Notes and Queries, Number 184, May 7, 1853. Various
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and matted or tangled together, which she said was a widow's lock, and said, if it were cutt off she should die.
6. Upon searching ye body of Rachell Clenton, there was found an unnaturall teat on one side, something lower than just under her arme, which teat having a pin thrust throw it she was not senceable of, till by scratching her side, pricked her fingers with ye pin yt was then in ye teat; neither did ye teat bleed.
There was also ordered, with ye foresaid Doctr, four other men, vizt, Mr. Har. Symonds, Samuel Graves, Senr, Thomas Knewlton, and John Pinder, to search ye body of Giles Cory, and they returned yt they, having searched him, found nothing unnaturall upon him.
Province of Massachusettes Bay,
New England, Essex.
Anno R. R. et Reginæ Gulielmi et Mariæ Angliæ, &c. quarto, annoqu Dom. 1692.
The Jurors for our Sovn Lord and Ladye the King and Queen present—
That Abigail Barker, wife of Ebenezer Barker of Andiver, in the County of Essex aforesaid, about two years since, at and in the town of Andiver aforesaid, wickedly, maliciously, and felloniously, a covenant with the Devill did make, and signed the Devill's Booke, and by the Devill was baptized, and renounced her former Christian baptism; and gave herselfe up to the Devill to serve him, and for the Devill to be her lord and master; by which wicked and diabollicall couvenant, shee the said Abigaill Barker is become a detestable witch, contrary to the peace of our Soveraigne Lord and Lady the King and Queene, their crowne and dignity, and the law in that case made and provided.
Sep., '92. The examination and confession of Abigail Barker, taken before John Hawthorn, Esq., and other their Majesties Justices:
Q. How long have you been in the snare of the Devil?
A. Not above two yeares and a half.
Q. At what place were you first overtaken?
A. I am at present very much bewildered.—But a little after she said as followes:—About two yeare and a half agoe she was in great discontent of mynd, her husband being abroad, and she at home alone; at which tyme a black man appeared to her, and brought a book with him, to which he put her finger and made a black mark. She saith, her memory now failes her now more than ordinary; but said she gave herself up to the Devil to serve him, and he was her lord and master; and the Devil set a mark upon her legg, which mark is black and blue, and she apprehends is a witch mark; and said that she is a witch, and thinks that mark is the cause of her afflicting persons, though she thought nothing of it then till afterwards she heard of others having a mark upon them. She sayes, that some tyme after this the black man carryed her singly upon a pole to 5-mile pond, and there were 4 persones more upon another pole, viz. Mistriss Osgood, Goody Wilson, Goody Wardwell, Goody Tyler, and Hanneh Tyler. And when she came to the pond the Devil made a great light, and took her up and dypt her face in the pond, and she felt the water, and the Devil told her he was her lord and master, and she must serve him for ever. He made her renounce her former baptisme, and carryed her back upon the pole. She confesses she has afflicted the persones that accused her, viz. Sprague, Lester, and Sawdy, both at home and in the way comeing downe. The manner thus:—The Devil does it in her shape, and she consents unto, and clinches her hands together, and sayes the Devil cannot doe it in her shape without her consent. She sayes she was at a meeting at Moses Tyler's house, in company with Mistriss Osgood, Goody Wilson, Goody Tyler, and Hanah Tyler. She said the mark above was on her left legg by her shin. It is about two yeare agoe since she was baptized. She said that all this was true; and set her hand to the original as a true confession. Noate, that before this her confession she was taken dumb, and took Mr. Epps about the neck and pulled him down, thereby showing him how the black man bowed her down; and for one houre's tyme could not open her lips.
I, underwritten, being appointed by authority to take the above examination, doe testify upon oath taken in court, that this is a true coppy of the substance of it to the best of my knowledge.
6th July, 1692/3.
The above Abigail Barker was examined before their Majesties Justices of the Peace in Salem.
(Atest.) John Higginson, Just. Peace.
Owned before the Grand Jury.
(Atest.) Robert Payne, Foreman.
6th January, 1692.
SPRING, ETC
Our ancestors had three verbs and three corresponding substantives to express the growth of plants, namely, spring, shoot, and sprout,—all indicative of rapidity of growth; for sprout, (Germ. spriessen) is akin to spurt, and denotes quickness, suddenness. The only one of these which remains in general use is shoot: for sprout is now only appropriated to the young growth from cabbage-stalks; and spring is heard no more save in sprig, which is evidently a corruption of it, and which now denotes a small slip or twig as we say, sprigs of laurel, bay, thyme, mint, rosemary, &c.
Of the original meaning of spring, I have met but one clear instance; it is, however, an incontrovertible one, namely,
"Whoso spareth the spring (i. e. rod, switch), spilleth his children."—Visions of Piers Plowman, v. 2554., ed. Wright.
Perhaps this is also the meaning in—
"Shall, Antipholus,
Even in the spring of love thy love-springs rot?"
and in "Time's Glory"—
"To dry the old oak's sap and cherish springs."
Spring afterwards came to be used for underwood, &c. Perhaps it answered to the present coppice, which is composed of the springs or shoots of the growth which has been cut down:
"The lofty high wood and the lower spring."
"The lesser birds that keep the lower spring."
It was also used as equivalent to grove:
"Unless it were
The nightingale among the thick-leaved spring."
where, however, it may be the coppice.
"This hand Sibylla's golden boughs to guard them,
Through hell and horror, to the Elysian springs."
In the following place Fairfax uses spring to express the "salvatichi soggiorni," i. e. selva of his original:
"But if his courage any champion move
Too try the hazard of this dreadful spring."
and in
"For you alone to happy end must bring
The strong enchantments of the charmed spring."
it answers to selva.
When Milton makes his Eve say—
"While I
In yonder spring of roses intermix'd
With myrtles find what to redress till noon."
he had probably in his mind the cespuglio in the first canto of the Orlando Furioso; for spring had not been used in