MAGIC AND SORCERY 153 



" These three kinds of Mumia have very wonderful 

 occult powers, and many strange feats may be performed 

 through their use by those who know how to employ 

 them, especially by such as have taken the Mumia them- 

 selves from the persons for whose life it served as a 

 vehicle. Such people are executioners, hangmen, and 

 murderers, and the latter sometimes kill a man for 

 the mere purpose of obtaining his Mumia to perform 

 wicked things. But for such people it would have been 

 better if a millstone had been hung about their necks 

 and they had been thrown into the sea, because they 

 will themselves end in a pitiful manner, and their souls 

 will experience the evil which they themselves have 

 created." ^ 



On account of the great occult power contained in the 

 Mumia, it is used in witchcraft and sorcery. " Witches 

 and sorcerers may make a bargain with evil spirits, and 

 cause them to carry the Mumia to certain places where 

 it will come in contact with other people, without the 

 knowledge of the latter, and cause them harm. They 

 take earth from the graves of people who have died 

 of the plague, and infect other people with it. They 

 also infect the cattle, spoil the milk,^ and cause a great 



If it is the "spirit" of a drowned person, the air in the room will appear 

 to become damp and musty, or perhaps a sprinkling of spray may take 

 place. Moreover, if the " spirit " of a person who was a great drunkard 

 manifests itself, the air may become pervaded with the odour of alcohol. 



^ The final fate of sorcerers and black magicians has often been alluded 

 to in writings on occultism. The organisation of spiritual forces which 

 they create, and in which their consciousness and sensation rests, is 

 very strong ; but as it does not receive its life from the Supreme Spirit, 

 it is not immortal, and its dissolution will therefore be painful and slow, 

 but certain. 



^ Note. — I have taken especial pains to investigate this subject, and I 

 have come to the conclusion that, if such persons make a bargain with 

 evil spirits, they usually do this efifectually, not by any talk or cere- 

 monies, but by entering into a state of harmony of feeling (coming en 

 rapport) with such evil entities, and they may do this unconsciously or 

 unknowingly in their normal state, or it may be that only the sidereal 

 man knows that such a compact exists. Such "sorcerers" are often 

 evil-disposed but ignorant persons, who perhaps do not even know that 



