two old people.  It illustrates the state of the imagination prevailing among those who were carried away by the delusion.  If an ox had a sprained muscle, or a cat a fit of indigestion, it was thought to be the work of an evil hand.  Poor old Giles had come late to a religious life, and, it is to be feared, was a novice in prayer.  It is no wonder that he was not an adept in “uttering his desires,” and experienced occasionally some difficulty in arranging and expressing his devotional sentiments.

There is something very singular in the appearance of the foregoing deposition.  Purporting to be a piece of testimony, it was not given in the usual and regular way.  It does not indicate before whom it was made.  It is not attested in the ordinary manner; apparently, was not sworn to in the presence of persons authorized to act in such cases; was never offered in court or anywhere.  It is a disconnected paper found among the remnants of the miscellaneous collection in the clerk’s office, and is evidently an unfinished document; the words in Italics, at the close, being erased by a line running through them.

It is probable that the parties who tried to get the old man to testify against his wife discovered that they could not draw any thing from him to answer their designs, but that there was danger that his evidence would be favorable to her, and gave up the attempt to use him on the occasion.  The fact that he would not lend himself to their purposes perhaps led to resentment on their part, which may explain the subsequent proceedings against him.

The document, in its chirography, suggests the idea that it was written by Mr. Noyes, which is not improbable, as Corey was a member of his congregation and church.  Noyes was deeply implicated in the prosecutions, and violent in driving them on.  The handwriting of the original papers reveals the agency of those who were the most busy in procuring evidence against persons accused.  That of Thomas Putnam occurs in very many instances.  But Mr. Parris was, beyond all others, the busiest and most active prosecutor.  The depositions of the child Abigail Williams, his niece and a member of his family, were written by him, as also a great number of others.  He took down most of the examinations, put in a deposition of his own whenever he could, and was always ready to indorse those of others.

It will be remembered, that, when Tituba was put through her examination, she said “four women sometimes hurt the children.”  She named Good and Osburn, but pretended to have been blinded as to the others.  Martha Corey was, in due time, as we have seen, brought out.  The fourth was the venerable head of a large and prominent family, and a member of the mother-church in Salem.  She had never transferred her relations to the village church, with which, however, she had generally worshipped, and probably communed.  Being one of the chief matrons of the place, she was seated in the meeting-house with ladies of similar age and standing, occupying the same bench or compartment with the widow of Thomas Putnam, Sr.  The women were seated separately from the men; and the only rule applied among them was eminence in years and respectability.