Witchcraft in Early North America - Alison Games [108]
On the twenty-second day of this illness with the women of the church, a spirit left Francisca Barela, who said through her mouth that it had been there in order to treat her badly and that it was there in order to enter José Valdez, so that he might murder his wife, induced by two of his sisters-in-law. It wanted to enter him and said that their wills should be reconciled, that the worst of sins were of the tongue, and the other spirits would leave those who[m] they were punishing.
On the twenty-eighth day of the exorcism, Lucifer left, bringing a sign during the fainting spell of María Trujillo inside the church. He caused a great deal of anxieties and movements, having expelled through her mouth the tooth of a horse with such effort that it became necessary to repeatedly place the stole on her back. Finally, forced by the dominion of the Word of God, she spit it out and remained at my feet. Her body was not injured. The spirit also said that it had entered her in the summer on the plains close to her house and at that place and home there were a legion of spirits. . . . [María Trujillo] was successfully delivered of the evil spirit.
Within two days of its leaving this sick woman at this place there was a continuing pathetic lament outside of the church and during the whole Mass and exorcism. So that she would not forget, María Trujillo also said that all those named, at all times and occasions, while in their evil and depraved state, spit on the Cross, the Agnus Dei, relics, holy water, and on the rosary. They seized the rosary and broke it to pieces, and those same women also removed the relic, etc. The third sick woman, the sister of Francisca Barela named María Agueda, was left by the spirit on another day than that of María Trujillo’s and it said its name was the devil Cojuelo. She said it entered her the previous year at Chimayo in order to abuse her, and although it was leaving, there remained another three spirits in all.
This same day, there was not much rest. Immediately after the sun went down, one of the possessed women began to stretch out her hands and catch stones. When she took nourishment, she warned that what they put on the plate of food and the supper was blessed with a special benediction. We removed from that plate splinters, stones, pieces of adobe, etc. María de Chávez and María Rosalía, since the fifteenth of January, have been calm, without giving signs as to when the spirit would leave, which