fondling the yellow bird

'The glimpses of the infernal world that we get in Salem [at the witchcraft trials of 1692] are highly incredible. The witches say prayers by a tall black man with a high-crowned hat'always with a high-crowned hat. They ride on sticks and poles, sometimes they are on brooms, and sometimes three are on one pole. . . . The witches fondle yellow birds, suckling them between their fingers. . . . The witch usually sits on the great crossbeam of the meeting house, fondling the yellow bird.'

'Edward Eggleston, from The Transit of Civilization, 1900. As quoted in Everyday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke, 1989.