Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/715

 WITCH HAZEL 691 flowered variety), are of comparatively recent introduction. Though generally allowed to climb, the wistarias may be grown in the form of a pillar or a small tree by training the stems to a stake and properly pinching the growing shoots. The native species may be raised from seeds; the others are multiplied by layering, from cuttings, and the rare varieties by graft- ing upon the native. WISTER, innis Lee, an American authoress, born in Philadelphia about 1840. She is a daughter of the Kev. William Henry Furness, and the wife of Caspar Wister, a physician 'of Philadelphia. She has translated from the German "Seaside and Fireside Fairies," by Georg Blum and Ludwig Wahl (Philadelphia, 1864); "The Old Mamselle's Secret" (1868) " Gold Elsie " (1868), and " The Countess Gi- sela" (1869), by Eugenie John (E. Marlitt) ; " Only a Girl, or a Physician for the Soul," by Wilhelmine von Hillern (1870) ; and Hack- lander's "Enchanting and Enchanted" (1870). WITCH AND WITCHCRAFT, a person supposed to have formed a compact with Satan, and the practice of the powers thereby acquired. The term witch, though applied to both sex.es, in strictness denotes a female, wizard being the appropriate term for a male. The belief in witches, as formerly entertained in Christian countries, supposed Satan to be in rebellion against God and in warfare against the church, and to exercise his malevolent influence through the agency of human beings, who by formal compact had agreed to become his subjects and to serve him. Such persons became possessed of supernatural powers, including the ability to injure others, to read their thoughts, to call up the spirits of the dead, to transform themselves into the likeness of animals, to be present in apparition at a distance from the actual locality of their bodies, to fascinate by a look, &c. They were supposed to bear upon their bodies a " witch mark," affixed by Satan, which was known by the point where it was made becoming callous and dead. The subject of witchcraft has been treat- ed generally in the articles DEMONOLOGT and MAGIC, and in this article a more particu- lar account of the Salem witchcraft will be given. At the time of the settlement of the country the belief in witches was general, and unknown diseases, extraordinary occurrences, or circumstances not explainable upon known theories, were commonly attributed to the in- fluence of the devil and the agency of witches. Witchcraft was regarded as the blackest of crimes, and the punishment of death was in- flicted on persons convicted of it. Several per- sons were executed as witches in Massachusetts prior to the extraordinary outburst at Salem. The latest instance had been the hanging of an Irish woman in Boston in 1688, accused of bewitching four children belonging to the fam- ily of a Mr. Goodwin. During the winter of 1691-'2 a company, consisting mostly of young girls, was in the habit of meeting at the house j of the clergyman, Mr. Parris, in Salem Village (now Danvers Centre), for the purpose of prac- tising the arts of necromancy, magic, &c. They soon began to exhibit strange actions, excla- mations, and contortions, at times being seized with spasms, dropping insensible to the floor, or writhing in agony. The village physician declared the children bewitched, an opinion in which a council of the neighboring clergymen, including Mr. Parris, concurred. Being pressed to make known who had bewitched them, the girls first accused an Indian woman named Ti- tuba, a servant of Mr. Parris ; Sarah Good, a woman of ill repute ; and Sarah Osburn, who was bedridden. They were brought before the magistrates for examination on March 1, 1692. The excitement became extreme, and spread through the neighboring country ; others were accused, and the most eminent clergymen and laymen encouraged the prose- cution, in the belief that Satan was making a special effort to gain the victory over the saints. But few had the wisdom and courage to resist the delusion. A special court of oyer and ter- miner was appointed for the hearing of the cases, but the trials were a mere mockery. It opened at Salem in the first week of June, and several sessions were held, the last opening on Sept. 9. Nineteen persons, among them some of the most pious and reputable citizens, were hanged, the first executions occurring in June and the last in September. Six were men, in- cluding one clergyman, and thirteen were women. Giles Corey, a man upward of 80 years of age, for refusing to plead, was pressed to death. (See PEINE FORTE ET DUEE.) A re- action in public sentiment now began to set in, and though at a court held in January, 1693, three persons were condemned, no more exe- cutions took place ; and in May the governor discharged all then in jail, to the number, it is said, of 150. Mr. Parris, who had been one of the most zealous prose'cutors, was dismissed by his church in 1696, although he acknowledged his error. See " Salem Witchcraft," by Charles W. Upham (2 vols., Boston, 1867). WITCH HAZEL, or Wyeb Hazel, a name ap- plied in England to an elm (ulmus montana), the leaves of which resemble those of the hazel ; the same tree is also called wych elm, its wood having been used to make the chests or boxes for keeping provisions which the' old writers called wycTies. The name wych or witch hazel was transferred by the early settlers to an American shrub or small tree, Tiamamelis Vir- ffinic.a. In naming the genus Linnaeus gave it the old Greek name for the medlar, to which the plant bears no resemblance. It gives its name to a small family, the fiamamelacea, which includes several Asiatic genera, and in this country two others besides Jiamamelu: Fothergillia, a southern shrub, and liquidam- lar, one of our finest forest trees. The witch hazel, which is found in damp woods from Canada to Louisiana, is an irregular shrub with long and pliant branches, which sometimes