white hair, I think. _Q._ What apparel do the women wear? _A._ I don't know what color. _Q._ What kind of clothes hath she? _A._ Black silk hood with white silk hood under it, with top-knots; which woman I know not, but have seen her in Boston when I lived there. _Q._ What clothes the little woman? _A._ Serge coat, with a white cap, as I think. (The children having fits at this very time, she was asked who hurt them. She answers, Goody Good; and the children affirmed the same. But Hubbard being taken in an extreme fit, after [ward] she (t.i.tuba) was asked who hurt her (Hubbard), and she said she could not tell, but said they blinded her and would not let her see; and after that was once or twice taken dumb herself.")

That account of the clothes described the usual costumes of the time. We are glad to hear her say, "A tall man, with white hair, I think." That is her description of the "something like a man," and "the man" who has been so demonstrative. A tall man with white hair, need not be a very frightful object, and we can readily conceive that such a mind as t.i.tuba's might be perfectly calm and self-possessed in his presence, and never imagine that abler minds might confound such a one with the devil. She never calls him the devil. The fact that she was made dumb two or three times, gives her case some resemblance to those of Ezekiel and Zacharias. Her ears, as before stated, had been stopped by Good, as she supposed, one evening during prayer-time. Thus we find her organs of sense subject to just such control as invisible intelligent operators exercised over prophetic or mediumistic ones of old, and such as spirits exercise over many mortal forms to-day. Her clairvoyance was obscured, perhaps, by "the man" when she was asked who was hurting the Hubbard girl, and replied that they blinded her now.

_Second Examination, March 2, 1692._

"_Q._ What covenant did you make with that man that came to you? What did he tell you?"

The first of those two questions was the crucial one at a trial for witchcraft. Had she made a _covenant_ with the devil, or any devotee of his? That was the main point to be determined. If she had, she was a witch, according to the prevalent creed; if she had not, she might be innocent of witchcraft. But seemingly the court could not wait for an answer, because, in the same breath, it asked, What did your visitant tell you?

"_A._ He tell me he G.o.d, and I must believe him and serve him six years, and he would give me many fine things. _Q._ How long ago was this? _A._ About six weeks and a little more; Friday night before Abigail was ill."

That last answer is very instructive. It fixes the exact time when one of the children in Mr. Parris's family was first attacked. For this second day's examination was held on Wednesday, March 2. It will appear from the above and future answers that the specters first attacked the children on a Wednesday evening, just six weeks before this 2d of March. The man appeared to and talked with t.i.tuba on the Friday evening before that Wednesday in January.

The testimony, therefore, takes us back to January 20th as the commencement of overt manifestation of spirit infliction of sufferings there. Five days further back, i. e., the evening of January 15, is apparently the date of "the man's" first recognized appearance.

Therefore, until better information is obtained, we shall regard that as the date of the primal advent of the genuine author of witchcraft at Salem Village, whom we deem to have been also its regulator through its heart-rending unfoldings.

"_Q._ What did he say you must do more? Did he say you must write anything? Did he offer you any paper? _A._ Yes, the next time he come to me; and showed me some fine things, something like creatures, a little bird something like green and white. _Q._ Did you promise him this when he first spake to you? Then what did you answer him? _A._ I then said this: I told him I could not believe him G.o.d. I told him I ask my master, and would have gone up, but he stopt me and would not let me. _Q._ What did you promise him? _A._ The first time I believe him G.o.d, and then he was glad. _Q._ What did he say to you then? What did he say you must do? _A._ Then he tell me they must meet together."

There is some obscurity in this quotation, which raises the question whether the witness contradicts herself by stating that at her first interview she believed that her visitant was G.o.d himself (as John the Revelator did that a prophet returning from the spirit spheres and appearing to him was G.o.d), and her stating again that at the first interview she told him she could not believe that he was G.o.d, and proposed to go up and ask her master, Mr. Parris, what he thought about it, but was held back by her spirit-attendants from doing so. There is, we say, obscurity as to whether the account makes her apply both of these opposing statements to her conceptions of her visitor at the first interview with him, or whether it was not till a subsequent meeting that she doubted his G.o.dship. As reported, her examiners are made quite as hard to understand and track as she is in her answers. But, upon a careful reading, we judge it fair and proper to conclude that her doubts concerning the character of her acquaintance were expressed as late as at the meeting on Wednesday, January 20, and not on the previous Friday.

