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These very probably, Tituba often had sought to impress, as is the manner of negro servants, with tales of witchcraft, the "evil-eye" and "evil hand" spirits, powwowing, etc. Ann Putnam, another precocious child of twelve, the daughter of a near neighbor, Sergeant Putnam, the parish clerk, also was soon drawn into the knowledge of the savage mysteries.
If ever there was a witch on earth, she was one, and as she crouched in one corner, smoking her clay pipe, her eyes closed, telling her weird stories to the girls, no one can wonder that they were strangely affected. "Now, chillun, lem me tell ye, dat ef ebber a witch catches ye, and pinches ye, and sticks pins in ye, ye won't see 'em, ye won't see nobody, ye won't see nuffin," said old Tituba.
"Where is he now, and what has been his fate?" he thought, as he strolled toward the spring. Suddenly he paused and looked toward the brooklet. Well might he be startled. The negro servants, John and Tituba, were engaged in some of their diabolical incantations in the stream.
"Tituba further said that she had also seen a hairy animal with Goody Osburn, that had only two legs, and walked like a man. And that she saw Sarah Good, last Saturday, set a wolf upon Elizabeth Hubbard."
When the hubbub was at its height, the door to an adjoining room opened, and Tituba and John stuck their heads into the room. "She am dar! she am dar!" cried old Tituba. "I see her! I see dem bofe!" "Yes, I see um see um bofe, Tituba," repeated John. "Who do you see?" asked the pastor. "See de black man and Goody Nurse." "Where?" "Dar."
The accusations, confined at first to Tituba and two other friendless women, one crazed, the other bedrid, presently included two female members of Parris' church, in which, as in so many other churches, there had been some sharp dissensions. The next Sunday after this accusation Parris preached from the verse, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one is a devil?"
"Tituba does not hurt 'em." "Who does hurt them then?" "The debbil, for all I knows. "Did you ever see the Devil?" Tituba gave a low laugh. "Of course I've seen the debbil. The debbil came an' said, 'Serb me, Tituba. But I would not hurt the child'en." "Who else have you seen?" "Four women. Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and two other women. Dey all hurt de child'en."
In truth my mother never liked it." An Examination of Reputed Witches. Warrants had been duly issued against Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and the Indian woman Tituba, and they were now to be tried for the very serious offence of bewitching the "afflicted children."
There was in Salem a certain Reverend Samuel Parris who had a daughter, a niece, and a negro-Indian servant called Tituba. The children were about twelve years of age, and much in Tituba's society.
At this the youngest child said: "Goody Nurse was at church last Lord's day with a yellow bird." "A yellow bird?" cried all. "Yes; I saw a yellow bird fly into the church and light on her shoulder." Tituba had told the poor deluded child that if Goodwife Nurse were a witch, she would be accompanied by a yellow bird. "Surely you saw no yellow bird last Lord's day."
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