superior knowledge, and an
intimacy with unearthly intelligences. She had seen her practise her
art with success, although so young at the time that she could not now
call to mind the mystic preparations by which her mother had succeeded
in her wishes; and it was now that her thoughts were wholly bent upon
recovering what she had forgotten, that Father Mathias was exhorting
her to a creed which positively forbade even the attempt. The peculiar
and awful mission of her husband strengthened her opinion in the
lawfulness of calling in the aid of supernatural agencies; and the
arguments brought forward by these worthy, but not over-talented,
professors of the Christian creed, had but little effect upon a mind
so strong and so decided as that of Amine--a mind which, bent as it
was upon one object, rejected with scorn tenets, in proof of which
they could offer no visible manifestation, and which would have bound
her blindly to believe what appeared to her contrary to common sense.
That her mother's art could bring evidence of _its_ truth she had
already shown, and satisfied herself in the effect of the dream
which she had proved upon Philip;--but what proof could they bring
forward?--Records--_which they would not permit her to read_!

"Oh! that I had my mother's art," repeated Amine once more, as she
entered the cottage; "then would I know where my Philip was at this
moment. Oh! for the black mirror in which I used to peer at her
command, and tell her what passed in array before me. How well do I
remember that time--the time of my father's absence, when I looked
into the liquid on the palm of my hand, and told her of the Bedouin
camp--of the skirmish--the horse without a rider--and the turban on
the sand!" And again Amine fell into deep thought. "Yes," cried she,
after a time, "thou canst assist me, mother! Give me in a dream thy
knowledge; thy daughter begs it as a boon. Let me think again. The
word--what was the word? what was the name of the spirit--Turshoon?
Yes, methinks it was Turshoon. Mother! mother! help your daughter."

"Dost thou call upon the Blessed Virgin, my child?" said Father
Mathias, who had entered the room as she pronounced the last words.
"If so, thou dost well, for she may appear to thee in thy dreams, and
strengthen thee in the true faith."

"I called upon my own mother, who is in the land of spirits, good
father," replied Amine.

"Yes; but, as an infidel; not, I fear, in the land of the blessed
s