Science & Culture Corner
Witch Way to Salem
Today in the developed world, witches are usually thought of as something of Halloween lore. In many countries, children don witch costumes for parties or tick-or-treating. This was not always the case, nor is it always now. Even in the 1990's witches have been rounded up by angry mobs and set afire in places such as South Africa.
In North America witches were never burned as they often were in continental Europe. They were usually hung by the neck. Although official trials preceded executions, both men and women-who were not guilty-were publicly killed.
In the year 1692 in the coastal village of Salem (Danvers) Massachusetts, fear and hysteria gripped an animistic population living in fear of devils and demons. Suspected witches were arrested and accused of entering the dreams of children. Torture reaped confessions and the naming of supposed coconspirators. The subsequent confessions of those resulted in arrests exponentially to a total of 300 witches in chains.
Ignorance of science, inability to explain bad fortune, and fear of devils could easily be seen to combine to produce a mob mentality. These factors however, existed as well prior to 1692 when there were no such arrests and executions. Many books are in print which search for an underlying event or catalyst.
Probably it was a form of food poisoning called ergotomine. the culture of Salem's inhabitants was such that parents ate dinner fist, children last. Leftover bread was more likely to contain mold (as parents would have chosen their pieces without any mold). It was the children who first got sick and claimed neighbors-as witches-were taunting them in their dreams.
Additionally, a sliced tree showed the rings (each ring equals one growing season) back to that time indicating a wetter than usual growing season for 1691-2. Since the bread was made from rye, which is subject to molding wet environments, this supports such a hypothesis.
Ergotomine is not a bacterium but a chemical produced by the green-black ergot mould. It thus is not killed when the bread is baked. Further, its ingestion is known to cause ill effects including hallucinations. Perhaps, in a context of fear of the unseen, such hallucinations-taken to be real-were the spark that blinded them to logic and set off the ensuing witch hunt.
Today the Salem gallows and prison stand as a monument to the horror that engulfed Salem and then surrounding areas. Fine traditional inns host tourists who will visit the Witch Museum and dozen of other attractions associated with Salem's colorful, if unfortunate, history.
Salem is a few minutes north of Boston and beautiful to visit. Not too far south is Plymouth famous for its own holiday creation, Thanksgiving. Best times to go are in spring and especially during the area's biggest holiday, Halloween. Witch way to Salem? By witch broom if you like, or direct air flights *to Boston) are available from Narita, Kansai and Kimpo Airports. Don't forget your camera!
by Angel
Stephens
angel_stephens@hotmail.com
EDITOR'S NOTE-
Angel Stephens as a Harvard student studied physics at the Harvard Smithsonian and writes today on the subjects of physical science and anthropology for numerous publications.
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