🎃 Nightmare Tales by H.P. Blavatsky – Occult Horror Stories 🎃

Forward of nightmare Tales by Helena P blavatsky read by Ben Tucker the world knows HP latsky chiefly by her encyclopedic knowledge her occult Powers her unique courage this little book composed of stories thrown off by her in her lighter moments shows her as a vivid graphic writer gifted with

Brilliant imagination the student will catch glimpses of reality under the Garb of fancy and will know that only the hand of an occultist could have added some of the touches to the pictures the nightmare Tales were Rewritten during the last few months of the author’s pain stricken life when

Tired with the drudgery of the theosophical glossery she who could not be idle turned to this lighter work and found therein amusement and relaxation her friends all the world over will welcome this example of gifts used but too rarely amid the strain of weightier work Annie bassant end of

Forward section one of nightmare Tales by Helena P blavatsky this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Ben Tucker a Bewitched life as narrated by a quill pin part one introduction it was a dark chilly night in September 1884 a heavy Gloom had descended over

The streets of a a small town on the rine and was hanging like a black funeral paw over the dull Factory Berg the greater number of its inhabitants wearied by their Long Day’s Work had hours before retired to stretch their tired Limbs and lay their aching heads

Upon their pillows all was quiet in the large house all was quiet in the deserted streets I too was lying in my bed bed alas not one of rest but of pain and sickness to which I had been confined for some days so still was everything in the house that as

Longfellow has it its Stillness seemed almost audible I could plainly hear the murmur of the blood as it rushed through my aching body producing that monotonous singing so familiar to one who lends a watchful ear to silence I listened to it until in my nervous imagination it had grown into

The sound of a distant cataract the fall of Mighty Waters when suddenly changing its character the ever growing singing merged into other and far more welcome sounds it was the low and at first scarce audible Whisper of a human voice it approached and gradually strengthening seemed to speak in my very

Ear thus sounds a voice speaking across a Blue quiescent Lake in one of those wondrously acoustic Gorges of the snowcapped mountains where the air is so pure that a word pronounced half a mile off seems almost at the elbow yes it was the voice of one whom

To know is to reverence of one to me owing to many mystical associations most dear and holy a voice familiar for long years and ever welcome doubly so in hours of mental or physical suffering for it always brings with it a ray of Hope and consolation courage it whispered in gentle mellow

Tones think of the days passed by you in sweet associations of the great lessons received of Nature’s truths of the many errors of men concerning these truths and try to add to them the experience of a night in this city Let The Narrative of a strange life that will interest you

Help to shorten the hours of suffering give your attention look Yonder before you Yonder meant the clear large Windows of an empty house on the other side of the Narrow Street of the German Town they faced my own in almost a straight line across Ross the street and my bed

Faed the windows of my sleeping room obedient to the suggestion I directed my gaze toward them and what I saw made me for the time being forget the agony of the pain that racked my swollen arm and Rheumatic body over the windows was creeping a Mist a dense heavy Serpentine

Whitish Mist that looked like the huge shadow of a gigantic boa slowly uncoiling its body gradually it disappeared to leave a lustrous light soft and silvery as though the window panes behind reflected a thousand Moon beams a Tropical star-lit Sky first from outside then from within the empty

Rooms next I saw the Mist elongating itself and throwing as it were a fairy Bridge across the street from the Bewitched Windows to my own balcony nay to my very own bed as I continued gazing the wall and windows and the opposite house itself suddenly vanished the space

Occupied by the empty rooms had changed into the interior of another smaller room in what I knew to be a Swiss Chalet into a study whose old dark walls were covered from floor to ceiling with bookshelves on which were many Antiquated folios as well as works of a

More recent date in the center stood a large old-fashioned table littered over with manuscripts and writing materials before it quillpen in hand sat an old man a grim looking skeleton-like personage with a face so thin so pale yellow and emaciated that the light of the solitary little student’s lamp was

Reflected in two shining spots on his high cheekbones as though they were carved out of ivory as I tried to get a better view of him by slowly raising myself upon my pillows the whole Vision Chalet and study desk books and Scribe seemed to Flicker and move once set in

Motion they approached nearer and nearer until gliding noiselessly along the fleecy Bridge of clouds across the street they floated through the closed windows into my room and finally seemed to settle beside my bed listen to what he thinks and is going to write said in soothing tones

The same familiar far off and yet near voice thus you will hear a narrative the telling of which may help to shorten the long Sleepless hours and even make you forget for a while your pain try it added using the well-known rosac crucian and cabalistic

Formula I tried doing as I was bid I centered all my attention on the solitary laborious figure that I saw before me but which did not see me at first the noise of the quill pin with which the old man was writing suggested to my mind nothing more than a

Low- whispered murmur of a non-descript nature then gradually my ear caught the indistinct words of a faint and distant voice and I thought the figure before me bending over its manuscript was reading its tale aloud instead of writing it but I soon found out my error for casting my

Gaze at the old scribe’s face I saw at a glance that his lips were compressed and motionless and the voice too thin and shrill to be his voice stranger still at every word traced by the feeble aged hand I noticed a light flashing from under his pen a bright colored spark that became

Instantaneously a sound or what is the same thing it seemed to do so to my inner perceptions it was indeed the small voice of the quill that I heard though scribe and Pen were at the same time per chance hundreds of miles away from Germany such things will happen

Occasionally especially at night beneath whose Starry shade as Byron tells us we learn the language of another world however it may be the words uttered by the quill remained in my memory for days after nor had I any great difficulty in retaining them for when I sat down to record the story I

Found it as usual indelibly impressed on the astral Tablets before my inner eye thus I had but to copy it and so give it as I received it I failed to learn the name of the unknown nocturnal writer nevertheless though the reader may prefer to regard the whole story as

One made up for the occasion a dream perhaps still its incidents will I hope prove nonetheless interesting one The Stranger story my birthplace is a small Mountain Hamlet a cluster of swis cottages hidden deep in a sunny Nook between two Tumbl down glaciers and a peak covered with

Eternal snows there 37 years ago I returned crippled mentally and physically to die if death would only have me the pure invigorating air of my birthplace decided otherwise I am still alive perhaps for the purpose of giving evidence to facts I have kept profoundly secret from All A Tale Of Horror I would

Rather hide than reveal the reason for this unwillingness on my part is due to my Early Education and to subse quent events that gave the lie to my most cherished prejudices some people might be inclined to regard these events as providential I however believe in no Providence and yet

Am unable to attribute them to Mere chance I connect them as the ceaseless evolution of Effects engendered by certain direct causes with one primary and fundamental cause from which ensued all that followed a feeble old man am I now yet physical weakness has in no way imp pred my mental faculties I remember

The smallest details of that terrible cause which engendered such fatal results it is these which furnish me with an additional proof of the actual existence of one whom I Fain would regard oh that I could do so as a creature born of my fancy the evanescent production of a feverish horrid

Dream oh that terrible mild and all forgiving that saintly and respected being it was that per of all the virtues who embittered my whole existence it is he who pushing me violently out of the monotonous but secure groove of daily life was the first to force upon me the certitude of Life

Hereafter thus adding an additional horror to one already great enough with a View to a clearer comprehension of the situation I must interrupt these Recollections with a few words about myself oh how if I could would I obliterate that hate itself born in Switzerland of French parents who centered the whole world

Wisdom and the literary Trinity of voler JJ rouso and d halbach and educated in a German University I grew up a thorough materialist a confirmed atheist I could never have even pictured to myself any beings least of all a being above or even outside visible nature and as

Distinguished from her hence I regarded everything that could not be brought under the strictest analysis of the physical senses as a mere Chimera a soul I argued even supposing man has one must be material according to origin’s definition in Corpus the epithet he gave to his God signifies a substance only

More subtle than that of physical bodies of which at best we can form no definite idea how then can that of which our senses cannot enable us to obtain any clear knowledge how can that make itself visible or produce any tangible manifestations accordingly I received the tales of nent spiritualism with a

Feeling of utter contempt and regarded the overtures made by certain priests with derision often akin to anger and indeed the latter feeling has never entirely abandoned me Pascal in in the eighth Act of his thoughts confesses to a most complete incertitude upon the existence of God throughout my life I

Too professed a complete certitude as to the non-existence of any such extra Cosmic being and repeated with that great thinker the memorable words in which he tells us I have examined if this God of whom all the world speaks might not have left some marks of himself I look everywhere and everywhere

I see nothing but obscurity nature offers me nothing that may not be a matter of doubt and inquietude nor have I found to this day anything that might unsettle me in precisely similar and even stronger feelings I’ve never believed nor shall I ever believe in a Supreme Being but at

The potentialities of man proclaimed far and wide in the East Powers so developed in some persons as to make them virtually Gods at them I laugh no more my whole broken life is a protest against such negation I believe in such phenomenon and I curse them whenever they come and by whatsoever means

Generated on the death of my parents owing to an unfortunate lawsuit I lost the greater part of my fortune and resolved for the sake of those I loved best rather than for my own to make another for myself my elder sister whom I adored had married a poor man I accepted the offer

Of a rich Hamburg firm and sailed for Japan as its Junior partner for several years my business went on successfully I got into the confidence of many influential Japanese through whose protection I was enable to travel and transact business in many localities which in those days especially were not easily accessible to foreigners

Indifferent to every religion I became interested in the philosophy of Buddhism the only religious system I thought worthy of being called philosophical thus in my moments of leisure I visited the most remarkable temp temples of Japan the most important and curious of the 96 Buddhist monasteries of Kyoto I

Have examined in turn deuts with its gigantic Bell zonin and arino yaso Kai misu higi hung voni and many other famous temples several years passed away and during that whole period I was not cured of my skepticism nor did I ever contemplate having my opinions on the subject

Altered I derided the pretentions of the Japanese bondes and Aesthetics as I had those of Christian priests and European spiritualists I could not believe in the acquisition of powers unknown to and never studied by men of science hence I scoffed at all such ideas the superstitious and atrabilious Buddhist

Teaching us to shun the pleasures of life to put to Route one’s passions to render oneself insensible alike to happiness and suffering in order to acquire such chimerical Powers seemed supremely ridiculous in my eyes on a day forever memorable to me a fatal day I made the acquaintance of a venerable and

Learned bonds a Japanese priest named tamura haideri I met him at the foot of the golden Quan on and from that moment he became my best and most trusted friend notwithstanding my great and genuine regard for him however whenever a good opportunity was offered I never failed to mock his Rel religious

Convictions thereby very often hurting his feelings but my old friend was as Meek and forgiving as any true Buddhist heart might desire he never resented my impatient sarcasms even when they were to say the least of equivocal propriety and generally limited his replies to the wait and see kind of protest nor could

He be brought to seriously believe in the sincerity of my denial of the existence of any God or Gods the full meaning of the terms atheism and skepticism was beyond the comprehension of his otherwise extremely intellectual and acute mind like certain reverential Christians he seemed incapable of

Realizing that any man of sense should prefer the wise conclusions arrived at by philosophy and modern science to a ridiculous belief in an invisible world full of gods and Spirits gens and demons man is a spiritual being he insisted who returns to earth more than once and is rewarded or punished in the

Between times the proposition that man is nothing else but a heap of organized dust was beyond him like Jeremy Coler he refused to admit that he was no better than a stalking machine a speaking head without a soul in it whose thoughts are all bound by the laws of motion for he

Argued if my actions were as you say prescribed beforehand and I had no more Liberty or free will to change the course of my action than the running Waters of the river Yonder than the Glorious doctrine of K of Merit and de Merit would be a foolishness

Indeed thus the whole of my hyper metaphysical friends ontology rested on the shaky super structure of metam psychosis of a fancied just law of Retribution and other such equally absurd dreams we cannot said he paradoxically one day hope to live Hereafter in the full enjoyment of our Consciousness

Unless we have built for it beforehand a firm and solid foundation of spirituality nay laugh not friend of no faith he meekly pleaded but rather think and reflect on this one who has never taught himself to live in spirit during his conscious and responsible life on Earth can hardly hope to enjoy a

Sentient existence after death when deprived of his body he is limited to that Spirit alone what can you mean by life in spirit I inquired life on a spiritual plane that which the Buddhists call toshita davala Paradise man can create such a blissful existence for himself between two births by the gradual

Transference onto that plane of all the faculties which during his sojourn on Earth manifest through his organic body and as you call it animal brain how absurd and how can man do this contemplation and a strong desire to assimilate the Blessed Gods will enable him to do so

And if man refuses this intellectual occupation by which you mean I suppose the fixing of the eyes on the tip of his nose What Becomes of him after the death of his body was my mocking question he will be dealt with according to the prevailing state of his

Consciousness of which there are many Gres at best immediate rebirth at worst the state of adishi a mental hell yet one need not be an aesthetic to assimilate spiritual life which will extend to the Hereafter all that is required is to try and approach Spirit how so even when disbelieving in

It I rejoined even so one may disbelieve and yet Harbor in one’s nature room for doubt however small that room may be and thus try one day were it but for one moment to open the door of the inner Temple and this will prove sufficient for the purpose you are very decidedly poetic

And paradoxical to boot Reverend sir will you kindly explain to me a little more of the mystery there is none still I am willing suppose for a moment that some unknown Temple to which you have never been before and the existence of which you think you have reasons to deny

Is the spiritual plane of which I am speaking someone takes you by the hand and leads you toward its entrance curiosity makes you open its door and look Within by the simple act by entering it for one second second you have established an everlasting connection between your Consciousness and the

Temple you cannot deny its existence any longer nor obliterate the fact of your having entered it and according to the character and the variety of your work within its holy precincts so will you live in it after your Consciousness is severed from its dwelling of Flesh what

Do you mean and what is my afterdeath Consciousness if such a thing exist to do with the temple it has everything to do with it solemnly rejoined the old man that can be no self-consciousness after death outside the Temple of spirit that which you will have done within its plane will

Alone survive all the rest is false and an illusion it is doomed to perish in the ocean of Maya amused at the idea of living outside one’s body I urged on my old friend to tell me more mistaking my meaning the venerable man willingly consented Tamora hyeri belonged to the

Great temple of zonin a Buddhist Monastery famous not only in all Japan but also throughout Tibet and China no other is so venerated in Kyoto its monks belong to the sect of zenodo and are considered as the most learned among the many aidite fraternities they are moreover closely connected and allied

