mass hysteria

In 1096, a woman set out for Jerusalem from France with a goose from her farm. Peasant crusaders took it as divine guidance. The goose died in northeastern France and never got close to the Holy Land. The people who followed it left a different kind of trail.

On 1 March 1692, three women were brought before magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts — the first act in a drama that would leave nineteen dead. The trials were small by European standards. The psychology behind them was not.