A Very Witchey Baking Day
Some weeks after two young Salem Village girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, were declared by a doctor to be bewitched, their condition worsened. Of course in such a small place as Salem Village the neighbors came to know of this torment. It was then that one neighbor came up with the idea of a "witch cake."
The suggestive neighbor was Mary Sibley who was an aunt of Elizabeth and Abigail's friend Mary Walcott. And if, as the minister of Salem Village, Samuel Parris later declared, that the devil had been raised amongst them by the baking of a witch cake, Sibley would surely believe when Walcott also began acting bewitched.
A Devilish Doggy Delight
This neighbor urged, with success, Tituba and her husband John Indian, Indian slaves belonging to Samuel Parris, Elizabeth's father, to bake a witch cake. The important ingredient to be added to this cake was Elizabeth and Abigail's urine. The idea was to make certain that the two supposedly bewitched girls were truthfully under the influence of witchcraft. To prove out this theory, after the cake was baked it was to be fed to the family dog. If the two girls were bewitched the dog, after consuming the treat, would also act as though bewitched.
Unfortunately, there is no surviving record, if there ever was one, of the results after the dog devoured, if it did, its diabolical desert. But there is record of the delicacy having a dour effect on Samuel Parris.
The Devil Rises Along With the Cake
Parris viewed that the very act of baking the urine-laced witch cake was, in its self, an evil act. His reasoning being that the baking of the witch cake was "the devil's own means to reveal the devil's presence." He was also convinced that it made far worse the condition of his daughter and niece, declaring that "the Devil hath been raised amongst us."
Recommended Reading:
More Bewitchings in Salem Village: Tituba Accused of Witchcraft, available October 28, 2006.
The Salem Bewitchings Begin: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams Under a Spell.
October, the Bewitching Month: Devils, Demons, Witches and Salem! Oh My!.
The Devil Walked Among Them: Puritans, Witches, and Demons in Salem.
Source:
Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. De Capo Press, 1995.