"_Q._ When did he say you must meet together? _A._ He tell me Wednesday next, at my master's house; and then we all [did] meet together, and that night I saw them all stand in the corner--all four of them--and the man stand behind me, and take hold of me, and make me stand still in the hall."

We now must relinquish doubt as to the meetings at the parsonage, for here we have distinct historical mention of a _circle_, which met "at Mr.

Parris's house" for the purpose of practically manifesting the skill and powers, not of learners, but of an expert in the wonders of "necromancy, magic, and especially of _Spiritualism_." This circle met, at five days'

notice, on the evening of January 20, 1692. A man, or "something like a man," was at the head of it, and five females, three of them at least embodied ones, were his a.s.sistants, or rather were reservoirs from whence he drew forces with which to experiment upon two little mediumistic girls.

If a club of women and girls sometimes met for such purposes as are alleged in foregoing citations,--and perhaps it did in a loose, irregular way,--we fancy that t.i.tuba's tutor was ever among them taking notes, scrutinizing their several properties, capabilities, and circ.u.mstances, and planning when and how to use them for most efficient accomplishment of his purposes. The fact that he was present as author and master spirit when the first act of the Salem Village tragedy was visibly manifested through the twitchings and contortions of two little girls, is distinctly shown by t.i.tuba's testimony. Therefore henceforth there can be neither historical nor philanthropic justice in imputing to the brains and wills of the little girls what a present and conscious clairvoyant witness imputes distinctly to one who looked "something like a man." Give to him--whoever he was--give to him his just dues; also bestow upon the girls neither censure nor praise for the help which their organisms and temperaments necessarily afforded him. This meeting of apparitions, be it noted and remembered, took place immediately _before_ the sickness of the children came on, and during its session, the children were pinched, and thus first became "afflicted ones." On that Wednesday night "Abigail first became ill."

"_Q._ Where was your master then? _A._ In _the other room_. _Q._ What time of night? _A._ A little before prayer-time. _Q._ What did this man say to you when he took hold of you? _A._ He say, Go into _the other room_ and see the children, and do hurt to them and pinch them. And then I went in and would not hurt them a good while; I would not hurt Betty; I loved Betty; but they haul me, and make me pinch Betty, and the next Abigail; and then quickly went away altogether a[fter] I had pinch them. _Q._ Did you go into that room in your own person, and all the rest? _A._ Yes; and my master did not see us, for they would not let my master see."

Mr. Parris and the children seem from the above to have been in the same apartment that evening, for t.i.tuba states that he was "in the other room,"

and her dictator said to her, "Go into the other room," and hurt the children. That the master of the house was present with his daughter and niece then, may be indicated also in the statement that "they would not let my master see;" for this implies that they were in his presence, though invisible. If she went to the room in her physical form--which is not stated, and is not probable--though she did go there in her "own _person_," the others went only as spirits or as apparitions; and they did not so enrobe or materialize themselves as to be visible by outward eyes, and therefore did not become visible to Mr. Parris--they "would not let"

him see. The first infliction upon the children, therefore, was made in his very presence, but by invisible hands--spirit hands or apparitional hands--touching the spirit forms of the mediumistic little girls, and through their own inner forms reaching, paining, and convulsing their physical bodies. It is interesting to note that because t.i.tuba "loved Betty," she was able to resist the pressure upon her "a good while;" but her feeble powers were incompetent to oppose unyielding and effectual resistance to the strong will of the producer of painful experiences.

"_Q._ Did you go with the company? _A._ No. I staid, and the man staid with me. _Q._ What did he then to you? _A._ He tell me my master go to prayer, and he read in book, and he ask me what I remember: but don't you remember anything."

This account fails to furnish any very conclusive evidence that either of the four other women was on that occasion consciously present with t.i.tuba and the man; it need only indicate the probability that he drew properties from each of them, wherever located, whether in the Village, in Boston, or elsewhere, which enabled him to present their apparitions to t.i.tuba as helpers, and to effect rapport with and get power over the children. When his immediate purpose had been accomplished, no one but the man could be seen by her. He perhaps left the female apparitions to dissolve when his further need of their properties ceased. There is no evidence that Good and Osburn were conscious of being present where t.i.tuba saw them, and therefore the other two female forms may have been purely apparitional--mental fabrics of "the man." But important points are clear.

