John Atkinson also testified to the bewitching of cattle by Martin,
and Bernard Peache said, "that Being in Bed, on a Lord's Day night, he
heard a Scrubbing at the Window, whereat he then saw Susanna Martin
come in and jumped down upon the floor." She took hold of witness's
feet and drew his body up into a heap. For two hours he could neither
speak nor stir, but at length he caught her hand and bit three of her
fingers to the bone. Whereupon she went down the stairs and out of the
door. Snow was lying on the ground and drops of blood were found upon
it, as also in a bucket on the left-hand side of the door. The marks
of her two feet were found just without the threshold, but there was
no sign of them any further off. Another accusation against Susanna
was that after a long walk her feet were dry when other people's would
have been wet. John Kembal had wished to buy a puppy of Martin, but as
she would not let him choose the one he wanted he bought one elsewhere.
"Whereupon Susanna Martin replied, 'If I live I'll give him puppies
enough.' Within a few days after this, Kembal coming out of the woods,
there arose a little cloud in the N.W. and Kembal immediately felt a
force upon him that made him not able to avoid running upon the stumps
of trees that were before him, albeit that he had a broad plain cartway
before him; but though he had his ax also upon his shoulder to endanger
him in his Falls, he could not forbear going out of his way to tumble
over them. When he came below the Meeting House there appeared unto him
a little thing like a Puppy of a Darkish colour, and it shot Backwards
and forwards between his Leggs. He had the courage to use all possible
Endeavours of cutting it with his ax; but he could not Hit it; the
Puppy gave a jump from him and went, as to him it seem'd, into the
ground. Going a little further, there appeared unto him a Black Puppy,
somewhat bigger than the first, but as Black as a Cole. Its motions
were quicker than those of his ax; it flew at his Belly and away; then
at his Throat and over his Shoulder one way and then over his Shoulder
another. His heart now began to fail him and he thought the Dog would
have tore his Throat out. But he recovered himself and called upon God
in his Distress; and naming the Name of Jesus Christ, it vanished away
at once. The Deponent spoke not one word of these accidents for fear
of affrighting his wife. But the next morning Edmund Eliot going into
Martin's house, this woman asked him where Kembal was? He Replyed, 'At
home abed for aught he knew.' She returned, 'They say he was frighted
last night.' Eliot asked, 'With what?' She answered, 'With Puppies.'
Eliot asked when she heard of it, for he had heard nothing of it; she
rejoined, 'about the Town'; altho' Kembal had mentioned the Matter to
no creature Living."
Susanna could do nothing against such evidence as this. She was found
"Guilty" and executed on July 19th.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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