Testing Witches

When a person was accused of witchcraft, pins were thrust into the body, and if the searchers happened upon a place where, from hardness of the flesh or any other cause, acute pain was not inflicted, tlns was an insensible mark, and held an infallible proof of the person being in league with Satan.

If the ministers and judges themselves had been properly pricked all over the body, after being kept from sleep four days, they would have been glad to remain still and motionless, if the pin had come into a place where it excited no pain. Yet by such test was guilt or innocence decided on, and many lost their lives.

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