Who was it, demanded Hathorne, who tortured the poor girls? "The devil, for all I know," Tituba
rejoined before she began describing him, to a hushed room. She introduced a full, malevolent cast,
their animal accomplices and various superpowers. A sort of satanic Scheherazade, she was
masterful and gloriously persuasive. Only the day before, a tall, white-haired man in a dark serge
coat had appeared.... Had the man appeared to her in any other guise? asked Hathorne. Here
Tituba made clear that she must have been the life of the corn-pounding, pea-shelling Parris kitchen.
She submitted a vivid, lurid and harebrained report. More than anyone else, she propelled America's
infamous witch hunt forward, supplying its imagery and determining its shape.
From Stacy Schiff, "Unraveling the Many Mysteries of Tituba, the Star Witness of the Salem Witch Trials." Copyright 2015 by
Smithsonian Institution
Based on this excerpt, what can you conclude about Tituba and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692?