The first step toward relief was to learn who it was that had stricken
them; and the readiest means that occurred was to ask this question of
the children themselves. At first, they named no names, or what they
said was not disclosed; but there was soon an end of all such delicacy.
The first symptoms had occurred in November, 1691; and the first public
examination of witches took place on the 1st of March following. We
shall cite as few of the cases as will suffice for our purpose; for
they are exceedingly painful; and there is something more instructive
for us in the spectacle of the consequences, and in the suggestions of
the story, than in the scenery of persecution and murder.
In the first group of accused persons was one Sarah Good, a weak,
ignorant, poor, despised woman, whose equally weak and ignorant husband
had forsaken her, and left her to the mercy of evil tongues. He had
called her an enemy to all good, and had said that if she was not
a witch, he feared she would be one shortly. Her assertions under
examination were that she knew nothing about the matter; that she had
hurt nobody, nor employed anybody to hurt another; that she served
God; and that the God she served was He who made heaven and earth. It
appears, however, that she believed in the reality of the "affliction;"
for she ended by accusing a fellow-prisoner of having hurt the children.
The report of the examination, noted at the time by two of the heads of
the congregation, is inane and silly beyond belief; yet the celebration
was unutterably solemn to the assembled crowd of fellow-worshipers; and
it sealed the doom of the community, in regard to peace and good repute.