But her curse was not destined to be finished. In an instant the
Hercules-like Narayan had fallen on the Sivatherium, and upset the whole
pile, the skull, the horns and the demoniac Pythia included. A second
more, and we thought we saw the witch flying in the air towards the
portico. A confused vision of a stout, shaven Brahman, suddenly emerging
from under the Sivatherium and instantly disappearing in the hollow
beneath it, flashed before my dilated eyes.
But, alas! after the third second had passed, we all came to the
embarrassing conclusion that, judging from the loud clang of the door
of the cave, the representative of the Seven Sisters had ignominiously
fled. The moment she had disappeared from our inquisitive eyes to her
subterranean domain, we all realized that the unearthly hollow voice we
had heard had nothing supernatural about it and belonged to the Brahman
hidden under the Sivatherium--to some one's live uncle, as Mr. Y-- had
rightly supposed.
* * * * *
Oh, Narayan! how carelessly, how disorderly the worlds rotate around us.
I begin to seriously doubt their reality. From this moment I shall
earnestly believe that all things in the universe are nothing but
illusion, a mere Maya. I am becoming a Vedantin.... I doubt that in the
whole universe there may be found anything more objective than a Hindu
witch flying up the spout.
* * * * *
Miss X-- woke up, and asked what was the meaning of all this noise. The
noise of many voices and the sounds of the many retreating footsteps,
the general rush of the crowd, had frightened her. She listened to us
with a condescending smile, and a few yawns, and went to sleep again.
Next morning, at daybreak, we very reluctantly, it must be owned, bade
good-by to the kind-hearted, good-natured Sham Rao. The confoundingly
easy victory of Narayan hung heavily on his mind. His faith in the holy
hermitess and the seven goddesses was a good deal shaken by the shameful
capitulation of the sisters, who had surrendered at the first blow from
a mere mortal. But during the dark hours of the night he had had time
to think it over, and to shake off the uneasy feeling of having
unwillingly misled and disappointed his European friends.
Sham Rao still looked confused when he shook hands with us at parting,
and expressed to us the best wishes of his family and himself.
As to the heroes of this truthful narrative, they mounted their
elephants once more, and directed their heavy steps towards the high
road and Jubbulpore.
REMARKABLE PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES OF FAMOUS PERSONS
BY WALTER F. PRINCE, PH.D.,
Official Investigator American Society for Psychical Research
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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