| THE WITCH OF PUNGO At the site of Grace Sherwoods 1706 witchcraft trial near what is now Virginia Beach, Virginia. Milkless cows, blighted crops, unexplained illness, everyone knew there had to be an absence of Grace. But the Magistrate, insisting that she was nothing more than a harmless eccentric, was reluctant to order a ducking, even after a close examination of her body showed marks of evil. So they had to replace him with someone less squeamish about dealing properly with the minions of Mephistopheles, who immediately ordered her bound according to statute: the thumb of her right hand to the big toe of her left foot, the thumb of her left hand to the big toe of her right foot, and thrown into the river. Her grave is right over there. They gave her a Christian burial, her innocence having been vindicated, after all, when their brackish justice closed irrevocably over her head. |
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