We enter a distinct protest against stigmatizing such testimony as "incoherent nonsense." In response to a command to tell _how_ the mysterious inflictions were brought about, this untaught, ignorant woman, calmly and with much distinctness, indicated four or five modes by which psychologic forces were brought to bear upon mediumistic subjects. She had seen the processes, and, in her simple way, told what she had learned by personal observation and experience; and thus she helps us, at this day, to fathom and expound the mysteries of witchcraft more effectually than do all her cotemporaries. Notwithstanding her limited command of language, her statements were about as distinct and instructive as any one then could have made upon such a topic; but the devil-warped public mind of that day was unable to see the literal import of her testimony, or to turn her knowledge to good account.
Two other women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, names previously mentioned, were, on the same March 1, 1692, under examination as co-operators with Tituba in practicing witchcraft.
"_Q._ Did you ever go with these women? _A._ They are very strong, and pull me, and make me go with them. _Q._ Where did you go? _A._ Up to Mr. Putnam's, and make me hurt the child. _Q._ Who did make you go? _A._ A man that is very strong, and these two women, Good and Osburn; but I am sorry. _Q._ How did you go? What do you ride upon? _A._ I ride upon a stick or pole, and Good and Osburn behind me; we ride taking hold of one another; don't know _how_ we go, for I saw no trees nor path, but was presently there when we were up."
The child above referred to was Ann Putnam, daughter, twelve years old, of Thomas and Ann Putnam, who resided from two to three miles north-west from the parsonage. This girl, Ann, was one of the excessively bewitched; that is, was one of the most impressible and mediumistic members of _The Circle_. Tituba and her two fellow-prisoners had, either all as spirits, or she as a conscious spirit and the other two as apparitions, visited that child at her home; and, according to her own apprehension, the three women all mounted one pole, rose up into the air, and were forthwith at Mr. Putnam's, having noticed neither path nor trees on the way. No reader will apprehend that Tituba's physical body then left the house of Mr. Parris and went off two miles or more, on a winter's night, to Mr. (Thomas) Putnam's house. She says that they were "presently [instantly] there." It was only her spirit form--_thought_ form--that went riding upon a pole above all woods and paths. But why to Thomas Putnam's? Probably because his wife and his daughter, as subsequent events showed, were both intensely mediumistic or susceptible to influence by _thought_ beings; they were persons upon whom such beings could work efficiently; and that was the special reason, probably, for a visit to them. "The man" may well be presumed to have possessed perceptive powers that could determine with much accuracy what persons in all the region round about possessed the constitutional properties and the surroundings which would permit them to become pliable and serviceable implements in executing any scheme he had devised. Subsequent events proved that he selected and used such as enabled him, through intense human agony and bloodshed, to break in pieces and abolish a most cramping and enslaving creed devil-ward, which, like a horrid and disabling nightmare, had for centuries been depressing and agonizing all Christendom. Whatever was his design, his selection of instrumentalities facilitated the out-working of a broad and happy emancipation from vast mental evil. It abolished prosecutions for witchcraft throughout both America and Europe.