the street.

With a mouth full of curses, the servant immediately began to give the saint as severe a thrashing as he himself expected to receive from his disappointed master, for this accident; but several persons soon collected around him; and one of these bystanders observed a dog eat part of the contents of one of these dishes, and, a moment after, fall down dead: he instantly seized the hand of the servant, and informed him of this circumstance, which proved that the man whom he had been beating was a saint."

But the saints are far surpassed by the magicians, to whose exploits we have rather startling testimony. The following anecdote is related on the authority of the late Mr. Salt:

'Having had reason to believe that one of his servants was a thief, from the fact of several articles of property having been stolen from his house, he sent for a celebrated Mughrebee magician, with the view of intimidating them, and causing the guilty one (if any of them were guilty) to confess his crime.

The ma

gician came, and said that he would cause the exact image of the person who had committed the thefts to appear to any youth not arrived at the age of puberty; and desired the master of the house to call in any boy whom he might choose. As several boys were then employed in a garden adjacent to the house, one of them was called for this purpose. In the palm of this boy's right hand the magician drew, with a pen, a certain diagram, in the centre of which he poured a little ink. Into this ink he desired the boy stedfastly to look. He then burned some incense and several bits of paper inscribed with charms; and, at the same time, called for various objects to appear in the ink. The boy declared that he saw all these objects, and, last of all, the image of the guilty person he described his stature, countenance, and dress, said that he knew him, and directly ran down into the garden, and apprehended one of the labourers, who, when brought before the master, immediately confessed that he was the thief."

Such a story, circumstantially narrated, naturally made Mr. Lane desirous of witnessing a similar performance. No opportunity offered during his first visit to Egypt; but on his second visit be obtained an interview with the magician, and witnessed the whole process of his incantation.

"In preparing for the experiment of the magic mirror of ink, which, with

He

some other performances of a similar nature, are here termed durb el-mendel, the magician first asked me for a reedpen and ink, a piece of paper, and a pair of scizzors; and having cut off a narrow strip of paper, wrote upon it certain forms of invocation, together with another charm, by which he professes to accomplish the object of the experiment. did not attempt to conceal these; and, on my asking him to give me copies of them, he readily consented, and immediately wrote them for me; explaining to me, at the same time, that the object he had in view was accomplished through the influence of the two first words, Turshoon' and 'Turyooshoon,' which, he said, were the names of two genii, his familiar spirits.'"

The strip containing the incantation was cut into six pieces, a chafing dish prepared, and a boy about eight years summoned. A square was drawn on the boy's hand, and into the midst of it a little ink was poured, in which as a magic mirror the wizard declared that the boy would see certain objects. After some figures had appeared in which collusion was possible,

"He addressed himself to me, and asked me if I wished the boy to see any person who was absent or dead. I named Lord Nelson, of whom the boy had evidently never heard, for it was with much difficulty that he pronounced the name, after several trials. The magician desired the boy to say to the Sooltan'My master salutes thee, and desires thee to bring Lord Nelson: bring him before my eyes, that I may see him, speedily.' The boy then said so, and almost immediately added, 'A messenger is gone, and has returned, and brought a man, dressed in a black suit of European clothes: the man has lost his left arm.' He then paused for a moment or two, and, looking more intently, and more closely, into the ink, said, 'No, he has not lost his left arm, but it is placed to his breast.' This correction made his description more striking than it had been without it; since Lord Nelson generally had his empty sleeve attached to the breast of his coat; but it was the right arm that he had lost. Without saying that I suspected the boy had made a mistake, I asked the magician whether the objects appeared in the ink as if actually before the eyes, or as if in a glass, which makes the right appear left. He answered, that they appeared as in a mirror. This rendered the boy's description faultless."