The man's controlling will, and subjugated t.i.tuba's conscious self, were there.

"_Q._ Did he ask you no more but the first time to serve him? Or the second time? _A._ Yes, he ask me again if I serve him six years; and he come the next time and show me a book. _Q._ And when would he come then?

_A._ The next Friday, and showed me a book in the daytime, betimes in the morning. _Q._ And what book did he bring, a great or little book? _A._ He did not show it me, nor would not, but had it in his pocket. _Q._ Did he not make you write your name? _A._ No, not yet, for my mistress called me into the other room. _Q._ What did he say you must do in that book? _A._ He said write and put my name to it. _Q._ Did you write? _A._ Yes, once, I made a mark in the book, and made it with red like blood. _Q._ Did he get it out of your body? _A._ He said he must get it out. The next time he come again, he gave me a pin tied in a stick to do it with; but he no let me blood with it as yet, but intended another time when he came again.

_Q._ Did you see any other marks in his book? _A._ Yes, a great many; some marks red, some yellow; he opened his book, and a great many marks in it.

_Q._ Did he tell you the names of them? _A._ Yes, of two; no more: Good and Osburn; and he say they made them marks in that book, and he showed them me. _Q._ How many marks do you think there was? _A._ Nine. _Q._ Did they write their names? _A._ They made marks. Goody Good said she made her mark, but Goody Osburn would not tell. She was cross to me. _Q._ When did Good tell you she set her hand to the book? _A._ The same day I came hither to prison. _Q._ Did you see the man that morning? _A._ Yes, a little in the morning, and he tell me the magistrates come up to examine me. _Q._ What did he say you must say? _A._ He tell me tell nothing; if I did, he would cut my head off."

The questions relating to the book and signatures were based on, and made important by, then prevalent belief that one's signature in the devil's book proved the signing of a covenant to be henceforth his servant.

t.i.tuba's statement that she had seen therein Sarah Good's signature in her own blood, well might be then deemed strong evidence that Mrs. Good was a witch, and was guilty of witchcraft. But we doubt whether the witness had any conception of the fatal import of her statement. Her testimony that Goody Osburn was cross to her, while amusing, is also suggestive of the deep question whether even an apparition, produced by use of unconscious elements drawn from a human system, could or would be so permeated with the existing mental and emotional moods of the person from whom they were drawn as to cause those moods to be perceived and felt by those who might see, and receive influences from, the apparition. "The man" told her that the magistrates had come or were coming to examine her. She might have known this already, and might not. Be that as it may, on the morning of her examination A SPIRIT spoke to her. His counsel was, that she should say nothing. This advice seems wise. But it was not very "cunning" in her to repeat it, and make known its source "in presence of Authority."

Willing or not she was there constrained to speak out. Robert Calef, in "More Wonders of the Invisible World," reports her as saying, "that her master did beat her and otherwise abuse her to make her confess and accuse (such as he called) her sister witches, and that whatsoever she said by way of confessing, or accusing others, was the effect of such usage."

"_Q._ Tell us true; how many women do you use to come when you ride abroad? _A._ Four of them; these two, Osburn and Good, and those two strangers. _Q._ You say there was nine. Did he tell you who they were?

_A._ No, he no let me see, but he tell me I should see them the next time.

_Q._ What sights did you see? _A._ I see a man, a dog, a hog, and two cats, a black and red, and the strange monster was...o...b..rn's that I mentioned before; this was the hairy imp. The man would give it to me, but I would not have it. _Q._ Did he show you in the book which was...o...b..rn's and which was Good's mark? _A._ Yes, I see their marks. _Q._ But did he tell you the names of the other? _A._ No, sir. _Q._ And what did he say to you when you made your mark? _A._ He said, Serve me; and always serve me.

The man with the two women came from Boston. _Q._ How many times did you go to Boston? _A._ I was going and then came back again. I never was at Boston. _Q._ Who came back with you again? _A._ The man came back with me, and the women go away; I was not willing to go. _Q._ How far did you go--to what town? _A._ I never went to any town. I see no trees, no town.

_Q._ Did he tell you where the nine lived? _A._ Yes; some in Boston and some here in this town, but he would not tell me who they were."

