in the
house which I have rented near the ghat. And then the child was born--a
child without blemish; and Afiza and I were happy. But, Saheb, the shadow
of evil was even then drawing nigh unto us. For on the sixth day after
birth, when the midwife was about to light the four-wicked lamp for the
'chatti' ceremony, Afiza suddenly cast the child from her, leaped wildly
from the couch, tearing at her hair and swaying to and fro as one demented,
and broke the lamp with her hands. And the midwife fled from the room
crying for help, and brought my mother and my sister in to try and soothe
her. And even while they wrestled with her spirit someone set light to the
urn of frankincense, for it was the evening of Thursday; and as the thick
smoke curled upwards towards Afiza, she trembled and gasped out: 'This is
my house; and this woman hath been delivered on the spot where I died in
childbirth five years ago! I will never cease troubling her, for she hath
forgotten even to burn a little 'loban' (frankincense) for the repose of my
spirit.' So saying my wife fell senseless on the ground and remained
motionless for thirty minutes until the spirit had fled. And, Saheb, from
that day forward not an evening passes but the 'suwandi' (the spirit of a
woman who has died in travail) lays hold upon her, and my house has become
a place of evil and a byword among the neighbours. Several exorcists,
Siyanas and Syeds have we consulted, but all in vain. Their ministrations
only make her worse. What can be done!"

One can hardly conjecture the ultimate fate of Abdulla and his family, had
not some one who took an interest in the case suggested a final resort to
the Syed from Cambay, who some little time ago opened in Goghari street a
branch of the famous Gujarat shrine of Miran Datar. To him Abdulla
half-hopeful, half-desperate, repaired: and the Syed came into his house
and gave Afiza a potion composed of incense-ashes and water from the Miran
shrine. But the evil spirit was terribly violent; and it required regular
treatment of this nature for fully twenty days ere it could be dislodged.
Evening after evening Afiza was taken into the presence of Syed, who
summoned forth the spirit with a drink of the sacrosanct water; and at home
Abdulla and his mother who had been supplied with water and ashes by the
Syed, were wont likewise to summon the spirit at any hour which they felt
would cause it inconvenience. Thus the struggle between the powers of light