hat
they stood up in ridges as big as a good-sized finger, for some time
after the escapade. In fact, it was quite six weeks before all local
trouble was over, and many more weeks before I had recovered from the
unexpected shock.

I have had several falls in my life, but never one other where there was
absolutely _no_ preliminary warning or sense of slipping, however swift.

The experience was exactly that of being suddenly _hurled down_ the
steps by some outside force. I can only add that I deeply deplored my
unguarded words to Miss Greenlow, when I told her I was sure there was
some malignant spirit in the joss-house.

Perhaps he wished politely to demonstrate the correctness of my remark.

The short voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta was made pleasant by the
kindness of a European friend in Rangoon, who came "to see us off," and
asked if he should introduce to me a little Burmese lady, very rich and
very _devote_, who was on board with us, going to Calcutta to pay a
visit to her husband, who lived in that city.

"She is one of our principal native residents," my Rangoon friend
explained to me before introducing her. "She is also intensely
interested in her Buddhist religion, and I think this may interest you,
from what you have told me of your investigations."

So the little lady was duly presented, and thinking to open our
conversation pleasantly, I remarked that Mr Rowell had told me that she
was much interested in religious questions, and that although not a
theosophist myself, I numbered several of them amongst my friends.

But I found myself quite on the wrong tack. She screwed up her little
mouth, as if tasting some nasty medicine, and then said in excellent
colloquial English:

"Oh, they are no good at all. They have muddled everything up, and got
it all wrong. That is why we are beginning to write tracts and send out
missionaries. The great Buddha made no propaganda; neither did we for
many, many centuries. We believe that people must grow into this
knowledge; but now when you Western people come and take little bits of
our system, and piece them together all wrong--well, then, we are forced
to show you what is the truth! It is like a puzzle map, and all you
theosophists are trying to fit the pieces in, wrong side upward." And
she finished with a merry and apologetic laugh, remembering, no doubt,
that I had spoken of having friends amongst these "stupid muddlers"!

She gave me quite a number of the "tr