With the yamabushi the athetics are Hermits who follow the doctrines of La no wonder that at the slight provocation on my part the priest flew into the highest metaphysics hoping thereby to cure me of my infidelity no use repeating here the long rig rooll of the most hopelessly involved and incomprehensible of all

Doctrines according to his ideas we have to train ourselves for the spirituality in another world as for gymnastics carrying on the analogy between the temple and the spiritual plane he tried to illustrate his idea he had himself worked in the temple of spirit 2third of his life and given several hours daily to

Contemplation thus he knew that after he had laid aside his mortal casket a mere illusion he explained he would in his spiritual consciousness live over again every feeling of ennobling joy and divine Bliss he had ever had or ought to have had only a h hundredfold intensified his work on the spirit plane

Had been considerable he said and he hoped therefore that the wages of the laborer would prove proportionate but suppose the laborer as in the example you have just brought forward in my case should have no more than opened the temple door out of mirror curiosity had only peeped into the sanctuary never

To set his foot therein again what then then he answered you would have only this short minute to record in your future self-consciousness and no more our life Hereafter records and repeats but the Impressions and feelings we have had in our spiritual experience experiences and nothing else thus If

Instead of reverence at the moment of entering the Abode of spirit you had been harboring in your heart anger jealousy or grief then your future spiritual life would be a sad one in truth there would be nothing to record save the opening of a door in a fit of bad

Temper how then could it be repeated I insisted highly amused what do you suppose I would be doing before incarnating again in that case he said speaking slowly and weighing every word in that case you would have I fear only to open and shut the temple door over

And over again during a period which however short would seem to you an eternity this kind of afterdeath occupation appeared to me at that time so grotesque in its Sublime absurdity that I was seized with an almost inextinguishable fit of laughter my venerable friend looked considerably dismayed at such a result of his

Metaphysical instruction he had evidently not expected such hilarity however he said nothing but only sighed and gazed at me with increased benevolence and pity shining in his small black eyes pray excuse my laughter I apologized but really now you cannot seriously mean to tell me that the spiritual State you Advocate and so

Firmly believe in consists only in aping certain things we do in life nay nay not aping but only intensifying their repetition filling the gaps that were unjustly left unfilled during life in the fruition of our acts and deeds and of everything performed on the spiritual plane of the

One real State what I said was an illustration and no doubt for you who seem entirely ignorant of the mysteries of Soul Vision not a very intelligible one it is myself who Am to be blamed what I sought to impress upon you was that as the spiritual state of our

Consciousness liberated from its body is but the fruition of every spiritual act performed during life where an act had been Barren there could be no results expected save the repetition of that act itself this is all I pray you may be spared such fruitless deeds and finally

Made to see certain truths and passing through the usual Japanese courtesies of taking leave the Excellent Man Departed alas alas had I but known at the time what I have learned since how little would I have laughed and how much more what I learned but as the matter stood

The more personal affection and respect I felt for him the less could I become reconciled to his wild ideas about an afterlife and especially as to the acquisition by some men of Supernatural Powers I felt particularly disgusted with his reverence for the yamabushi the allies of every Buddhist sect in the

Land their claims to the miraculous were simply odious to my Notions to hear every [ __ ] I knew at Kyoto even to my own partner the shrewdest of all the businessmen I’d come across in the East mentioning these followers of laay with downcast eyes reverentially folded hands and affirmations of their possessing

Great and wonderful gifts was more than I was prepared to patiently tolerate in those days and who were they after all these great magicians with their ridiculous pretentions to super mundane knowledge these holy Beggars who as I then thought purposely dwelled in the recesses of unfrequented mountains and

On unapproachable craggy Steeps so as the better to afford no chance to curious Intruders of finding them out and watching them in their own dens simply impudent fortune tellers Japanese gypsies who sell charms and talismans and know better in answer to those who sought to assure me that though the

Yamabushi lead a mysterious life admitting none of the profane to their SE Secrets they still do except pupils however difficult it is for one to become their disciple and that thus they have living witnesses to the great Purity and sanctity of their lives in answer to such affirmations I oppose the

Strongest negation and stood firmly by it I insulted both Masters and pupils classing them under the same category of fools when not naves and I went so far as to include in this number the cintos now cism or sinu faith is the gods and

In the way to the gods that is belief in the communication between these creatures and Men is a kind of worship of nature Spirits than which nothing can be more miserably absurd and by placing the cintos among the fools and naves of other sect I gained many enemies for the

CTO kuszi spiritual teachers are looked upon as the highest in the upper classes of society the makato himself being at the head of their hierarchy and the members of the sect belonging to the most cultured and educated men in Japan the these kuszi of the cinto form

No cast or class apart nor do they pass any ordination at any rate none known to Outsiders and as they claim publicity no special privilege or Powers even their dress being in no wise different from that of the Ley but are simply in the world’s opinion professors and students

Of a cult and spiritual Sciences I very often came in contact with them without in the least suspecting that I was in the presence of such personages two the mysterious visitor years passed and as time went by my ineradicable skepticism grew stronger and waxed fiercer every day I’ve already

Mentioned an elder and much beloved sister my only surviving relative she had married and had lately gone to live at nurmberg I regarded her with feelings more filial than fraternal and her children were as dear to me as might have been my own at the time of the

Great catastrophe that in the course of a few days had made my father lose his large fortune and my mother break her heart she it was that sweet big sister of mine who had made herself of her own accord the guardian angel of our ruined family

Out of her great love for me her younger brother for whom she attempted to replace the professors that could no longer be afforded she had renounced her own happiness she sacrificed herself and the man she loved by indefinitely postponing their marriage in order to help our father and chiefly Myself by

Her undiv Ed devotion and oh how I loved and reverenced her time but strengthening this earliest family affection they who maintained that no atheist as such can be a true friend an affectionate relative or a loyal subject utter whether consciously or unconsciously the greatest calumny and lie to say that a materialist grows

Hard-hearted as he grows older that he cannot love as a Believer does is simply the greatest fallacy there may be such exceptional cases it is true but these are found only occasionally in men who are even more selfish than they are skeptical or vulgarly worldly but when a man who is

Kindly disposed in his nature for no selfish motives but because of reason and love of truth becomes what is called atheistical he is only strengthened in his family affections and in his sympathies with his fellow men all his emotions all the Ardent aspirations toward the Unseen and

Unreachable all the love which he would otherwise have uselessly bestowed on a suppositional heaven and its God become now centered with tenfold Force upon his loved ones and Mankind indeed The Atheist Heart Alone can know what secret tides of still enjoyment flow when Brothers love it was such holy fraternal love

That led me also to sacrifice my comfort and personal welfare to secure her happiness the Felicity of of her who had been more than a mother to me I was a mere youth when I left home for Hamburg there working with all the desperate earnestness of a man who has but one

Noble object in view to relieve suffering and help Those whom he loves I very soon secured the confidence of my employers who raised me in consequence to the high post of trust I always enjoyed my first real pleasure and reward in life was to see my sister

Married to the man she had sacrificed for my sake and to help them in their struggle for existence so purifying and unselfish was this affection of mine for her that when it came to be shared among her children instead of losing an intensity by such division it seemed to

Only grow the stronger born with the potentiality of the warmest family affection in me the devotion for my sister was so great that the thought of burning that sacred fire of love before any Idol save that of herself and family never never entered my head this was the

Only church I recognized the only church wherein I worshiped at the altar of Holy Family affection in fact this large family of 11 persons including her husband was the only tie that attached me to Europe twice during a period of 9 years had I crossed the ocean with the sole object

Of seeing and pressing these dear ones to my heart I had no other business in the west and having performed this Pleasant Duty I returned each time to Japan to work and toil for them for their sake I remained a bachelor that the wealth I might acquire should go undivided to them

Alone we had always corresponded as regularly as the long Transit of the then very irregular service of the mailboat would permit but suddenly there came a break in my letters from home for nearly a year I received no intelligence and day by day I became more Restless more apprehensive of some great

Misfortune vainly I looked for a letter a simple message and my efforts to account for so unusual a silence were fruitless friend said to me one day tamura haeri my only Confidant friend consult a holy yamabushi and you will fill at rest of course the offer was rejected

With as much moderation as I could command under the provocation but as steamer after steamer came in without a word of news I felt a despair which daily increased in depth and fixity this finally degenerated into an irrepressible craving a morbid desire to learn the worst as I then thought I

Struggled hard with the feeling but it had the best of me only a few months before a complete master of myself I now became an abject Slave To Fear a fatalist of the school of debuk I who had always regarded belief in the system of necessity as being the

Only promoter of philosophical happiness and as having the most advantageous influence over human weaknesses I felt a craving for something akin to fortunetelling I’d gone so far as to forget the first principle of my Doctrine the only one calculated to calm our sorrows to inspire us with a useful

Submission namely a rational resignation to the decrees of blind Destiny with which foolish sensibility causes us so often to be overwhelmed the doctrine that all is necessary yes forgetting this I was drawn into a shameful superstitious longing a stupid disgraceful desire to learn if not Futurity at any rate that which was

Taking place at the other side of the globe my conduct seemed utterly modified my temperament and aspirations wholly changed and like a weak nervous girl I caught myself straining my mind to the very verge of lunacy in an attempt to look as I’d been told one could

Sometimes do beyond the oceans and learn at last the real cause of this long inexplicable silence one evening at Sunset my old friend the venerable bonds tamura appeared on The Veranda of my low wooden house I had not visited him for many days and he had come to know how I was I

Took the opportunity to once more sneer at one whom in reality I regarded with most affectionate respect with equivocal taste for which I repented almost before the words had been pronounced I inquired of him why he had taken the trouble to walk all that distance when he might

Have learned anything he liked About Me by simply interrogating a yamabushi he seemed a little hurt at first but after keenly scrutinizing my dejected face he mildly remarked that he could only insist upon what he advised before only one of that Holy order could give me consolation in my present

State from that instant an insane desire possessed me to challenge him to prove his assertions I defied I said to him any and every one of his alleged magicians to tell me the name of the person I was thinking of and what he was doing at that moment he quietly answered

That my desire could be easily satisfied there was a yamabushi two doors for me visiting a siik shent he would fetch him if I only said the word I said it and from the moment of its utterance my Doom was sealed how shall I find words to describe the scene that followed 20

Minutes after the desire had been so incautiously expressed an old Japanese uncommonly tall and Majestic for one of that race pale thin and emaciated was standing before me there where I had expected to find servile obsequiousness I only discerned an air of calm and dignified composure

The attitude of one who knows his moral superiority and therefore scorns to notice the mistakes of those who failed to recognize it to the somewhat irreverent and mocking questions which I put to him one after another with feverish eagerness he made no reply but gazed on me in silence as a physician

Would look at a Delirious patient from the moment he fixed his eyes on mine I felt or shall I say saw as though it were a sharp ray of light a thin silvery thread shoot out from the intensely black and narrow eyes so deeply sunk in the yellow old face it seemed to

Penetrate into my brain and heart like an arrow and set to work to dig out there from every thought and feeling yes I both saw and felt it and very soon the double sensation became intolerable to break the spell I defied him to tell me what he had found in my

Thoughts calmly came the correct answer extreme anxiety for a female relative her husband and children who were inhabiting a house the correct description of which he gave as though he knew it as well as myself I turned a suspicious eye upon my friend the bonds to whose indiscretions I thought I was

Indebted for the quick reply remembering however that Tamora could know nothing of the appearance of my sister’s house that the Japanese are proverbially truthful and as friends faithful to to death I felt ashamed of my suspicion to atone for it before my own conscience I asked the hermit whether he

Could tell me anything of the present state of that beloved sister of mine The Foreigner was the reply would never believe in the words or trust to the knowledge of any person but himself were the yamabushi to tell him the impression would wear out hardly a few hours later and The Inquirer find

Himself as miserable as before there was but one means and that was to make the Foreigner myself see with his own eyes and thus learn the truth for himself was The Inquirer ready to be placed by a yamabushi a stranger to him in the required State I had heard in

Europe of mesmerise some nules and Pretenders to Clairvoyance and having no faith in them I had therefore nothing against the process itself even in the midst of my never ceasing mental Agony I could not help smiling at the ridiculous nature of the operation I was willingly submitting to nevertheless I silently bowed

Consent three psychic magic the old yamabushi lost no time he looked at the Setting Sun and finding probably the Lord tinzo the spirit who darts his Rays propitious for the coming ceremony he speedily drew out a little bundle it contained a small lacquered box a piece

Of vegetable paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree and a pin with which he traced upon the paper a few sentences in the niden character A peculiar style of written language used only for religious and mystical purposes having finished he exhibited from under his clothes a small round

Mirror of Steel of extraordinary brilliancy and placing it before my eyes asked me to look into it I had not only heard before of these mirrors which are frequently used in the temples but I had often seen them it is claimed that under the direction and will of instructed

Priests there appeared in them the D zin the great spirits who notified the inquiring devotees of their fate I first imagined that his intention was to evoke such a spirit who would answer my queries what happened however was something of quite a different character no sooner had I not without a

Last Pang of mental squeamishness produced by a deep sense of my own absurd position touched the mirror that I suddenly felt a strange sensation in the arm of the hand that held it for a brief moment I forgot to sit in the seat of the scorner and

Failed to look at the matter from a ludicrous point of view was it fear that suddenly clutched my brain for an instant paralyzing its activity that fear when the heart longs to know what it is death to hear no for I still had Consciousness enough left to go on persuading myself

That nothing would come out of an experiment in the nature of which no sane man could ever believe what was it then then that crept across my brain like a living thing of ice producing therein a sensation of horror and then clutched at my heart as if a deadly

Serpent had fastened its fangs into it with a convulsive jerk of the hand I dropped the I blushed to write the adjective magic mirror and could not force myself to pick it up from the CTI on which I was reclining for one short moment there was a terrible struggle

Between some undefined and to me utterly inexplicable longing to look into the depths of the Polish surface of the mirror and my pride the ferocity of which nothing seemed capable of taming it was finally so tamed however its Revolt being conquered by its own defiant intensity there was an opened novel

Lying on a lacquered table near the CTI and as my eyes happen to fall upon its pages I read the words the veil which covers Futurity is woven by the hand of Mercy this was enough that same Pride which had hither to held me back from

What I regarded as a degrading super I icious experiment caused me to challenge my fate I picked up The ominously Shining disc and prepared to look into it while I was examining the mirror the yamabushi hastily spoke a few words to the bonds tamura at which I threw a

