rty, testified that Satan assembled a hundred fine blades near Salem
Meeting-House, and the trumpet sounded, and bread and wine were carried
round, and Satan was like a black sheep, and wished them to destroy the
minister's house, (by thunder probably,) and set up his kingdom, and
"then all would be well,"--when one woman summoned her three children
and some neighbors and a sister and a domestic, who all testified that
she was a witch and so were they all,--what could be done for such
prisoners by judge or jury, in an age which held witchcraft a certainty?
It was only the rapid rate of increase which finally stopped the
convictions.

One thing is certain, that this strange delusion, a semi-comedy to
us,--though part of the phenomena may find their solution in laws not
yet unfolded,--was the sternest of tragedies to those who lived in it.
Conceive, for an instant, of believing in the visible presence and
labors of the arch-fiend in a peaceful community. Yet from the bottom of
their souls these strong men held to it, and they waged a hand-to-hand
fight with Satan all their days. Very inconveniently the opponent
sometimes dealt his blows, withal. Surely it could not be a pleasant
thing to a sound divine, just launched upon his seventeen-headed
discourse, to have a girl with wild eyes and her hair about her ears
start up and exclaim, "Parson, your text is too long,"--or worse yet,
"Parson, your sermon is too long,"--or most embarrassing of all,
"There's a great yellow bird sitting on the parson's hat in the pulpit."
But these formidable interruptions veritably happened, and received the
stern discipline in such cases made and provided.

But beside Quakers and witches, the ministers had other female
tormentors to deal with. There was the perpetual anxiety of the
unregenerated toilet. "Immodest apparel, laying out of hair, borders,
naked necks and arms, or, as it were, pinioned with superfluous
ribbons,"--these were the things which tried men's souls in those days,
and the statute-books and private journals are full of such plaintive
inventories of the implements of sin. Things known as "slash apparel"
seem to have been an infinite source of anxiety; there must be only one
slash on each sleeve and one in the back. Men also must be prohibited
from shoulderbands of undue width, double ruffs and cuffs, and
"immoderate great breeches." Part of the solicitude was for modesty,
part for gravity, part for economy: none must dress ab