• Short Prose

• Type: Short Story
• Length: 24 pages

The Salem Horror is a 1937 short story by American author Henry Kuttner. - AsNotedIn

When Carson first noticed the sounds in his cellar, he ascribed them to the rats. Later he began to hear the tales which were whispered by the superstitious Polish mill workers in Derby Street regarding the first occupant of the ancient house, Abigail Prinn. There was none living today who could remember the diabolical old hag, but the morbid legends which thrive in the witch district of Salem like rank weeds on a neglected grave gave disturbing particulars of her activities, and were unpleasantly explicit regarding the detestable sacrifices she was known to have made to a worm-eaten, crescent-horned image of dubious origin. The oldsters still muttered of Abbie Prinn and her monstrous boasts that she was high priestess of a fearfully potent god which dwelt deep in the hills.

Places

• Proctor's Ledge, Salem, Salem, MA Indeed, it was the old witch's reckless boasting which had led to her abrupt and mysterious death in 1692, about the time of the famous hangings on Gallows Hill.
• Salem, MA, Massachusetts it was still difficult to find tenants for her decrepit, gabled house (on Derby Street) with its over hanging second-story and curious diamond pane casement windows.