that so soon as the afflicted came in sight of the accused, they were
immediately cast into their fits. Yea, though the accused were among the
crowd of people, unknown to the sufferers, yet on the first view they
were struck down; which was observed in a child of four or five years of
age, when it was apprehended that so many as she would look upon, either
directly or by turning her head, were immediately struck into their
fits.

"An iron spindle of a woolen wheel, being taken very strangely out of an
house at Salem Village, was used by a spectre as an instrument of
torture to a sufferer, not being discernible to the standers by until it
was by the said sufferer snatched out of the spectre's hand, and then it
did immediately appear to the persons present to be really the same iron
spindle.

"Sometimes, in their fits, they have had their tongues drawn out of
their mouths to a fearful length, their heads turned very much over
their shoulders, and while they have been so strained in their fits, and
had their arms and legs, etc., wrested as if they were quite dislocated,
the blood hath gushed plentifully out of their mouths for a considerable
time together; which some, that they might be satisfied that it was real
blood, took upon their finger and rubbed on their other hand. I saw
several together thus violently strained and bleeding in their fits, to
my very great astonishment that my fellow mortals should be so
grievously distressed by the invisible powers of darkness. For certainly
all considerate persons who beheld these things must needs be convinced
their motions in their fits were preternatural and involuntary, both as
to the manner, which was so strange, as a well person could not (at
least without great pain) screw their bodies into; and as to the
violence, also, they were preternatural motions, being much beyond the