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Thaumatographia Pneumatica
Cotton Mather
Introduction | The First Example | The Second Example | The Third Example | The Fourth Example | The Fifth Example | The Sixth Example | The Seventh Example | The Eighth Example | The Ninth Example | The Tenth Example | The Eleventh Example | The Twelfth Example | The Thirteenth Example | The Fourteenth Example | An Appendix
The Ninth Example
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
Part III
It was the eldest of these children that fell chiefly under my own observation. I took her home to my own family, partly out of compassion to her parents, but chiefly that I might be a critical eyewitness of things that would enable me to confute the sadducism of this debauched age. Here she continued well for some days, applying herself to actions of industry and piety, but [on] November 20, 1688, she cried out, "Ah, they have found me out!" and immediately she fell into her fits, wherein we often observed that she would cough up a ball, as big as a small egg, into the side of her windpipe, that would near choke her till, by stroaking and by drinking, it was again carried down. When I prayed in the room, first her hands were with a strong, tho' not even, force clapt upon her ears, and when her hands were, by force, pulled away, she cried out, "They make such a noise, I cannot hear a word!" She complained that Glover's chain was upon her leg and, assaying to go, her gait was exactly such as the chained witch had before she died. When her tortures passed over, still frolicks would succeed, wherein she would continue hours--yea, days together--talking, perhaps never wickedly but always wittily, beyond herself. And at certain provocations, her torments would renew upon her, till we had left off to give them. Yet she frequently told us in these frolicks that if she but might steal or be drunk she should be well immediately. She told us that she must go down to the bottom of our well (and we had much ado to hinder it), for they said their was [a] plate there and they would bring her up safely again. We wondered at this, for she had never heard of any plate there, and we ourselves, who had newly bought the house, were ignorant of it. But the former owner of the house, just then coming in, told us there had been [a] plate for many years lost at the bottom of the well. Moreover, one singular passion that frequently attended her was this: An invisible chain would be clapt about her, and she, in much pain and fear, [would] cry out when "They" put it on. Sometimes we could, with our hands, knock it off as it began to be fastened, but ordinarily, when it was on, she would be pulled out of her seat, with such violence, towards the fire, that it was as much as one or two of us could do to keep her out. Her eyes were not brought perpendicular to her feet, when she rose out of her seat, as the mechanism of an humane body requires in them that rise, but she was dragged wholly by other hands. And if we stamped on the hearth, just between her and the fire, she screamed out that by jarring the chain we hurt her. I may add that "They" put an unseen rope, with a cruel noose, about her neck, whereby she was choked until she was black in the face. And tho' it was got off before it had killed her, yet there were the red marks of it, and of a finger and a thumb near it, remaining to be seen for some while afterwards. Furthermore, not only upon her own looking into the Bible, but if anyone else in the room did, wholly unknown to her she would fall into unsufferable torments. A Quaker's book being brought her, she could quietly read whole pages of it, only the name of God and Christ she still skipped over, being unable to pronounce it, except sometimes, stammering a minute or two or more upon it. And when we urged her to tell what the word was that she missed, she would say, "I must not speak it; they say I must not. You know what it is: 'Tis G and O and D." But a book against Quakerism "They" would not allow her to meddle with. Such books as it might have been profitbale and edifying for her to read--and especially her catechisms -- if she did but offer to read a line in them she would be cast into hideous convulsions and be tost about the house like a football. But books of jests being shown her, she could read them well enough and have cunning descants upon them. Popish books "They" would not hinder her from reading, but "They" would from reading books against Popery. A book which pretends to prove that there are no witches was easily read by her -- only the names [of] devils and witches might not be uttered. A book which proves that there are witches, being exhibited unto her, she might not read it. And that expression in the story of Ann Cole, about running to the rock, always threw her into sore convulsions. Divers of these trials were made by many witnesses, but I, considering that there might be a snare in it, put a seasonable stop to this fanciful business. Only I could not but be amazed at one thing: A certain prayerbook being brought her, she not only could read it very well, but also did read a large part of it over, calling it her Bible, and putting a more than ordinary respect upon it. If she were going into her tortures, at the tender of this book she would recover herself to read it. Only when she came to the Lord's Prayer -- now and then occurring in that book -- she would have her eyes put out so that she must turn over a new leaf, and then she could read again. Whereas also there are scriptures in that book, she could read them there, but if any shewed her the very same scriptures in the Bible itself she would sooner die than read them, and she was likewise made unable to read the Psalms in an ancient metre, which this prayerbook had in the same volume with it. Besides these, there was another inexplicable thing in her condition. Every now and then an invisible horse would be brought unto her by those who she only called "Them" and her "company," upon the approach of which her eyes would still be closed up, for (said she), "They say I am a tell-tale and therefore they will not let me see them." Hereupon she would give a spring as one mounting an horse and, settling herself in a riding posture, she would, in her chair, be agitated as one sometimes ambling, sometimes trotting, and sometimes galloping very furiously. In these motions we could not perceive that she was moved by the stress of her feet upon the ground, for often she touched it not. When she had ridden a minute or two she would seem to be at a rendezvous with "Them" that were her "company," and there she would maintain a discourse with them, asking them many questions concerning herself (we gave her none of ours) and have answers from them, which indeed none but herself perceived. Then she would return and inform us how "They" did intend to handle her for a day or two afterwards and some other things that she inquired. Her horse would sometimes throw her with much violence, especially if anyone stabbed or cut the air under her. But she would briskly mount again and perform her fantastick journies, mostly in her chair. But sometimes she would be carried from her chair, out of one room, and into another, very oddly, in the posture of a riding woman. At length she pretended that her horse could ride up the stairs, and unto admiration she rode (that is, was tossed as one that rode) up the stairs. There then stood open the study of one belonging to the family, into which entering she stood immediately on her feet and cried out, "They are gone! They are gone! They say they cannot -- God won't let them come here!" Adding a reason for it which the owner of the study thought more ind than true. And she presently and perfectly came to herself so that her whole discourse and carriage was altered unto the greatest measure of sobriety and she sat reading of the Bible and other good books for a good part of the aternoon. Her affairs calling her anon to go down again, the daemons were, in a quarter of a minute, as bad upon her as before -- and her horse was waiting for her. Some then, to see whether there had not been a fallacy in what had newly happened, resolved for to have her up unto the study, where she had been at ease before. But she was then so strangely distorted that it was an extreme difficulty to drag her upstairs. The daemons would pull her out of the people's hands and make her heavier than perhaps three of herself. With incredible toil (tho' she kept screaming, "They say I must not go in!") she was pulled in, where she was no sooner got but she could stand on her feet and, with an altered note, say, "Now I am well!" She would be faint at first and say she "felt something to go out of her" (the noises whereof we sometimes heard, like those of a mouse), but in a minute or two she could apply herself to devotion and express herself with discretion as well as ever in her life. To satisfy some strangers, the experiment was divers times, with the same success, repeated, until my loathness to have anything done, like making a charm of the room, caused me to forbid the repitition of it. But enough of this.
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