abeth been recognized as a sure presage of the death
of some member of the family; while another is the spectral coach
which is reported to drive up to the door of a certain castle in the
north when a similar calamity is impending. A phenomenon of this order
occurs in connection with the family of one of our members, but it is
of a much commoner and less striking type than either of the above,
consisting only of a solemn and impressive strain of dirge-like music,
which is heard apparently floating in the air three days before the
death takes place. Our member, having himself twice heard this mystic
sound, finding its warning in both cases quite accurate, and knowing
also that according to family tradition the same thing had been
happening for several centuries, set himself to seek by occult methods
for the cause underlying so strange a phenomenon. The result was
unexpected but interesting. It appeared that somewhere in the twelfth
century the head of the family went to the crusades, like many another
valiant man, and took with him to win his spurs in the sacred cause
his youngest and favourite son, a promising youth whose success in
life was the dearest wish of his father's heart. Unhappily, however,
the young man was killed in battle, and the father was plunged into
the depths of despair, lamenting not only the loss of his son, but
still more the fact that he was cut off so suddenly in the full flush
of careless and not altogether blameless youth. So poignant, indeed,
were the old man's feelings that he cast off his knightly armour and
joined one of the great monastic orders, vowing to devote all the
remainder of his life to prayer, first for the soul of his son, and
secondly that henceforward no descendant of his might ever again
encounter what seemed to his simple and pious mind the terrible danger
of meeting death unprepared. Day after day for many a year he poured
all the energy of his soul into the channel of that one intense wish,
firmly believing that somehow or other the result he so earnestly
desired would be brought about. A student of occultism will have
little difficulty in deciding what would be the effect of such a
definite and long-continued stream of thought; our knightly monk
created an artificial elemental of immense power and resourcefulness
for its own particular object, and accumulated within it a store of
force which would enable it to carry out his wishes for an indefinite
period. An elemental is