Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-10-26

GIVE Me \ BLACK GOAT

TIE conversation after this was Of sucf
desultory order that | do not recolec
ii, For some reason, perhaps from de
sire to keep her identity and character N
reserve, Ayesha did not talk freely, as SHE
usually did. Presently, however, she in
formed Leo that she had arranged dance
that night for our amusement. | was
astonished 10 hear this, AS | tanCled that
the Amahagger were much to gloomy d
folk to indulge in any such friyolity but,
as presently will more clearly appear II
turned out an Amhagger dance had little
in common with such fantistic festivities
in other countries savage or civilized.
! Then as we were about 10 withdraw, she
suggested that Leo might like to see some
of the wonders of the caves, and as he
! gladly assented to this, thither we depart
ed, accou panied by job and Blllall. To
describe our visit would only be 10 repeat
great deal of what have already said.
The tombs we entered were indeed dl1-
erent. for the whole rock was honeycomb
of sepulchers but the contents were near
| " the same. Afterward we visited the
pyramid of bones that had haunted my
dreams on the previous night, and from
thence went down long passage to one
of the great vaults occupied by the bodies
of the poor citizens of the Imperial hor.
These bodies were not nearly so well pre-
served, and many of them had no linen
covering on them, also they were buried
from five hundred to one thousand in a
single large vault, the corpses in many in.
stances being thickly piled one upon anoth.
er, like heap of slain,
When we had finished inspecting the
caves, we returned and had Our meal for il
was now past four in the afternoon, and
we needed some food and rest, especially
Leo. At six o'clock we all, including Job,
waited on Ayesha, who set 10 work to ter
rify our poor servant still further by show
ing him pictures on the pool of water in
the font.like vessel. She learned from me
that be was one Of seventeen children, and
then hid him think of all his brothers and
gathered togather in his fathers cottage.
Then she told him to look into the water,
and there, reflected from its Silly surface,
was that dead scene Of many years gone
by, as it was recalled TO our poor servants
brain Some of the faces were clear
enough, but some were mere blurs and
sploches, or with one feature grossly exag
gerated; the fact being that, in these in
stances, Job had been unable to recall the
exact appearances of the individuals, or
remembered them only by popularity Of
his tribe, and the water could only reflect
what he saw with his minds eye. For it
must be remembered that She's power in
this matter was strictly limited; she could
apparently, except in rare instances, only
photograph upon the water which was in
the mind of some one present. and then
only by his will. But if she was person
ally acquainted with "a locality, she could,
as in the case Of ourselves and the whale.
boat, throw its reflection of any eXtrane-
Gus that was passing there at that time
This power, however, did not extend to
the minds of others For instance, she
could show me the interior of my college
chapel as | remembered it, but not as il
was at the moment of reflection; for where
other people were concerned her art was
strictly limited to the facts or memories
present to their consciousness at the mo.
ment. So much was this so that when we
tried. for her amusement, to show her pic
lures of noted buildings, such as ST. Pauls
or the Houses Of Parliament, the result
was most imperfect; for, of course, though
we had good general idea of their ap.
pearance, we could not recall all The arch
itectural details, and therefore the MN
utiT necessary to perfect reflection
were wanting. But job could not be got
to understand this, and 50 far from accept
ing natural explanation of the matter,
which was, after all, though strange
enough IN all conscience, nothing more
than an instance of glorified and perfected
telepathy, he set the whole thing down as
a manifestation Of the blacklist magic |
shall never forget the howl Of terror which
he uttered when he saw the more or less
perfect portraits of his long scattered
brethren staring at him from the quiet
water, or the merry peal of laughter with
which Ayesha greeted his CONSERVATION.
AS for Leo, he did not half like it either.
but ran his fingers through his yellow
chris, and remarked that it gave him the
creeps.
After about an hour of this amu,c uent,
in the latter part of which job did not
participate, the mutes by signs indicated
that Billali was waiting FOR an audience.
Accordingly he was told to crawl up"
which he did as awkwardly as usual, and
announced that the dance was ready TO be-
gin if She and the white strangers would
be pleased to attend, Shortly afterward
we all rose, and Ayesha having thrown
dark cloak (the same, by the way, that she
had worn when saw her cursing by the