Witch stories were a social entertainment, to the mingled fear and merriment of guests and the positive foreboding of children. Who even now among the older people has forgotten the crone lore of our grandmothers—how witches would seize a red-hot iron, glide into a heated oven, ride through the air on enchanted broomsticks, and how stalwart men would stalk through keyholes, supported and directed by Satanic power! It was believed that witches made an actual, deliberate, and formal compact with Satan. There were, however, two or three persons of learning and influence in the Province who (to their great credit, be it said) dared to oppose the doctrine of witches—the celebrated Rev. Samuel Willard, of the Old South Church, Boston,—Maj. Nathaniel Saltonstall, who declined a seat upon the bench rather than participate in the witch trials,—and Rev. John Higginson (son of Rev. Francis, the first minister of Salem), who was cautious and held himself aloof; for his conscience whispered he had gone too far against the Quakers. PEN PICTURE OF A WITCH HOME OF THE “DELUSION” The New England witch was supposed to be an old woman of attenuated form, somewhat bent; clothed in lively colors and ample skirts; having a darting and piercing eye, a head sporting disheveled hair and crowned with a sugar-loaf hat, a carlin’s cheek, a falcated chin bent to meet an aquiline nose, by both of which was formed a Neapolitan bay, her mouth in the background resembling Vesuvius in eruption; and riding an enchanted broomstick with a black cat as guide. Salem Village, the location of the hideous catastrophe, was the northern precinct of Salem; and when it was incorporated Danvers, its name became Danvers Center. Quite recently (1910) the trolley car company changed the name to Danvers Highlands, but in the steam car nomenclature it is Collins Street. From Town House Square in Salem to the Highlands a trolley ride costs a nickel; the distance is five miles, and every mile a pleasure. INGERSOLL AND HIS TAVERN REVS. BAILEY, BURROUGHS, LAWSON Nathaniel Ingersoll occupied the central location in the village; a man of industry and thrift; a licensed innkeeper, who sold liquor by the quart on Sunday; a kind of chief of police; managed the defenses against the Indians; a benevolent man, and was chosen deacon. His name does not figure in the witch trials, and the witches have left no records of the influence of his tavern in the results. The open plat of ground in front of his tavern was called Ingersoll’s Common. Farther up the street, at No. 5, is a plat of ground he gave for “a training field forever.” Capt. Dea. Jonathan Walcott was a neighbor, as was also Sergt. Thomas Putnam, parish clerk. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: DANVERS HIGHLANDS DANVERS CENTER _Old Salem Village_ 1. Locates the church there at present. 2. Locates the church of 1692.