— 491 — 



very exceptional conditions, he is even forbidden to make any concessions whatever 

 to such curiosity. In the case in point the course of events may probably have 

 been something of this kind: — Madame Blavatsky perceived by her own occult 

 tentaculae that one of her illustrious friends was in the neighbourhood. She 

 immediately — having a sincere desire to oblige us — may have asked him 

 whether she might bring us to see him. Probably he would regard any such 

 request very much as the astronomer royal might regard the request of a friend 

 to bring a party of ladies to look through his telescopes; but none the less he 

 might say, to please his half-ftedged „brother" in occultism, Madame Blavatsky, 

 „Very well, bring them. if you like: I am in such and such a place. 1 ' And then 

 he would go on with his work, remembering afterwards that the intended visit 

 had never been paid, and perhaps turning an occult perception in the direction 

 of the circumstances to ascertain what had happened. 



However this may have been, the expedition as first planned broke down. 

 It was not with the hope of seeing the Brolher, but on the general principle of 

 hoping for something to turn up, that we arranged to go for a picnic the following 

 day in another direction, which, as the first road had failed, we concluded to be 

 probably the one we ought to have taken previously. 



"We set out at the appointed time next morning. We were originally to 

 have been a party of six, but a seventh person joined us just before we started. 

 After going down the hill for some hours a place was chosen in the wood near 

 the upper waterfall for our breakfast: the baskets that had been brought with 

 us were unpacked, and, as usual at an Indian picnic, the servants at a little 

 distance lighted a fire and set to work to make tea and coffee. Concerning this 

 some joking arose over the fact that we had one cup and saucer too few, on 

 account of the seventh person who joined us at starting, and some one laughingly 

 asked Madame Blavatsky to create another cup and saucer. There was no set 

 purpose in the proposal at first, but when Madame Blavatsky said it would be 

 very difficult, but that if we liked she would try, attention was of course at once 

 arrested. Madame Blavatsky, as usual, held mental conversation with one of the 

 Brothers, and then wandered a little about in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 where we were sitting — that is to say, within a radius of half-a-dozen to a 

 dozen yards from our picnic cloth — I closely following, waiting to see what 

 would happen. Then she marked a spot on the ground, and called to one of 

 the gentlemen of the party to bring a knife to dig with. The place chosen was 

 the edge of a little slope covered with thick weeds and grass and shrubby under- 

 growth. The gentleman with the knife — let us call him X — as I shall have 

 to refer to him afterwards — tore up these in the first place with some difficulty, 

 as the roots were tough and closely interlaced. Cutting then into the matted 

 roots and earth with the knife, and pulling away the debris with his hands, he 



