“From the floor in the eastern corner of the room there straightway begun to arise a light mist, which increased in bulk until a ball of vapor, three feet in diameter, floated in the air. Thus it remained for a minute; and then, right before our eyes, began to condense and change its shape, until at the end of four minutes, it had assumed a human semblance--but, Heavens! what a caricature! “At first it was a mere vapory outline, but it rapidly condensed and consolidated, until what looked like a hideous, half-naked, bow-legged, splay-footed monster stood before us. Its height was less than three feet; its chest and body were nearly that in width; its legs were not over eight inches long; its arms were longer than its entire body; its head was gigantic; and it had no neck whatever, while from its horrible head there hung to the very ground the appearance of a tangled mass of wire-like worms. Its mouth was a fearful-looking red gash, extending to where ears should have been, but were not. Eyes, nose, cheeks, chin, lips or forehead, there were none whatever. Do not imagine that this creature was merely an appearance; it was not, for although born of vapor, in five minutes it became solid as iron, demonstrating the fact by stalking heavily across the floor right into the centre of the open space between us--the chains being dropped as it approached--where it stood, slowly swaying to and fro, as if its heart was heavy. “‘Show your quality,’ said Mai to the thing. ‘I will,’ it hissed, and straightway proceeding toward a table, it stood by it a few minutes, and it became apparent that it was charging the wood with something from itself, for soon the table began to turn, to tip, to move, to rise and float in the air, precisely as is done in spiritual circles. “‘Now, ladies and gentlemen, you will please act just as if that before you was a human spirit, invisible to you, and desirous of imparting information. I dare say you will be surprised at the results. You see already that it is a capital table-mover, and I beg you to test its mental and physical powers also--for I assure you there is nothing to fear, now that I give you leave to break the silence--which was quite essential in the first part of the curious experiment.’