cerning the studies and practices of what is now widely known as
occult science, indulged in and made manifest by the late Madame
Blavatsky, the authoress of _Isis Unveiled,_ who claimed to possess in
a high degree, by nature, those attributes which spiritualists
describe (without professing to understand) as "mediumship".

Prominent members of Anglo-Indian society associated themselves with
Madame Blavatsky, supported her, and believed in the _bona fides_ of
her powers, derived as Madame declared from Eastern "adepts" in the
science of Yog-Vidya, as this occult knowledge is called by its
devotees.

A science according to some--to others a mere vulgar imposition--with
which, as maintained by certain renowned Western exponents, Lord
Lytton was well versed and largely imbued, his _imagina-tive_ account
of the achievements accomplished by Vril in the _Coming Race_, being,
according to the school and scholars of Madame Blavatsky, altogether
inspired from that Eastern fount.

"Mr. Cypher Redalf, the eminent journalist," in the proper person of
Mr. A.P. Sinnett, editor of _The Pioneer_, a daily newspaper published
at Allahabad, and then, as now to an increased degree, the leading
English newspaper in India, printed in that journal an authoritative
statement of various occurrences in Blavatskyian circles at Simla when
Madame was on a visit to Mr and Mrs. Sinnett.

It is this statement, the outcome of "the true spirit of devout
inquiry ... by persons of consideration in evening dress" which forms
the _leit motif_ of Aberigh-Mackay's powerful satire, in which a
gingham umbrella, "conceived in the liberal spirit of a bye-gone age,"
is substituted for an old fashioned breast brooch set round with
pearls, with glass at the front and the back, made to contain hair,
which, long lost, was stated to have been recovered for its owner as a
result of Madame Blavatsky's occult powers.

Powers made manifest at a dinner in Mr. A.O. Hume's house at Simla on
Sunday the 3rd of October, 1880, at which were present as guests Mr.
and Mrs. Sinnett, Mrs. Gordon, Mr. F. Hogg, Captain P.J. Maitland, Mr.
Davison, Colonel Olcott, and Madame Blavatsky.

Most of the persons present believed that they had recently seen many
remarkable occurrences in Madame Blavatsky's company, and the
conversation largely turned on occult phenomena, in the course of
which Mrs. Hume was asked by Madame if there was anything she
particularly wished for. After some hes