That answer renders it probable that previous to the winter then passing she had never been conscious of the presence of spirits, or of conversations with or subjection to them. She, perhaps, reveals a lurking suspicion that her experiences of late might be witchcrafts. But her notions as to what constituted that might well, if not necessarily, be very different from those existing in the more unfolded and logical minds of her master and her examiners, who made the chief essence of it consist in a compact made with a Majestic and Malignant Devil—such a devil as would differ very widely in appearance from Tituba’s “man.” She freely described the unsought presence of a spirit-man with her on sundry occasions; also her talks with him, and forced service under him. This essentially was only disclosure of the fact that her own organism and temperaments were such and so conditioned that disembodied intelligences could sometimes be seen and heard by her, and could force her to be their tool. Her witchcraft was devoid of voluntary compact to serve an evil one; devoid of evil intent in its practice. If she confessed herself to be a witch, it was only a kindly and loving one, desiring to be truthful and good, and inflicting hurt only when forced to it. She confessed only to clairvoyance, clairaudience, and weakness of her own will-powers.
“Q. Did you see them do it now while you are examining (being examined)? A. No, I did not see them. But I saw them hurt at other times. I saw Good have a cat beside the yellow-bird which was with her.”
Obviously some contortions, antics, or sufferings which the afflicted girls, who were present at the examination, had just experienced or were then manifesting, led to the question, “Did you see them do it now?” Here again appears the assumption of the court that Tituba might be gifted with powers or faculties which would enable her to discern animate and designing workers who were invisible by external optics. Her inner sight was closed then, but at some other times had been open.
“Q. What hath Osburn got to go with her? A. A thing; I don’t know what it is. I can’t name it. I don’t know how it looks. She hath two of them. One of them hath wings, and two legs, and a head like a woman. The children saw the same but yesterday, which afterward turned into a woman. Q. What is the other thing that Goody Osburn hath? A. A thing all over hairy; all the face hairy, and a long nose, and I don’t know how to tell how the face looks; with two legs; it goeth upright, and is about two or three foot high, and goeth upright like a man; and last night it stood before the fire, in Mr. Parris’s hall.”
The obscurity of this description is fully paralleled by the prophet Ezekiel, who, in presenting the beings seen in the first of his “visions of God,” uses the following language, in chap. i.: “They had the likeness of a man, and every one had four faces, and every one had four wings; and their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings; and their wings were joined one to another; and they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward; as for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.” This quotation from the Bible hints with much distinctness that inherent difficulties may beset any clairvoyant who undertakes to set forth in our language, which was formed for description of material objects, some things which are occasionally perceived by the spiritual senses. Where the prophet was so vague and mystical we may pardon the ignorant slave if she failed to be very lucid, and if one suspects her of attempting to put forth nothing but fiction, because she was so obscure, how can he consistently withhold similar suspicions in relation to the prophet?
We will pass to the children’s credit the fact that they also saw Osburn’s ungainly and hairy attendant.
“Q. Who was that appeared to Hubbard as she was going from Proctor’s? A. It was Sarah Good, and I saw her send the wolf to her.”
Facts are transpiring in the present age which indicate with much distinctness that a spirit can present the semblance of a spirit-beast or other spirit-object to the vision of many clairvoyants at the same time, and also that he can, if he so elect, psychologize simultaneously all clairvoyants with whom he is in rapport, and cause them all to believe that they see any beast or object which his mind merely conceives of with distinctness. Therefore sight of a wolf by the mediumistic Hubbard girl, and Tituba’s perception of the same proceeding from mediumistic Sarah Good, could all be produced by the mere volition of that “something like a man,” provided only that he was then in rapport with all of those three sensitive ones.
“Q. What clothes doth the man appear unto you in? A. Black clothes sometimes; sometimes serge coat of other color; a tall man with white hair, I think. Q. What apparel do the women wear? A. I don’t know what color. Q. What kind of clothes hath she? A. Black silk hood with white silk hood under it, with top-knots; which woman I know not, but have seen her in Boston when I lived there. Q. What clothes the little woman? A. Serge coat, with a white cap, as I think. (The children having fits at this very time, she was asked who hurt them. She answers, Goody Good; and the children affirmed the same. But Hubbard being taken in an extreme fit, after [ward] she (Tituba) was asked who hurt her (Hubbard), and she said she could not tell, but said they blinded her and would not let her see; and after that was once or twice taken dumb herself.”)
That account of the clothes described the usual costumes of the time. We are glad to hear her say, “A tall man, with white hair, I think.” That is her description of the “something like a man,” and “the man” who has been so demonstrative. A tall man with white hair, need not be a very frightful object, and we can readily conceive that such a mind as Tituba’s might be perfectly calm and self-possessed in his presence, and never imagine that abler minds might confound such a one with the devil. She never calls him the devil. The fact that she was made dumb two or three times, gives her case some resemblance to those of Ezekiel and Zacharias. Her ears, as before stated, had been stopped by Good, as she supposed, one evening during prayer-time. Thus we find her organs of sense subject to just such control as invisible intelligent operators exercised over prophetic or mediumistic ones of old, and such as spirits exercise over many mortal forms to-day. Her clairvoyance was obscured, perhaps, by “the man” when she was asked who was hurting the Hubbard girl, and replied that they blinded her now.