When "Abdullah" had retired on
this occasion, "Joey" drew back the curtain that shaded the cabinet, and
showed us his medium and himself. There sat Mr. Eglinton attired in
evening dress, with the front of his shirt as smooth and spotless as
when it left the laundress' hands, lying back in his chair in a deep
sleep, whilst little Joey sat astride his knee, his white suit
contrasting strangely with his medium's black trousers. Whilst in this
position he kissed Mr. Eglinton several times, telling him to wake up,
and not look so sulky; then, having asked if we all saw him distinctly,
and were satisfied he was not the medium, he bade God bless us, and the
curtains closed once more upon this incomprehensible scene. Mr. Eglinton
subsequently became an intimate friend of ours, and we often had the
pleasure of sitting with him, but we never saw anything more wonderful
(to my mind) than we did on our first acquaintance. When he accompanied
us to Bruges (as told in the history of the "Monk"), "Joey" took great
trouble to prove to us incontrovertibly that he is not an "emanation,"
or double, of his medium, but a creature completely separate and wholly
distinct. My sister's house being built on a very old-fashioned
principle, had all the bedrooms communicating with each other. The
entresol in which we usually assembled formed the connecting link to a
series of six chambers, all of which opened into each other, and the
entrance to the first and last of which was from the entresol.
We put Mr. Eglinton into No. 1, locking the connecting door with No. 2,
so that he had no exit except into our circle as we sat round the
curtain, behind which we placed his chair. "Joey" having shown himself
outside the curtain, informed us he was going through the locked door at
the back into our bedrooms, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and would bring us
something from each room.
Accordingly, in another minute we heard his voice in No. 2, commenting
on all he saw there; then he passed into No. 3, and so on, making a tour
of the rooms, until he appeared at the communicating door of No. 5, and
threw an article taken from each room into the entresol. He then told us
to lift the curtain and inspect the medium, which we did, finding him
fast asleep in his chair, with the door behind him locked. "Joey" then
returned by the way he had gone, and presented himself once more outside
the cabinet, the key of the locked door being all the time in our
possession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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