The idea of witchcraft increased when friends of Betty Parris, which included eleven year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen year-old Mercy Lewis, and seventeen year-old Mary Walcott began to show similar illness and behavior as Betty. The previously held belief that witchcraft targeted children made the doctor’s diagnoses seem incredibly accurate. Tituba suggested a form of counter magic to heal the girls. She needed to bake a rye cake with the urine of the infected victim and feed the cake to a dog. (Dogs were believed to be used by witches to carry out acts of pure evil and witchery.) By that time, the suspicion began to focus on Tituba, because she entertained the girls with many tales of voodoo, omens, and witchcraft from her native folklore. Her
