CHAPTER I. 



THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LANTERN. 



that wonderful autobiography of Benvenuto 

 Cellini, which Horace Walpole described as 

 being " more amusing than any novel," we 

 find the account of a weird incantation scene which 

 took place in the Colosseum at Rome. Cellini tells us 

 that he had made the acquaintance of a Sicilian priest 

 who volunteered to initiate him into some of the 

 secrets of necromancy. A meeting was appointed at the 

 Colosseum, where " the priest, having arrayed himself in 

 necromancer's robes, began to describe circles on the earth 

 with the finest ceremonies that can be imagined. I must 

 say that he made us bring precious perfumes and fire, and 

 also drugs of fetid odour. When the preliminaries were 

 completed, he made the entrance into the circle j and 

 taking us by the hand, introduced us one by one inside it. 

 Then he assigned our several functions : to the necromancer, 

 his comrade, he gave the pentacle to hold ; the other two 

 of us had to look after the fire and the perfumes ; and 

 then he began his incantations. This lasted more than an 



B 



