to mops, broomsticks, shovels, tongs, and all kinds of domestic weapons, for, unluckily, the great piece of ordnance, the goose-gun, was absent with its owner. Above all, a vigorous defence was made with that most potent of female weapons, the tongue; never did invaded hen-roost make a more vociferous outcry. It was all in vain! The house was sacked and plundered, fire was set to each room, and in a few moments its blaze shed a baleful light over the Tappan Sea."

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THE OLD WITCH HOUSE, SALEM

ESTHER SINGLETON

N the corner of Essex and North Streets, in Salem, there stands a house that attracts many visitors,

On the of al

though it is neither picturesque nor impressive. "The Old Witch House," however, appeals to the imagination, recalling one of the darkest chapters in the history of this country,—the witchcraft mania of the Seventeenth Century.

This belief, transplanted from the Old Country, flourished luxuriantly under the dark shadow of Puritanism. Although witchcraft was believed in throughout the Middle Ages, the witch-mania proper begins in 1484 when Innocent VIII. the sanction of the Church to the prosecugave tion of all who were believed to practice sorcery; and soon after this the famous Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer for Witches was drawn up by two German inquisitors and a clergyman of Constance. In this book witchcraft is described and a code for the trial of witches systematized. Fires for burning witches blazed in nearly every town on the Continent for nearly four centuries. In Germany the persecutions were frightful, and in Geneva five hundred persons were burned in three months in 1515-1516! The witch-mania was rampant in England and Scotland, where in the Seventeenth Century a horrible class called "witch finders" went from town to town, where, for the small fee of twenty shillings, they discovered witches, subjecting

innocent persons-the old, the young, the attractive and unattractive, the infirm and the ill, as well as the hale and hearty to most inane tests and cruel tortures till they confessed themselves bewitched. It is said that the greatest number of legal executions in England took place during the sitting of the Long Parliament (1640–1660), when three thousand persons were put to death. This figure, however, does not include those poor creatures who suffered death at the hands of the mob.

This witch-mania had, in great measure, abated at home when it broke out in the British Colonies in America. A few trials occurred in Maryland and Virginia and a few persons were hung in Connecticut; but Massachusetts was the soil most favourable to the growth of this terrible delusion. Salem has the distinction of having sent the greatest number of victims to their unjust doom. The town became panic-stricken and no one was safe. An historian writes:

"So violent was the popular prejudice against every appearance of witchcraft, that it was deemed meritorious to denounce all that gave the least reason for suspicion. Every child and every gossip was prepared to recognize a witch, and no one could be certain of personal safety. As the infatuation increased, many of the most reputable females, and several males also, were apprehended and committed to prison. There is good reason to believe that, in some instances, the vicious and abandoned availed themselves of gratifying their corrupt passions of envy, malice and revenge."