A
mangale (pan of burning charcoal) was brought into my room, and the
magician bending over it, sprinkled upon the fire some substances
which must have consisted partly of spices or sweetly burning
woods, for immediately a fragrant smoke arose that curled around
the bending form of the wizard, the while that he pronounced his
first incantations. When these were over the boy was made to sit
down, and a common green shade was bound over his brow; then the
wizard took ink, and still continuing his incantations, wrote
certain mysterious figures upon the boy's palm, and directed him to
rivet his attention to these marks without looking aside for an
instant. Again the incantations proceeded, and after a while the
boy, being seemingly a little agitated, was asked whether he saw
anything on the palm of his hand. He declared that he saw a kind
of military procession, with flags and banners, which he described
rather minutely. I was then called upon to name the absent person
whose form was to be made visible. I named Keate. You were not at
Eton, and I must tell you, therefore, what manner of man it was
that I named, though I think you must have some idea of him
already, for wherever from utmost Canada to Bundelcund--wherever
there was the whitewashed wall of an officer's room, or of any
other apartment in which English gentlemen are forced to kick their
heels, there likely enough (in the days of his reign) the head of
Keate would be seen scratched or drawn with those various degrees
of skill which one observes in the representations of saints.
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