SARAH GOOD: I’m here, Majesty! (They hurriedly pick up their rags as Hopkins, a guard, enters.)
HOPKINS: The Deputy Governor’s arrived.
TITUBA (resisting him): No, he comin for me. I goin’ home!
HERRICK (pulling her to the door): That’s not Satan, just a poor old cow with a hatful of milk. Come along now, out with you.
TITUBA (calling to the window): Take me home, Devil! Take me home.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 4. A cow is heard lowing in the distance as Deputy Governor Danforth arrives to the prison. Prisoners Sarah Good and Tituba mistakingly think it’s the Devil come to whisk them off to Barbados. In this tragically funny scene in the play’s last act, Marshal Herrick is moving the women to another cell. Languishing in jail for months and awaiting execution, they have gone mad at this stage and are beginning to believe they are witches. The scene provides a shocking portrayal of the toll, both mental and physical, that the Salem witch hunts have taken on innocent people, especially the marginalized. It’s Salem “justice” at its ugliest.