families was confiscated under the pretense that the taint of witchcraft hung to everything that had belonged to the condemned. If such property should remain, in the hands of their relatives it might cause them all kinds of misfortune and deliver them also into the hands of Satan.
Where thus suspicion, ignorance and avarice were lying in wait, no woman was sure of her life for one hour. No matter what her social position might be, the slightest grounds of suspicion, or the slandering denunciation by some enemy was sufficient to deliver her into the power of the inquisitors.
Generally the proceedings began with searching the body of the suspected witch for the mark of Satan, as it was asserted that all who consorted with devils had some secret mark about them, in some hidden place on their bodies, as, for instance, on the inside of the lips, between the hair of the eyebrows, in the hollows of the arm, inside of the thigh, or in still more private parts, from whence Satan drew nourishment. To find these marks, was the task of the "Witch-Prickers," who, after divesting the supposed witch of all clothing, minutely examined all parts of her body. If they found a mole or another peculiar blemish, they pricked it with a needle. If the place proved insensitive and did not bleed, this was an undeniable proof that the person had sold herself to the devil, and that she must be turned over to the inquisitors.
Then these human tigers began to ask questions, suggesting satisfactory answers, and if these answers were not equal to a confession of guilt, the prisoner was subjected to tortures which sooner or later surely brought out such answers and in such language as was suggested to her by the inquisitors. And these answers were given though the poor creature knew that they would send her to the stake or scaffold.
To indicate the horrible sufferings, that hundreds of thousands of delicate and aged women had to go through, a few of the many implements of torture may be described. Robert G. Ingersoll in his great lecture "The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child" has said about them: "I used to read in books how our fathers persecuted mankind. But I never appreciated it. I read it, but it did not burn itself into my soul. I did not really appreciate the infamies that have been committed in the name of religion, until I saw the iron arguments that Christians used. I saw the Thumb-screw—two little pieces of iron, armed on the inner surface with protuberances, to prevent their slipping; through each end a screw uniting the two pieces. And when some person denied the efficacy of baptism or her guilt of witchcraft, then they put his thumb between these pieces of iron and in the name of love and forgiveness, began to screw these pieces together. When this was done most men said "I will
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