" POSSESSION." 



355 



agitation and popular disturbance broken out in 

 different parts of Europe, and which, even in this our 

 day, forms the basework of " revivals." Thus in Africa 

 the objective existence of spectra has become a tenet of 

 belief. Stories that stagger the most sceptical are told 

 concerning the phenomenon by respectable and not 

 unlearned Arabs, who point to their fellow-countrymen 

 as instances. Salim bin Rashid, a half-caste merchant, 

 well known at Zanzibar, avers, and his companions bear 

 witness to his words, that on one occasion, when travel- 

 ling northwards from Unyanyembe, the possession 

 occurred to himself. During the night two female 

 slaves, his companions, of whom one was a child, fell, 

 without apparent cause, into the fits which denote the 

 approach of a spirit. Simultaneously, the master 

 became as one intoxicated ; a dark mass, material, not 

 spiritual, entered the tent, and he felt himself pulled 

 and pushed by a number of black figures, whom he 

 had never before seen. He called aloud to his com- 

 panions and slaves, who, vainly attempting to enter 

 the tent, threw it down, and presently found him in a 

 state of stupor, from which he did not recover till the 

 morning. The same merchant circumstantially related, 

 and called witnesses to prove, that a small slave-boy, 

 who was produced on the occasion, had been frequently 

 carried off by possession, even when confined in a 

 windowless room, with a heavy door carefully bolted 

 and padlocked. Next morning the victim was not 

 found, although the chamber remained closed. A few 

 days afterwards he was met in the jungle wandering 

 absently like an idiot, and with speech too incoherent 

 to explain what had happened to him. The Arabs of 

 Oman, who subscribe readily to transformation, deride 

 these tales ; those of African blood believe them. The 



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