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Rh her seat; this she did, passing through the row of priests with the customary respectful symbolic scooping of the hand, and sat down in the midst with her back to the altar. She closed her eyes; the priest made the sign of a Sanskrit character on each of her palms, and then, taking the two gohei-wands, put one into each of her hands. This duality of divine descent was the most interesting feature of the affair. Twitching ensued almost instantly, and was kept up a long time while the officiator (shugenja) prayed on. At the close of it the priest asked the god's name, and then interviewed him. Then, after permission had been asked by the priest, the god condescended to interviews with the rest of us. Replies would have been made in any case, the priest said, but it would have been rude to the god not to have first obtained his consent. The subject was quite insensible to pins stuck into her neck, but objected at first to having her pulse felt, pulling her arm away as if annoyed, till she had been assured that it was all right by the priest. Her pulse proved a trifle faster than in her normal state (110 as against 100), but decidedly weaker.