Furtive and suspicious glance at both I was wrong once more the holy man desires me to put you a question and give you at the same time a warning remarked the Vons if you are willing to see for yourself now will have under the penalty of seeing forever in the Hereafter all

That is taking place at whatever distance and that against your will or inclination to submit to a regular course of purification after you have leared what you want through the mirror what is this course and what have I to promise I asked defiantly it is for your own good you

Must promise him to submit to the process lest for the rest of his life he should have to hold himself responsible before his own conscience for having made an irresponsible Seer of you will you do so friend there will be time enough to think of it if I see anything I

Sneeringly replied adding under my breath something I doubt a good deal so far well you are warned friend the consequences will now remain with yourself I glanced at the clock and made a gesture of impatience which was remarked and understood by the yamabushi it was just 7 minutes after

5 Define well in your mind what you would see and learn said The Conjurer placing the mirror and paper in my hands and instructing me how to use them his instructions were received by me with more impatience than gratitude and for one short instant I hesitated again nevertheless I replied while fixing the

Mirror I desire but one thing to learn the reason or reasons why my sister has so suddenly ceased writing to to me had I pronounced these words in reality and in the hearing of the two witnesses or had I only thought them to this day I cannot decide the point I now

Remember but one thing distinctly while I sat gazing in the mirror the yamabushi kept gazing at me but whether this process lasted half a second or 3 hours I’ve never since been able to settle in my mind with any degree of satisfaction I can recall every detail

Of the scene up to that moment when I took up the mirror with the left hand holding the paper inscribed with the Mystic characters between the thumb and finger of the right when all of a sudden I seemed to quite lose consciousness of the surrounding objects the passage from the active

Waking state to one that I could compare with nothing I had ever experienced before was so rapid that while my eyes had ceased to perceive external objects and had completely lost sight of the bonds the yamabushi and even of my room I could nevertheless distinctly see the

Hole of my head and my back as I sat leaning forward with the mirror in my hand then came a strong sensation of an involuntary Rush forward of snapping off so to say from my place I had almost said from my body and then while every one of my

Other senses had become totally paralyzed my eyes as I thought unexpectedly caught a clearer and far more Vivid Glimpse than they had ever had in reality of my sister’s new house at Nur ber which I had never visited and knew only from a sketch and other

Scenery with which I had never been very familiar together with this and while feeling in my brain what seemed like flashes of a departing Consciousness dying persons must feel so no doubt the very last vague thought so weak as to have been hardly perceptible was that I must look very very ridiculous this

Feeling for such it was rather than a thought was interrupted suddenly extinguished so to say by a a clear mental Vision I cannot characterize it otherwise of myself of that which I regarded as and knew to be my body lying with ashy cheeks on the seti dead to all

Intents and purposes but still staring with the cold and glassy eyes of a corpse into the mirror bending over it with his two emaciated hands cutting the air in every direction over its white face stood the tall figure of the yamabushi for whom I felt at that instant an inextinguishable murderous hat

As I was going and thought to pounce upon the vile charlatan my corpse the two old men the room itself and every object in it trembled and danced in a reddish glowing light and seemed to flow rapidly away from me a few more grotesque distorted Shadows before my

Sight and with it last a feeling of Terror and a supreme effort to realize who then was I now since I was not that corpse a great veil of Darkness fell over me like a funeral Paul and every thought in me was dead end of section one section two of nightmare Tales by

Helena P blavatsky this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Ben Tucker a Bewitched life part two four a vision of horror how strange where was I now it was evident to me that I had once more returned to my senses for there I was vividly realizing that I was rapidly

Moving forward while experiencing a queer strange sensation as though I were swimming without impulse or effort on my part and in total darkness the idea that first presented itself to me was that of a long Subterranean passage of water of Earth and of stifling air though bodily I had

No perception no sensation of the presence or contact of any of these I try to utter a few words to repeat my last sentence I desire but one thing to learn the reason or reasons why my sister has so suddenly ceased writing to me but the only words I heard out of the

21 were the two to learn and these instead of their coming out of my own lyns came back to me in my own voice but entirely outside myself near but not in me in short they were pronounced by my voice not by my lips one more rapid involuntary motion

One more plunge into the Samaran darkness of a to me unknown element and I saw myself standing actually standing under ground as it seemed I was compactly and thickly surrounded on all sides above and below right and left with Earth and in the mold and yet it weighed not and seemed quite immaterial

And transparent to my senses I did not realize for one second the utter absurdity nay impossibility of that seeming Fact one second more one short instant and I perceived oh inexpressible horror when I think of it now for then although I perceived realized and recorded facts and events

Far far more clearly than ever I had done before I did not seem to be touched in any other way by what I saw Yes I perceived a coffin at my feet it was a plain unpretentious shell made of deal the last couch of the popper in which

Not withstanding its closed lid I plainly saw a hideous grinning skull a man’s skeleton mutilated and broken in many of its parts as though it had been taken out of some hidden chamber of the defunct Inquisition where it had been subjected to torture who can it be I

Thought at this moment I heard again proceeding from afar the same voice my voice the reason or reasons why it said as though these words were The Unbroken continuation of the same sentence of which it had just repeated the two words to learn it sounded near and yet as from

Some incalculable distance giving me then the idea that the long Subterranean Journey the subsequent mental Reflections and discoveries had occupied no time had been performed during the short almost instantaneous interval between the first and the middle words of the sentence begun at any rate if not actually pronounced by myself in the

Room at Kyoto in which it was now finishing and interrupted broken phrases like a faithful echo of my own words and voice forth with the Hideous mingled remains began assuming a form and to me but too familiar appearance the broken parts joined together one to the other the bones

Became covered once more with flesh and I recognized in these disfigured remains with some surprise but not a trace of feeling at the sight my sister’s dead husband my own brother-in-law whom I had for her sake loved so truly how was it how did he come to die

Such a terrible death I asked myself to put oneself a query seemed in the state in which I was to instantly Solve IT hardly had I asked myself the question when as if in a panorama I saw the retrospective picture of poor Carl’s death in all its horrid vividness and

With every thrilling detail every one of which however left left me then entirely and brutally indifferent here he is the dear old fellow full of life and joy at the prospect of more lucrative employment from his principal examining and trying in a wood sawing Factory a monster steam

Engine just arrived from America he bends over to examine more closely an inner arrangement to tighten a screw his clothes are caught by the teeth of the revolving wheel in full motion and suddenly he is dragged down doubled up and his limbs half severed torn off before the Workman unacquainted with the

Mechanism can stop it he is taken out or what remains of him dead mangled a thing of horror an unrecognizable mass of palpitating Flesh and Blood I follow the remains wield as an unrecognizable Heap to the hospital here the brutally given order that the messengers of death

Should stop on their way at the house of the Widow and orphans I follow them and find the unconscious family quietly assembled together I see my sister the dear and beloved and remain indifferent at the sight only feeling highly interested in the coming scene my heart my feelings

Even my personality seem to have disappeared to have been left behind to belong to somebody else there I stand and Witness her unprepared reception of the ghastly news I realized clearly without one moment’s hesitation or mistake the effect of the shock upon her I perceive clearly following in recording to the minutest

Detail her Sensations and the inner process that takes place in her I watch and remember missing not one single point as the corpse is brought into the house for identification I hear the long agonizing cry my own name pronounced and the dull thud of the living body falling

Upon the remains of the Dead one I follow with curiosity the sudden thrill and the instantaneous perturbation in her brain that follow it and watched with attention the worm likee precipitate and immensely intensified emotion of the tubular fibers the instantaneous change of color in the [ __ ] extremity of the nervous system the

Fibrous nervous matter passing from white to Bright red and then to a dark red bluish Hue I noticed the sudden flask of a phosphorus like brilliant Radiance its trimmer and its sudden Extinction followed by Darkness complete darkness in the region of memory as the radiance comparable in its form only to

A human shape oozes out suddenly from the top of the head expands loses its form and scatters and I say to myself this is insanity lifelong incurable Insanity for the principle of intelligence is not paralyzed or extinguished temporarily but has just deserted the Tabernacle forever ejected

From it by the terrible force of the sudden blow the link between the animal and the Divine Essence is broken and as the unfamiliar term Divine is mentally uttered my thought laughs suddenly I hear again my far off yet near voice pronouncing emphatically and close by me the words why my sister

Had so suddenly ceased writing and before the two final words to me have completed the sentence I see a long series of sad events immediately following the catastrophe I behold the mother now a helpless graveling idiot in The Lunatic Asylum attached to the City Hospital the seven younger children admitted into a

Refuge for poppers finally I see the two Elder a boy of 15 and a girl a year younger my favorites both taken by strangers into their service a captain of a sailing vessel carries away my nephew an old Jewish adopts the tender girl I see the events with all their

Horrors and thrilling details and record each to the smallest detail with the utmost coolness for Mark well when I use such Expressions as Horrors Etc they are to be understood as an afterthought during the whole time of the events described I experienced no sensation of either pain

Or pity my feelings seemed to be paralyzed as well as my external senses it was only after coming back that I realized my irretrievable losses to their full extent much of that which I had so vehemently denied in those days owing to sad personal experience I have to admit

Now had I been told by anyone at that time that man could act and think and feel IR irrespective of his brain and senses nay that by some mysterious and to this day for me incomprehensible power he could be transported mentally thousands of miles away from his body

There to witness not only present but also past events and remember these by storing them in his memory I would have proclaimed that man a Madman alas I can do so no longer for I’ve become myself that mad man tin 20 40 a 100 times during the course of

This wretched life of mine have I experienced and lived over such moments of existence outside of my body a cursed to be that hour when this terrible power was first awakened in me I have not even the consolation left of attributing such glimpses of events at a distance to

Insanity Mad Men Rave and see that which exists not in the realm they belong to my Visions have proved invariably correct but to my Narrative of Woe I had hardly had time to see my unfortunate young niece in her new israelitish home when I felt a shock of the same nature

As the one that had sent me swimming through the bowels of the earth as I had thought I opened my eyes in my own room and the first thing I fixed upon by accident was the clock the hands of the dial showed 7 minutes and a half past

Five I thus passed through those most terrible experiences which it takes me hours to narrate in precisely half a minute of time but this too was an afterthought for one brief instant I recollected nothing of what I had seen the interval between the time I had glanced at the clock when taking the

Mirror from the yamabushi hand and the Second Glance seemed to me merged into one I was just opening my lips to hurry on the yamabushi with his experiment when the full remembrance of what I had just seen flashed lightning like into my brain uttering a cry of horror and

Despair I felt as though the whole creation were crushing me under its weight for one moment I remained speechless the picture of human ruin amid a world of death and desolation my heart sank down in anguish my Doom was closed and a hopeless Gloom seemed to settle over the rest of my life

Forever five return of doubts then came a reaction as sudden as my grief itself a doubt arose in my mind which forth withth grew into a fierce desire of denying the truth of what I had seen a stubborn resolution of treating the whole thing as an empty meaningless

Dream the effect of my overstrained mind took possession of me yes it was but a lying Vision an idiotic cheating of my own senses suggesting pictures of death and misery which had been evoked by weeks of incertitude and mental depression how could I see all that that

I’ve seen in less than half a minute I exclaimed the theory of Dreams the rapidity with which the material changes on which our ideas and vision depend are excited in the hemispherical ganglia is sufficient to account for the long series of events I have seemed to experience and dream alone can the

Relations of space and time be so completely annihilated the yamabushi is for nothing in this disagreeable nightmare he is only reaping that which has been sown by myself and by using some infernal drug of which his tribe have the secret he has contrived to make me lose

Consciousness for a few seconds and see that Vision as lying as it is horrid of a all such thoughts I believe them not in a few days there will be a steamer sailing for Europe I shall leave tomorrow this disjointed monologue was pronounced by me aloud regardless of the

Presence of my respected friend the bonds tamura and the yamabushi the latter was standing before me in the same position as when he placed the mirror in my hands and kept looking at me calmly I should perhaps say looking through me and in dignified silence the bonds whose kind countenance was beaming

With sympathy approached me as he would a sick child and gently laying his hand on mine and with tears in his eyes said friend you must not leave this city before you have been completely purified of your cont with the lower diin spirits who had to be used to guide

Your inexperienced soul to the places it crave to see the entrance to your inner self must be closed against their dangerous intrusion lose no time therefore my son and allow the holy Master Yonder to purify you at once but nothing can be more deaf than anger once

Aroused the sap of Reason could no longer quench the fire of passion and at that moment I was not fit to listen to his friendly voice his is a face I can never recall to my memory without genuine feeling his a name I will ever pronounce

With a sigh of emotion but at that ever Memorial hour when my passions were inflamed to white heat I felt almost a hatred for the kind good old man I could not forgive him his interference in the present event hence for all answer therefore he received from me a Stern

Rebuke a violent protest on my part against the idea that I could ever regard the vision I had had and any other light save that of an empty dream and as yamabushi as anything better than an impostor I will leave tomorrow had I to Forfeit my whole Fortune as a penalty I

Exclaimed pale with rage and despair you will repent it the whole of your life if you do so before the holy men has shut every entrance in you against Intruders ever on the watch and ready to enter the open door was the answer the D jins will have the best of

You I interrupted him with a brutal laugh and a still more brutally phrased inquiry about the fees I was expecting to give the yamabushi for his experiment with me he needs no reward was the reply the order he belongs to is the richest in the world since its adherence need

Nothing for they are above all terrestrial and venal desires insult him not the good man who came to help you out of pure sympathy for your suffering and to relieve you of mental Agony but I would listen to no words of reason and wisdom the spirit of rebellion and pride had taken possession

Of me and made me disregard every feeling of personal friendship or even of simple propriety lucky for me on turning around to order the medicant monk out of my presence I found he had gone I had not seen him move and attributed his stealthy departure to fear at having been detected and

Understood fool blind conceited idiot that I was why did I fail to recognize the yamabushi power and that the Peace of my whole life was departing with him from that moment forever but I did so fail even the fell demon of my long fears uncertainty was now entirely overpowered by that

Fiend skepticism the silliest of all a dull morbid unbelief a stubborn denial of the evidence of my own senses and a determined will to regard the whole Vision as a fancy of my overwrought mind had taken firm hold of me my mind I argued what is it shall I believe with

The superstitious and the weak that this production of phosphorus and gray matter is indeed the Superior part of me that it can act and see independently of my physical senses never as well believe in the planetary intelligences of the astrologer as in the DI zins of my credulous though well-meaning friend the

