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PARTISAN REVIEW
laughed in spite of himself. At once she grew very earnest, and in
a bitter voice she prophesied that he "should quickly come to dis–
grace by that history."
She told him every day as clearly as she could in symbolic
acts and words that she was making him ridiculous, but his obses·
sional self-concentration kept him blinded. He went on exhibiting
her, and she rose to her audiences like the gifted actress she was.
A number of young ministers came to witness her perform–
ances. Mather talked to them in Latin; if he told her to look to
God, he said, her eyes would be fairly put out. The clever girl
clenched her eyelids. This was impressive, and they began trying
her demon with languages. He knew Greek and Hebrew also. The
Indian dialects Hoored the demon, and the gentlemen conversed
in these. Then they all knelt and prayed affectionately for Martha,
while she sprawled gracelessly on the
Hoor,
with her belly swelled
strangely, and made croaking noises. She whistled, sang, shouted,
and covered her ears to shut out the painful sound of prayer. Rising
to her knees, she tried to strike Mather, could not, and begged the
others to strike him for her: "He has wounded me in the
head!"
she wept. "Lord, have mercy on a daughter vexed with a Devil,"
prayed Mather. Martha sank her voice into her throat, as
if
a
demon of grisly humor spoke within her: "There's two or three
of us."
This was almost the end. Martha's energies were about
exhausted, her inventiveness would go no further. In the evening
of this day, she grew merry for a while, and later went quietly to
bed. In the night she began weeping terribly, and when Mather
went to quiet her she told him she repented of all she had said and
done. She was beginning to realize her situation and to be ashamed.
At Christmas, she relapsed and gave a lively imitation of a
drunken person, babbling and reeling and spewing. Mather was
pained, insisted that she had had nothing to drink, and ended by
admiring her talent for impersonation. She recovered shortly,
wept again, and made one of her enigmatic remarks: "They will
disgrace me when they can do nothing more." Mather thought she
spoke of her demons.
Martha was growing up. She knew well that her day was
over. A sudden sickness came upon her. She pulled and tossed and
moaned and sweated in some profound disturbance, crying out
