The examination of Martha Carrier must have been one of the most striking scenes of the whole drama of the witchcraft proceedings.  The village meeting-house presented a truly wild and exciting spectacle.  The fearful and horrible superstition which darkened the minds of the people was displayed in their aspect and movements.  Their belief, that, then and there, they were witnessing the great struggle between the kingdoms of God and of the Evil One, and that every thing was at stake on the issue, gave an awe-struck intensity to their expression.  The blind, unquestioning confidence of the magistrates, clergy, and all concerned in the prosecutions, in the evidence of the accusers; the loud outcries of their pretended sufferings; their contortions, swoonings, and tumblings, excited the usual consternation in the assembly.  In addition to this, there was the more than ordinary bold and defiant bearing of the prisoner, stung to desperation by the outrage upon human nature in the abuse practised upon her poor children; her firm and unshrinking courage, facing the tempest that was raised to overwhelm her, sternly rebuking the magistrates,—­“It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits;”—­her whole demeanor, proclaiming her conscious innocence, and proving that she chose chains, the dungeon, and the scaffold, rather than to belie herself.  Seldom has a scene in real life, or a picture wrought by the inspiration of genius and the hand of art, in its individual characters or its general grouping, surpassed that presented on this occasion.

Hutchinson has preserved the record of another examination of a different character.  An ignorant negro slave-woman was brought before the magistrates.  She was cunning enough, not only to confess, but to cover herself with the cloak of having been led into the difficulty by her mistress.

     “Candy, are you a witch?—­Candy no witch in her country. 
     Candy’s mother no witch.  Candy no witch, Barbados.  This
     country, mistress give Candy witch.

     “Did your mistress make you a witch in this country?—­Yes: 
     in this country, mistress give Candy witch.

     “What did your mistress do to make you witch?—­Mistress
     bring book and pen and ink; make Candy write in it.”

Upon being asked what she wrote, she took a pen and ink, and made a mark.  Upon being asked how she afflicted people, and where were the puppets she did it with, she said, that, if they would let her go out for a moment, she would show them how.  They allowed her to go out, and she presently returned with two pieces of cloth or linen,—­one with two knots, the other with one tied in it.  Immediately on seeing these articles, the “afflicted children” were “greatly affrighted,” and fell into violent fits.  When they came to, they declared that the “black man,” Mrs. Hawkes, and the negro, stood by the puppets of rags, and pinched them.  Whereupon they fell into fits again.  “A bit of one of the rags being set on fire,” they all shrieked that they were burned, and “cried out dreadfully.”  Some pieces being dipped in water, they went into the convulsions and struggles of drowning persons; and one of them rushed out of the room, and raced down towards the river.