Priest as well confess one’s belief in Jupiter and Saul Saturn and Mercury and that these worthies guide their spheres and concern themselves with Mortals as to give one serious thought to the Airy non- entities supposed to have guided my soul in its unpleasant dream I loathe

And laugh at the Absurd idea I regard it as a personal insult to the intellect and rational reasoning powers of a man to speak of invisible creatures subjective intelligences and all that kind of insane Superstition in short I begged my friend the bonds to spare me his protests and

Thus the unpleasantness of breaking with him forever thus I raved and argued before the venerable Japanese gentleman doing all in my power to leave on his mind the indelible conviction of my having gone suddenly mad but his admirable forbearance proved more than equal to my idiotic passion

And he implored me once more for the sake of my whole future to submit to certain necessary purificatory rights never far rather dwell in air rarified to nothing by the air pump of wholesome unbelief than in the dim fog of silly super ition I argued paraphrasing rork remark I will not

Believe I repeated but as I can no longer bear such uncertainty about my sister and her family I will return by the first steamer to Europe this final determination upset my old acquaintance altogether his Earnest prayer not to depart before I had seen the yamabushi once more receive no attention from me

Friend of a foreign land he cried I pray that you may not repent of your unbelief and rashness may the Holy One quanan the goddess of Mercy protect you from the zins for since you refuse to submit to the process of purification at the hands of the Holy yamabushi he is powerless to

Defend you from the evil influences evoked by your unbelief and Defiance of truth but let me at this parting hour I beseech you let me an older gentleman who wishes you well warn you once more and persuade you of things you are still ignorant of may I speak go on and have

Your say was the ungracious ascent but let me warn you in my turn that nothing you can say can make of me a believer in your disgraceful superstitions this was added with a cruel feeling of pleasure in bestowing one more needless insult but the Excellent Man disregarded

This new sneer as he had all others never shall I forget the solemn earnestness of his parting words the pitying remorseful look on his face when he found that it was indeed all to no purpose that by his kindly meant interference he had only led me to my

Destruction lend me your ear good sir for the last time he began learn that unless the holy and venerable man who to relieve your distress opened your soul vision is permitted to complete his work your future life will indeed be little worth living He has to safeguard you against involuntary repetitions of

Visions of the same character unless you consent to it of your own free will however you will have to be left in the power of forces which will harass and persecute you to the verge of insanity know that the development of long Vision or Clairvoyance which is

Accomplished at will only by those For Whom the Mother of Mercy the great quanan has no secrets must in the case of the beginner be pursued with the help of the air jens’s Elemental Spirits whose nature is soulless and hence Wicked know also that while the arahat

The destroyer of the enemy who has subjected and made of these creatures his servants has nothing to fear he who has no power over them becomes their slave nay laugh not in your great pride and ignorance but listen further during the time of the vision and while the inner perceptions are directed toward

The events they seek the D jins have the sear when like yourself he is an inexperienced Tyro entirely in its power and for the time being that sear is no longer himself he partakes of the nature of his guide the D Jin which directs his inner sight keeps his soul endurance

Vile making of him while the state lasts a creature like itself bereft of his Divine Light man is but a soulless being hence during the time of such connection he will feel no human emotions neither pity nor fear love nor Mercy hold I involuntarily exclaimed as the words vividly brought back to my

Recollection the indifference with which I had witnessed my sister’s Despair and sudden loss of Reason in my hallucination hold but no it is still worse madness in me to heed or find any sense in your ridiculous Tale But if you knew it to be so dangerous why have

Advised the experiment at all I added mockingly it had to last but a few seconds and no evil could have resulted from it had you kept your promise to submit to purification was the sad and humble reply I wish you well my friend and my heart was nigh breaking to see

You suffering day by day the experiment is harmless when directed by one who knows and becomes dangerous only when the final precaution is neglected it is the master of Visions he who has opened and an entrance into your soul who has to close it by using the Seal of

Purification against any further and deliberate Ingress of the master of Visions for sooth I cried brutally interrupting him say rather the master of imposture the look of Sorrow on his kind old face was so intense and painful to behold that I perceived I had gone too far but it was too

Late farewell then said the old bonds rising and after performing the usual ceremonies of politeness Tamora left the house in dignified silence six I depart but not alone several days later I sailed but during my stay I saw my venerable friend the bonds no more evidently on that last

And to me for ever memorable evening he had been seriously offended with my more than irreverent my downright insulting remark about one whom he so justly respected I felt sorry for him but the wheel of passion and pride was too incessantly at work to permit me to feel a single

Moment of remorse what was it that made me so relish the pleasure of Wrath that when for one instant I happened to lose sight of my supposed grievance toward the yamabushi I forth with lashed myself back into a kind of artificial Fury against him he had only accomplished

What he had been expected to do and what he had tacitly promised not only so but it was I myself who had deprived him of the possibility of doing more even for my own protection if I might believe the bonds a man whom I knew to be thoroughly honorable and

Reliable was it regret at having been forced by my pride to refuse the proferred precaution or was it the fear of remorse that made me Rake together in my Heart during those evil hours the smallest details of the supposed insult to that same suicidal Pride remorse as

An old poet has has aptly remarked is like the heart in which it grows if proud and gloomy it is a poison tree that pierced to the utmost weeps only Tears of Blood perchance it was the indefinite fear of something of that sort which caused me to remain so obdurate and led

Me to excuse Under The Plea of terrible provocation even the unprovoked insults that I had heaped upon the head of my kind and all forgiving friend the priest however it was now too late in the day to recall the words of off I had uttered

And all I could do was to promise myself the satisfaction of writing him a friendly letter as soon as I reached home fool blind fool elated with insolent self-conceit that I was so sure did I feel that my vision was due merely to some trick of the yamabushi that I

Actually gloated over my coming Triumph in writing to the bonds that I had been W and answering his sad words of parting with an incredulous Smile as my sister and family were all in good health happy I had not been at sea for a week before I had caused to remember his

Words of warning from the day of my experience with the magic mirror I perceived a great change in my whole state and I attributed it at first to the mental depression I had struggled against for so many months during the day I very often found myself absent from the surrounding scenes losing sight

For several minutes of things and persons my nights were Disturbed my dreams oppressive and at times horrible good sailor I certainly was and besides the weather was unusually fine the ocean as smooth as a pond not withstanding this I often felt a strange giddiness and the familiar faces of my fellow

Passengers assumed at such times the most grotesque appearances thus a young German I used to know well was once suddenly transformed before my eyes into his old father whom we had laid in the little burial place of the European Colony some 3 years before we were talking on deck

Of the defunct and of a certain business arrangement of his when Max gruner’s Head appeared to me as though it were covered with a strange film a thick grayish Mist surrounded him and gradually condensing around and upon his healthy countenance settled suddenly into the Grim old head I had myself seen

Covered with 6 feet of soil on another occasion as the captain was talking of a melee Thief whom he had helped to secure and Lodge in jail I saw near him the yellow villainous face of a man answering to his description I kept silent about such hallucinations but as they became more

And more frequent I felt very much Disturbed though still attributing them to natural causes such as I had read about in medical books one night I was abruptly awakened by a long and Loud Cry of distress it was a woman’s voice plaintive like that of a child full of Terror and of

Helpless despair I awoke with a start to find myself on land in a strange room a young girl almost a child was desperately struggling against a powerful middle-aged man who had surprised her in her own room and during her sleep behind the closed and locked door

I saw listening an old woman whose face notwithstanding the fish expression upon it seemed familiar to me and I immediately recognized it it was the face of the Jewish who had adopted my niece in the dream I had had at Kyoto she had received gold to pay for

Her share in the foul crime and was now keeping her part of the Covenant but who was the victim oh horror unutterable unspeakable horror when I realized the situation after coming back to my normal State I found it was my own child nie but as in my first Vision I felt in

Me nothing of the nature of that despair born of affection that fills one’s heart at the sight of a wrong done to or a misfortune befalling those one loves nothing but a man manly indignation in the presence of suffering inflicted upon the weak and the helpless I rushed of

Course to her rescue and seized the wanten brutal Beast by the neck I fastened upon him with powerful grasp but the man heeded it not he seemed not even to feel my hand the coward seeing himself resisted by the girl lifted his powerful arm and the thick fist coming down like

A heavy Hammer upon the sunny locks fell the child to the ground it was with loud Cry of the indignation of a stranger not with that of a tigress defending her cub that I sprang upon the lwd Beast and sought to throttle him I then remarked for the

First time that a shadow myself I was grasping but another Shadow my loud shrieks and imprecations had awakened the whole steamer they were attributed to a nightmare I did not seek to take anyone into my confidence but from that day forward my life became a long series of mental

Tortures I get could hardly shut my eyes without becoming witness of some horrible deed some scene of misery death or crime whether past present or even future as I ascertained later on it was as though some mocking fiend had taken upon himself the task of making me go

Through the vision of everything that was beastial malignant and hopeless in this world of misery no radiant vision of beauty or virtue ever lit with the faintest ray these pictures of awe and wretchedness that I seemed doomed to witness scenes of wickedness of murder of treachery and of lust fell dismally

Upon my sight and I was brought face to face with the viest results of man’s passions the most terrible outcome of his material Earthly Cravings had the bonds foreseen indeed the dreary results when he spoke of di jins to whom I left an Ingress a door

Open to me nonsense there must be some physiological abnormal change in me once at nurburg when I have ascertained how false was the direction taken by my fears I dare not hope for no Misfortune at all these meaningless Visions will disappear as they came the very fact

That my fancy follows but One Direction that of pictures of misery of human passions in their worst material shape is a proof to me of their unreality if as you say man consists of one substance matter the object of the physical senses and if perception with

Its modes is only the result of the organization of the brain then should we be naturally attracted but to the material the Earthly I thought I heard the familiar voice of the bonds interrupting my Reflections and repeating an often-used argument of his and his discussions with me there are

Two planes of Visions before men I again heard him say the plane of undying love and spiritual aspirations the afflux from the Eternal Light and the plane of rest less everchanging matter the light in which the misguided dig jins bathed seven eternity in a short dream in those days I could hardly bring

Myself to realize even for a moment the absurdity of a belief in any kind of spirits whether good or bad I now understood if I did not believe what was meant by the term though I still persisted in hoping that it would finally prove some physical derangement or nervous

Hallucination to fortify my unbelief the more I tried to bring back to my memory all the arguments used against faith and such superstitions that I had ever read or heard I recalled the biting sarcasms of vol the calm reasoning of Hume and I repeated to myself ad nauseum the words

Of rouso who said that Superstition the disturber of society could never be too strongly attacked why should the sight the fantasmagoria rather I argued of that which we know in a waking sense to be false come to affect us at all why should names whose sense we see not Fray

Us with things that be not one day the old Captain was narrating to us the various superstitions to which Sailors were addicted A pompous English missionary remarked that Fielding had declared long ago that Superstition renders men a fool after which he hesitated for an instant and abruptly stopped I had not taken any

Part in the general conversation but no sooner had the Reverend speaker relieved himself of the quotation than I saw in that Halo vibrating light which I now noticed almost constantly over every human head on the steamer the words of fielding’s next proposition and skepticism makes him mad I had heard and

Read of the claims of those who pretended to see her ship that they often see the thoughts of people traced in the aura of those present whatever Aura May mean with others I had now a personal experience ience of the truth of the claim and felt sufficiently disgusted with the discovery I a

Clairvoyant a new horror added to my life an absurd and ridiculous gift developed which I shall have to conceal from all feeling ashamed of it as if it were a case of leprosy at this moment my hatred to the yamabushi and even to my venerable old friend the bonds knew no

Bounds the former had evidently by his manipulations over me while I was lying unconscious touched some unknown physiological spring in my brain and by loosening it had called forth A Faculty generally hidden in the human Constitution and it was the Japanese priest who had introduced the wretch into my

House but my anger and my curses were alike useless and could be of no avail moreover we were already in European Waters and in a few more days we should be at Hamburg then would my doubts and fears be set at rest and I should find to my intense relief that

Although Clairvoyance as regards the reading of human thoughts on the spot may have have some truth in it the discernment of such events at a distance as I had dreamed of was an impossibility for human faculties not withstanding all my reasoning however my heart was sick with fear and full of the blackest

Presentiments I felt that my Doom was closing I suffered terribly my nervous and mental prostration becoming intensified day by day the night before we entered Port I had a dream I fancied I was dead my body lay cold and stiff in its last sleep whilst its dying Consciousness

Which still regarded itself as I realizing the event Was preparing to meet in a few seconds its own Extinction it had been always my belief that as the brain preserved heat longer than any of the other organs and was the last to cease its activity the thought

In it survived bodily death by several minutes therefore I was not in the least surprised to find in my dream that while the frame had already crossed that awful Gulf no mortal ever repass its Consciousness was still in the gray Twilight the first Shadows of the great

Mystery thus my thought wrapped as I believed in the remnants of its now fast retiring Vitality was watching with the intense and eager curiosity the approaches of its own dissolution I.E of its Annihilation I was hastening to record my last Impressions lest the dark mantle of Eternal Oblivion should envelop me

Before I had time to feel and enjoy the great the Supreme Triumph of learning that my lifelong convictions were true that death is a complete and absolute sensation of conscious being everything around me was getting darker with every moment huge gray Shadows were moving before my vision slowly at first then

With accelerated motion until they commenced whirling around with an almost vertiginous rapidity then as though that motion had taken place only for purposes of Brewing Darkness the object once reached it slackened its speed and as the darkness became gradually transformed into intense Blackness it ceased altogether there was nothing now within

My immediate perceptions but that fathomless black space as dark as pitch to me it appeared as Limitless and as silent as the shoreless ocean of Eternity upon which time the progeny of man’s brain is forever gliding but which it can never cross dream is defined by KO as but the image

Of our hopes and fears having never feared death when awake I felt in this dream of mine calm and Serene at the idea of my Speedy end in truth I felt rather relieved at the thought probably owing to my recent mental suffering at the end of all of Doubt of fear for

Those I loved of suffering and of every anxiety was close at hand the constant anguish that had been gnawing ceaselessly at my heavy aching heart for many a long and weary month had now become unbearable and if as senica thinks death is but the ceasing to be what we were

Before it was better that I should die the body is dead I it’s Consciousness that which is All That Remains of me now for a few moments longer and preparing to follow mental perceptions will get weaker more dim and hazy with every second of time until the longed for

