The persecution of witches, prevalent in Europe, reached this side of the Atlantic in the seventeenth century.
"This sudden burst of wickedness and crime
Was but the common madness of the time,
When in all lands, that lie within the sound
Men and women who had enemies to accuse them of evil knowledge and the power to cause illness in others, were hanged or pressed to death by heavy weights. Such sicknesses they could cause by keeping a waxen image, and sticking pins or nails into it, or melting it before the fire. The person whom they hated would be in torture, or would waste away like the waxen doll. Witches' power to injure and to prophesy came from the Devil, who marked them with a needle-prick. Such marks were sought as evidence at trials.
