Of her fingers, toes, and the peculiar formation of certain teeth I
have spoken at length (_another reference to a deleted passage_). I
will deal, now, with those manifestations which proclaimed themselves
during the Sothic month of each year formerly associated with the
Feast of Bâst.
At such times, which I always dreaded, and with good cause, her innate
love of admiration became so excessive as to approach nearly to mania.
She hungered for homage, for praise--I had almost said for adoration.
What I may term, for convenience, the _psychic_ side of her hybrid
mentality at these periods undoubtedly bordered closely upon true
insanity; and learning from the Eurasian nurse to whom I have referred
the whole history of her birth, my charge, to whom I had given the
name of Nahémah (students will recognize its significance), began to
display even more marked evidence of a sort of monomania. Bâst, the
cat-goddess, became an obsession with her, and she finally conceived
the idea that the attributes of that mystical and partly-understood
deity were active within her; that she was Bâst, re-born. And,
certainly, during one month of every year, her condition closely
resembled that which was termed in the Middle Ages "possession."
At such times, moreover (a phenomenon with which I have dealt at
length in my work on the subject), she evinced an antipathy towards
the whole of the _canine_ species which was reciprocated in a singular
way. Thus, when, contrary to my express orders, she has wandered
abroad during the Sothic period, I have been enabled to trace her
movements by the progressive howling of dogs.
Since I had enjoined the nurse to be silent upon all things bearing
upon Nahémah's birth, I was enraged at this breach of faith and sent
the woman away. But a new situation had been created which I found
myself called upon immediately to face.
Nahémah demanded news of her family. As I have made sufficiently
evident, it was often difficult, if not impossible, to thwart the
desires of my protegée. To condense into a few words a matter which
occasioned me long and anxious thought, I may say that I made the
necessary arrangements for quitting the house near to the Mosque of
Muayyâd which had been my home for fifteen years.
I recognized the danger of Nahémah's traveling in the ordinary way,
and she performed the journey to England in the character of an
invalid under my professional care. Equally, residence at any public
establishment was out of the question, and although I found myself
compelled for a time to court discovery by lodging Nahémah in a
private suite in an obscure hotel, I hastened to seek a house in some
quiet suburb which should reproduce as nearly as possible the
advantages of my abode in Cairo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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