ootnote 11: Compare Egyptian re.]

[Footnote 12: Maitland raises the question as to whether Barrahneil
was the ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Of this there is
every possibility, since many Atlanteans undoubtedly escaped to
Ireland, carrying with them the knowledge of Black Magic--to which
might be traced the Banshee and other family ghosts.]

[Footnote 13: Probably a Vice Elemental.]

[Footnote 14: All subsequent works dealing with Black Magic were
founded on it.]

[Footnote 15: Closely allied to deadly nightshade, and known in
botany as _Circaea_. It is found in damp, shady places and was used
to a very large extent in mediaeval sorcery.]

CHAPTER III

LEARNING TO SIN

Messrs. Kelson and Curtis did not live in Pacific Avenue where the
Popes hold sway, nor yet in California Street where the Crockers are
wont to entertain their millionaire friends. Where they lived, there
were no massive granite steps flanked with equally massive
pillars--such as herald the approach to the Nob Hill palaces; no rare
glass bow-windows looking out on to flower bedecked lawns; no vast
betiled hall, with rotundas in the centre; no highly polished oak
staircases; no frescoed ceilings; no tufted, cerulean blue silk
draperies; and no sweet perfumery--only the smell, if one may so
suddenly sink to a third-class expression--only the smell of rank
tobacco and equally rank lager beer. No, Messrs. Kelson and Curtis
resided within a stone's throw of the five cent baths in Rutter
Street--and that was the nearest they ever got to bathing. Their suite
of apartments consisted of one room, about ten by eight feet, which
served as a dining-room, drawing-room, study, boudoir, kitchen,
bedroom, and--from sheer force of habit, I was about to add bathroom;
but as I have already hinted cold water on half-empty stomachs and
chilly livers is uninviting; besides, soap costs something. Their
furniture was antique but not massive; nor could any of it be fairly
reckoned superfluous. All told, it consisted of a bedstead (three
six-foot planks on four sugar cubes; the bedclothes--a pair of
discarded overalls, a torn and much emaciated blanket, a woolly neck
wrap, a yellow vest, and the garments they stood in); a small round
and rather rickety deal table; and one chair. Of the very limited
number of culinary utensils, the frying-pan was by far the most
important. Its handle served as a poker, and its pan, as well as for
fr