Oblivion envelops me completely in its cold shroud sweet as the magic Hand of Death the great world comforter profound and dreamless as sleep in its unyielding arms yay verily it is a welcome guest a calm and peaceful Haven amidst The Roaring Billows of the ocean of Life whose Breakers lash in vain the

Rockbound shores of death happy the lonely bark that drifts into the Still Waters of its black Gulf after having been been so long so cruy tossed about by the angry waves of sentient life mored in it forever more needing no longer either sail or Rudder my bark will now find rest welcome then

O death at this tempting price and Fare Thee Well poor body which having neither sought it nor derived pleasure from it I now readily give up while uttering this death chant to the prostrate form before me I bent over examined it with curiosity I felt this the surrounding

Darkness oppressing me Weighing on me almost tangibly and I fancied I found in it the approach of the Liberator I was welcoming and yet how very strange if real final death takes place in our Consciousness if after the bodily death I and my conscious perceptions are one

How is it that these perceptions do not become weaker why does my brain action seem as vigorous as ever now that I am deao dead nor does the usual feeling of anxiety the heavy heart so-called decrease in intensity nay it even seems to become worse unspeakably so how long

It takes for full Oblivion to arrive ah here’s my body again vanished out of sight for a second or two it reappears before me once more how white and ghastly it looks yet its brain cannot be quite dead since I its Consciousness am still active since we too fancy that we

Still are that we live and think disconnected from our creator and its ideating cells suddenly I felt a strong desire to see how much longer the progress of dissolution was likely to last before it placed its last seal on the brain and rendered it inactive I examined my brain and its

Cranial cavity through the to me entirely transparent walls and roof of the skull and even touched the brain matter how how or with whose hands I am now unable to say but the impression of the slimy intensely cold matter produced a very strong impression on me in that

Dream to my great dismay I found that the blood having entirely congealed and the Brain tissues having themselves undergone a change that would no longer permit any molecular action it became impossible for me to account for the phenomena now taking place with myself here was I or my Consciousness

Which is all one standing apparently entirely disconnected from my brain which could no longer function but I had no time left for reflection a new and most extraordinary change in my perceptions had taken place and now engrossed my whole attention what does this signify the same Darkness was around me

As before a black impenetrable space extending in every direction only now right before me in whatever Direction I was looking moving with me which way soever I moved there was a gigantic round clock a disc whose large white face Shone ominously on the ebony black background as I looked at its huge dial

And at the pendulum moving to and fro regularly and slowly in space as if its swinging meant to defy eternity I saw its needles pointing to 7 minutes past 5 the hour at which my torture had commenced at Kyoto I barely found time to think of the coincidence when to my unutterable

Horror I felt myself going through the same The Identical process that I had been made to experience on that memorable and fatal day I swam underground dashing swiftly through the earth I found myself once more in the Popper’s grave and recognized my brother-in-law and the mangled remains I

Witnessed his terrible death entered my sister’s house followed her Agony and saw her go mad I went over the same scenes without missing a single detail of them but alas I was no longer Ironbound in the calm indifference that had then been mine and which in that

First Vision had left left me as unfeeling to my great Misfortune as if I had been a heartless thing of rock my mental tortures were now becoming Beyond description and well nigh unbearable even the settled despair the never ceasing anxiety I was constantly experiencing when awake had become now

In my dream and in the face of this repetition of vision and events as an hour of darkened sunlight compared to a deadly Cyclone oh how I suffered in this wealth and pomp of infernal Horrors to which the conviction of the survival of man’s Consciousness after death for in

That dream I firmly believed that my body was dead added to the most terrifying of all the relative relief I felt when after going over the last scene I saw once more the great white face of the dial before me was not of long duration the long arrow-shaped needle was

Pointing on the Colossal disc at 7 minutes and a half past 5:00 but before I had time to well realize the change the needle moved slowly backwards sto at precisely the 7 minute and oh cursed fate I found myself driven into a repetition of the same series over again once more I swam

Underground and saw and heard and suffered every torture that hell can provide I passed through every mental anguish known to men or Fiend I returned to see the Fatal dial and its needle after what appeared to me an eternity moved as before only half a minute forward I beheld it with renewed Terror

Moving back again and felt myself propelled forward a new and so it went on and on and on time after time in what seemed to me an endless succession a series which never had any beginning nor would it ever have an end worst of all my Consciousness my eye

Had apparently acquired the phenomenal capacity of trebling quadrupling and even of decoating itself I lived felt and suffered in the same space of time in half a dozen different places at once passing over various events of my life at different epics and under the most dissimilar circumstances though predominant overall was my spiritual

Experience at Kyoto thus as in the famous Fugue and Don Giovani the heart-rending notes of alvar’s Arya of Despair ring high above but interfere in no way with the melody of the minuette the song of Seduction and the chorus so I went over and over my travailed woes

The feelings of Agony unspeakable at the awful sights of my vision the repetition of which blunted in no wise even a single pay of my Despair and horror nor did these feelings weaken in the least scenes and events entirely disconnected with the first one that I was living

Through again or interfere in any way the one with the other it was a mading experience a series of contrapuntal mental fantasmagoria from real life here was I during the same half a minute of time examining with cold curiosity the mingled remains of my sister’s husband following with the same indifference the

Effects of the news on her brain as in my first Kyoto vision and feeling at the same time hell torture for these very events as when I returned to Consciousness I was listening to the philosophical discourses of the bonds of every word of which I heard and

Understood and was trying to laugh him to scorn I was again a child then a youth hearing my mother’s and my sweet sisters voices admonishing me and teaching me duty to all men I was saving a friend from drowning and was sneering at his aged father who thanked me for

Having saved a soul yet unprepared to meet his maker speak of dual Consciousness you psychop physiologists I cried in one of the moments when Agony mental and as it seemed to me physical also had arrived at a degree of intensity which would have killed a dozen living men speak of

Your psychological and physiological experiments you schoolmen puffed up up with pride and book learning here I am to give you the lie and now I was reading the works and holding converse with learned professors and lecturers who had led me to my fatal skepticism and while arguing the impossibility of Consciousness divorced

From its brain I was shedding tears of blood over the supposed fate of my nieces and nephews more terrible than all I knew as only a liberated Consciousness can know that all I had seen in my vision had Japan and all that I was seeing and hearing over and over

Again now was true in every point in detail that it was a long string of ghastly and terrible still of real actual facts for perhaps the hundredth time I had riveted my attention on the needle of the clock I lost the number of my gations and was fast coming to the

Conclusion that they would never stop that Consciousness is after all indestructible and that this this was to be my punishment in eternity I was beginning to realize from personal experience how The Condemned Sinners would feel were not Eternal damnation a logical and mathematical impossibility in an Ever progressing

Universe I still found the voice to argue yay indeed at this hour of my ever increasing Agony my Consciousness now my synonym for I had still the power of revolting at certain theological claims of denying all their propositions all save itself no I denied the independent nature of my

Consciousness no longer for I knew it now to be such but is it Eternal with all oh thou incomprehensible and terrible reality but if Thou Art Eternal who then art thou since there is no deity no God whence Dost thou come and when did thou first appear if Thou Art

Not a part of the cold body lying Yonder and whether Dost thou lead me who am thyself and shall our thought and fancy have an end what is thy real name thou unfathomable reality an impenetrable mystery oh I would Fain annihilate the soul Vision who speaks of soul and whose

Voice is this it says that I see now for myself that there is a soul in man after all I deny this my soul my vital Soul or the spirit of life has expired with my body with the gray matter of my brain this eye of mine this Consciousness is

Not yet proven to me as Eternal reincarnation in which the bonds felt so anxious I should believe may be true why not is not the flower born year after year from the same root hence this I once separated from its brain losing its balance and calling forth such a host of Visions before

Reincarnating I was again face to face with the inexorable fatal clock and as I was watching its needle I heard the voice of the bonds coming out of the depths of its white face saying in this case I fear you would have only to open and to shut the

Temple door over and over again during a period which however short would seem to you an eternity the clock had vanished Darkness made room for light the voice of my old friend was drowned by a multitude of voices overhead on deck and I awoke in my birth covered with a cold

Perspiration and faint with Terror eight a tale of Woe we were at Hamburg and no sooner had I seen my partners who could hardly recognize me then with their consent and good wishes I started for nurenberg half an hour after my arrival the last doubt with regard to the

Correctness of my vision had disappeared the reality was worse than any expectations could have made it and I was henceforward doomed to the most desolate life I ascertained that I had seen the terrible tragedy with all its heart-rending details my brother-in-law killed under the wheels of a machine my

Sister insane and now rapidly sinking toward her end my niece the sweet flower of Nature’s fairest work Dishonored in a den of infamy the little children dead of a contagious disease in an orphanage my last surviving nephew at Sea no one knew where a whole house A Home of love

And peace scattered and I left alone a witness of this world of death of desolation and dishonor the news filled me with infinite Despair and I sank helpless before this wholesale dire disaster which rose before me all at once the shock proved too much and I fainted the

Last thing I heard before entirely losing my Consciousness was a remark of the bergmeister had you before leaving Kyoto telegraphed to the city authorities of your whereabouts and of your intention of coming home to take charge of your young relatives we might have placed them else elsewhere and thus have saved

Them from their fate no one knew that the children had a well-to-do relative they were left poppers and had to be dealt with as such they were comparatively strangers in nurburg and under the unfortunate circumstances you could hardly have expected anything else I can only express my sincere sorrow it

Was this terrible knowledge that I might at any rate have saved my young niece from her unmar fate but that through my neglect I had not done so that was killing me had I but followed the friendly advice of the bonds to MOA and telegraphed to the authorities some

Weeks previous to my return much might have been avoided it was all this coupled with the fact that I could no longer doubt Clairvoyance and Clare audience the possibility of which I had so long denied that brought me so heavily down upon my knees I could avoid

The censure of my fellow creatures but I could never escape the stings of my conscience the reproaches of my own aching heart heart no not as long as I lived I cursed my stubborn skepticism my denial of facts my Early Education I cursed myself and the whole world for

Several days I contrive not to sink beneath my load for I had a duty to perform to the dead and to the living but my sister once rescued from the poppers Asylum placed under the care of the best physicians with her daughter to attend to her last moments and the Jews

Whom I had brought to confess her crime safely lodged in jail my fortitude and strength suddenly abandoned me hardly a week after my arrival I was myself no better than a raving Maniac helpless in the strong grip of a brain fever for several weeks I lay between life and death the terrible disease

Defying the skill of the best physicians at last my strong Constitution prevailed and to my lifelong sorrow they proclaimed me saved I heard the news with a bleeding heart doomed to drag the loathsome burden of Life henceforth alone and in constant remorse hoping for no help or remedy on

Earth and still refusing to believe in the possibility of anything better than a short Survival Of Consciousness beyond the grave this unexpected Return To Life added only one more drop of gall to my bitter feelings they were hardly soothed by the immediate return during the first days of my convalescence of those

Unwelcome and un sought for Visions whose correctness and reality I could deny no more alas the day they were no longer in my skeptical blind mind the children of an idle brain begot of nothing but vain fantasy but always the faithful photographs of the real woes and

Sufferings of my fellow creatures of my best friends thus I found myself doomed whenever I was left for a moment alone to the helpless torture of a chained PR metheus during the still hours of night as though held by some pitiless iron hand I found myself led to my sister’s

Bedside forced to watch there hour after hour and see the silent disintegration of her wasted organism to witness and feel the sufferings that her own tenantless brain could no longer reflect or convey to her perceptions but there was something still more horrible to Barb the dart that could never be

Extricated I had to look by day at the child childish innocent face of my young niece so sublimely simple and guess in her pollution and to witness By Night how the full knowledge and recollection of her dishonor of her young life now forever blasted came to her in her

Dreams as soon as she was asleep these dreams took an objective form to me as they had done on the steamer I had to live them over again night after night and feel the same terrible despair for now since I believed in the reality of sear ship and

And had come to the conclusion that in our bodies lies hidden as in the caterpillar the Chrysalis which may contain in its turn the butterfly the symbol of the soul I no longer remained indifferent as of your to what I witnessed in my soul life something had suddenly developed in me had broken

Loose from its icy cocoon evidently I no longer saw only in consequence of the identification of my inner nature with a dig Jin my Visions arose in consequence of a direct personal psychic development the fish creatures only taking care that I should see nothing of an agreeable or

Elevating nature thus now not an unconscious pain in my dying sister’s emaciated body not a thrill of horror in my niece’s Restless sleep at the recollection of the crime perpetrated upon her an innocent child but found a responsive echo in my bleeding heart the Deep Fountain of sympathetic

Love and sorrow had gushed out from the physical heart and was now loudly echoed by the awakened Soul separated from the body body thus had I to drain the cup of misery to the very drgs woe is me it was a daily and nightly torture oh how I

Mourned over my proud Folly how I was punished for having neglected to Avail myself at Kyoto of the proferred purification for now I’d come to believe even in the efficacy of the latter the Dig Jen had indeed obtained control over me and the fiend had let loose all the

Dogs of Hell upon his victim at last the off Gulf was reached and crossed the poor insane martyr dropped into her dark and now welcome grave leaving behind her but for a few short months her young her firstborn daughter consumption made short work of that tender girlish frame hardly a year

After my arrival I was left alone in the whole wide world my only surviving nephew having expressed a desire to follow his seafaring career and now the sequel of my sad sad story is soon told a wreck a prematurely old man looking at 30 as though 60

Winters had passed over my doomed head and owing to the never ceasing Visions myself daily on the verge of insanity I suddenly formed a desperate resolution I would return to kiyoto and seek out the yamabushi I would prostrate myself at the feet of the holy man I

Would not leaved him until he had recalled the Frankenstein he had raised the Frankenstein with whom at the time it was I myself who would not part through my insolent pride and unbelief 3 months later I was in my Japanese home again and I at once sought

Out my old venerable bonds to Mora haideri I now implored him to take me without an hour’s delay to the yamabushi the innocent cause of my daily tortures his answer but placed the last the Supreme seal on my doom and tfold intensified my despair the yamabushi had left the

Country for lands unknown he had departed one fine morning into the interior on a pilgrimage and according to custom would be absent unless natural death shortened the period for no less than 7 years in this mischance I applied for help and protection of other learned yamabushi and though well aware how

Useless it was in my case to seek efficient cure from any other Adept my excellent old friend did everything he could to help me in my Misfortune but it was to no purpose purp and the canker worm of my life’s despair could not be thoroughly extricated I found from them that not