We have now presented the full text of t.i.tuba's testimony as recorded by Corwin and printed by Drake. Severed from the leading and jumbled questions which drew it forth, and reduced to a simple narrative, her statement would in substance be nearly as follows:--

Something like a man came to me just as I was going to sleep the Friday night before Abigail was taken ill, six weeks and a little more ago, who then told me that he was G.o.d, that I must believe him, and that if I would serve him six years he would give me many fine things. He said there must be a meeting at my master's house the next Wednesday, and on the evening of that day he and four women came there. Then I told him I could not believe that he was G.o.d, and proposed to go and ask Mr. Parris what he thought on that point; but the man held me back. They forced me against my will and my love for Betty to pinch the children; we did pinch them. That was the first night that Abigail was sick. Sometimes I saw the appearances of dogs, cats, birds, hogs, wolves, and a nondescript animal, some of whom spoke to me, and talked like the man. Yesterday, when I was in the lean-to chamber, I saw a thing like a man,--the same that I had seen before,--who asked me to serve him; and last night, when I was washing the room, the man and the four women all came again, and wanted me to hurt the children; and we all went up to Mr. Thomas Putnam's, and hurt Ann, and cut her with a knife. I went to the Hubbard girl once, and pinched her, and once the man brought her over to me, and I pinched her; but I was not there when they say I was, though it may be that the man sent my apparition over there then without my knowing it. I once saw what looked like a wolf go out from Mrs. Good and run to the Hubbard girl. How we travel I don't know; we go up in the air, and we are instantly at the place we intend to go to; we see no trees, no roads. The man brings cats or other things to me, and I pinch them; and by doing so the girls are pinched. Sometimes I can see these things for a while, and then instantly become blind to them. This morning the man came and told me the magistrates had come to examine me.

Such are the princ.i.p.al points in t.i.tuba's account of the origin and author of the disturbance or "amazing feats" at Mr. Parris's house. In the main, they are plain, direct, and seemingly true. They teach as clearly as words ever taught anything, that "something like a man"--"a tall man with white hair," dressed in "serge coat"--came and forced t.i.tuba to pinch the children at the very time when one of them was first taken sick. They teach also that the same man appeared to t.i.tuba several times, and was with her on the day of her examination. The spiritual source of the first physical manifestations which generated the great troubles at Salem Village is thus set forth with such clearness as will command credence in future ages, even if it shall fail to do so in this Sadducean generation.

As before stated, another record of t.i.tuba's testimony was made by Ezekiel Cheever, which is much less ample and particular than the one above presented. It omits entirely several very instructive and important parts--especially those which make known t.i.tuba's earlier interviews with "the man;" those which fix the exact time when he first came to her; the exact time when Abigail was taken ill; and, more important still, those parts which describe the a.s.semblage of spirits at Mr. Parris's house, and their deliberate inflictions of pains upon the children at the very time when their disordered conditions came upon them.

Upham, by using Cheever's instead of the other account, failed to adduce several vastly important historic facts; the special facts which are essential to a fair presentation of the origin and nature of _Salem_ witchcraft. He nowhere recognizes the probably acute intellect, strong powers, persistent action, and inspiring presence of the _tall man with white hair and in serge coat_. Omitting these, he has but given us Hamlet with Hamlet left out. And this, too, not in ignorance, for he had seen Corwin's ma.n.u.script, which made clearly manifest the presence and doings of one spirit-personage especially, and taught many other facts that were not reconcilable with his theory.

The tall man with white hair who visited t.i.tuba on the evening of January 15, 1692, has such obvious and important connection with, and influence over, all the ostensible actors in the scenes which former witchcraft historians have depicted, as may revolutionize their theories, and teach the world that those expounders never traced their subject down to its genuine base; that they built, partly at least, upon the sands of either ignorance or misconception of the nature and actual source of what they discussed.

There are some important differences in the two records of t.i.tuba's testimony, even where the words and facts must have been the same. The following parallel pa.s.sages present quite differing reports of what she said concerning her own knowledge of the devil:--

_Cheever._ _Corwin._

"Why do you hurt these "Why do you hurt these children?" "I do not hurt poor children? what harm them." "Who is it then?" have they done unto you?"

"The devil, for aught I "They do no harm to me.

know." "Did you ever I no hurt them at all."