Today in Salem: The slave John Indian is literally hanging on by his teeth, riding on the back of a horse and biting the man in front of him to keep from falling off. John’s hands are tied together, though no one knows who did it or why. And now, with the horse nearly trotting, John’s balance is precarious.
His bite is sudden, though, and hard, and when the horse’s rider shouts and elbows him, another horse pulls up. It’s the schoolmaster, who bellows and hits John Indian over and over with a stick until John, a slave, rights himself and promises it won’t happen again.
The horses and men are part of a larger group that has just left the meeting house, where the nervous Sarah Cloyce and the quarrelsome Elizabeth Proctor have been examined. In fact, John Indian had testified extensively against both women. His testimony, in addition to the afflicted girls’ usual fits and accusations, had sent both women to jail. And when Elizabeth’s husband John Proctor muttered that he’d beat the Devil out of John Indian if he could, Proctor was immediately arrested, too.
The schoolmaster is a friend of the Proctors, and between John Indian’s testimony, the arrests, and now the biting and thrashing, he’s none too patient. He’d beat the Devil out of the girls, too, if he could.