Page:Randolph, Paschal Beverly; Eulis! the history of love.djvu/205

200 fiery youth, who gave her kiss for kiss. How the transformation was wrought I have no idea, but there it was before our very eyes. The music grew soft and passionate, the chorus of the old women came out, and with strange Phallic songs and dances bore the two away—a bridal pair. I never expect again to behold a sight so wonderful as that whole transformation, which, I may mention, my learned Jesuit friend, to whom I described it, regards as a piece of pure symbolism. His explanation is too long and too learned to quote, but he connects the ceremony with the world-old myth of Venus and Adonis, and claims that it is all a form of sun-worship.

"The show went on for some time longer with many curious feats. At the end of an hour the Phallic procession returned, but this time the Bayadere led it, a strange triumph in her eyes, while the youth lay upon the couch sleeping. The Phallic chorus sank into a dirge, the youth faded visibly; he was again the shrivelled dotard; he sighed, then breathed no more. Luan Prabana retired sorrowfully; Norodom and Tepada wrapped the corpse again in its interminable shrouds, restored it to the coffin, and it was borne away again. The attendants climbed up to and extinguished the lights. I was blindfolded and borne away again. 1 found myself once more at the doorway of the temple in the broad sunshine with my friends—as the mystic ceremonies of the great temple of Juthia were over, it may be for many years."

"With strange Phallic songs and dances bore the two away—a bridal pair." "Venus and Adonis—a form of sun-worship." "The Phallic chorus sunk into a dirge." Can anything be plainer or more direct in confirmatory proof of what I had written in this book, than this excerpt from a newspaper, dated April 11, 1874, months after this book was completed,—but the appearance of which necessitated a brief additional page or two? There is no need to go to far-off Siam to witness such marvels, or to learn their strange principia, for I have not only witnessed displays of High Magic in this country, quite as marvellous, but different from the above, but have myself performed the feat of Fire-drawing, and came very near destroying the life of a woman who assisted at the rite, and but for the quick, brave, self-sacrificing action of Dr. Charles Main, of Boston, that woman would have been slain by fire drawn down from the æreal spaces by principles known to me. For fifteen years I sought a female of the right organization—an European or American Luan Prabana [the Fair and Virgin invocatress]—and not till March, 1874, did I find her. Her Self-will, and brother-in-law's [he was a Pupil] lack of decision, and his weighing of less than three dollars' expense against the possession of the loftiest Magic earth ever saw, determined me to seek elsewhere for the true material—which, it is needless to say, I have found