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Thaumatographia Pneumatica
Cotton Mather
Introduction | The First Example | The Second Example | The Third Example | The Fourth Example | The Fifth Example | The Sixth Example | The Seventh Example | The Eighth Example | The Ninth Example | The Tenth Example | The Eleventh Example | The Twelfth Example | The Thirteenth Example | The Fourteenth Example | An Appendix
The Ninth Example
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
Part II
After the condemnation of the woman I did myself give divers visits unto her, wherein she told me that she did used to be at meetings where her prince, with four more, was present. She told me who the four were and plainly said that he prince was the devil. When I told her that, and how, her prince had cheated her, she replied, "If it be so, I am sorry for that!" And when she declined answering some things that I asked her, she told me she would fain give me a full answer, but her spirits would not give her the leave, nor could she consent, she said, without their leave, [and] that I should pray for her. At her execution she said the afflicted children should not be relieved by her death, for others beside she had a hand in their affliction. Accordingly, the three children continued in their furnace as before, and it grew rather "seven times hotter" than it was. In their fits they cried out "They" and "Them" as the authors of their miseries, but who that "They" and "Them" were they were unable to declare. Yet, at last, one of the children was able to discern their shapes and utter their names. A blow at the place were they saw the spectre was always felt by the boy himself in that part of his body that answered what might be stricken at; and this, tho' his back were turned and the thing so done, that there would be no collusion in it. But as a blow at the spectre always hurt him, so it always helped him, too: for after the agonies to which a push or stab at that had put him were over (as in a minute or two they would be), he would have a respite from his ails a considerable while and the spectre would be gone. Yea, 'twas very credibly affirmed that a dangerous woman or two in the town received wounds by the blows thus given to their spectres. The calamities of the children went on till they barked at one another like dogs and then purred like so many cats. They would complain that they were in a red-hot oven and sweat and pant as much as if they had been really so. Anon they would say that cold water was thrown on them, at which they would shiver very much. They would complain of blows with great cudgels laid upon them, and we that stood by--though we could see no cudgels--could see the marks of the blows in red streaks upon their flesh. They would complain of being roasted on an invisible spit and lie and roll and groan as if it had been most sensibly so, and by-and-by shriek that knives were cutting them. They would complain that their heads were nailed unto the floor, and it was beyond an ordinary strength to pull them from thence. They would be so limber sometimes that it was judged every bone they had might be bent, and anon so stiff that not a joint of them could be stirred. One of them dreamt that something was growing within his skin, across one of his ribs. An expert [surgeon] searcht the place and found there a brass pin which could not possibly come to lie there as it did without a prestigious and mysterious conveyance. Sometimes they would be very mad and then would climb over high fences. Yea, they would fly like geese and be carried with an incredible swiftness through the air, having but just their toes now and then upon the ground (sometime not once in twenty foot), and their arms waved like the wings of a bird. They were often very near drowning or burning of themselves, and they often strangled themselves with their neckclothes, but the providence of God still ordered the reasonable succours of them that looked after them. If their happened any mischief to be done where they were--as the dirtying of a garment or spilling of a cup or breaking of a glass--they would laugh excessively. But upon the least reproof of their parents, they were thrown into inexpressible anguish, and roar as excessively. It usually took up [an] abundance of time to dress them or undress them, through the strange postures into which they would be twisted on purpose, to hinder it. And yet the daemons did not know our thoughts, for if we used a jargon and said, "Untie his neckcloth," but the party bidden understood our meaning to be "untie his shoe," the neckcloth, not the shoe, has been been by writhen postures rendered strangely inaccessible. In their beds they would be sometimes treated so that no clothes could, for an hour or two, be laid upon them. If they were bidden to do a needless thing (as to rub a clean table), they were able to do it unmolested, but if to do any useful thing (as to rub a dirty table), they would presently, with many torments, be made uncapable. They were sometimes hindered from eating their meals by having their teeth set when anything was carried unto their mouths. If there were any discourse of God or Christ or any of the things "which are not seen and are eternal," they would be cast into intolerable anguishes. All praying to God and reading of His word would occasion them a very terrible vexation. Their own ears would then be stopped with their own hands, and they would roar and howl and shriek and hollow to drown the voice of the devotions. Yea, if anyone in the room took up a Bible to look into it--though the children could see nothing of it (as being in a crowd of spectators or having their faces another way)--[they] would be in wonderful torments till the Bible was laid aside. Briefly, no good thing might then be endured near those children which, while they were themselves, loved every good thing in a measure that proclaimed in them the fear of God. If I said unto them, "Child, cry to the Lord Jesus Christ!" their teeth instantly set. If I said, "Yea, child, look unto him!" their eyes were instantly pulled so far into their heads that we feared they could never have used them anymore.
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