One of these learned men could promise to relieve me entirely from the demon of Clairvoyant Obsession it was he who raised certain dig Gins calling on them to show Futurity or things that had already come to pass who alone had full control over them with kind sympathy

Which I had now learned to appreciate the holy men invited me to join the group of their disciples and learn from them what I could do for myself will alone faith in your own so powers can help you now they said but it may take

Several years to undo even a part of the Great Mischief they added a DI Jin is easily dislodged in the beginning if left alone he takes possession of a man’s nature and it becomes almost impossible to uproot the fiend without killing his victim persuaded that there was nothing

But this left for me to do I gradually ascented doing my best to believe in all that these holy men believed in and yet yet ever failing to do so in my heart the demon of unbelief and all denial seemed rooted in me more firmly even

Than the do genen still I did all I could do decided as I was not to lose my last chance of Salvation therefore I proceeded without delay to free myself from the world and my commercial obligations in order to live for several years an independent life I settled my

Accounts with my Hamburg partners and severed my connection with the firm notwithstanding considerable Financial losses resulting from such a precipitate liquidation I found myself after closing the accounts a far richer man than I had thought I was but wealth had no longer any attraction for me now that I had no

One to share it with no one to work for Life had become a burden and such was my indifference to my future that while giving away all my fortune to my nephew in case he should return alive from his sea Voyage I should have neglected entirely even a small provision for

Myself had not my native partner interfered and insisted upon my making it I now recognize with LA say that knowledge was the only firm hold for a man to trust to as it is the only one that cannot be shaken by any Tempest wealth is a weak anchor in days

Of sorrow and self-conceit the most fatal counselor hence I followed the advice of my friends and laid aside for myself a modest sum which would be sufficient to assure me a small income for life or if I ever left my new friends and instructors having settled my Earthly accounts and disposed of my

Belongings at Kyoto I joined the masters of the long Vision who took me to their mysterious Abode there I remained for several years studying very earnestly and in the most complete Solitude seeing no one but a few of the members of our religious community many are the

Mysteries of nature that I have fathomed since then and many a secret folio from the library of Zion have I devoured obtaining thereby Mastery over several kinds of invisible beings of a lower order but the great secret of power over the terrible D Jin I could not get it

Remains in the possession of a very limited number of the highest initiates of the LA Z the great majority of the yamabushi themselves being ignorant how to obtain such Mastery over the dangerous Elemental one who would reach such power of control would have to become entirely identified with the

Yamabushi to accept their views and beliefs and to attain the highest degree of initiation very naturally I was found unfit to join the fraternity owing to many insurmountable reasons besides my congenital and ineradicable skepticism though I tried hard to believe thus partially relieved of my Affliction and taught how to conjure the unwelcome

Visions away I still remained and do remain to this day helpless to prevent their forced appearance before me now and then it was after assuring myself of my unfitness for the exalted position of an independent Seer and Adept that I reluct ly gave up any further

Trial nothing had been heard of the holy man the first innocent cause of my Misfortune and the old bons himself who occasionally visited me in my retreat either could not or would not inform me of the whereabouts of the yamabushi when therefore I had to give

Up all hope of his ever relieving me entirely from my fatal gift I resolved to return to Europe to settle in solitude for the rest of my life with this object in view I purchased through my late Partners the Swiss Chalet in which my helpless sister

And I were born where I had grown up under her care and selected it for my future Hermitage when bidding me farewell Forever on the steamer which took me back to my Fatherland the good old bonds tried to console me for my disappointments my son he said regard

All that happened to you as your karma a just retribution no one who has subjected himself willingly to the power of a dig Jin can ever hope to become a Rahat an Adept a high sold yamabushi unless immediately purified at best as in your case he may become fitted to oppose and

To successfully fight off the fiend like a scar left after a poisonous wound the trace of a DED Jin can never be effaced from the soul until purified by a new rebirth with all feel not dejected but be of good cheer in your Affliction since it has led you to acquire true

Know knowledge and to accept many a truth you would have otherwise rejected with contempt and of this Priceless knowledge acquired through suffering and personal efforts no D genen can ever deprive you fair thee well then and may the Mother of Mercy the great Queen of Heaven afford you comfort and

Protection we parted and since then I’ve led the life of an anchorite in constant Solitude and study though still occasionally Afflicted I do not regret the years I have passed under the instruction of the yamabushi but feel gratified for the knowledge received of the priest tamura haideri I think always

With sincere affection and respect I corresponded regularly with him to the day of his death an event which with all its to me painful details I had the unthanked for privilege of witnessing across the seas at the very hour in which it occurred end of section two section three of nightmare Tales by

Helena P baty this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Ben Tucker the cave of The Echoes a strange but true story footnote the story is given from The Narrative of an eyewitness a Russian gentleman very Pious and fully trustworthy moreover the facts are copied from the police records

Of P the eyewitness in question attributes it of course partly to Divine interference and partly to the evil one HPB in footnote in one of the distant governments of the Russian Empire in a small town on the borders of Siberia a mysterious tragedy occurred more than 30

Years ago about six versts from the little town of PE famous for the wild beauty of its scenery and for the wealth of its inhabitants generally proprietar of mines and of iron foundaries stood an aristocratic mansion its household consisted of the master a rich old Bachelor and his brother who

Was a widower and the father of two sons and three daughters it was known that the proprietor Mr isof had adopted his brother’s children and having formed an a special attachment for his eldest nephew Nicholas he had made him the sole heir of his numerous Estates time rolled

On the uncle was getting old the nephew was coming of age days and years had passed in monotonous Serenity when on the hitherto clear Horizon of The Quiet family appeared a cloud on an unlucky day one of the nieces took it into her head to study the zither the instrument

Being of purely tonic origin and no teacher of it residing in the neighborhood the indulgent uncle sent to St Petersburg for both after diligent search only one Professor could be found willing to trust himself in such close proximity to Siberia it was an old German artist who sharing his affections equally between

His instrument and a prettyy blonde daughter would part with neither and thus it came to pass that one fine morning the old Professor arrived at the mansion with his music box under one arm and his fair munchin leaning on the other from that day the little Cloud began growing rapidly for every

Vibration of the melodious instrument found a responsive echo in the old bachelor’s heart music awakens love they say and the work begun by the zither was completed by munchin’s blue eyes at the expiration of 6 months the niece had become an expert zither player and the uncle was desperately in

Love one morning Gathering his adopted family around him he embraced them all very tenderly promised to remember them in his will and wound up by declaring his unalterable resolution to marry the blue-eyed munchin after this he fell upon their necks and wept in silent Rapture the family understanding that

They were cheated out of the inheritance also wept but it was for another cause having thus wept they consoled themselves and tried to Rejoice for the old gentleman was sincer dearly beloved by all not all of them rejoiced though Nicholas who had himself been smitten to

The Heart by the pretty German and who found himself defrauded at once of his Bell and of his uncle’s money neither rejoiced nor consoled himself but disappeared for a whole day meanwhile Mr isof had given orders to prepare his traveling Carriage on the following day and it was whispered that he was going

To the chief town of the district at some distance from his home with the intention of altering his will though very wealthy he had no superintendent on his estate but kept his books himself the same evening after supper he was heard in his room angrily scolding his

Servant who had been in his service for over 30 years this man Ivan was a native of Northern Asia from Katka he had been brought up by the family in the Christian religion and was thought to be very much attached to his master a few days later when the first tragic

Circumstance I’m about to relate had brought all the police force to the spot it was remembered that on that night Ivan was drunk that his master who had a horror of this Vice had paternally thrashed him and turned him out of his room and that Ivan had been seen reeling

Out of the door and had been heard to mutter threats on the vast domain of Mr its btof there was a curious Cavern which excited the Curiosity of all who visited it it exists to this day and is well known to every inhabitant of PE a Pine

Forest commencing a few feet from the garden gate climbs in steep Terraces up a long range of rocks Hills which it covers with a broad belt of impenetrable vegetation The Grotto leading into the cavern which is known as the cave of The Echoes is situated about a half a mile

From the site of the mansion from which it appears as a small excavation in the hillside almost hidden by luxuriant plants but not so completely as to prevent any person entering it from being readily seen from the Terrace in front of the house entering The Grotto the Explorer

Finds at the rear a narrow Clift having passed through which he emerges into a lofty Cavern feebly lighted through fisers and the vaulted roof 50 ft from the ground the cavern itself is immense and would easily hold between 2 and 3,000 people a part of it

In the days of Mr itver sof was paved with flagstones and was often used in the summer as a ballroom by picnic parties of an irregular oval it gradually Narrows into a broad Corridor which runs for several miles underground opening here and there into other Chambers as large and lofty as the

Ballroom but unlike this impassible otherwise than in a boat as they are always full of water these natural basins have the reputation of being unfathomable on the margin of the first of these is a small platform with several Mossy rustic seats arranged on it and it is from this spot that the

Phenomenal Echoes which give the cavern its name are heard in all their weirdness a word pronounced in a whisper or even a sigh is caught up by endless mocking voices and instead of diminishing and volume as honest Echoes do the sound grows louder and louder at every successive repetition until at

Last it bursts forth like the repercussion of a pistol shot and recedes in a plaintive whale down the corridor on the day in question Mr its veroff had mentioned his intention of having a dance party in this cave on his wedding day which he had fixed for an

Early date on the following morning while preparing for his drive he was seen by his family entering The Grotto accompanied only by his Siberian servant half an hour later Ivan returned to the mansion for a snuff box which his master had forgotten in his room and went back with it to the

Cave an hour later the whole house was startled by his loud cries pale and dripping with water Ivan rushed in like a madman and declared that Mr itoff was nowhere to be found in the cave thinking he had fallen into the lake he had dived into the First Basin in search of him

And was nearly drowned himself the day passed in vain attempts to find the body the police filled the house and louder than the rest in his despair was Nicholas the nephew who had returned home only to meet the sad Tidings a dark suspicion fell upon Ivan the Siberian he

Had been struck by his master the night before and had been heard to swear Revenge he had accompanied him alone to the cave and when his room was searched a box full of Rich Family Jewelry known to have been carefully kept in Mr itsz off’s apartment was found under Ivan’s

Bedding vainly did the surf call God to witness that the box had been given to him in charge by his master himself just before they proceeded to the cave that it was the latter’s purpose to have the jewelry reset as he intended it for a wedding present to his bride and that he

Ivan would willingly give his own life to recall that of his master if he knew him to be dead no heed was paid to him however and he was arrested and thrown into prison upon a charge of murder there he was left for under the Russian

Law a criminal cannot at any rate he could not in those days be sentenced for a crime however conclusive the circumstantial evidence unless he confessed his guilt after a week had passed in useless search the family arrayed themselves in deep mourning and as the will as originally drawn remained without a Cil

The whole of the property passed into the hands of the nephew the old teacher and his daughter bore this sudden reverse of Fortune with true Germanic flim and prepared to depart taking again his zither under one arm the old man was about to lead away his munchin by the

Other when the nephew stopped him by offering himself as the fair damsel husband in the place of his departed Uncle the change was found to be an agreeable one and without Much Ado the young people were married 10 years roll away and we meet the happy family once more at the beginning of

1859 the fair munchin had grown fat and vulgar from the day of the old man’s disappearance Nicholas had become morose and retired in his habits and many wondered at the change in him for now he was never seen to smile it seemed as if

His only aim in life were to to find out his uncle’s murderer or rather to bring Ivan to confess his guilt but the man still persisted that he was innocent an only son had been born to the young couple and a strange child it was small delicate and ever ailing his

Frail life seemed to hang by a thread when his features were in Repose his resemblance to his uncle was so striking that the members of the family often shrank from him in Terror it was the pale shriveled face of a man of 60 upon the shoulders of a child 9 years old he

Was never seen either to laugh or to play but perched in his high chair would Gravely sit there folding his arms in a way peculiar to the late Mr iter off and thus he would remain for hours drowsy and motionless his nurses were often seen furtively Crossing themselves at night

Upon approaching him and not one of them would consent to sleep alone with him in the nursery his father’s Behavior towards him was still more strange he seemed to love him passionately and at the same time to hate him bitterly he seldom embraced or caressed the child

But with livid cheek and staring eye he would pass long hours watching him as the child sat quietly in his Corner in his goblin-like oldfashioned way the child had never left the estate and few outside the family knew of his existence about the middle of July a tall

Hungarian traveler preceded by a great reputation for eccentricity wealth and mysterious Powers arrived at the town of P from the north where it was said he had resided for many years he settled in the little town in company with a shaman or South Siberian Magician on whom he was said to make

Mesmeric experiments he gave dinners and parties and invariably exhibited his Shaman of whom he felt very proud for the amusement of his guests one day the notables of P made an unexpected invasion of the domains of Nicholas itoff and requested the loan of his cave for an evening entertainment Nicholas consented with

Great reluctance and only after after still greater hesitancy was he prevailed upon to join the party the first Cavern and the platform beside the bottomless lake glittered with lights hundreds of flickering candles and torches stuck in the Cliffs of the Rocks illuminated the place and drove the Shadows from the

Mossy nooks and Corners where they had crouched undisturbed for many years the stalagtites on the walls sparkled brightly and the sleeping Echoes were suddenly awakened by a joyous confusion of laughter and conversation the shamas who was never lost sight of by his friend and Patron sat in a corner entranced as usual

Crouched on a projecting Rock about midway between the entrance and the water with his lemon yellow wrinkled face flat nose and thin beard he looked more like an ugly Stone Idol than a human being many of the company pressed around him and received correct answers to their questions the Hungarian cheerfully

Submitted his mesmerized subject to cross-examination suddenly one of the party a lady remarked that it was in that very cave that old Mr zerof had so unaccountably disappeared 10 years before the Foreigner appeared interested and desired to learn more of the circumstances so Nicholas was sought

Amid the crowd and led before the eager group he was the host and he found it impossible to refuse the demanded narrative he repeated the sad Tale in a trembling voice with a pet cheek and tears were seen glittering in his feverish eyes the company were greatly affected and encomiums upon the behavior

Of the loving nephew and honoring the memory of his uncle and benefactor were freely circulating in Whispers when suddenly the voice of Nicholas became choked his eyes started from their sockets and with a suppressed groan he staggered back every eye in the crowd followed with curiosity his Haggard look

As it fell and remained riveted upon a weason little face that peeped from behind the back of the Hungarian where do you come from who brought you here child gasped out Nicholas as pale as death I was in bed Papa this man came to me and brought me

