Please Read!! I am writing a paper on this for school. Write what you think of it. Thank you so much. Salem was a small town, in the northeast corner of Massachusetts. The village was a Puritan community. The inhabitants were all very social, and close-knit. Gossip was common, and word spread quickly. When strange things started happening in their peaceful town, everyone new about it. The first occurrence was that several children took sick. Many infants died, and cattle perished as a result of an unknown substance. The community, being Puritan and believing strongly in devilish lore, blamed this on witchcraft. To be a witch in a town such as Salem was a heinous crime. All were strongly against anything to do with Satan. Anyone who did consort with him was a traitor to their fellow people .Those convicted would be examined for “witch marks” then punished. Few were killed by any other means than hanging, but many died while serving prison terms. What many people don’t know is that when an accused person walked into the courthouse, they were immediately presumed guilty. Evidence was always thrown against them. There was little or no time for them to defend themselves. Not one single person accused of witchcraft wasn’t charged guilty. The people would generally complain of afflictions, missing property, deaths in the family due to unknown reasons, et cetera. Then they would pick a person and blame him/her for it under the title “witch”. The evidence was slight. In some cases there was no evidence except the testimonials of the accusers. Even these remained inconsistent, but as they were supposed victims, their word was higher than the defendants’. Many suggestions of possible sources of the afflictions have been presented over time, including encephalitis lethargica. Yet that occurrence remains highly improbable. The more prevalent explanation is ergotism. Ergotism comes from eating rye, barley, or wheat contaminated with ergot. Ergot is a mold that grows on several different types of grain; it contains lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). LSD is best known of the hallucinogenic class of drugs. In Salem people who ingested this drug experienced all sorts of bizarre inexplicable behavior. Ergotism, and not witchcraft, or disease was the source of the pains, visions, and spasms of the villagers. Proof of this is that symptoms of LSD and afflictions of “victims of witchcraft” are the same. The weather conditions in Salem that year were perfect for growing ergot. People in the villages grew rye and the other grains as a staple food source. _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com