Goody E---- testified that she and two others rode from Andover to a
witch-meeting on a broomstick, and the stick broke and she fell and was
still lame from it,--when her daughter testified that she rode on the
same stick, and confirmed all the details of the casualty,--when the
grand-daughter confirmed them also, and added, that she rode on another
stick, and they all signed Satan's book together,--when W. B----, aged
forty, testified that Satan assembled a hundred fine blades near Salem
Meeting-House, and the trumpet sounded, and bread and wine were carried
round, and Satan was like a black sheep, and wished them to destroy the
minister's house, (by thunder probably,) and set up his kingdom, and
"then all would be well,"--when one woman summoned her three children
and some neighbors and a sister and a domestic, who all testified that
she was a witch and so were they all,--what could be done for such
prisoners by judge or jury, in an age which held witchcraft a certainty?
It was only the rapid rate of increase which finally stopped the
convictions.

One thing is certain, that this strange delusion, a semi-comedy to
us,--though part of the phenomena may find their solution in laws not
yet unfolded,--was the sternest of tragedies to those who lived in it.
Conceive, for an instant, of believing in the visible presence and
labors of the arch-fiend in a peaceful community. Yet from the bottom of
their souls these strong men held to it, and they waged a hand-to-hand
fight with Satan all their days. Very inconveniently the opponent
sometimes dealt his blows, withal. Surely it could not be a pleasant
thing to a sound divine, just launched upon his seventeen-headed
discourse, to have a girl with wild eyes and her hair about her ears
start up and exclaim, "Parson, your text is too long,"--or worse yet,
"Parson, your sermon is too long,"--or most embarrassing of all,
"There's a great yellow bird sitting on the parson's hat in the pulpit."