The heathen’s Christmas day. Methinks she pines for home in Casco Bay and such Papist celebration as a-wassailing, though begging at our neighbors is sure the mark of the Devill. At the lesson with Teacher Noyes, Alice wept that the birth of our Lord was not read in verse, and some struggle goes on in her soul. I am much displeased by the constant presence of the girls in our home or to find Alice about at the Parris house. Something wicked in the air.
With a frantic guttural grunt, Alice waved her arms and signaled the old man to stop. Though tempted by the other red flags taped in the journal, he respected her wishes and closed the book, keeping his finger embedded to mark his place. Fishing two more papers from the archives, Alice handed one each to the other women. They knew at once their parts, and Jane began, giving voice to the Salem girl.
Salem Village
14 Feb. 1692
Loving Sister,
Much has happened since last I wrote thee at Christmas day. The Indian woman Tituba has shewn me what has become of my dear child. She took a green-colored glass and covered a lock of hair that I had saved from it and peering through she could divine that the babe is in heaven with our father and two brothers, despite that I have not baptized it. My sorrow lifted at this sign, and I do not care what Arts were invoked, for she has comforted the grieving and is known to heal the sick of those possessed by sadness.
Young Betty Parris, whom I have written thee, has most recently been struck afflicted with a strange malady that spread to her cousin Abigail who stays with her in the minister’s home. The girls have been beset with aches of no cause nor cure, disturbances that visit in the night, and frights that come in the day. The physician has come and says that they are under an evil hand, and some say BEWITCHED. Tituba had them take some of their urine and mix it with rye meal and a hen’s egg, and baked it over a fire to make a witch cake to see if the poison in the girls could be so evinced in their little dog, Nick, and it did gobble the cake in two bites and was watched for signs of the devil’s plague. But, Sister, it did not dye or so much as howl in pain and shewed nothing as though every morning it broke the fast with such a witches’ cake. When the Elders of the village learned of this, they made first to accuse the Indian woman who many have long spoken of amongst themselves as being an odd sort of chick, and the girls, too, began to complain that Tituba did visit them in spirit when she was not there. In the night, her apparition does afflict them and pinch their arms and legs, that she did prick them with iron needles and torment them by twisting and biting their arms and necks and legs. Little Betty Parris was struck dumb, her throat seized and mouth stopped, and Abigail her cousin was wracked with mysterious pains, much like in all things that John Goodwin’s children sufferen in Boston three year ago, which we all have heard of, and the torture they endured at the hands of Satan. Some others in the village were called to give their advice, and they, too, conclude the girls struck by devils.
Two other girls have been so afflicted, Elizabeth Hubbard, near mine own age, and Ann Putnam, the little girl of Thomas Putnam, who Mr. Bonham says hath grievance against half the town. I am friend to all these girls, and to the Indian woman, and am sore afraid of what may come. Keep us in your prayers.
Your loving sister,
Alice When Jane had finished, Dolly began at once to read Sarah’s reply: Casco Bay
1 March 1692
Dearest Alice,
Your letters and the news that travel the roads of New-England do send a chill thru my bones. First, you should always know that God brings these short-lived children straight unto His breast, no matter if baptized or no, and I do not hold with the Church teaching of any kind that says otherwise of the Innocent. There is no need to consult conjurers or trust cheap Tricks or false Divinations. No one can see the future or guess what is to come. Though I daresay your dalliance with these girls and simple Maids will come to no good and, I, too, have heard of the Goodwin case and others so afflicted, for I have seen often enough the Fits and Seizures some poor souls are stricken by, and there are a thousand diseases and ailments we know not the cause. But I am not convinced such maladies are the work of the Devil, for if he could do as much to one, would not Satan afflict every Innocent?
You would do well to shun the Company of your friends and steer wide of these girls, who if they are not all suddenly strick by the same cause, may well be spreading childishness and pretense. Do not fall into such foolhardy games. Stay away, stay away, and trust your husband over these girls. I keep you in my daily prayers.
Yours as God wishes,