Asher made a movement so swift that I could scarcely follow it; but it seemed to me that he lightly laid his hand upon the poor Boshman's head. I looked at Ustâni, and then staggered back in wonder, for there upon his snowy hair, right across the wool-white tresses, were five finger-marks _black as coal_. 'Now go and stand in the corner,' said the magician, in a cold inhuman voice. The unhappy Boshman tremblingly did his bidding, putting his hands to his head in a dazed way as he went, and, incredible as it may seem, thus transferring--as if the curse carried double force--some of the black mark to his own fingers. 'I will now,' continued the wizard, who had regained his ordinary polished, if somewhat swaying and overbalanced, manner--'I will now, with your kind permission, show you a little trick which was a great favourite with the late Tubal Cain when we were boys together. Observe, I take this paper-knife--it is an ordinary paper-knife--look at it for yourselves. I will place it on my down-turned hand. It is an ordinary hand--look at it for yourselves, but don't touch it; the consequences might be disastrous.' I, for my part, having seen the consequences in the case of Ustâni's hair, had no desire to do so. 'You see,' continued the sorcerer, 'I place the paper-knife _there_! It falls. Why? Because of gravity. What is gravity? Newton, as you know well, invented the art; but what of that? Did he find that which did not exist? No, for the non-existent is as though it had never been. But now, availing myself of the resources of science, which is ever old and ever young, I clasp my wrist--the wrist of the hand on which the paper-knife rests--with the other hand, and--you see.' As the sorcerer spoke, he deftly turned his hand palm downwards, and the paper-knife fell with a crash and a clatter on the floor. It was terrible to see the dumb wrath of the swathed figure at this new defeat. Even in this moment the Boshman glided like a serpent among us, picked up the paper-knife, and triumphantly performed the very miracle in which the wizard had failed. A harsh cackle of laughter announced his success. But the mage was even with him, or rather he was 'odds and evens.' Rapidly he drew his forefinger across the Boshman's face, perpendicularly and horizontally-- [Illustration: | | --+--+-- | | --+--+-- | | ] On the skin of Ustâni, azure with terror, appeared the above diagram in lines of white! The mage then made the sign of a +, thus-- [Illustration: | |+ --+--+-- | | --+--+-- | | ] and challenged Leonora to a contest of skill in 'oughts and crosses.' But the Boshman, catching a view of his own altered aspect in a mirror, exclaimed, 'You 'standy Ustâni? Him no standy He! Him show hisself for tin! Adults one shilling, kids tizzy. _Me Umslopoguey!_' And he sloped; nor did we ever again see this victim of an overwhelming Power (limited).