ow," cried Leah Herrick, striking out fiercely.
"Oh, do drive it away!" shrieked Sarah Churchill, "it will put out our
eyes."

There was a scene of great excitement, several men drawing their swords
and pushing and slashing at the places where they supposed the spectral
bird might be.

Leah Herrick said the spectre that hurt her came oftenest in the shape
of a small black horse, like that which Dulcibel Burton was known to
keep and ride. Everybody supposed, she said, that the horse was itself a
witch, for it was perfectly black, with not a white hair on it, and
nobody could ride it but its mistress.

Here Sarah Churchill said she had seen Dulcibel Burton riding about
twelve o'clock one night, on her black horse, to a witches' meeting.

Ann Putnam, the child, said she had seen the same thing. One curious
thing about it was that Dulcibel had neither a saddle nor a bridle to
ride with. She thought this was very strange; but her mother told her
that witches always rode in that manner.

Here the two ministers of Salem, Rev. Master Parris and Rev. Master
Noyes, said that this was undeniably true, that it was a curious fact
that witches never used saddles nor bridles. Master Noyes explaining
further that there was no necessity for such articles, as the familiar
was instantly cognizant of every slightest wish or command of the witch
to whom he was subject, and going thus through the air, there being no
rocks or gullies or other rough places, there was no necessity of a
saddle. Both the magistrates and the people seemed to be very much
instructed by the remarks of these two godly ministers.

That "pious and excellent young man," Jethro Sands, here came forward
and testified as follows: He had been at one time on very intimate terms
with the accused; but her conduct on one occasion was so very singular
that he declined thereafter to keep company with her. Hearing one day
that she had gone to Master Joseph Putnam's, he had walked up the road
to meet her on her return to the village. He looked up after walking
about a mile, and saw her coming towards him on a furious gallop. There
seemed to have been a quarrel of some kind between her and her familiar,
for it would not stop all she could do to it. As she came up to him she
snatched a rod that he had cut in the woods, out of his hand, and that
moment the familiar stopped and became as submissive as a pet dog. He
could not understand what it meant, until it suddenly occurred to