Here in his arms answered the boy simply pointing to the shaman beside whom he stood upon the rock and who with his eyes closed kept swaying himself to and fro like a living pendulum that is very strange remarked one of the guests for the man has never

Moved from his place good God what an extraordinary resemblance muttered an old resident of the Town a friend of the lost man you lie child fiercely exclaimed the father go to bed this is no place for you come come interposed the Hungarian with a strange expression

On his face and encircled with his arm the Slender childish figure the little fellow has seen the double of my Shaman which roams sometimes far away from his body and has mistaken the Fantom for the man himself let him remain with us for a while at these strange words the guests

Stared at each other in mute surprise while some piously made the sign of the cross spitting aside presumably at the Devil in all his works by the by continued the Hungarian with a peculiar firmness of accent and addressing the company rather than anyone in particular why should we not

Try with the help of my Shaman to unravel the mystery hanging over the tragedy is the suspected party still lying in prison what he has not confessed up to now this is surely very strange but now we will learn the truth in a few minutes let us all keep

Silent he then approached the Tah chin and immediately began his performance without so much as asking the consent of the master of the place the ladder stood rooted to the spot as if petrified with horror and unable to articulate a word the suggestion met with General approbation save from him and the Police

Inspector colonel s especially approved of the idea ladies and gentlemen said the mesmerizer in soft tones allow me for this once to proceed otherwise than in my general fashion I I will employ the method of native magic it is more appropriate to this wild place and far more effective as you

Will find than our European method of mesmerization without waiting for an answer he drew from a bag that never left his person first a small drum and then two little files one full of fluid the other empty with the contents of the former he sprinkled the shaman who fell

To Trembling and nodding more violently than ever the air was filled with the perfume of spicy odors and the atmosphere itself seemed to become clearer then to the horror of those present he approached the Tibetan and taking a miniature stletto from his pocket he plunged the sharp steel into

The man’s forearm and drew blood from it which he caught in the empty file when it was half filled he pressed the orifice of the wound with his thumb and stopped the flow of blood as easily as if he had corked a bottle after which he sprinkled the blood over the little

Boy’s head he then suspended the drum from his neck and with two Ivory drumsticks which were covered with magic signs and letters he began beating a sort of revil to drum up the spirits as he said the bystanders half shocked and half terrified by these extraordinary proceedings eagerly crowded around him

And for a few moments a dead silence rained throughout the lofty Cavern Nicholas with his face livid and corpse-like stood speechless as before the mesmerizer had placed himself between the shaman and the platform when he began slowly drumming the first notes were muffled and vibrated so softly in

The air that they awakened no Echo but the shaman quickened his pendulum like motion and the child became Restless the drummer then began a slow chant low impressive and solemn as the unknown words issued from his lips the Flames of the candles and torches wavered and flickered until they

Began dancing in rhythm with the chant a cold wind came wheezing from the dark corridors beyond the water leaving a plaintive echo in its Trail then a sort of of nebulous Vapor seeming to Ooze from the rocky ground and walls gathered about the shaman and the boy around the latter the aura was

Silvery and transparent but the cloud which enveloped the former was red and Sinister approaching nearer to the platform the magician beat a louder roll upon the drum and this time the echo caught it up with terrific effect it reverberated near and far in incessant peels one whale followed another louder

And louder until the thunderous Roar seemed the chorus of a thousand demon voices rising from the fathomless depths of the lake the water itself whose surface illuminated by many lights had previously been smooth as a sheet of glass became suddenly agitated as if a powerful gust of wind had swept over its

Unruffled face another chant and a roll of the drum and the mountain trembled to its foundation with the cannon likee peels which rolled through the dark and distant corridors the Shaman’s body Rose two yards in the air and nodding and swaying sat self-suspended like an apparition but the transformation which

Now occurred in the boy chilled everyone as they speechlessly watched the scene the Silvery Cloud about the boy now seemed to lift him too into the air but unlike the shaman his feet never left the ground the child began to grow as though the work of years was miraculously accomplished in a few

Seconds he became tall and large and his scile features Grew Older with the Aging of his body a few more seconds in the youthful form had entirely disappeared it was totally absorbed in another individuality and to the horror of those present who had been familiar with his appearance this

Individuality was that of old Mr itoff and on his Temple was a large gaping wound from which trickled great drops of blood this Phantom moved towards Nicholas till it stood directly in front of him while he with his hair standing erect with the look of a Madman gazed at

His own son transformed into his uncle the seaquel silence was broken by the Hungarian who addressed the child Phantom asked him in Solem voice in the name of the Great Master of him who has all power answer the truth and nothing but the truth Restless Spirit hast thou

Been lost by accident or fouly murdered the spectre’s lips moved but it was the echo which answered for them in lugubrious shouts murdered murdered murdered where how by whom asked The Conjurer The Apparition pointed a finger at Nicholas and without removing its gaze or lowering its arm retreated

Backwards slowly towards the lake at every step it took the young itsz off as if compelled by some irresistible Fascination Advanced a step towards it until the Phantom reached the lake and the next moment was seen gliding on its surface it was a fearful Ghostly seen

When he had come within two steps of the brink of the watery Abyss a violent convulsion ran through the frame of the guilty man flinging himself upon his knees he clung to one of The Rustic seats with a desperate clutch and staring wildly uttered a long piercing

Cry of Agony the Phantom now remained motionless on the water and bending its extended finger slowly beckoned him to come crouched in abject Terror The Wretched Man shrieked until the cavern rang again and again I did not no I did not murder you then came a splash and

Now it was the boy who was in the Dark Water struggling for his life in the middle of the lake with the same motionless Stern Apparition brooding over him papa papa save me I am drowning cried a Pious little voice amid the Uproar of the mocking Echoes my boy

Shrieked Nicholas in the accents of a Maniac springing to his feet my boy save him oh save him yes I confess I am the murderer it is I who killed him another Splash and the Phantom disappeared with a cry of horror the company rushed towards the platform but their feet were

Suddenly rooted to the ground as they saw amid the swirling edes a whitish shapeless Mass holding the murderer and the boy in tight Embrace and slowly sinking into the bottomless Lake on the morning after these occurrences when after a sleepless night some of the party visited the residents

Of the Hungarian gentleman they found it closed and deserted he and the shaman had disappeared many are among the old inhabitants of P who remember him the Police Inspector colonel s dying a few years ago in the full assurance that the noble traveler was the devil to add to

The general consternation the itsz off Mansion took fire on that same night and was completely destroyed the Archbishop performed the ceremony of exorcism but the locality is considered a cursed to this day the government investigated the facts and ordered silence end of section three section four of nightmare Tales by Helena P

Blaty this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Ben Tucker the Luminous Shield we were a small and select party of light-hearted Travelers we had arrived at Constantinople a week before from Greece and had devoted 14 hours a day ever since to toiling up and down

The Steep Heights of Pera visiting bazaars climbing to the tops of minettes and fighting our way through armies of hungry dogs the traditional masters of the streets of stul nomadic life is infectious they say and no civilization is strong enough to destroy the charm of unrestrained Freedom when it has once been

Tasted the Gypsy cannot be tempted from his tint and even the common [ __ ] finds a Fascination in his comfortless and precarious existence that prevents him from taking to any fixed Abode and occupation to guard my spaniel Ralph from falling a victim to this infection and joining the canine bins that

Infested the streets was my chief care during our stay in Constantinople he was a fine fellow my constant companion and cherished friend afraid of losing him I kept a strict watch over his movements for the first 3 days however he behaved like a tolerably well- educated quadruped and remained Faithfully at my

Heels at every impudent attack from his muhammadan cousins whether intended as a hostile demonstration or an overture of friendship his only reply would be to draw in his tail between his legs and with an air of dignified modesty seek protection under the wing of one or other of our

Party as he had thus from the first shown so decided an aversion to Bad Company I began to feel assured of his discretion and by the end of the third day I’d considerably relaxed my vigil Vance this carelessness on my part however was soon punished and I was made to regret my misplaced

Confidence in an unguarded moment he listened to the voice of some four-footed siren and the last I saw of him was the end of his bushy tale Vanishing round the corner of a dirty winding little back street greatly annoyed I passed the remainder of the day in a vain search after my dumb

Companion I offered 20 30 40 Franks reward for him about as many V maltes began a regular Chase and towards evening we were invaded in our hotel by the whole troop every man of them with a more or less mangy Cur in his arms which

He tried to persuade me was my lost dog the more I denied the more solemnly they insisted one of them actually going down on his knees snatching from his bosom an old corroded metal image of the Virgin and swearing a solemn oath that the Queen of Heaven herself had kindly

Appeared to him to point out the right animal the tumult had increased to such an extent that it looked as if Ralph’s disappearance was going to be the cause of a small Riot and finally our landlord had to send for a couple of kassas from the nearest police station and have this

Regiment of bipeds and quadrupeds expelled by main Force I began to be convinced that I should never see my dog again and I was the more despondent since the Porter of the hotel a semi- resectable old brigand who to judge by appearances had not passed more than

Half a dozen years at the gleys Gravely assured me that all my pains were useless as my spaniel was undoubtedly dead and devoured too by this time the Turkish dogs being very fond of their more toothsome English Brothers all this discussion had taken place in the street at the door of the

Hotel and I was about to give up the search for the night at least and enter the hotel when an old Greek Lady uh ferot who had been hearing the frakas from the steps of a door close by approached our disconsolate group and suggested to miss H one of our party

That we should inquire of the dervishes concerning the fate of Ralph and what can the Der es know about my dog said I in no mood to joke ridiculous as the proposition appeared the holy men know all kyria Madam said she somewhat mysteriously last week I was robbed of

My new satin pce that my son had just brought me from brussa and as you all see I have recovered it and have it on my back now indeed then the holy men have also managed to metamorphose your new police into an old one by all appearances said one of the gentlemen who

Accompanied us pointing as he spoke to a large rent in the back which had been clumsily repaired with pins and that is just the most wonderful part of the whole story quietly answered the fote not in the least disconcerted they showed me in The Shining Circle the

Quarter of the town the house and even the room in which the Jew who had stolen my police was just about to rip it up and cut it into pieces my son and I had barely time to run over to the k kulus quarter and to save my property we

Caught the thief in the very act and we both recognized him as the man shown To Us by the dervishes in the magic Moon he confessed the theft and is now in prison although none of us had the least comprehension of what she meant by the

Magic Moon and The Shining Circle and we were all thoroughly mystified by her account of the divining powers of the holy men we still felt somehow satisfied from her manner that the story was not altogether a fabric and since she had at all events apparently succeeded in recovering her

Property through being somehow assisted by the dervishes we determined to go the following morning and see for ourselves for what had helped her might help us likewise the monotonous Cry of the muin from the tops of the minettes had just proclaimed the hour of noon as we

Descending from the heights of perah to the port of Galata with difficulty managed to Elbow our way through the unsavory crowds of the commercial quarter of the town before we reach reached the docks we had been half deafened by the shouts and incessant earpiercing cries and the babble likee confusion of

Tongues in this part of the city it is useless to expect to be guided by either house numbers or names of streets the location of any desired place is indicated by its proximity to some other conspicuous building such as a mosque bath or european shop for the rest one

Has to trust to Allah and his profet it was with greatest difficulty therefore that we finally discovered the British Ship Chandler door the rear of which we were to find the place of our destination our hotel guide was as ignorant of the dervishes Abode as we

Were ourselves but at last a small Greek in all the Simplicity of primitive undress consented for a modest copperback Shish to lead us to the dancers when we were arrived we were shown into a vast and gloomy Hall that looked like a deserted stable it was long and narrow the floor was thickly

Strewn with sand as in a riding school and it was lighted only by small Windows placed at some height from the ground the dervishes had finished their morning performances and were evidently resting from their exhausting labors they looked completely prostrated some lying about in Corners others sitting on their heels

Staring vacantly into space engaged as we were informed in meditation on their invisible deity they appeared to have lost all power of sight and hearing for none of them responded to our questions until a great gaunt figure wearing a tall cap that made him look at least 7

Ft High emerged from an obscure corner informing us that he was their Chief the giant gave us to understand that the saintly Brethren being in the habit of receiving orders for additional ceremonies from Allah himself must on no account be disturbed but when our interpreter had explained to him the

Object of our visit which concerned himself alone as he was the sole custodian of the divining Rod his objections vanished and he extended his hand for alms upon being gratified he intimated that only two of our part party could be admitted at one time into the confidence

Of the future and led the way followed by Miss H and myself plunging after him into what seemed to be a half Subterranean passage we were led to the foot of a tall ladder leading to a chamber under the roof we scrambled up after our guide and at the

Top we found ourselves in a wretched Garrett of moderate size with bare walls and destitute of furniture the floor was carpeted with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs festooned the walls and neglected confusion in the corner we saw something that I at first mistook for a bundle of old rags

But the Heap presently moved and got on its legs Advanced to the middle of the room and stood before us the most extraordinary looking creature that I ever beheld its sex was female but whether she was a woman or child it was impossible to decide she was a hideous

Looking dwarf with an enormous head the shoulders of a Grenadier with a waist in proportion the hole supported by two short lean spider-like legs that seemed unequal to the task of bearing the weight of the Monstrous body she had a grinning countenance like the face of a

Sater and it was ornamented with letters and signs from the Quran painted in bright yellow on her forehead was a blood red crescent her head was crowned with a Dusty tarbou or Fez her legs were arrayed in large Turkish trousers and some dirty white muslin wrapped around

Her body barely sufficed to conceal its hideous deformities this creature rather let herself drop than sat down in the middle of of the floor and as her weight descended on the rickety boards it sent up a cloud of dust that set us coughing and sneezing this was the famous tmos

Known as the Damascus Oracle without losing time in idle talk the dervish produced a piece of chalk and traced around the girl a circle about 6 ft in diameter fetching from behind the door 12 small copper lamps which he filled with some dark liquid from a small bottle which he drew from

His bosom he placed them symmetrically around the magic Circle he then broke a chip of wood from a panel of the half ruined door which bore the marks of many a similar depredation and holding the chip between his thumb and finger he began blowing on it at regular intervals

Alternating the blowing with mutterings of some kind of weird incantation till suddenly and without any apparent cause for its ignition there appeared a spark on the Chip And it blazed up like a dry match the dervish then lit the 12 lamps at this self-generated flame during this process

