agnifying his office, he
immediately began making a great stir in Salem and in the country round
about. Two magistrates were summoned. With them came a crowd, and a
court was held at the meeting-house. The scenes which then took place
would have been the richest of farces had they not led to events so
tragical. The possessed went into spasms at the approach of those
charged with witchcraft, and when the poor old men and women attempted
to attest their innocence they were overwhelmed with outcries by the
possessed, quotations of Scripture by the ministers, and denunciations
by the mob. One especially--Ann Putnam, a child of twelve years--showed
great precocity and played a striking part in the performances. The
mania spread to other children; and two or three married women also,
seeing the great attention paid to the afflicted, and influenced by that
epidemic of morbid imitation which science now recognises in all such
cases, soon became similarly afflicted, and in their turn made charges
against various persons. The Indian woman was flogged by her master, Mr.
Parris, until she confessed relations with Satan; and others were forced
or deluded into confession. These hysterical confessions, the results
of unbearable torture, or the reminiscences of dreams, which had been
prompted by the witch legends and sermons of the period, embraced such
facts as flying through the air to witch gatherings, partaking of witch
sacraments, signing a book presented by the devil, and submitting to
Satanic baptism. The possessed had begun with charging their possession
upon poor and vagrant old women, but ere long, emboldened by their
success, they attacked higher game, struck at some of the foremost
people of the region, and did not cease until several of these were
condemned to death, and every man, woman, and child brought under a
reign of terror. Many fled outright, and one of the foremost citizens of
Salem went constantly armed, and kept one of his horses saddled in the
stable to flee if brought under accusation. The hysterical ingenuity of
the possessed women grew with their success. They insisted that they saw
devils prompting the accused to defend themselves in court. Did one of
the accused clasp her hands in despair, the possessed clasped theirs;
did the accused, in appealing to Heaven, make any gesture, the possessed
simultaneously imitated it; did the accused in weariness drop her head,
the possessed dropped theirs, and declared that