ells us, being one of the broad roads leading to avowed Satanism. The
password was appropriately the name of the first murderer, and the
doctor was greeted to his great astonishment by an old acquaintance, an
English pastor, whom he had frequently seen upon his own magnificent
steam-boat, who also rejoiced in the nick-name of the Reverend Alcohol,
being, like the majority of Englishmen, almost invariably drunk. The
ceremony of initiation, which is described at great length in the
narrative, is a variation from that of Leo Taxil; the doctor, in mercy
to his readers, suppressing a part of the performance. Speaking
generally, it was concerned, as we have previously seen, with an
anti-Christian version of Gospel history and some commonplace outrages
of the Eucharistic elements, during which proceedings our witness
perspired freely. So, as he tells us, did one more Protestant pass over
to the worship of Lucifer.

The operations of the ritual were followed by a "divine solemnity,"
which had something of the character of an ordinary spiritual seance,
supposing it to have been held in a mad-house. I need only say that when
the lights were turned up at the end, every article of furniture,
including a large organ, was discovered hanging from the ceiling. As a
final phenomenon, the Master of the Ceremonies detached his shadow from
his substance, arranged it against the wall in the shape of a demon, and
it responded to various questions by signs. There was a burst of loud
applause, the proceedings terminated, and the Masonic Temple became once
more a Presbyterian Chapel.

Sec. 7. _The San-Ho-Hei._

The doctor informs us that China is the gate of Hell, and that all its
inhabitants are born damned; child-like and bland in appearance, the
Chinaman is invariably by disposition a Satanist, having tastes wholly
diabolical. As to the religion of Buddha, it is simply Satanism _a
outrance_. Chinese occultism is centralised in the San-Ho-Hei, an
association "parallel to high grade Masonry," having its head-quarters
at Pekin, and welcoming all Freemasons who are affiliated to the
Palladium. It does not, however, admit women, and has only one degree.
Its chief occupation is to murder Catholic missionaries. When a
Palladian Mason seeks admission for the first time to one of its
assemblies, he betakes himself to the nearest opium den, carrying on his
person the documents which prove his initiation; he places his umbrella
head downwards on h