Part 21

"_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 God. 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 God, 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 God himself (as John the Revelator did that a prophet returning from the spirit spheres and appearing to him was God), and her stating again that at the first interview she told him she could not believe that he was God, 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 Godship. 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 assistants, 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 Tituba's tutor was ever among them taking notes, scrutinizing their several properties, capabilities, and circumstances, 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 Tituba'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 Tituba 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 Tituba "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 Tituba 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 Tituba 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 Tituba 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 Tituba'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. Tituba'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 Osburn'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 Osburn'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 Tituba'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 God, 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 God, 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 principal points in Tituba'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 Tituba 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 Tituba 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 Tituba'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 Tituba'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 assemblage 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 manuscript, 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 Tituba 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 Tituba's testimony, even where the words and facts must have been the same. The following parallel passages 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." see the devil?" "The "Why have you done it?" devil come to me, and bid "I have done nothing. I me serve him." can't tell when the devil works." "What! Doth the devil tell you that he hurts them?" "No, he tells me nothing."

Thus Cheever makes her say that "_the devil_" came to her and bade her serve him, while Corwin, reporting the same part of the examination makes her say that "_the devil_" never told her anything. Further on, Corwin makes her say, "A thing like a man told me serve him." Cheever says the _devil_ told her thus. Tituba herself, and all the clairvoyants of that age, preserved a distinction between the devil and the personages they saw, heard, and talked with. But the recorders of their testimony, failing to observe this distinction, often perverted the evidence. A comparison of the two records throughout suggests the probability that Corwin, who is most minute, gives the questions and answers in their original order and sequences much more nearly than does Cheever, whose record, when compared with the other, appears in some parts to be summings-up of several minutes' talks into a brief sentence or two, and also gives evidence of his taking it as obvious fact, that Tituba's "thing like a man" was the veritable devil. This is probable, because his minutes make her say "_the devil_ come to me, and bid me serve him," at a point in the examination where, according to Corwin, she said _the devil_ "tells me nothing." Thus the appearance is, that Cheever carried back in time words which _she_ subsequently applied to her "thing like a man," and on his own authority--not hers--applied them to "the devil." In Corwin's account, her conception of the separate individualities of "the devil" and her "thing like a man" reveals itself clearly, and is nowhere contravened. But Cheever, almost at the commencement of his record, and at a point where she, according to Corwin, said the devil told her _nothing_, reports her as then applying to _the devil_ what she a few minutes or hours afterward applied to her "thing like a man." According to the more full and the more trustworthy record, she at no time confessed to any interview with "_The Devil_," though she did freely to many conversations with "the man." These facts are important, very interesting, and instructive. As we interpret them now, they indicate that Tituba never confessed to any intercommunings with the devil, never charged Mrs. Good, Mrs. Osburn, or any one else with being familiar with his Sable Majesty, but only with "a tall man, with white hair," wearing a "serge coat."

The court before whom she was questioned, and the people around, generally, no doubt, deemed her "thing like a man" to be the veritable devil, as Cheever did. But the more exact recorder of her words furnishes good grounds for belief that Tituba herself conceived otherwise. She who was gifted with faculties which let her see, hear, and feel the actors, apprehended that one of them at least was a disembodied human spirit; while the spiritually blind, but physically and logically keen-eyed ones around her, wrongfully inferred the presence of their Malignant and Mighty Devil with her.

Some dates fixed by this witness in Corwin's account, and entirely omitted in Cheever's, are interesting and somewhat important. We learn what, so far as we know, escaped the notice of all former searchers, that it was on Friday, January 15, just as she was going to sleep, that "one like a man" came to her and appointed a meeting there at Mr. Parris's house, to take place on the next Wednesday evening. Accordingly, on Wednesday evening, January 20, "the man" and four women came, and then designedly and deliberately pushed Tituba on, and made her pinch the daughter and niece of Mr. Parris; and _on that very evening_, Abigail, at least, if not Betty also, "_was first taken ill_." Here is an important and significant coincidence. Just at the time when the illness was developed, spirits, in compliance with a previous arrangement, were there present at work seeking to produce just such a result as was manifested. Did they, or did other agencies, produce the mysterious disorders which seemed to devil-dreading beholders like diabolical obsessions? In view of all the facts, it is plain that a spirit or spirits caused the children to suffer.