Final answer:
Parris claims to have seen dancing girls in the woods, an event that contributes to the Salem witchcraft scare influenced by Puritan beliefs and Tituba's tales.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Act I of the play, Parris claims to have seen dancing girls in the woods the previous night. This sight sparks the hysteria that envelops Salem Village and leads to the infamous Witchcraft in Salem trials. The terror of witchcraft and the devil was ingrained in the Puritan belief system, and figures like Cotton Mather, who was vehemently against denying the existence of witches and the devil, influenced these fears. Tituba, a West Indian servant in the Parris household, had been telling tales of witchcraft to the local girls, which contributed to the onset of the witchcraft scare.