and urged him immediately to prosecute the said affair. abovesaid person, having related the matter, was advised and encouraged to go to Rhode Island, and engage therein, and he accordingly set out for that place on Thursday last.

While we are on this subject, it will not be improper to instance an article of New England belief which, if not actually credited when the Farmer's Almanack began to appear, in 1792, was in full force, and apparently recognized in legal procedure, as late as 1769. This was the superstition that the corpse of the victim would bleed when touched by the murderer, or even, it might be, on his mere approach. The ordeal by touch was once practised, it is safe to say, in every nation of Europe, and our forefathers of course brought the custom with them when they came to New England.

In 1769 the young wife of Jonathan Ames, in the West Parish of Boxford, Massachusetts, died suddenly. The circumstances were suspicious. The body was disinterred, and the physicians who examined it found abundant evidence of poison. The marriage had not been happy. Ames's mother, who lived with him, had shown violent enmity towards her daughter-in-law, and had predicted her death in terms which, when recollected, seemed darkly significant. Both Mrs. Ames and her son were bidden to touch the body, but, guilty or not, they refused to submit to the ordeal. The examination, according to the record, "gave great occasion to conclude that they were concerned in the poisoning," and they were committed to jail at Salem. There was no conclusive proof, however, and both were acquitted. Shortly after, they left the village and were lost sight of. The mystery of the Ames Murder was never cleared up.1

The antiquary who gives an account of this celebrated

1 Sidney Perley, The Essex Antiquarian, 1898, II, 1 ff.

case is of opinion that he is recording the only instance of the ordeal by touch in New England history. But he is mistaken. Two striking examples of the ordeal may be found in Winthrop's Journal. The first occurred in 1644, and is graphically narrated by the colonial governor. One Cornish, living at Agamenticus, "was taken up in the river, his head bruised, and a pole sticking in his side, and his canoe laden with clay found sunk. His wife (being a lewd woman, and suspected to have fellowship with one Footman) coming to her husband, he bled abundantly, and so did he also, when Footman was brought to him; but no evidence could be found against him."1 Footman was discharged, but the woman was convicted, though not, it seems, on the testimony of the ordeal of blood. In the second case, which came two years later, in 1646, confession followed the ceremony, as must often have happened. A poor creature had killed her child, and "when she was brought before the jury, they caused her to touch the face of it, whereupon the blood came fresh into it," and she confessed the truth? This remarkable providence could not escape the all-recording Cotton Mather. He narrates. it in his Magnalia, deriving his information from Winthrop's Journal. Characteristically enough, he improves the narrative. According to him the blood actually flowed anew, and did not merely "come fresh into the face," as Winthrop declares.3

Another instance from the same century is related by Cotton Mather in a passage which may serve as a specimen of his best style:

Several Indians were made horribly drunk by the drink which the English had sold unto them. Returning home over a little

1 Winthrop, ed. Savage, 1853, II, 258.

2 The same, II, 369.

8 Book vi, chap. 5, ed. 1853, II, 398.

ferry, eight of them were drown'd (from December to March) one of their dead bodies came ashore very near the place where they had been supplied with their drink; and lying on the shore, it bled so plentifully, as to discolour the water and sand about it. Upon which the considerate spectators thought of that scripture, "the stone shall cry out of the wall" against him that "gives his neighbour drink." They thought there was a loud cry of "Blood! blood!" against some wicked English in this matter.1

The murder of Sassamon, one of the most celebrated cases in the annals of Plymouth Colony, affords us another opportunity to observe the "ordeal of the bier." John Sassamon, who is said to have studied in the Indian School at Cambridge, was at one time King Philip's secretary. But he returned to his English allegiance and was appointed preacher to the Indians of Middleborough. In 1674, learning of Philip's hostile preparations, Sassamon gave warning to the governor at Plymouth, though he was well aware that he did so at the risk of his life. Soon after his body was found in Assawomset Pond with the neck broken and other marks of violence upon it. Beyond question he had been put to death as a traitor by Philip's orders. Three Indians were convicted of the murder, and executed at Plymouth in June, 1675. The jury, according to custom, consisted of both white men and Indians, and there can be little doubt that the evidence was satisfactory. Increase Mather thinks it worth noting that when Tobias, who seems to have been the chief culprit, "came near the dead body, it fell a bleeding as fresh as if it had been newly slain, albeit it was buried a considerable time before that." 2 If we may believe Cotton Mather's account of the trial, the experiment was tried more than once, and always with the same result.3

1 Magnalia, book vi, chap. 5, ed. 1853, II, 402.

2 A Relation of the Troubles which have hapned in New-England, by reason of the Indians there, Boston, 1677, p. 75; Drake's ed. p. 236. 3 Magnalia, book vii, chap. 6, § 5.

There is a large collection of similar cases in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials in Scotland. The most extraordinary is that of Johan Norkott in England (1628), as reported by an eminent lawyer. On this occasion the minister of the parish, "a very reverend person," testified (and his evidence was corroborated) that when the body was touched by the defendants thirty days after death, "the brow of the dead, which before was of a livid and carrion colour, begun to have a dew or gentle sweat arise on it, which increased by degrees, till the sweat ran down in drops on the face. The brow turned to a lively and fresh colour, and the deceased opened one of her eyes and shut it again: And this opening the eye was done three several times. She likewise thrust out the ring or marriage finger three times, and pulled it in again; and the finger dropped blood from it on the grass."

1 Edinburgh, 1833, III, 191 ff.

WIT AND WISDOM OF THE FARMER'S

F

CALENDAR

ARMER'S Calendars are of respectable antiquity. A

typical example from ancient Rome is preserved in the Naples Museum. It is inscribed on a block of marble about two feet and a half in height, and a foot and a half in length and breadth. Each face includes three months, and each month stands in a column by itself. The language is of course Latin, and the contents are very simple, as may be seen by the following translation of the calendar for May and September: