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the body and the soul have power to separate, and reunite in conditions entirely different from those of their normal state."

"Bravo! Doctor," cried I, “ you are recognizing my system of the Second Life !"

"If it is a systen," replied he, smiling, "it may be as destitute of common sense as my theory. But advocate your Second Life, and even a third, if you choose; I myself am far from dissenting from it, although an orthodox member of the Academy of Medicine!"

The dear Doctor sipped delicately the wine I had just poured out for him, communed silently with his own reflections a few moments, then smiled again, and said:

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Since we are returned to earth, in exchange for your "Two Hunting Excursions," I will relate two strange incidents of my youth, which, I confidently believe, with a little embellishment, would furnish a couple of curious chapters for your journal. You are at liberty to appropriate them, and class them as you see fit."

And he entered at once upon Chapter First. "The most intrepid traveller," said he, "never performed a journey over a route more venturesome, more strange, more unstable, than the one I traversed on a certain day. Yes, I once traced my way above a human throng; a dense, compact, animated mass, on the top of which I trod as upon a floor; a true mosaic of living heads, grimacing, cursing, raving, storming, and yelling heads, from each of which gleamed eyes rolling in the most terrific manner. On such a road the most skilful balancer could not have taken two steps without tripping; for, far above the heads, projected numberless arms, stiff and firm, terminated by closed fists, very similar in their movements to the workings of the tentacles of the gasteropode, or rather to the numerous members with which hideous polypes are armed. If, being a poet, you prefer mythological comparisons, imagine a thousand or twelve hundred heads of Medusa with their serpent hair.

Notwithstanding those heads, arms, fists, and eyes, all threatening me at once," continued my learned friend, "I pursued my way, and in an upright position! My feet sunk into the massy tufts of hair, glided over the bowed heads, trod rough-shod over the angular projections of shoulders, and, wonderful to relate, I, whose nature is not in the slightest degree akin to that of the lion, felt not for an instant the fear of danger, not even thought of the injury I might be inflicting upon others. Tell me now, does not that very much resemble a dream?"

"Was it not one?"

"No; in the contact of my feet with those head and shoulders, everything was real; and I walked over them without a moment's thought, as easily as over a rather rugged and uneven piece of ground; that was all."

"What then, Doctor, inspired you with so much audacity?"

"Fear, my friend, fear, which sometimes makes children of heroes. I made my way over

that perilous route with but one thought, that of flight; not flight from evil or danger, but from a simple emotion.

"I was at that time a student of medicine; all my studies were progressing finely, I venture to assert; but at the science of the operatingroom I not only rebelled, I revolted. Twenty times, yes, a hundred times had I attempted to nerve myself to witness some slight operation, but in vain. This chickenheartedness bade fair to ruin all my future prospects.

"One morning, as I was attending the course at the Hospital of Charity, our illustrious professor announced for the next day an amputation upon Number Seventeen, with a new apparatus. Number Seventeen was a small man, with a hard, rough cast of countenance. His physiognomy excited within me no tender emotions; on the contrary, its very unprepossessing aspect seemed to adapt him peculiarly to my purpose.

"I arose at break of day, determined to stand firm this time; to be present at the operation, and not only place myself in such a position as to witness distinctly the whole process, but also to render escape from it impossible; and I was in a fair way to keep good my resolution.

"The amphitheatre of the Charity was built in the form of a large funnel, the seats rising in rows one above the other from the bottom to the top of its circumference. I descended to the foot of the funnel. When I found myself face to face with the operating-table, which I nearly touched, I took a seat upon the narrow bench toward which, from high to low, converged all the seats of the amphitheatre, soon filled with students drawn there by the announcement of the operation with the new apparatus.

"Not a vacant seat remained; the last comers were compelled to mount one another's shoulders to gain seats, for want of better, in the embrasures of the windows; the doors were obstructed by a triple rank of spectators, like the entrance to the orchestra of our theatres on the occasion of a grand representation. And I, literally sunk, submerged in the lowest depths of the funnel, like Cain in the lowest circle of Dante's hell, was fortifying myself, my brow covered with perspiration, to commence at last my course on human suffering.

"A little door opened opposite me. Preceded by the hospital surgeons, like a consul by his lictors, the Professor entered amid a storm of applause. He spoke a few words upon the operation to be performed, upon the merits and advantages of the new apparatus, and exhibited his instruments with a clear and rapid explanation of each; then the hospital attendants brought in the unfortunate Number Seventeen, enveloped in his sombre grey coat, the uniform of the institution. At first sight of the patient, I felt a trembling creep over me, yet I did not lose courage. But that countenance, which the day before had excited in me only a feeling of antipathy, became exalted in my eyes as at the approach of martyrdom. While they were stripping him of his only garment, the poor man cast over that whole assembly a look so full

of pitiful resignation, that I felt as if the knife prepared for him had just been plunged into my own bosom. They stretched him upon a narrow mattress-they bound him hand and foot.

"I saw no more; I had already commenced my terrible ascent through the rising rows of benches; a violent nervous shock had suddenly deadened within me all my powers of intelligence, and given an incredible impetus to those of locomotion. A blind force led me on, heedless of obstacles; I would have faced unhesitatingly a battery of cannons; I no longer saw clearly; I thought I was traversing a phantasmagorian land, and that some enchanter had strewn it thick with grimacing heads and furiously gesticulating arms.

"Thus I accomplished that terrible escalade; thus I travelled intrepidly over that living mass, rife with dangerous shoals, and, as I found to my cost on regaining the street and recovering my senses, with fist blows which could inflict serious injuries. The next day my body and limbs were black and blue with bruises.

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A la bonne heure!" said he, "another glass of wine to drown the recollection of the amphitheatre of the Hospital of Charity and poor Number Seventeen."

Then, after a moment's silence:

"This time the scene is very foreign to a hospital; it is my turn to transport you into fairy-land; into scenes voluptuous and even a little dissolute; strange, perhaps, on the part of a grave medical practitioner like myself--but are we not in a private room? Our hostess will know nothing of it; besides, I shall be very brief in my description, in order not to tax too long either your modesty or my own."

This introduction to Chapter Second excited my curiosity. The Doctor drained his glass, filled it anew himself in a fit of abstraction, and raised it to the level of his eye:

"For both of us, be it understood, this day shall be consecrated entirely to youthful remembrances," he resumed. "My youth, whenever I evoke it, seems to come to me in a direct line from Villemomble, Paris, where my father once owned a country residence. I was staying at Villemomble; one day I was botanizing in the fine woods in the neighbourhood, when suddenly the air seemed to be agitated before my eyes in little globules precisely like those which ascend from the bottom of this glass, except that, instead of ascending they descended; they came down in showers like fine rain, and every drop was a little granulated pearl, of a transparent yellow. This yellow tint gradually increased in brilliancy and intensity; soon, as if warmed to

life by the influence of the summer sun which pervaded the atmosphere of the woods, the globules began to vibrate, to oscillate, and finally to fly about hither and thither, pell-mell, like swarms of gnats. Then succeeded a general explosion; each globule burst in a flame and scattered its brilliant atoms around, and every object in the woods, animate and inanimate, became instantly coated with the gilded particles. All nature seemed decked in gold: gold glittered upon the foliage of every shrub and tree, upon every pebble and herb beneath my feet; every flower was a ranunculus; the birds had golden eyes and golden plumes; the flies and insects seemed transformed into flying pepites. You might well believe the mines of California and Australia had been embowelled from the earth. It was, in fine, a complete El Dorado.

"A few steps from me stood an immense tree, distinguished from the others by bearing huge pods, nearly all of which hung to the ground. I approached the tree and opened one of the pods, and upon its satin lining I found, to my great astonishment, separated from one another by a slight partition, and nicely arranged in rows and folded together like haricots in their capsules, I found, I say,—I give you a hundred times to guess it in !-women, my dear friend, young, charming women!"

"What! women in pods?"

"Yes; and blondes, understand, or more than blondes, since their hair was composed of threads of pure gold. Thus, in the country to which I was suddenly transported, the women grew upon trees, leguminous trees of course, and better still, no need to take the trouble to shell them. Amazed, confounded, I started back almost affrighted at this newly discovered wonder, when all the pods which reached to the ground opened spontaneonsly, by dehiscence, as we botanists say the lovely fruits of this enchanted tree detached themselves from their envelopes and sprang to the right and left, bounding and flying like the seeds of the balsam when its capsule bursts. An army of forest nymphs surrounded me, all in a costume which mythological customs and the excessive heat of the place alone could authorize. Linking hands, some arranged themselves in groups and attitudes worthy of antique statuary, true tableaux vivants, set in genuine golden frames; others performed dances before me which the chief master of the ballet would not be ashamed to own. Never before had I witnessed such a fête. But enough of these details."

"Why, Doctor? why? However, you will not deny this time that it is a dream you have been relating?"

"A dream? No: but a case of poisoning." I started in my seat.

"Poisoning? What do you say? how? In the woods when you were botanizing?"

"Exactly. But we will go back a little. In imitation of our skilful novelists, and imperial solicitors in their pleas to the court, I first established my case, holding your curiosity in suspense for the final stroke.

