- 496 — 



earthy — tasting water, unlike that of the modern Simla supply, but equally unlike, 

 I may add, though in a different way, the offensive and discoloured water of the 

 only stream flowing through those woods. 



How was it brought? The how, of course, in all these cases is the great 

 mystery which I am unable to explain except in general terms, but the im- 

 possibility of understanding the way adepts manipulate mat er is one thing; the 

 impossibility of denying that they do manipulate it in a manner which Western 

 ignorance would describe as miraculous is another. The fact is there whether we 

 can explain it or not. The rough, populär saying that you cannot argue the hind 

 leg off a cow, embodies a sound reflection which our prudent sceptics in matters 

 of the kind with which T am now dealing are too apt to overlook. You cannot 

 argue away a fact by contending that by the lights in your mind it ought to be 

 something different from what it is. Still less can you argue away a mass of 

 facts like those I am now recording by a series of extravagant and contradictory 

 hypotheses about each in turn. What the determined disbeliever so often overlooks 

 is that the scepticism which may show an acuteness of mind up to a certain point, 

 reveals a deficient '.ntelligence when adhered to in face of certain kinds of evidence. 



X . . ., I should add here, afterwards changed his mind about the satis- 

 factory character of the cup phenomenon, and said he thought it vitiated as a 

 scientific proof by the interposition of the theory that the cup and saucer might 

 have been thrust up into their places by means of a tunnel cut from a lower 

 part of the bank. I have discussed that hypothesis already, and mention the 

 fact of X . . .'s change of opinion, which does not affect any of the circumstances 

 I have narrated, merely to avoid the chance that readers, who may have heard 

 or read about the Simla phenomenon in other pages, might think I was treating 

 the change of opinion in question as something which it was woith while to 

 disguise. And, indeed, the convictions which I ultimately attained were them- 

 selves the result of accumulated experiences I have yet to relate, so that I cannot 

 feil how far my own certainly concerning the reality of occult power rests on only 

 one example that I have seen. 



It was on the evening of the day the cup phenomenon that there occurred 

 an incident destined to become the subject of very wide discussion in all the 

 Anglo-Indian p;pers. This was the celebrated „brooch incident". The facts 

 were related at the time in a little Statement drawn up for publication, and signed 

 by the nine persons who witnessel it. This Statement will be laid before the 

 rea ler directly, but as the comments to which it gave rise showed that is was too 

 meagTe to convey a füll and accurate idea of what occured, I will describe the 

 course of events a little more fully. In doing this, I may use names with a certain 

 freedom, as these were all appended to the published document (s. Sinnet), u. s. w. 

 (in der „Occult World'«). 



