Devil; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- United States
Then we have the story of an extremely uncomfortable house ‘at Welton,
within a mile of Daventry,’ where the younger daughter, ten years of age,
took to vomiting three gallons of water in less than three days, and
afterwards stones and coals, in number about five hundred. ‘Some weighed a
quarter of a Pound, and were so big, as they had enough to do to get them
out of her mouth.... This Vomiting lasted about a Fortnight, and hath
Witnesses good store.’ Things got rather lively in the house, and were
thrown about; the Bible, being laid upon a bed, was hid in another bed;
the things from the parlour were turned out into the hall; their milk was
spilt, their beer mixed with sand, and their salt with bran. The man of
the house, one Moses Cowley, seems to have had an especially bad time of
it. ‘A knife rose up in the Window, and flew at him, hitting him with the
Haft;’ and, to make the place more uncomfortable, ‘Every day abundance of
Stones were thrown about the House, which broke the windows, and hit the
people.’ Probably the Devil was disappointed, inasmuch as ‘they were the
less troubled because, all this while no hurt was done to their Persons,’
and after a while the persecution ceased, with the exception of ‘great
Knockings, and cruel Noise.’
Then there is ‘The Relation of _James Sherring_, taken concerning the
matter at old _Gast’s_ House of _Little Burton_.
‘The first Night I was there with _Hugh Mellmore_ and _Edward Smith_, they
heard, as it were, the Washing in Water over their Heads. Then, taking a
Candle, and going up Stairs, there was a wet Cloth thrown at them, but it
fell on the Stairs. They going up farther, there was another thrown as
before. And, when they were come up into the Chamber, there stood a Bowl
of Water, some of it sprinkled over, and the Water looked white, as if
there had been Soap used in it. The Bowl, just before, was in the Kitchin,
and could not be carried up but through the Room where they were. The next
thing that they heard, the same Night, was a terrible noise, as if it had
been a clap of Thunder, and, shortly after, they heard great scratching
about the Bed stead, and, after that, great Knocking with a Hammer against
the Beds-head, so that the two Maids that were in the Bed cryed out for
Help. Then they ran up the stairs, and there lay the Hammer on the bed,
and on the Beds-head there were near a Thousand Prints of the Hammer,
which the violent Strokes had made. The maids said they were scratcht and
pincht with a Hand that was put into the Bed, which had exceeding long
Nails. They said the Hammer was lockt up fast in the Cup board when they
went to Bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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