the
hearing of the groans till it is actually ascertained who is going to
die--need not be described."

"You must have been having an exciting time of it" I asked this young
man.

"Generally not, because we find that somebody is ill from before and
then we know what is going to happen" said my informant.

"But during your experience of 25 years you must have been very nervous
about these groans yourself at times," I asked.

"On two occasions only we had to be nervous because nobody was ill
beforehand; but in each case that person died who was the most afraid. I
was not nervous on these occasions myself, for some reason or other."

These uncanny groans of the messenger of death have remained a mystery
for the last fifty years.

* * * * *

I know another family in which the death of the head of the family is
predicted in a very peculiar manner.

There is a big picture of the Goddess Kali in the family. On the night
of the _Shyama pooja_ (_Dewali_) which occurs about the middle of
November, this picture is brought out and worshipped.

The picture is a big oil painting of the old Indian School and has a
massive solid gold frame. The picture is a beauty--a thing worth seeing.

All the year round it hangs on the eastern wall of the room occupied by
the head of the family.

Now the peculiar thing with this family is that no male member of the
family dies out of his turn. The eldest male member dies leaving behind
everybody else. The next man then becomes the eldest and dies afterwards
and so on.

But before the death of the head of the family the warning comes in a
peculiar way.

The picture of the goddess is found hanging upside down. One morning
when the head of the family comes out of his bed-room and the
youngsters go in to make the room tidy, as they call it, (though they
generally make the room more untidy and finally leave it to the
servants) they find the famous family picture hanging literally
topsyturvy (that is with head downwards) and they at once sound the
alarm. Then they all know that the head of the family is doomed and will
die within a week.

But this fact does not disturb the normal quiet of the family. Because
the _pater familias_ is generally very old and infirm and more generally
quite prepared to die.

But the fact remains that so long as the warning does not come in this
peculiar fashion every member of the house-hold knows that there is no
immediate d