"Now, in order to understand the cause of the principal, and indeed the only event of Chapter Second, it is necessary to return to Chapter First, as you will perceive. But let us drink! The narrator, as well as the orator, is entitled to his glass of sweetened water, and champagne can, I find be substituted for it with very good advantage."

The waiter brought a third bottle; I filled the Doctor's glass, and he continued:

"After my famous affair with Number Seventeen at the amphitheatre of the Charity, my mind became much interested on the subject of hallucinations; consequently, when my term of studies drew to a close, I chose, as the subject of my thesis, the hallucinations essentially induced by the ingestion of certain vegetable substances. I treated the subject logically, therapeutically, and philosophically. Now listen. The narcotic acts first upon the senses, and they in turn upon the imagination; the imagination, violently excited, communicates back to the physical frame the shock it has received from it; action and reaction-action and reaction you understand; then there is established between the two a sort of understanding, harmony, equilibrium; order out of disorder. The eyes, partaking of the hallucination, behold outwardly, in their highly susceptible state, only what exists in the mind in its illusion; hence the visions, apparitions, pleasant or frightful-those still-life deceptions which mislead you. But I am repeating my thesis to you, my dear friend, when I only meant to say-what was I going to say?" he resumed, placing his glass upon the table after emptying it at a single draught, and filling it anew, all by the way of abstraction, of course.

"Ah! I have it now! Eh bien, my very dear sir, not content with observation and theory, I experimented upon myself. I ate opium, stramonium, mandragora, and hasheesh; I experienced the effects of those powerful anæsthetics, those mysterious fairies which open the doors of an unknown paradise or a frightful hell.

"When I was on the point of substantiating my theory of narcotics before the Faculty, there remained for my personal experiment only the

hyosciamus; that dark plant with bristly leaves, yellow flowers, and purple veins-a plant too much calumniated, according to my opinion, for if it makes us pay a little dear for the banquets it spreads before us, the festivities are splendid and perfect in all their arrangements.

"The hyosciamus, the one untried object of my narcotic axperiments, I luckily found in the woods of Villemomble. From pure love of art I nibbled its leaves, its stalks, its roots-with all needful precaution, of course! I knew with what a deadly poison I had to deal. A quarter of an hour afterwards I was a prey to berlue-to berlue-Danaé!-that is the name given to it by the famous Boissier Sauvagest-or Savage. After my vision of the leguminous women, I was attacked with a violent cephalalgy--that devilish cephalalgy, I believe I have it yet."

The Doctor carried his hand to his head and looked for the bottle, already three quarters exhausted, but I had removed it. It was very evident that iced champagne was not so harmless to him as he had imagined.

Nevertheless, he continued his recital, interspersing it with reflections somewhat vague.

"When I returned to Villemomble, my lovely houris, suddenly transformed into old hags covered with tinsel and foil, followed me to the suburbs of the village, heaping upon me all sorts of indignities and blasphemies.

"Finally," continued the dear Doctor, whose tongue was getting thicker and thicker every moment, "fortunately my head kept clear. I ordered two grains of lemonade-no, two grains of an emetic in a pint of lemonade;" then interrupting himself: "But what right have you with two heads?" said he. "The next morning I could see nothing but yellow, deep yellow; the day after light yellow, the colour of this champagne. Hold! where is the bottle?"

"Doctor, we have drank enough."

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Perhaps you are right." He looked at his empty glass, then turned toward me: Always distrust champagne wine, my dear friend; that, also, is an hallucination !"

And my learned Doctor sunk into a profound sleep.

OBSERVATIONS ON HORSEBACK.

SERPENT FASCINATION-EXPERIMENTS-SPIRITUALISM.

The power of serpents to charm the smaller, classes of animals, which they capture for food, has long been held as an undoubted fact. It has also been believed that they could fascinate the larger orders of animals, so as to bring them within range of their deadly fangs; and that even the intellect of man is not exempt from their influence. The common theory upon this subject gives to the serpent, having the power of fascination, an ability to gain the attention of its victims, to paralyze them as if by an electrical

influence, and to attract them toward itself as if by magnetism.

