one can hardly be found now, even in salem, who believes in witchcraft; though the cape cod people, it is said, still spit on their bait. the belief in witchcraft in those days was not confined by any means to the colonists. sir matthew hale of england, one of the most enlightened judges of the mother-country, condemned a number of people for the offence, and is now engaged in doing road-work on the streets of the new jerusalem as a punishment for these acts done while on the woolsack.