Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred SubjectsUpham, Charles Wentworth
History
Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects
Upham, Charles Wentworth
Salem (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Witchcraft -- Massachusetts -- Salem -- History -- 17th century
"There then stood open the study of one belonging to the family, into
which, entering, she stood immediately on her feet, and cried out,
'They are gone! they are gone! They say that they cannot,—God won't let
'em come here!' adding a reason for it which the owner of the study
thought more kind than true; and she presently and perfectly came to
herself, so that her whole discourse and carriage was altered into the
greatest measure of sobriety."
Upon quitting the study, "the demons" would instantly again take hold
of her. Mather continues the statement, by saying that some persons,
wishing to try[i.458] the experiment, had her brought "up into the
study;" but he says that she at once became—
"so strangely distorted, that it was an extreme difficulty to drag her
up stairs. The demons would pull her out of the people's hands, and
make her heavier than, perhaps, three of herself. With incredible toil
(though she kept screaming, 'They say I must not go in'), she was
pulled in; where she was no sooner got, but she could stand on her
feet, and, with altered note, say, 'Now I am well.' She would be faint
at first, and say 'she felt something to go out of her' (the noises
whereof we sometimes heard like those of a mouse); but, in a minute or
two, she could apply herself to devotion. To satisfy some strangers,
the experiment was, divers times, with the same success, repeated,
until my lothness to have any thing done like making a charm of a room,
caused me to forbid the repetition of it."
Even in her most riotous proceedings, she kept her eye fixed upon the
doctor's weak point. When he called the family to prayers, she would
whistle and sing and yell to drown his voice, would strike him with her
fist, and try to kick him. But her hand or foot would always recoil
when within an inch or two of his body; thus giving the idea that there
was a sort of invisible coat of mail, of heavenly temper, and proof
against the assaults of the Devil, around his sacred person! After a
while, Dr. Mather concluded to prepare an account of these
extraordinary circumstances, wherewithal to entertain his congregation
in a sermon. She seemed to be quite displeased at the thought of his
making public the doings of her master, the Evil[i.459] One, attempted
to prevent his writing the intended sermon, and disturbed and
interrupted him in all manner of ways. For instance, she once knocked
at his study door, and said that "there was somebody down stairs that
would be glad to see him." He dropped his pen, and went down. Upon
entering the room, he found nobody there but the family. The next time
he met her, he undertook to chide her for having told him a falsehood.
She denied that she had told a falsehood. "Didn't you say," said he,
"that there was somebody down stairs that would be glad to see
me?"—"Well," she replied, with inimitable pertness, "is not Mrs. Mather
always glad to see you?"
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