This was natural enough, because of late years there were more kinds of witches than there used to be; in old times it had been only old women, but of late years they were of all ages--even children of eight and nine; it was getting so that anybody might turn out to be a familiar of the Devil--age and sex hadn't anything to do with it.

In our little region we had tried to extirpate the witches, but the more of them we burned the more of the breed rose up in their places.
Once, in a school for girls only ten miles away, the teachers found that the back of one of the girls was all red and inflamed, and they were greatly frightened, believing it to be the Devil's marks.

The girl was scared, and begged them not to denounce her, and said it was only fleas; but of course it would not do to let the matter rest there.

All the girls were examined, and eleven out of the fifty were badly marked, the rest less so.

A commission was appointed, but the eleven only cried for their mothers and would not confess.