[45] John Indian and his wife Tituba were slaves. In the mittimus
to the jail keeper at Boston, she is described as “an Indian woman
belonging to Samuel Parris of Salem village.” (Woodward’s _Records of
Salem Witchcraft_, vol. i. p. 15.) Calef (p. 19) says, “she lay in
jail till sold for her fees.” The Salem delusion had its origin in the
fetichism practised by these two ignorant Spanish-African slaves, whom
Mr. Parris probably obtained from the Barbadoes, where he was at one
time in business.