Today in Salem: Chairs are crashing to the floor as the fortuneteller Dorcas Hoar stumbles, struggling to break free of one bailiff while another pulls her back by her hair.
Her neighbors, and even her former minister, have just testified that she can predict illness and death by looking at the lines in a person’s face. Children, teenagers, adults, even her own husband had died after she’d foretold it, just by looking at them. No one is inclined to testify in defense. She’s been robbing people for years. Money, food, sheep, clothing – nothing has been secure from her pilfering. She’s even stolen a pearl necklace from her minister, one pearl at a time.
Her hair is the final piece of evidence, the thing that sets her apart from the other accused witches. She hasn’t cut or even combed it in nearly ten years, and keeps it hidden under a large cap. But the bailiff has pulled the cap away, and now a black mat of tangles, four and a half feet long, has fallen like ropes onto her back.
Everyone knows what they are. “Witch’s locks” they’re called, snarls of hair that evil imps and demons can hide in. The locks are protected by the Devil, and impossible to cut. Now the judges have ordered that test, and while one bailiff holds her back, the other grasps a hank of hair in one hand and shears in the other. He cuts through the hair and drops it to the floor before grabbing another fistful and cutting it off as well. Despite her keening, it’s not long before Dorcas Hoar’s head is closely shorn, as closely as a man’s.
This is not what the judges expected, and it suggests that she is not a witch after all. It was hard to to cut, though, suspiciously matted, and long enough to touch the back of her legs. That plus her face-reading prophesies are enough to convince the judges. Dorcas Hoar is guilty and sentenced to death.
Tomorrow in Salem: GUILTY: the shrew Alice Parker and the pious Mary Esty