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Rh After delivering himself of this politeness he settled forward heavily into a lethargic swoon. From it he was roused by further incantation to fresh fury. Slowly raising the wand, he suddenly beat the air above his head, and proceeded to hop excitedly round on his folded legs, stopping at each of the four compass points to repeat his performance. Then he came back to his previous commanding pose, and, in reply to the maeza, spoke again.

Once more he relapsed into his lethargy, and once more he was roused, and answered.

When he had fallen into his comatose condition for the third time, the maeza, after a sort of benedicite, made the sign of a Sanskrit character on his back, and slapped him energetically on top of it. One of the four "sides" stood by ready with a cup of water, and, the moment he had come to enough, put it to his lips and helped him to drink. Under this treatment he gradually revived, but it took some kneading before the wand could be loosed from his cataleptic grip.

Three gods, it appeared, had come in turn, which accounted for the rise and fall in the character of the possession: Matsuwō Sama,