Birds, more generally, are supposed to be the victims of these charms. They have been seen moving around serpents in such a manner as to indicate, in the opinion of the observers, that they were under the power of fascination. The testimony upon this point describes the bird as moving in a circle, or a semicircle, around the serpent. If upon the ground, they run, with extended wings, gradually narrowing their circle

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of motion, but never stopping for an instant, till within a foot or two of the serpent. Then, as if conscious of their peril, and just at the moment they are about to be seized, they fling themselves backward on the wing, so as to be out of the reach of their terrible enemy. The birds, thus escaping for the moment, stop and survey the foe from their distant position. This seems to be a fatal dallying with danger. The serpent's eye, quick as the lightning's flash, again darts its mysterious magic into theirs; and again and again they advance and recede, as if drawn irresistibly toward the point which has become the all-absorbing centre of attraction. If the serpent is upon a tree, the bird flutters around it, advancing and retreating as when upon the ground.

The popular interpretation of these movements of the birds is this: the serpent establishes a connection between itself and them, by which it controls their wills, and draws them within its reach. In accomplishing this object, it does not go in pursuit of them, but lies in coil, with head erect, awaiting their approach. It appears, however, that the serpent's power has its welldefined limits, and its own peculiar philosophical phenomena.

If the movements of birds towards it are due to the attractive powers employed by the serpent, then the law of attraction, in this case, is a positive reversion of the laws of magnetic attraction. The attractive power of the magnet is greatest, when the body acted upon is in contact with it, and it loses its force in proportion to the distance to which that body may be removed. That is to say, it requires more force to remove a piece of iron, when in contact with a magnet, than is required for its removal, when at a distance of several inches from it. But such is not the case with the serpent's power of attraction. In the supposed fascination, the birds, though unable, while at the distance of ten or a dozen feet, to resist its attractive powers, are able, nevertheless, at the last moment, when the devourer is in the act of striking, to break the charm, and, by a reverse movement, to fling themselves instantly out of danger's way. Thus it appears, that when the birds are at a distance the serpent can draw them within its reach; but that, when they come in close contact, its attractive power is lost, and they can retreat without hindrance.

Such is the theory of fascination, as based upon occurrences that have been witnessed by many observers. Its philosophical defects may be inferred from the hints already given; but whether such transactions prove that serpents possess the power of fascination, or that the observers have been mistaken in their deductions, will be better understood, when a case is stated which was witnessed by myself.

Business led me to cross the Chilhowee Mountain, in Tennessee, on the twenty-seventh of June, 1857. When near Montodle Springs, two birds were noticed, at a couple of rods' distance from the road, which were acting in a manner new and strange to me. They were in

an open space, near the stump of a fallen tree, but did not take flight at my approach, as, under ordinary circumstances, they would have done. On reaching a point opposite to them, it was noticed that they were the brown mocking-bird, or thrush, and that a very large black snake lay coiled at the side of the stump. On seeing me, it suddenly began to uncoil itself, and move off as if to make its escape; the birds, at the same time, pausing a moment in their movements. But before it had stretched itself to more than half its length, they were again in motion, and flew at it in the most energetic manner. Instantly, the snake once more whirled itself into coil in its former position. The male bird then commenced to run and skip with great activity, in a semi-circle, the serpent being the centre, and gradually closed in until within a foot or two of its coils, when, with a sudden dart forward, the bird thrust its head toward that of the snake, and, in the saine instant, threw itself backward, alighting on the ground at the distance of about ten feet. Before the male had closed this feat, the female had commenced a similar set of actions. All the movements of the birds were made with extended wings, as if ready to fly in a moment. By the time the female had thrown itself back from the snake, the male was in position again, repeating the same movement as at first. In the mean time my horse had carried me some four or five rods into a thicket of bushes, whither my hand had guided him, and where I dismounted and secured him. All this took place in a minute or two; and as only an indistinct view had been gained of the action of the birds in passing, a favourable position for observation was taken, so that all that occurred could be noted. The first movement of the male bird, in thrusting its head forward into close contact with the snake, impressed me with the conviction that a case of the so-called fascination was enacting before me, and I determined to observe it in a philosophical manner.

It was half-past one o'clock p.m. The birds were still eagerly at work, when I turned my eye upon them, after the interruption of hitching my horse. They were panting, as if greatly fatigued by long exertion, but manifested not the least disposition to remit their efforts. If not fascinated, they were at least so earnestly enlisted in the affair on hand, as to disregard every thing else around them. The snake lay in its coil, with head erect and drawn back, so as to be in the best possible position to strike and seize the birds as they advanced. The many convolutions of its lengthened body moved in graceful curves, as its glittering head followed their motions. Its eye sparkled in the sunlight like the polished diamond, while its movements gave to its ever-shifting scales the brilliant hues of the rainbow. Again and again, as the birds approached, it would strike at them, with open mouth, exhibiting a malignity of disposition that portended death to them, had they been seized in its jaws.

