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Salem Village girls are telling fortunes with egg whites until one white takes on the form of a coffin. Tituba tells them Bible stories laced with voodoo.
Gathering For MischiefIn the warm Parris kitchen, on any given day, during the cold winter before the Salem Witch Trials, little Elizabeth Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams who lived with her, could be found. There, too, could be found Tituba, the Indian slave that belonged to Elizabeth's father, Samuel Parris, the minister for Salem Village. At different times with Elizabeth and Abigail might be Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam, and Mercy Lewis. Sometimes Elizabeth Hubbard, Elizabeth Booth, and Susannah Sheldon, who were all in their late teens, would join them. While this group of young girls gathered near the kitchen fireplace or huddled around a flickering candle, Tituba told them stories. Christianity, Magic, and VoodooTituba, although her Spanish West Indies background was steeped in heathen voodoo, had been converted to Christianity. She also regularly attended church. However, the Bible stories she told the girls somehow seemed more interesting when she related them than when Mr. Parris preached them. Perhaps it was the bits and pieces of magic and superstition that sometimes crept into the stories. From Tituba, it is believed, the girls began to learn more about magic than about religion. Telling FortunesEventually, the story telling moved on to the slave woman telling the girls' their fortune by reading the lines in their palms. But soon the fortune telling games advanced to breaking the whites of eggs into a glass of water to see what shapes they flowed into. It all sounds like simple silly fun today, but in the Puritans world of the 1600's this was not considered so. This was sinful and these girls well knew it. To them it may also have seemed fun, that is, until one of the floating egg whites sank to the bottom of the glass of water in what appeared to be the shape of a coffin. Recommended Reading:The Girls of Salem Village: Scarlet Bodice, Bright Turban, And The Charter, available October 26, 2006. The Salem Bewitchings Begin: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams Under a Spell, available October 26, 2006. Sources:Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. De Capo Press, 1995. Jackson, Shirley. The Witchcraft of Salem Village. Random House, New York, 1956.
The copyright of the article Telling Fortunes in Salem in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Telling Fortunes in Salem in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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