less alarming aspects of rheumatism, ciatics, and
lumbagos; and the good people of New England, abandoning
the study of the occult sciences, turned their attention
to the more profitable hocus pocus of trade, and soon
became expert in the legerdemain art of turning a
penny. Still, however, a tinge of the old leaven
is discernible, even unto this day, in their characters;
witches occasionally start up among them in different
disguises, as physicians, civilians and divines.
The people at large show a keenness, a cleverness
and a profundity of wisdom, that savors strongly of
witchcraft; and it has been remarked, that whenever
any stones fall from the moon, the greater part of
them is sure to tumble into New England.
[43] Hazard’s State Papers.
[44] New Plymouth Record.
[45] Mather’s Hist. New
Eng. b. vi. ch. 7.
When treating of these tempestuous times, the unknown
writer of the Stuyvesant manuscript breaks out into
an apostrophe in praise of the good St. Nicholas,
to whose protecting care he ascribes the dissensions
which broke out in the council of the league, and
the direful witchcraft which filled all Yankee land
as with Egyptian darkness.
A portentous gloom, says he, hung lowering over the
fair valleys of the east; the pleasant banks of the
Connecticut no longer echoed to the sounds of rustic
gayety; grisly phantoms glided about each wild brook
and silent glen; fearful apparitions were seen in
the air; strange voices were heard in solitary places,
and the border towns were so occupied in detecting
and punishing losel witches, that for a time all talk
of war was suspended, and New Amsterdam and its inhabitants
seemed to be totally forgotten.
I must not conceal the fact, that at one time there
was some danger of this plague of witchcraft extending
into the New Netherlands; and certain witches, mounted
on broomsticks, are said to have been seen whisking
in the air over some of the Dutch villages near the
borders; but the worthy Nederlanders took the precaution
to nail horse-shoes to their doors, which it is well
known are effectual barriers against all diabolical
vermin of the kind. Many of those horse-shoes
may be seen at this very day on ancient mansions and
barns, remaining from the days of the patriarchs;
nay, the custom is still kept up among some of our
legitimate Dutch yeomanry, who inherit from their
forefathers a desire to keep witches and Yankees out
of the country.