A few minutes sufficed to show that a battle,

and not a scene of fascination, was presented before me. The birds, at each approach, struck the snake with their beaks, or with their talons, when, generally, but not always, it darted forward at them, only to find that it was aiming at a movable target. This can be easily explained. The snake, in striking, could never project itself more than about two thirds of its length, but its defence was made with determined courage. Its position by the stump protected it in the rear, so that the birds could only approach it in the front. They were as adroit in their attacks as it was resolute in its defence. In attempting to seize them, it could not curve to either side, after starting, so as to follow their motions, but invariably shot forward, in a straight line, to the point they occupied when it made its spring. The birds, in advancing to the attack, by a circular movement, were certain of being away from the spot at which it aimed, and when its teeth smacked together, where it expected its prey, it had nothing in its grasp.

The warfare lasted, after I reached the spot, about twenty-five minutes by the watch. Once or twice during the contest, the reptile made a movement to escape up the hillside, but the birds, as at its first attempt, immediately brought it into position again. At last, seeming to despair of success in securing a dinner in that locality, it darted off down the hill, toward a grove of trees and bushes, nor turned to the right or left. The birds swept after it, pecking, scratching, and striking it with their wings, as if inspired with the consciousness that victory was theirs.

At this moment I rushed forward, and, after some difficulty, killed the snake and cut it open. There was not a particle of food from one end to the other of the intestinal canal. It must, therefore, have been hungry; and if it possessed the faculty of charming, it would undoubtedly have employed its powers on such a delicacy as these birds.

When the dissection of the snake was finished, the birds were not to be seen. It was the season when their young were in the nest; and, doubtless, the conflict which had just terminated, had been waged for the protection of their offspring. Less active birds, venturing as close as they did to their enemy, must have been captured.

Remaining most of the summer in the mountains of North-Carolina, frequent opportu. nities were afforded of inquiring of hunters and others, what they knew about birds being charmed by serpents. All believed in the theory of fascination, and several had witnessed encounters such as I have described; but none had ever seen the snake seize the bird. They had looked on until the bird, as they supposed, was attempting to thrust its head, under the influence of the charm, into the serpent's mouth, when they had rushed forward and killed the serpent to save the bird from destruction. In all the inquiries made, no instance has been related where there was any more evidence of fascination than in the one observed by myself. In all cases, however, there was a singular

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uniformity in the descriptions of the manner in which the birds fluttered around the snakes. So nearly did their accounts correspond with what I had witnessed, that I was convinced of the truthfulness of their statements.

A few additional facts, having an important bearing upon the subject of fascination, came under my own notice during 1859. In the summer of that year, some amusing incidents led me to secure a number of serpents of different species; and, amongst them, a couple of fine specimens of the rattlesnake. This serpent is somewhat sluggish in its movements, and, unlike many other species of its order, it is not an active climber. While many of the others can with ease ascend bushes, trees, and precipices, to rob the nests of birds of their eggs or young ones, the rattlesnake, less agile, has to find its prey in a more limited range. For this reason, it has been supposed that the rattlesnake must possess the power of fascination; otherwise, it could not secure, as it does, such active animals as mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, and birds; for as has been plausibly asserted, this serpent, assuredly, will not use poisoned food; will not first strike the animals it designs to eat; and then, some of these animals are combatants of no trifling power, and could easily kill the snake or escape from it; so that, unless the rattlesnake is endowed with the ability to fascinate, it is averred it could not possibly capture the food upon which it subsists.

The opinion that venomous serpents do not eat the animals they kill by the poison of their fangs, like many other popular notions, turns out to be an error. This I know from my own personal observation; and for the satisfaction of naturalists a few particulars are given. My specimens were placed in a box, covered with glass, and having a wooden lid secured by lock and key. A few small holes, for ventilation, were made in the sides of the box, but too small to allow the escape of even a mouse. Birds, when put into the box, in the division including the rattlesnake, would often hop around and over it, for hours, unmolested; but, at length, when in a favourable position, the snake would strike the fatal blow, and death ensue in a few minutes. One instance, only, need be noticed: a half-grown bird, when struck, at once commenced screaming, with wings outstretched, and, turning round once or twice, seemed to droop and sicken rapidly. In three or four minutes from the moment it was bitten it fell forward toward the mouth of the rattlesnake and expired. The movements of this bird were in accordance with such actions as have been observed, in cases where fascination alone was supposed to be employed. In this case, the charm was a fatal one, truly, being nothing less than the poison of the serpent coursing through its veins.

The birds placed in the box were not swallowed by the rattlesnake, seemingly, as it afterwards appeared, because it would not encumber its jaws, so as to be unprepared for defence, while the human eye rested upon it,

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