MESCAL: A STUDY OF A DIVINE PLANT. 63 



a head like the Cheshire Cat appeared. It was vague, except for the 

 smile. Presently it developed a body and legs, and became a lynx, with 

 nc feet, and eyes like glowing opals. It danced gravely round in a 

 circle. Having inquired as to its exact position, I went out and kicked 

 it. It vanished. 



"The subject now saw, in the wake of the moon, which was now 

 shining brightly, a boat containing two men fishing, with a light. I 

 could see the men only with the telescope. Handing the subject the 

 telescope, he said that he saw the boat three times as large without the 

 glass. He now came out and leaned on the rail of the veranda. A 

 cloud over the moon appeared to him an oared galley, five times the 

 diameter of the moon. The oars were moving at the rate of 30 

 strokes to the minute. 



"10:15 p.m. The galley having disappeared, the subject sat down 

 inside the door again. A creature with a pointed nose and sharp ears 

 popped its head constantly round the corner of the door. As the pulse 

 was again imperceptible I administered a pint of strong coffee. 



"10:45 p.m. A beautiful miniature Eastern city appeared, on the 

 beach about twelve feet away. It was lit, apparently, by the sun ; there 

 were walls, citadels, mosques, minarets, houses, etc., all white, inter- 

 spersed with green foliage. It was very compact, standing high above 

 the walls, and about six feet in diameter. After some five or ten minutes 

 an enormous tortoise, with a Greek key pattern in metal round the 

 periphery of the carapace, walked against the city and right through it 

 when it disappeared, and the tortoise with it. 



"Shortly afterwards a vast horde of little black woolly animals, 

 rather like black guinea-pigs with astrachan coats and glow-worms for 

 eyes, poured up over the pebble ridge from the sea, and disported them- 

 selves over the beach, which was quite covered with them. After 

 pouring up for a minute or two they vanished into thin air. Their 

 motion was like that of a swarm of maggots discovered in turning over 

 a dead animal. This was the last vision. The subject expressed a desire 

 for a very large meal, ate a small one, went to bed, immediately slept a 

 dreamless sleep, and was for two days very languid and weak, with a 

 feeble and depressed pulse, and occasional palpitation. He will on no 

 account try the experiment again. 



"The most remarkable feature of the visions was that they all had 

 'a local habitation and a name.' They all appeared out of doors, most 

 of them on the ground at a distance of twelve feet or so; they did not 

 move when the head or eyes were turned, but kept exactly in their place. 

 The visions were seen with either eye indifferently ; with the eyes closed 

 nothing was seen. Mechanical pressure on the eye-balls had no effect. 

 At one period of the experiment the muscles of the eyes became relaxed, 

 so that the subject saw near objects slightly doubled." 