Tmos who had sat till then altogether unconcerned and motionless removed her yellow slippers from her naked feet and throwing them into a corner disclosed an additional Beauty a sixth toe on each deformed foot the dervish now reached over into the circle and seizing the dwarf’s ankles gave her a jerk as if he

Had been lifting a bag of corn and raised her clear off the ground then stepping back a pace held her head downward he shook her as one might a sack to pack its contents the motion being regular and easy he then swung her to and fro like a pendulum until the necessary momentum

Was acquired when letting go one foot and seizing the other with both hands he made a powerful muscular effort and Whirled her round in the air as if she had been an Indian club my companion had shrunken back in alarm to the farthest Corner round and round the dervish swung his living

Burden she remained perfectly passive the motion increased in rapidity until the eye could hardly follow the body and its circuit this continued for perhaps 2 or 3 minutes until gradually slackening the motion he at length stopped it altogether and in an instant had landed the girl on her knees in the middle of

The lampl circle such was the Eastern mode of mesmerization as practiced among the dervishes and now the dwarf seemed entirely oblivious of external objects and in a deep trance her head and jaw dropped on her chest her eyes were glazed and staring and altogether her appearance was even more hideous than before

The dervish then carefully closed the shutters of the only window and we should have been in total obscurity but that there was a whole board in it through which entered a bright Ray of sunlight that shot through the darkened room and Shone upon the girl he arranged

Her drooping head so that the ray should fall upon the crown after which motioning us to remain silent he folded his arms upon his bosom and fixing his gaze upon the bright spot became as motionless as a stone image I too riveted my eyes on the same spot

Wondering what was to happen next and how all this strange ceremony was to help me find Ralph by degrees the bright patch as if it had been drawn through the Sunbeam a greater Splendor from without and condensed it within its own area shaped itself into a brilliant star

Sending out rays in every direction as from a focus a curious Optical effect then occurred the room which had been previously partially lighted by the Sunbeam grew darker and darker as the star increased in Radiance until we found ourselves in an Egyptian Gloom the star twinkled trembled and turned at

First with a slow gyratory motion then faster and faster increasing its circumference at every rotation until it formed a brilliant disc and we no longer saw the dwarf who seemed absorbed into its light having gradually attained an extremely rapid velocity as the girl had done when Whirled by the dervish the

Motion began to decrease and finally merged into a fee vibration like the Shimmer of moon beams on Rippling water then it flickered for a moment longer emitted a few last flashes and assuming the density and iridescence of an immense opal it remained motionless the disc now radiated a moonlike luster soft

And silvery but instead of Illuminating the Garrett it seemed only to intensify the darkness the edge of the circle was not penumbras but on the contrary sharply defined like that of a silver Shield all being now ready the dervish without uttering a word or removing his

Gaze from the disc stretched out a hand and taking hold of mine he drew me to his side and pointed to the Luminous Shield looking at the place indicated we saw large patches appear like those on the moon these gradually formed themselves into figures that began moving about in high relief in their

Natural colors they neither appeared like a photograph nor an engraving still less like the reflection of images on a mirror but as if the disc were a cameo and they were raised above its surface and then endowed with life and motion to my astonishment and my friend’s consternation we recognized the

Bridge leading from Galata to stul spanning the Golden Horn from the new to The Old City there were the people hurrying to and fro Steamers and gay [ __ ] gliding on the blue Bosphorus The Many Colored buildings Villas and palaces reflected in the water and the whole picture illuminated by by the Noonday

Sun it passed like a panorama but so vivid was the impression that we could not tell whether it or ourselves were in motion all was bustle in life but not a sound broke the oppressive Stillness it was noisess as a dream it was a phantom picture Street after Street and quarter

After quarter succeeded one another there was the bazaar with its narrow roofed passages the small shops on either side the coffee houses with grally smoking Turks and as either they lighted past us or we past them one of the smokers upset the naril and coffee of another and a volley of soundless

Infectives caused us great Amusement so we traveled with the picture until we came to a large building that I recognized as the Palace of the Minister of Finance in a ditch behind the house and close to a mosque lying in a pool of mud with a silken

Coat all bedraggled lay my poor Ralph panting and crouching down as if exhausted he seemed to be in a dying condition and near near him were gathered some sorry looking CS who lay blinking in the Sun and snapping at the Flies I had seen all that I desired

Although I had not breathed a word about the dog to the dervish and had come more out of curiosity than with the idea of any success I was impatient to leave at once and recover Ralph but as my companion besought me to remain a little while longer I reluctantly consented the

Scene faded away and Miss H placed herself in turn by the side of the dervish I will think of him she whispered in my ear with the eager tone that young ladies generally assume when talking of the worshiped hymn there was a long stretch of sand

And a blue sea with white waves dancing in the sun and a great steamer is plowing her way along past a desolate Shore leaving a Milky track behind her the deck is full of life the men are busy forward the cook with the white cap and apron is coming out of the galley

Uniformed officers are moving about passengers fill the quarter deck lounging flirting or read eating and a young man we both recognize comes forward and leans over the Taff rail it is him Miss H gives a little gasp blushes and smiles and concentrates her thoughts again the pictures of the

Steamer vanishes the magic Moon remains for a few moments blank but new spots appear on its luminous face we see a library slowly emerging from its depths a library with Green carpet and hangings and bookshelves around the sides of the room seated in an armchair at the table

Under a hanging lamp is an Old Gentleman writing his gray hair is brushed back from his forehead his face is smooth shaven and his countenance has an expression of benignity the dervish made a hasty motion to enjoin silence the light on the disc Quivers but resumes its steady

Brilliancy and again its surface is imageless for a second we are back in Constantinople now and out of the Pearly depths of The Shield forms our own apartment in the hotel there are our papers and books on the bureau my friend’s traveling hat in a corner her ribbons hanging on the

Glass and lying on the bed the very dress she had changed when starting out on her Expedition no detail was lacking to make the identification complete and as if to prove that we were not seeing something conjured up in our own imagination there lay upon the dressing table two unopened letters the

Handwriting on which was clearly recognized by my friend they were from a very dear relative of hers from whom she had expected to hear when Athens but had been disappointed the scene faded away and we now saw her brother’s room with himself lying upon the lounge and a

Servant bathing his head whence to our horror blood was trickling we had left the boy in perfect health but an hour before and upon seeing this picture my companion uttered a cry of alarm and seizing me by the hand dragged me to the door we rejoined our guide and friends

In the long hul and hurried back to the hotel young H had fallen down the stairs and cut his forehead rather badly in our room on the dressing table were the two letters which had arrived in our absence they had been forwarded from Athens ordering a carriage I at once drove to

The Ministry of Finance and a lighting with the guide hurriedly made for the ditch I had seen for the first time in The Shining disc in the middle of the pool badly mangled half famished but still alive lay my beautiful spaniel Ralph and near him were the blinking cures unconcernedly snapping at the

Flies end of section four section five of nightmare Tales by Helena P blavatsky this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Ben Tucker from The Polar lands A Christmas Story just a year ago during the Christmas holidays a numerous Society had gathered in the country house or

Rather the old hereditary castle of a wealthy land owner in Finland many were were the remains in it of our forefather’s hospitable way of living and many of the medieval Customs preserved founded on traditions and superstitions semi-finish and semi- Russian the latter imported into it by its female Proprietors from the shores

Of the Nava Christmas trees were being prepared and implements for divination were being made ready for in that old castle there were Grim worm eaten portraits of famous ancestors and knights and ladies old deserted turrets with bastions and Gothic Windows mysterious somber alleys and dark endless cellers easily transformed into Subterranean passages

And caves ghostly prison cells haunted by the Restless Phantoms of the heroes of local Legends in short the old Manor offered every commodity for romantic Horrors but alas this once they served for not in the present narrative these dear old Horrors Play No Such part as they

Otherwise might its Chief hero is a very commonplace praic man let us call him kler yes Dr kler professor of medicine half German through his father a full-blown Russian on his mother’s side and by education and one who looked a rather heavily built and ordinary mortal nevertheless very extraordinary things

Happened with him kler as it turned out was a great traveler who by his own choice had accompanied one of the most famous explorers on his journeys around the world more than once they had both seen death face to face from sunstrokes under the tropics from cold in the polar

Regions all this not with standing the doctor spoke with a never abating enthusiasm about their wintering in Greenland and Nova Zima and above the desert PLS in Australia where he lunched off a kangaroo and dined off an emu and almost perished of thirst during The Passage through a waterless track which

It took them 40 hours to cross yes he used to remark I’ve experienced almost everything save what you would describe as Supernatural this of course if we throw out of account a certain extraordin AR event in my life a man I met of whom I will tell you just now and it’s indeed

Rather strange I may add quite inexplicable results there was a loud demand that he should explain himself and the doctor forced to yeld began his narrative in 1878 we were compelled to Winter on the Northwestern coast of spitsbergen we had been attempting to find our way during the short summer to

The pole but as usual the attempt had proved a failure oh to the icebergs and after several such fruitless Endeavors we had to give it up no sooner had we settled than the polar Knight descended upon us our Steamers got wedged in and Frozen between the blocks of ice in the

Gulf of muscle and we found ourselves cut off for eight long months from the rest of the Living World I confess I for one felt it terribly at first we became especially discouraged when one stormy night the snow hurricane scattered a mass of materials prepared for our winter build buildings and deprived us

Of over 40 Deer from our herd starvation and Prospect is no incentive to Good Humor and with the deer we had lost the best plot de resistance against polar frosts human organisms demanding in that climate an increase of heating in solid food however we were finally reconciled

To our loss and even got accustomed to the local and in reality more nutritious food seals and seal grease our men from the remnants of our lumber built a house neatly divided into two compartments one for our three professors and myself and the other for themselves and a few wooden sheds being

Constructed for meteorological astronomical and magnetic purposes we even added a protecting staple for the few remaining deer and then began the monotonous series of dawnless nights and days hardly distinguishable one from the other except through dark gray Shadows at time the blues we got into were fearful

We had contemplated sending two of our three Steamers home in September but the premature and unforeseen formation of ice walls round them had thwarted our plans and now with the entire cruise on our hands we had to economize still more with our meager Provisions Fuel and light lamps were used only for

Scientific purposes the rest of the time we had to content ourselves with God’s light the moon and the Aurora Borealis but how describe these glorious incomparable Norther lights Rings arrows gigantic conflagrations of accurately divided rays of the most Vivid and varied colors the November Moonlight nights

Were as gorgeous the play of moon beams on the snow and the Frozen rocks was most striking these were fairy nights well one such night it may have been one such day for all I know as from the end of November to about the middle of March

We had no Twilights at all to distinguish the one from the other we suddenly aspired in the play of colored beams which were then throwing a golden Rosy Hue on the snow Plaines a dark moving spot it grew and seemed to scatter as it approached nearer to us what did this

Mean it looked like a herd of cattle or a group of living men trotting over the snowy Wilderness but animals there were white like everything else what then was this human beings we could not believe our eyes yes so a group of men was approaching our

Dwelling it turned out to be about 50 seal hunters Guided by matelis a well-known veteran Mariner from Norway they had been caught by the icebergs just as we had how did you know that we were here we asked oh Yan this very same old party showed us the way they

Answered pointing to a venerable looking old man with Snow White locks in Sober Truth it would have besed their guide far better to have sat at home over his fire than to have been sealed hunting in polar lands with younger men and we told them so still

Wondering how he came to learn of our presence in this Kingdom of white bears at this matus and his companions smiled assuring us that old Yan knew all they remarked that we must be novices in polar Borderlands since we were ignorant of Johan’s personality and could still

Wonder at anything said of him it is n 45 years said the chief hunter that I have been catching seals in the polar seas and as far as my personal remembrance goes I have always known him and just as he is now an old white-bearded man and so far back as in

The days when I used to go to sea as a small boy with my father my dad used to tell me the same of old Johan and he added that his own father and grandfather too had known Johan in their days of Boyhood none of them having ever

Seen him otherwise than white as our snows and as our forefathers nicknamed him the whired all all knower thus do we the seal hunters call him to this day would you make us believe he is 200 years old we laughed some of our Sailors crowding round the white-haired phenomenon plied him with questions

Grandfather answer us how old are you I really do not know it myself sunnies I live as long as God has decreed me to as to my years I never counted them and how did you know grandfather that we were wintering in this place God guided me how I learned it I

Do not know save that I knew it I knew it end of Section 5 Section six of nightmare Tales by Helena patski this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Ben Tucker the insold violin one in the year 18 19 28 an old German a

Music teacher came to Paris with his people and settled unostentatiously in one of the quiet faux bourge of the Metropolis the first rejoiced in the name of Samuel klous the second answered to the more poetical appellation of France stino the younger man was a violinist gifted as rumor went with extraordinary

Almost miraculous Talent yet as he was poor and had not hither to made a name for himself in Europe he remained for several years in the capital of France the heart and pulse of capricious Continental fashion unknown and unappreciated fron was a steran by

Birth and at the time of the event to be presently described he was a young man considerably under 30 a philosopher and a dreamer by Nature imbued with all the Mystic Oddities of true genius he reminded one of some of the heroes in Hoffman’s K fantasti his earlier existence had been

A very unusual in fact quite an eccentric one and its history must be briefly told for the better understanding of the present story born of a very Pious country people in a quiet Berg among steran Alps nursed by the native gnomes who watched over his cradle growing up in the weird

Atmosphere of the ghouls and vampires who play such a prominent part in the household of every strian and slavonian in southern Austria educated later as a student in the shadow of the old renish castles of Germany France from his childhood had passed through every emotional stage on the plane of the so-called Supernatural

He had also studied at one time the occult Arts with an enthusiastic disciple of paracelsus and kunrath Alchemy had few theoretical secrets for him and he had dabbled in ceremonial magic and sorcery with some Hungarian zigon yet he loved Above All Else music and above music his violin at the age of

20 to he suddenly gave up his practical studies in the occult and from that day though as devoted as ever in thought to the beautiful Grecian Gods he surrendered himself entirely to his art of his classic studies he had retained only that which related to the muses Utopia especially at whose altar

He worshiped and Orphus whose magic liar he tried to emulate with his violin except his dreamy belief in the nymphs and the sirens on account probably of the double relationship of the matter to the muses through kopy and orus he was interested but little in the matters of

This subliner world all his aspirations mounted like incense with the wave of the Heavenly Harmony that he drew from his instrument to a higher and nobler sphere he dreamed awake and lived a real though unenchanted life only during those hours when his magic bow carried

Him along the wave of sound to the Pagan Olympus

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