Returning to Susanna Martin, we find that one William Brown, of Salisbury, made deposition in 1692, "that, about one or two and thirty years ago, his wife met Susanna in the road, who 'vanished away out of her sight,' ... after which time the said Martin did many times appear to her at her house, and did much trouble her.... When she did come, it was as birds pecking her legs, or pricking her with the motion of their wings; and then it would rise up into her stomach with pricking pain, as nails and pins, of which she did bitterly complain.... After that it would up to her throat in a bunch like a pullet's egg; and then she would turn back her head and say, 'Witch, you shan't choke me.'"
Much more testimony was adduced to show that this woman's apparition was very frequently seen; and not only seen, but was a source of exceeding sufferings to many people. This argues nothing against her character, but plainly hints that the relation of her inner to her outer form was such that the former could be seen and felt by many persons who either constitutionally or from sickness, or both, were very sensitive. Such persons often saw her spirit-form, and suffered from its psychological action. That peculiarity perhaps made her so luminous as to be observable, and therefore accused, by "the circle," and the accusation brought her to the gallows.
The faculties and manifestations which nearly two centuries ago were deemed to constitute witchcraft, and the mode of eliciting proof of that crime then, stand forth very conspicuously in the history of the wife and children of Thomas Carrier of Andover.
_The Examination of Martha Carrier, May 31, 1692._
"_Q._ Abigail Williams, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier of Andover.
"_Q._ Elizabeth Hubbard, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier.
"_Q._ Susan Sheldon, who hurts you? _A._ Goody Carrier; she bites me, pinches me, and tells me she would cut my throat if I did not sign her book. Mary Walcott said she afflicted her, and brought the book to her.
"_Q._ What do you say to this you are charged with? _A._ I have not done it. Susan Sheldon cried, she looks upon the black man. Ann Putnam complained of a pin stuck in her. _Q._ What black man is that? _A._ I know none. Mary Warren cried out she was pricked. _Q._ What black man did you see? _A._ I saw no black man but _your own presence_. _Q._ Can you look upon these and not knock them down? _A._ They will dissemble if I look upon them. You see you look upon them and they fall down. _A._ It is false; the _devil is a liar_. I looked upon none since I came into the room. Susan Sheldon cried out _in a trance_, I wonder what could you murder thirteen persons! Mary Walcott testified the same: that there lay thirteen ghosts! All the afflicted fell into intolerable outcries and agonies. Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam testified the same: that she had killed thirteen at Andover. _A._ It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks, who are out of their wits. _Q._ Do not you see them? _A._ If I do speak you will not believe me. You do see them, said the accusers. _A._ You lie; I am wronged. There is a black man whispering in her ear, said many of the afflicted. Mercy Lewis in a violent fit, was well, upon the examinant's grasping her arm. The tortures of the afflicted were so great that there was no enduring of it, so that she was ordered away, and to be bound hand and foot with all expedition; the afflicted in the mean while almost killed, to the great trouble of all spectators, magistrates, and others.