The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol. 1 of 3)Mather, Cotton
History
The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol. 1 of 3)
Mather, Cotton
Witchcraft -- New England
_III._ As for _Elizabeth_ and _Deborah Pacy_, one Aged Eleven Years,
the other Nine; the elder, being in Court, was made utterly senseless,
during all the time of the Trial: or at least speechless. By the
direction of the Judge _Duny_ was privately brought to _Elizabeth
Pacy_, and she touched her Hand: whereupon the Child, without so much
as seeing her, suddenly leap'd up and flew upon the Prisoner; the
younger was too ill, to be brought unto the Assizes. But _Samuel Pacy_,
their Father, testifi'd, that his Daughter _Deborah_ was taken with
a sudden Lameness; and upon the grumbling of _Amy Duny_, for being
denied something, where this Child was then [57] sitting, the Child
was taken with an extream pain in her stomach, like the pricking of
Pins; and shrieking at a dreadful manner, like a Whelp, rather than a
Rational Creature. The Physicians could not conjecture the cause of the
Distemper; but _Amy Duny_ being a Woman of ill Fame, and the Child in
Fits crying out of _Amy Duny_, as affrighting her with the Apparition
of her Person, the Deponent suspected her, and procured her to be set
in the stocks. While she was there, she said in the hearing of Two
Witnesses, _Mr._ Pacy _keeps a great stir about his Child, but let him
stay till he has done as much by his Children, as I have done by mine:_
And being Asked, What she had done to her Children, she Answered, _She
had been fain to open her Childs Mouth with a Tap to give it Victuals_.
The Deponent added, that within Two Days, the Fits of his Daughters
were such, that they could not preserve either Life or Breath, without
the help of a Tap. And that the Children Cry'd out of _Amy Duny_, and
of _Rose Cullender_, as afflicting them with their Apparitions.
_IV._ The Fits of the Children were various. They would sometimes be
Lame on one side; sometimes on t'other. Sometimes very sore; sometimes
restored unto their Limbs, and then Deaf, or Blind, or Dumb, for a long
while together. Upon the Recovery of their Speech, they would Cough
extreamly; and with much Flegm, they would bring up Crooked Pins; and
one time, a Two-penny Nail, with a very broad Head. Commonly at the
end of every Fit, they would cast up a Pin. When the Children Read,
they could not pronounce the Name of, _Lord_, or _Jesus_, or _Christ_,
but would fall into Fits; and say, Amy Duny _says, I must not use that
Name_. When they came to the Name of _Satan_, or _Devil_, they would
clap their Fingers on the Book, crying out, _This bites, but it makes
me speak right well!_ The Children in their Fits would often Cry out,
_There stands_ Amy Duny, or _Rose Cullender;_ and they would afterwards
relate, _That these Witches appearing before them, threatned them, that
if they told what they saw or heard, they would Torment them ten times
more than ever they did before_.
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